Digital Marketing

SESSION 2

Digital Marketing Plan

Stanley Nelvis Glate

Department of Marketing
 Session Outline

Introduction
Reasons for planning
Advantages of Planning
Disadvantages of Planning
Barriers to Planning
The digital marketing planning process
 Session Objectives

At the end of the session, students are expected to:

Understand the nature and reasons for planning;

Be familiar with the Advantages and Disadvantages
of a digital marketing Plan;
Appreciate the barriers to developing a digital
marketing Plan;
Demonstrate ability to develop a viable digital
marketing plan.
 Introduction

A digital marketing plan is a strategic document that

takes the current situation of a particular organization
to set some midterm goals and to determine the
strategy and means to accomplish them. This
document also describes;

 Key Responsibilities of individuals,

 Time frame, and
 Control tools and monitoring procedures.
 Reasons for Planning

To help organizations set targets and be able to

measure actual performance against set targets and
provides opportunities to improve on what has gone
wrong.
To promote internal communication within an
organization
To provide a check and balance on business
activities
To create awareness of a company’s missions,
visions, objectives and aim to the entire staff of the
organization.
 Advantages of Planning

Planning ensures effective utilization of resources

Planning reduces the risk of business failure
It provides a sense of direction upon which all efforts
of the organization will be directed.
It ensures greater staff motivation
It promotes effective coordination among the various
functional units within an organization.
Planning improves work efficiency.
 Disadvantages of
Planning

Planning consumes management time and energy

Plans that are rigid prevents employees from

thinking outside the box, being creativity and stifles
innovation.

Instability of the business environment makes

planning useless.
 Barriers to Planning

Resistance to change
The existence of power and internal politics.
Unavailability of resources
Fear of failure
Complacency
Pressure for short term gains
 Hierarchy of Plans
The Digital Marketing Plan in the context of other Plans
 The Digital Marketing
planning Process

A good digital marketing plan will usually follow the

following six (6) steps/stages:

Situational analysis
Objectives
Strategy
Tactics
Actions/Implementation
Performance Monitoring and Control
A Generic Framework for Digital Marketing Planning
Source: PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning Model (1990).
 Situational Analysis
Define mission, vision and values of the organization

 The mission defines the chore of the company, its essence. It

usually includes the work or activity of the organization,
reference to its audience, business models and the singularity
or differential factor of the organization.

 The vision must describe the future goals of the organization

in a short and concise way.

 The values are the principles that guide the business culture
and that the organization—must—fulfil in all its activities.
Situation Analysis
(Cont’d)
SWOT Analysis
Situation Analysis (Cont’d)
SWOT Analysis
 Situation Analysis Cont’d-
Customer insights- (Demand Analysis)

 What percentage of customer businesses have access

to the Internet?
 What percentage of members of the buying decision in
these businesses have access to the Internet?
 What percentage of customers are prepared to purchase
your particular product online?
 What percentage of customers with access to the
Internet are not prepared to purchase online, but are
influenced by web-based information to buy products
offline?
 What are the barriers to adoption amongst customers of
different channels and services and how can we
 Situation Analysis
Cont’d- Competitor
analysis
Review of digital business services offered by
existing and new competitors and adoption by
customers.

Benchmarking of competitors' online services and

strategy is a key part of planning activity.
 Objectives
Goal setting offers an idea of where the organization is
going and it enables adjustments to the digital marketing
strategy.

Goal setting must follow SMART criteria:

Specific: simple and easy to understand.
Measurable: they can be measured through any kind of
quantitative or qualitative tool/technique.
Attainable: Implies that those to whom it is assigned
are willing and able to achieve it.
Realistic: with accessible resources, goals can be
achieved in a realistic framework.
Time-bound: they must have a time frame to achieve
 Objectives (Cont’d)

Objective Example
Acquisition objective Acquire 50,000 new online customers this
financial year.
Acquisition (or Migrate 50% of existing customers into
convention) using online bill payment system and e-
mail communication with 3 years
Conversion objective Increase the average order value of
online sales to Ghc 500 per customer
Retention objective Increase annual repeat new customers by
20%
Profitability objective Increase online sales profitability by 20%
annually
Growth objective Increase new prospects recommended by
 Strategy

In order to accomplish the planned goals, a specific

strategy must be defined. A strategy is the
implemented scheme to achieve such goals.

An online marketing strategy is based on the model of a

marketing funnel as a development of the AIDA model.
 Attention
 Interest
 Desire
 Action
 Strategy (Cont’d)
Summary of digital marketing
strategy Initiative
 Strategy (Cont’d)
Summary of digital marketing strategy Initiative
 Strategy (Cont’d)
Summary of digital marketing strategy Initiative
Strategy (Cont’d)
Target Market strategies
 Strategy (Cont’d)
Online Value Proposition

A clear differentiation of the proposition from

competitors based on product features and service
quality.
Target market segment(s) that the proposition will
appeal to.
How the proposition will be communicated to site
visitors and in all marketing communications.
Developing a tag line can help this.
How the proposition is delivered across different parts
of the buying process.
How the proposition will be delivered and supported by
resources – is the proposition genuine? Will resources
be internal or external?
 Strategy (Cont’d)
Media Type

Owned media: Corporate channels such as

websites, social network profiles and mobile apps.
These channels are unique, and organizations have
total control over their content within the limits of
each platform.

Earned media: Earned media is essentially online

word of mouth recommendations. It includes
mentions, shares, reposts, reviews, product reviews
on specialized Webs or assessments on online shops
 Strategy (Cont’d)
Media Type

Paid media: These are spaces or content that the

brand had to pay for. They tend to be used to foster
or increase the scope of the messages and
initiatives of the brand in owned or earned media,
as well as to improve their output. services.
 Tactics
Marketing Mix
 Actions/Implementation

An essential part of any digital marketing strategy is the

scheduling of tasks and timing for each of them.

The details of the actions, who does what and when?

Determination and allocation of internal resources and skills

Constant feedback and quantitative data of interactions

allow for constant control of the planned strategy’s
evolution
 Actions/Implementation
(cont’d)

 Budget / money / financial resource

The plan needs to be backed by financial support for an
effective implementation. An amount should be
allocated to the various tasks needed to be performed.

 Human resource / man power

Management must recruit the right caliber of people
and give them the necessary training to perform task.
Task must be effectively allocated to each personnel
according to their capabilities indicating what they are
to do.
 Performance Monitoring and Control

The final stage involves monitoring the

organizational performance / activities to ensure
that, the firm operate towards their objective.
They usually compare performance against set
objectives and if performance falls short, corrective /
remedial actions are taken to rectify any problem
that has occurred.
Control measures such as financial and non –
financial criteria are used to evaluate performance.
 Performance Monitoring and Control
Performance and Control Process

Set Standard
Usability testing/mystery shopping
Site visitor profiling
Measure actual performance
Compare actual performance with standard set
Devise corrective measures if there is deviations
Some corrective measures include price reductions,
new product development, increase sales outlet
END OF SESSION

THANK YOU!