Digital marketing is an umbrella term for

the marketing of products and/or services

using digital technologies, including the

internet, mobile phones, display advertising,

and any other digital medium. With most 

competitors and potential customers online

the only way to stay ahead is digital

marketing. There are six steps to ensure a

successful digital marketing campaign for 

any business. The stages involved in a

digital marketing campaign are underpinned in the SOSTAC model. SOSTAC stands for:

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1. Situation analysis - Analyse the companies position, the best way to do this is to ask where is the company now?, getting customer insight, competitor analysis and keeping up with market trends.

 

2. Objective - The first step is to set an objective, an overall goal that your campaign is about. Ask yourself, 'what is it that i would like to have achieved at the end of this campaign?', and go from there. Remember the goal must be realistic, there is no point setting a goal you know you will not obtain. Identify methods to measure your performance such as Google Analytics. Don't forget to also set a time period in which you would like to achieve the objective. The best way to stay on track is to stick to the SMART acronym. Make sure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time based.

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3. Strategies - How to get there, ask yourself these simple questions.  How do you wish to divide up the market?, which part of the market is going to be your target market (a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed) and how would you like to be perceived in each segment of the market.

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4. Tactics - Now to deal with how your going to implement your strategies. Decide on what communication tools you are going to use and how you are going to use them. Figure out what message you wish to communicate to the public. Make sure you are consistent across the bored so that the public will recognize your company straight away.

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5. Actions - It is time to assign jobs and time limits. Who is going to do what?, when are they going to do it?, what resources are available for this action?, what are the key performance measurements? and how are they going to be recorded?

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6. Control - This is the most important of them all, without control your campaign could fail. Keep in mind your objectives, strategies and tactics at this moment, do action performances measure up? Did you make the right choices with your strategies? Is the message you wish to communicate consistent throughout your campaign? Make sure to keep the frequency of reports up so that your control over the campaign does not slip. To create a successful campaign control is a must.