I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world. — Michelle Obama
Let's also create a SMART digital marketing plan for our business. SMART in management terminology is an acronym for:
SMART is a popular term. Why continue to read an age-old concept?
Wait, before you jump into a decision, let me explain the reason for you to read through the article. Planning and even digital marketing is also a well-explained term. But we still create plans, and digital marketing is now more important than ever. Why? They may be old but are still essential components of running a business, whether online or offline or both. The building components of a plan are in fact the game-changer.
What is the difference between strategy and plan?
It's very common to confuse on the terms strategy and plan. Let me clarify it with my understandings.
Example to make it clear:-
SMART Digital Marketing Plan:
S- Specific:
Explicit calls for clearly identified or defined digital marketing plan. Clearly stated plan without any ambiguity or hypothesis statement is vital. It will greatly help in to understand our travel with milestones.
How can we achieve it?
Kindly do through the below flowchart to create a specific plan without ambiguity.
Example:
Digital marketing plan of a Rural BPO [BPO that is launched and operated in rural areas]
Plan 1:
Add four clients by the end of 2017
Plan 2:
Add four clients with minimum 20 seats through digital communication platforms by the end of 2017.
Both are plans, but plan 2 is very particular which effectively communicates the goal with checkpoints and measurable too.
M - Measurable
The success of a plan calls for measurability. It is a must to define the measuring scale to ensure our plan is achieved or why it is not? Tangible factors of a plan can be measured, but intangible factors can't be measured precisely.
In our example,
- Tangible factor: 4 clients, minimum 20 seats
In our plan, our tangible element carries numerical value which can be easily measured.
- Intangible factor: Clients through digital communication platform
Conversion in digital communication platform can happen, only through,
- Strong Presence in digital platforms
- Brand name has a recall value
- Positive testimonials about our brand
- Website is well designed and grabs a prominent place in SERP [Search Engine Research Page]
- Our hit is to the target customers.
- Magnetize customers to us rather than to our competitors.
From the above pointers, No. 4, alone can be measured by the rankings and traffic rate.
A - Attainable
Plans can be short-term, medium-term and long-term and it is vital in creating each intends to be on our toes and keep us motivated. Having said that, it's a must to provide proper duration to achieve our plans.
Also, we should analyze if our plan is attainable in the prescribed duration. Why? Plans should be designed in such a way that it is attainable and should be our driving factor. An underestimated and overestimated plan is always a serious threat to our organization's growth.
In our example,
Achieving four clients by the end of 2017 to break it down one client per quarter which is attainable but the checkpoint here is 20 seat minimum. In BPO clients won't grant high seats initially. They will run a test project, depending on the success rate they will maximize. According to our plan, we have to achieve it by the end of each quarter.
R - Realistic
Realistic is nothing but creating reasonable goals. How can we know the sensibility? SWOT analysis will come to our rescue.
In our Example,
T - Time-based
It is a must to design our plan in a specified time-frame. It is a self-timer that demands completion of our small tasks to achieve our long-term goal(s).
It comes with the following advantages:
- Help in prioritizing, according to the need of the hour.
- Helps to stick to a time-frame rather than spending a whole day to complete a small task.
- Easy to keep a check and measure our progress towards the achievement.
- By measuring the progress, we can alter our implementation method if we are not nearing our goal.
- Last but not least, it will help in saving our time and hassle free.
In our example,
It is clearly mentioned as to attain clients by the end of 2017, to break it down a customer per quarter. To achieve it effectively and efficiently,
- We have to form our short term goals with proper breakup and prescribed time-frame.
- Create brand awareness; if it's a startup else actively hit your target.
- If our brand has a false reputation, reposition it to build positive values and erase the negativity through influencers or campaigns.
- Target your clients.
- Prepare exciting offerings. It can be any of the below
- General icebreaker which will make your client respond
- Interesting offerings to download
- Present your services to them and get their feel on it.
- Newsletters
- Share information which will be useful to them.
- Circulate it to your target audience – Thanks to social media. You can use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, E-Mail, Pinterest, Google Photos, etc. We have endless opportunity to circulate.
- Lead Generation: To generate leads, you can follow the tactics given below,
- Gated contents like landing pages
- Live session in Facebook or Periscope
- Free webinar
- A contest in social media platforms that encourages sharing
- An active participant in groups and forums to make your online presence prominent.
- Try to strike a personal contact with the lead generated from the above tactics.
- Once the trust is built up, a lead will turn into a prospective client.
- Speak up about your services; the value adds you can provide and the pricing policy. Present the information in such a way that it is convincing and shows the benefits they reap from you rather than your competitors.
- Once the conversation is successful, invite them for a visit to showcase your ambiance, software, systems used and human resources diversity. Also, in-person meet-ups will grant us higher success rate as our client.
- Start the trial project.
- Make sure all their system, labor and security requirements are satisfied.
- Showcase your success in the trial project
- Grab a minimum 20 seat project from your client and place a tick mark in your checklist proudly.
To conclude,
The plan is the driving factor, but the exciting part is achieving it to the best of our potential.
There will be some roadblocks and pains in making our plans and goals, but once we hit it, it gifts us with extreme pride and opens up a lot of opportunities.
Also,
If "Plan A" didn't work. The alphabet has 25 more letters! Stay calm. Love to know, what will be your feel once you achieve your plan?