What is Digital Marketing? Why do we need to plan?

Digital Marketing is a marketing activity that uses digital platforms such as websites, social networks, search engines, emails... to reach target customers. For small businesses, implementing marketing in a systematic way will help save costs, increase brand awareness and boost sales.

However, many business people make mistakes because they do Digital Marketing based on their feelings: Seeing others running Facebook Ads, they also run, seeing competitors doing TikTok, they also do. This leads to wasting budget without bringing efficiency. Therefore, a detailed plan is a guideline to clearly define the goals to be achieved, choose the right approach channel, optimize the budget and clearly measure the results.

Detailed Digital Marketing Planning Guide

Step 1: Analyze the market and competitors

Before starting any activity, identify the product or service sector you provide, evaluate the growth trends and consumer behavior of the target market through tools such as Google Trends or keyword searches on Google Keyword Planner.

At the same time, analyze your competitors in the same industry:

• What platforms are they promoting their products on?
• What makes their content stand out?
• How do customers interact?

Understanding your competitors' methods is not about copying, but about finding your own differences and competitive advantages.

Step 2: Determine your Digital Marketing goals

Each campaign needs to be tied to a specific goal to avoid wasting money and effort, which could be increasing orders, attracting potential customers or building a brand.

Applying the SMART model will help you specify your goals:

• Make sure your goals are measurable, realistic, and have a clear deadline.
• For example, instead of setting a goal of "increase revenue", set it as "increase 300 orders from the website in the next 3 months".

Step 3: Confirm the portrait of the target customer (Customer Persona)

To market effectively, you need to understand who your ideal customer is.

Draw a detailed portrait of them: Age, gender, occupation, income level, social media habits, interests and pain points they are facing.

For example, if you sell products for mothers, clearly identify when they are usually online, what they are interested in, what content makes them stop and read. Understanding your customers will help you choose the right channel, the right message and increase the possibility of conversion.

Step 4: Choose the right channel and strategy

Not every business needs to appear on all platforms. Choose 2-3 channels that best suit the target customers identified in the previous step. If your customers use Facebook a lot, focus on content for Facebook. If they often search for information on Google, invest in SEO and run search ads (Search Ads).

The accompanying strategy is also very important. If the product is new and needs to create quick awareness, you can choose a coverage strategy with Facebook ads. If the goal is to close the deal, use Landing Page with remarketing tools or email care after the customer leaves information.

Refer to GTG CRM Landing Page Templates: https://gtgcrm.com/en/page/gallery

Step 5: Build content for each channel

Content is the bridge between the brand and the customer. Each platform has its own characteristics, so you need to adjust the content accordingly.

• For Facebook, the content should be concise, with eye-catching images and catchy titles
• For LinkedIn, create professional, informative content
• For Google, optimize content by keywords to get to the top of search results

More importantly, all content must address the pain, questions or needs of customers. Don't just talk about the product, talk about how the product makes their lives easier.

You can try GTG CRM's "AI Content Creation" feature, which helps you create multi-platform content without much effort.

Step 6: Budget and allocate resources

A good plan should come with a clear budget. Whether you have 5 million or 50 million per month, list the expenses and allocate them appropriately.

• If most of your customers come from advertising, the budget should be prioritized for Ads
• If you need to build a long-term brand, invest in content

At the same time, you need to consider the cost of tools such as Email Marketing software, Landing Page, CRM, ... and even personnel if you outsource. Making a budget will help you not exceed your budget, while still ensuring that all activities take place fully.

Step 7: Measure and optimize the campaign

Digital Marketing has a great advantage of being able to measure effectiveness. But if you don't track it, you won't know which ads are effective, which content is good, and what needs to be improved. Keep track of key metrics like:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate (CR)
• Cost per purchase (CPA)

From that data, you will know which ads to turn off, which channels to increase budget for, or how to adjust content.

Conclusion

A well-structured Digital Marketing plan doesn't have to be complicated, but it does need to be clear and measurable. When you know what you're doing, for whom, and with what goals, the results will be clearer, your budget won't be wasted, and you can grow sustainably.

If you are a small business owner and want to start Digital Marketing in a streamlined way, refer to support tools such as GTG CRM - An integrated platform for creating Landing Pages, Email Marketing, measuring campaign effectiveness, customer management and more in one place.