12 Reasons You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy in 2022

In the last two years, more than 75 percent of consumers report taking a new interest in online activities. Of that 75 percent, 21 percent made an online purchase for the very first time.

There are still plenty of people to win over with online marketing (or digital marketing), even in 2022. Read on to learn more about the importance of having a digital marketing strategy and how you can start upgrading your approach today.

Digital Marketing for Beginners

Digital marketing involves achieving a business’s marketing goals with the help of various digital technologies and media. Some of the channels you may use include:

• Search Engine Marketing (or SEM)
• Search Engine Optimization (or SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click (or PPC) ads
• Influencer and affiliate marketing
• Content marketing (blogs, videos, etc.)

The 7 Ds of Digital Marketing

When it comes to managing digital marketing and making sure you have a well-rounded strategy in place, a good starting point is to understand the 7 Ds:

• Digital goals: What your business wants to achieve through using digital marketing
• Digital audiences: Understanding your online audience’s characteristics, preferences, and behaviors
• Digital devices: The devices that your audience uses most often to interact with your business
• Digital platforms: The websites and apps that your audiences use most often to interact with your business
• Digital media: Various communication channels that help you reach and engage with your audience
• Digital data: Insights you collect about your audience and audience members’ interactions with the business
• Digital technology: Marketing technology used to create interactive experiences

12 Reasons You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy in 2022

Don’t yet have a digital marketing strategy for your business? 2022 is the perfect year to establish one.

Here are 12 reasons to start planning your strategy:

1. Increased Brand Awareness

A digital media marketing strategy helps you improve your website’s search engine ranking and make it more visible to people who are looking for products or services like the ones you offer. When this happens, more people will click on your website link and learn about your brand.

2. Increased Customer Engagement

Not only do you get more website engagement when you make your digital marketing strategy a priority, but you also get more engagement on other channels. For example, you may see an increase in the number of people interacting with your posts on social media, Google My Business, as well as an increase in the number of people following your accounts.

3. Increased Customer Loyalty

In the case of ecommerce stores, for example, 41 percent of the revenue comes from just 8 percent of the business’s customers.

Repeat customers are highly profitable, and a well-planned digital marketing strategy helps to encourage repeat customers. For example, digital marketing allows you to stay in touch with those who have visited your website previously and win them over with discount offers or alerts about current sales.

4. Easier Audience Targeting

Speaking of your target audience, a digital marketing strategy helps you to reach very specific subsections of your audience. With tools like Facebook marketing, for example, you can reach people in a specific age range or those who live in a particular location with just a few clicks.

5. Improved Lead Generation

Your digital marketing strategy should help you to develop a more consistent and effective marketing funnel, too. With tactics like email campaigns and paid social media ads, you can more efficiently identify, attract, and transform people into prospective customers or clients.

6. Increased Brand Credibility

These days, the majority of shoppers (at least 81 percent) search online before they go to a store. If someone looks online and can’t find anything about your business because you lack a digital marketing strategy, they’re going to question whether or not it’s worth it to look further into your brand.

7. Easier Goal Setting

You might have an online presence and be using some digital marketing techniques. However, if you don’t have a clear strategy in place, you’re going to have a harder time setting goals and giving your team a direction for the year (or the quarter or the month).

To see continuous progress, you need to regularly set goals. A digital strategy helps you to do this.

8. More Marketing Diversity

A digital marketing strategy ensures you’re diversifying your approach and utilizing as many different channels and techniques as possible. Instead of pigeonholing your business with just one or two tactics, carefully plan a strategy and check lots of different boxes at once.

9. Improved ROI

Many digital marketing techniques produce impressive returns on investment (or ROIs).

For example, email marketing has an average ROI of 4,200 percent (for every $1 you spend, you earn $42), and Google Ads has an average ROI of 200 percent (for every $1 you spend, you earn $2). Including these kinds of tactics in your strategy will help you enjoy better returns.

10. More Audience Insights

One of the reasons a digital marketing strategy helps you see a better ROI is because it provides you with valuable audience insights.

Most digital marketing channels reveal valuable data you can use to analyze your audience. You can then use this information to create more targeted and detailed plans in the future.

11. Easier Results Monitoring

You can also use the data you gather from your digital marketing channels to monitor results and make sure you’re progressing toward your goals. Taking the time to create a digital marketing strategy keeps your company moving in the right direction. 

12. Increased Conversion Rates

Finally, all of these benefits lead to one very important thing: increased conversion rates.

When people regularly engage with your business, trust your products and services, and consistently receive targeted ads, they’re going to be more inclined to buy what you’re selling (and continue buying).

How to Upgrade Your Digital Marketing Strategy in 2022

Perhaps you have a digital marketing strategy in place but it’s not particularly refined. If this is the case for you, here are a few bonus tips to help you take your plan to the next level:

• Diversify: Don’t limit yourself to one type of digital marketing or content creation; branch out and publish many different types of content (blogs, videos, infographics, emails, etc.).
• Use the right keywords: Keyword optimization is one of the most important aspects of a strong digital marketing strategy, especially now that voice search is becoming more popular (65 percent of adults aged 25-49 use it at least once per day).
• Prioritize video marketing: 87 percent of video marketers report seeing a positive ROI from their efforts.

Final Thoughts

If you want to experience all the benefits that a well-planned digital marketing strategy can provide, start by implementing the strategic marketing techniques discussed above. They’ll help you promote and grow your business online and set your company up for long-term success.