The 2015 State of Digital Marketing report by Smart Insights says that to succeed in this field you need three pillars:
Digital Strategy:
According to this report 50% of companies have no digital marketing strategy at all. This is indeed the first step – without a strategy you are flying blind. And without a strategy you’re unlikely to be producing the quality content that your site visitors value.
Google announced that a new Panda update is underway now. Panda is all about the quality of content. If your company or agency is one of this 50%, now is the time to invest in a digital strategy and align all your activities to that strategy.
Manage Integration of Digital Activities
The next pillar is managing the integration of digital activities. To do this effectively you have to have digital activities and be skilled at executing them. On average, 48% say they need more knowledge.
The lack of digital skills is an item that is mentioned as a barrier to digital marketing and PR success in several studies.
Invest in Optimization
Again, in order to optimize these areas you first have to have the skills to do so. So invest in getting your employees and/or outside resources up to speed on their digital skills.
Then look at how you can make the most of these digital activities:
- Planning
- Measurement
- Paid Media
- Owned Media
- Earned Media
- Shared Media
- Integration of digital activities.
