A digital marketing strategy is an essential tool on the route to success. As a digital marketing agency in Malaysia with clients around the world, Content Nation is constantly working to build effective strategies that not only reflect the goals of our clients, but map out the best route to achieve them.
With 33.59 million internet users in Malaysia as of early 2024, representing an internet penetration rate of 97.4%, the digital landscape is more vibrant and competitive than ever. Whether you’re a global luxury brand or a domestic retailer, having an effective digital marketing strategy is crucial in navigating this dynamic environment. These five simple steps will guide you on the path to victory.
Know your goals
It might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we see brands charging off into the digital space without stopping to think about what they want to achieve. A recent report by Forbes shows many firms with successful content strategies from the previous year are setting ambitious targets for 2024, with 24% aiming to boost revenue and sales, while 19% focus on expanding brand visibility and audience engagement. In addition, 16% are working to better align their sales and marketing efforts, and 15% are concentrating on increasing website traffic to support their broader business objectives.
There are a range of different goals you can track, but broadly you can fit your ambitions into three categories:
- Exposure – aiming to build your brand’s exposure to a wider audience. The video platform TikTok generated $4 billion in advertising revenue in 2022, and its revenue is expected to double by 2024. TikTok’s meteoric rise driven by young users, platform-focused influencers and broad rang of user-generated content highlights the massive potential for brand exposure on digital channels.
- Building connections – aiming to build interactions with a key audience or demographic, creating conversations and communities to engage over time.
- Conversion – looking to track conversions of your digital marketing into defined results. Email marketing is an effective channel to drive conversions, for example, with a 2.8% conversion rate for B2C brands and a 2.4% conversion rate for B2B.
The digital landscape isn’t just about hanging out where the cool kids are. At its most fundamental your strategy is no different to your wider business interests—set out key business goals and work out a path to achieve them.
Understand your audience
Knowing your goals is one thing, but understanding your audience is the first stepping stone to achieving them. Knowing your audience isn’t just a case of simple demographics, it’s about building up a wider idea of who they are and how they might interact with your digital marketing.
For instance, 66% of social media marketers report that funny content is the most effective for their brand, followed by relatable content (63%) and trendy content (59%). This insight is critical when building out marketing personas—fictionalised avatars of your ideal target audience—that can help guide your strategy.
It’s equally important to explore and understand how your audience interacts with content. What time of day are they likely to be online? What style of content are they most likely to share? What sort of content answers the questions they’re asking? Developing these insights ensures your content resonates and drives meaningful engagement.
Assess your resources
Assessing your own resource commitments is key to understanding the value return of your marketing, but also in appreciating your capability to deliver on what your audience wants. Tracking return on investment (ROI) on digital marketing can be challenging, but the more data you have, the better equipped you are to make strategic decisions.
An overwhelming 92% of marketers recognise content as a valuable business asset for driving long-term ROI. This underscores the importance of investing in a well-planned content strategy that can generate significant results over time. Additionally, 89% of marketers report that content marketing surpasses traditional marketing methods in generating a stronger return on investment.
Equally key to your strategy will be the capabilities of your own team. Sophie may be the best graphic designer in the world, but she might not be the ideal team member to deliver a fully-fledged animated promotional video. Understand the talent you have available and deploy it in the way that makes most sense to meet your goals.
Create great content
Strategy is the roadmap which lays out the journey to your goals. Great content is how you get there.
Content is a broad term, encompassing various formats and styles. Blog posts remain the most popular content format, with 9 out of 10 marketers using their blogs to achieve their content goals. However, it’s not just about writing a great blog post—video content has also become an essential tool for engaging audiences. By 2023, 91% of businesses were using video as a marketing tool, highlighting the power of visual content in today’s digital landscape.
This is about building excellence into every layer of your digital presence. Great content means building conversations that engage your audience. With a clear understanding of your goals and a well-defined audience, you should have a solid grasp of what content will resonate most. Then, it’s just a matter of delivering something outstanding.
Monitor your success
Finally, it’s important to monitor your success. Keeping track of audience metrics and achievement of your goals can help you understand what is working with your strategy, as well as what needs adjustment. Over 41% of marketers measure the success of their content marketing strategy through sales, emphasising the importance of aligning your tracking methods with tangible business outcomes.
An effective digital marketing strategy is never static. It should be flexible and adaptive. Your ability to track and monitor your success provides the opportunity to react to better achieve your goals. The rapid changes and deterioration of audience and interactions on the once engagement-heavy Twitter (now X) is a prominent recent example of how changes in the digital landscape require rethinks in your digital marketing strategy.
Remember that the digital space is a dynamic, exciting environment that unlocks huge opportunities for your brand. Crafting a well-defined strategy is key to maximising these opportunities and setting your brand on the path to success. At Content Nation, we specialise in creating tailored digital marketing strategies that drive results.
Ready to elevate your brand? Contact us today to build an effective route to victory.
