When it comes to digital marketing, every business should take time to set a strategy to help them achieve their goals.

It is very surprising there are still many businesses that don’t have a strategy, spending on marketing products without any real reason or purpose.

This can be very dangerous as those businesses won’t get the true value from products they have invested in. Having a strategy in place, whether it is based on three months to 12 months, will help you understand your needs and get the most out of your marketing.

Building a strategy might seem intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be difficult.

The first step of setting a digital strategy is understanding your customers.

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For any marketing strategy, online or offline, you need to know who you are marketing to. The best strategies come from businesses who know every detail about their potential customers.

Research using quantitative and qualitative information will help you decide on the right marketing products to reach and engage with them.

Quantitative – a method of generating numerical data which can be transformed into useable statistics. Finding useful information such as location can help you understand where most of your website traffic comes from, identifying areas of potential customers. Utilising tools such as Google Analytics can help this process, there are a number of software tools that can also give you relevant data, this data is valuable as it will help you identify key marketing products that will help target your ideal customer.

Qualitative – a method of collecting data using unstructured methods, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, etc. This process will help you identify common problems that your customers face, their interests and behaviours which can help you put effective sales messages together, help produce relevant content plans as well as behavioural targeting options online.

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Newsquest is able to assist with your business to set a digital strategy together, and due to the quality of the targeting products available we can help you reach your target market without any wastage.

For more information don’t hesitate to contact Jennie McPherson for south-east London and north Kent (News Shopper) on 07850 262 837 or Emma Sallabanks for south-west London (south London Guardian, Surrey Comet, Richmond & Twickenham Times) on 0208 722 6452 who will be happy to discuss your digital media and marketing solutions.