The Ultimate Digital Marketing Campaign Checklist

When it comes to trend, it’s always easier to follow than to predict one. In digital marketing, being on trend may be the determining factor in a competitive search engine rank. A perfect way to prepare and plan your strategy for new campaigns is with a checklist.

Checklists for marketing campaigns are made up of different components. Depending on the target audience and priorities, they appear differently with each company. Although the tactics of your campaign can vary from your competitor or opponent, certain elements stay the same. Here are a few key points to be included in any marketing checklist.

Business goals should be outlined prior to mapping all other tactics. These are the campaign's final targets, and the first step of any successful checklist. Ask yourself: "As a brand, what do you want to accomplish?"

Some possible goals can be:

(i) Retain Company Values: For your clients, what your brand stands for is significant. Whether you are committed to high-quality goods, contributing to the local community, or keeping on top of contact with customers, just do what fits your company values.

(ii) Great Customer Service: An admirable aim is commitment to your clients, to make them loyal to your brand. This is a broad objective that outlines topics like: Money Back Guarantee, Live Chat Services and Telephone Assistance.

(iii) Maintain profitability: Some major components include start-up funding, financial connections to maintain the course, and a long-term success plan. Sustaining income requires analyzing financial data as it comes, and being flexible if adjustments to the campaign are required.

(iv) Competitive content: The brand and organization are reflected in the content you publish. This determines the way customers perceive you as a company. Content marketing is 3x more effective compared to outbound marketing. Competitive content examples include email marketing, infographics and social media posts and videos.

Metrics are a measurement of digital marketing. It is also called KPIs, or key performance indicators. In different aspects of the campaign, they include costs incurred and revenue earned.

Some of the key areas on which to concentrate are:

(i) Lead to Traffic Ratio: How many of your leads are viewing your website? If you have 1000 site views and 100 leads, your ratio is 10:1. This means there is a 10% of conversion rate.

(ii) Lead Cost: The cost-per-lead marketing model differs from pay-per-click in form and function. Rather than spending money on every click an ad generates, marketers pay for definitive conversions, such as membership signup. It’s important to know how much, overall, your leads are costing you on different platforms.

(iii) Customer Churn Rate: Other than understanding the number of leads you’re getting, it’s important to know how many customers you’re losing. The churn rate is the percentage of consumers who leave memberships behind. To succeed as a company and continue to grow, the number of new subscribers must outweigh discontinued subscriptions.

(iv) Landing Page Conversion: This measures the number of visitors to your landing page who buy, the higher, the better.

This is a long-term goal, but an important one nonetheless. Many variables go into SEO, including keyword selection, content relevance, and mobile compatibility. These factors increase visibility, brand awareness, traffic, and eventually, conversion. Research shows that of all the traffic on the internet, 93% comes from search engines.

This section of your checklist should mention:

(i) Keyword Planning: This encompasses everything from researching the hottest keywords to checking current keyword ranks. There are several tools available, like Google Keyword Planner and Soovle.

(ii) Backlink Analysis: Backlinks work by sending potential customers to your website. They link back to your domain, hence the title. This is a measurement Google uses when ranking you. SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Kerboo all offer tools to monitor these statistics.

(iii) Rank Tracking: Your global and local search ranking dictate how many internet users will find you in a search. The closer to the top of the results page, the more likely it is to see a conversion. Aside from Googling yourself, you can track rank with Link-Assistant, Synup, and ProRankTracker.

Every type of content used in your marketing campaign as a tool is a content asset. This encompasses everything from social media posts to smartphone apps.

Some of the most commonly used assets are:

(i) eBooks: For B2B marketing, or any company trying to build brand authority, eBooks send a professional message.

(ii) Vlogs: One of the most popular assets in digital marketing is vlogging or video blogging. But it depends on the users’ preferences – some prefer written content while some prefer videos.

(iii) Podcasts: Podcasts send a message via audio feed and are a beneficial asset for mobile users. Like an audiobook, podcasts deliver your content in a way that requires no reading. It reaches broader audiences, including the visually-impaired.

(iv) Email newsletters: Newsletters are a great way to keep your brand fresh in the mind of consumers. Whether used as outreach for newcomers or as a customer retention tool, email circulates links and keywords into the digital atmosphere.

(v) Blogs: Like vlogging, blogging expresses your company’s current interest or news, but in text form. Blogs are essential content assets because they help build authority, relevance, and genuine sounding keywords. All these things improve SEO and readership.

Social media plays a massive role in modern marketing and requires a spot on any campaign checklist. There are approximately 3.4-billion social media subscribers, each with 5 to 7 accounts.

When planning for social media, the elements to consider include:

(i) Content: The content you post over social media differs from other platforms. It’s designed for quick access, easy reading, and shareability. Eye-catching, entertaining, and newsworthy information with mixed visual media is best. This is also a prime place for contests and promotions. Use tools like live video and interactive images to tell a story and sell your brand.

(ii) Communication Tactics: Social media is a driving force in customer engagement, which means communication is crucial. When customers message, share, like, or comment on social media content, your reaction is seen and evaluated by others. Some ways to communicate over social media are:

• Automated chat services 
• Live chat services 
• Contact forms 
• Responding to customer reviews 
• Commenting and liking customer comments 

(iii) Automation Tools: There are so many platforms to post on that many marketers turn to automation to keep up. Tools like Hootsuite allow you to schedule content publishing in advance. Other tools, such as BuzzSumo and Mention provide quick insight into your social media popularity and current trends.

Constant vigilance is required in digital marketing because the trends fluctuate like tide. It’s always important to have a strong foundation to get started as your checklist can change from time to time. You will begin to develop a checklist that represents your business needs using the categories listed above. Whatever the case, you will realise that a checklist enhances your marketing campaign. It's the storyboard of the marketing world, and it outlines the plot of the brand from beginning to end.