Let us say you have done your research and started studying everything you need to know about digital marketing. You have purchased a domain name and website, you have done keyword research, and you are ready to create copious amounts of content.

However, like in all things, the knowledge you have is useless if you do not know how to execute it. When it comes to digital marketing, all your ideas have the potential to strengthen your online presence. But it is in how it was implemented that makes a difference.

Define what your goals are and get the right tools

If this is your first business stint, your first goal must be to start creating online buzz for your services or products. Which means your digital marketing plans must fit this goal.

To measure whether you are making progress, you need to make use of tools like Google Analytics for information on traffic and the demographic. BuzzSumo is also a good tool for content marketing since it can show you top trending topics or articles which you can use for reference.

Make sure all content is aligned with your brand

From the domain name you used to the design of your website, make sure that it all screams your brand vibe. What you need to do is to determine the voice and tone you want your business to adapt. If you want to adapt a more informal, fun vibe, the elements of your web page, and indeed your social media pages, are not too stiff corporate. The same thing applies to your articles and social media posts.

Determine how much you are willing to spend

The best way to get a good idea on how much money you should allocate for digital marketing is through looking at historical data. If you launched your website and your social media pages months prior, you can look at the analytics and see which posts got good views and comments and which efforts failed.

Using historical data, see if you can utilise paid promotions for each digital channel that you are using. Paid promotions include those on social media pages and pay-per-clicks on search engines.

However, if a paid promotion is not working, let us say for Instagram, then it would be best to halt and reroute the investment to a digital channel that is getting you good results.

Decide whether you would like to keep all your digital channels

The reality is you will not be able to manage all your digital channels equally. It might be best to invest more time on channels that work and then put those that are not in the back burner. You can revisit non-performing channels again once you have a solid following in performing channels.

Create a timeline for your goals

Remember that all digital marketing efforts show significant results within a 6-month time frame, minimum. In this timeline, 3 months is used to focus on brand awareness and getting the word out there, and another 3 months for retention and conversion. For this reason, it would be smart to create a timeline for all your company goals so that you can properly manage your time and transition all initial goals to your secondary goals without a hitch.