4. Plan your content creation resource.

To stay with the example of a content marketing campaign, once you have established what needs to be created, you’ll need to establish how that work will be executed and delivered. This generally means considerations around:

• Budget. How much money do you have to spend on this campaign? Is it enough to create all the assets in your audit or do you need to compromise?
• Resource. Do you have the right skillsets to create this in house? Or do you need to appoint an agency?
• Tech. Does the campaign require any specialist software? For example, a content management system or personalization tool?
• Deadlines. How soon does this content need to be created? Even if you have in-house resource will they have time?

Once you’ve considered the above alongside your objectives, personas, and audit you can finalize your plan for exactly what content you will create and any additional resource you’ll need.

5. Decide how to distribute your content.

With personas confirmed, content creation under way, and resource in place, the next thing to decide is how you will distribute your content. The main consideration is whether you consider the content to be:

• Owned. Channels owned by you, include website, blog, email, social.
• Earned. Content others share, like, comment on or write about.
• Paid. Content you have paid to promote, such as PPC and influencers.

Most digital marketing strategies will use a blend of each of these approaches. For example, using SEO-focused blog content on owned channels such as their website, earned social shares and coverage with PR-focused content and putting budget behind paid influencer content.

6. Pinpoint your KPIs.

Any digital marketing strategy should be measured continuously. Identify key performance indicators or KPIs, which are measurable values that gauge the effectiveness of your strategy and tactics. Some examples of KPIs include:

• Digital conversion rates
• Cost per lead
• Returning website visitors
• Click through rates
• Customer lifetime values.

Once your digital marketing campaign concludes you can hold a wash-up meeting with all relevant parties to share data around its successes and failures, which can feed into future digital marketing strategy planning.