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This article was originally published in 2018 and recently updated in 2020. After an overwhelming response on the first iteration of our digital marketing plan template, we've revamped the template so you can get more powerful business metrics with twice as much strategic insight.
A thorough digital investment marketing plan with clear, achievable, and measurable goals are key to performing well in the digital marketing arena as a business owner. The tool to successfully complete this task lies in the acronym S.M.A.R.T. These letters stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Timely. Planning has not equal alternative. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
Every campaign needs a digital marketing budget produced from a distinctive investment plan.
In the remainder of the blog, we will show you how to create your personalized digital marketing investment plan using the applications Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
To get started download Your digital Marketing Investment Plan Template
We have made sure that our plan was made to be adaptable to any company’s budget, market, or product. This may be the basis of all your digital marketing investment campaigns for the foreseeable future.
Input Metrics
The first step in your journey towards completing your investment strategy and starting your campaign is to analyse your current strategy using accurate data from your business on how it is currently performing. The key information that will need to be inserted onto the spreadsheet include average shopping cart, monthly media budget, most important media channels your customer journey, sales forecast for those channels, website costs and transaction cost.
Profit and Loss Forecasts
Based on the information that was inputted on the first page a set of numerical values will be calculated on this one. Based upon your average product cost it will generate a monthly cost of the investment project, how much you stand to make in revenue and thus profit.
The next table illustrates the proportions budget for this marketing investment that will be fees for Codedesign, Website maintenance, transaction costs and media investment. These will be displayed as a percentage of the total investment or a standard cash price. These makes it clear where your capital will be utilized.
The expected sales for each month are broken down into conversions from SEO or paid media platforms such as Facebook, Google Ads, Amazon, or Instagram. Determine the channels and platforms where your target market is most likely to encounter your brand will result in optimal conversion rates.
Finally, the projected conversion rates, return on investment and Return on Ad Spend. These percentages will allow to assess the success of this combination of digital marketing tools
Detailed Mixed Media Traffic
This section is much more interpretation of key accounting measures and the exact cost of the media channels used in your digital marketing investment strategy.
Some campaign types will be more fruitful than others. Allocate your effort and spend accordingly. Out of a total of 100%, distribute the amount of weight you will dedicate to each channel using the WEIGHT column. This percentage is entirely subjective but serves as an aid in measuring which channels are of most importance to your strategy.
Other metrics can be added to this page such as impressions and clicks to make the data generated even more tailored to your circumstances. The total sales for each platform are placed in the final column to see which platform is performing the best.
You have now set your campaign budget and distributed it throughout the course of campaign activity. There is no guaranteed way to know how many clicks, and what the average cost per click will be for a campaign. But making use of software such as google analytics will be useful in any case. Furthermore, on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook you are able to view the number of impressions each marketing post accumulates to judge their performance.
Detailed profit and loss
This final profit and loss consolidate all the know factors onto one page to gain a full representation of the potential outcome of this campaign investment. The key features being website plan and fees, social media costs, sales metrics, business metrics and profits all based on your decisions you have made as part of your digital marketing investment plan.
If you have any questions regarding anything on the excel or google spreadsheet, please don’t hesitate to contact anyone at Codedesign. You can get in touch with anyone of our experts at contact@codedesign.org to help interpret the figures.
Next Steps
Now that you have created your investment plan and are happy with the forecasted results you are ready to launch your marketing campaign. Even though, you have seemingly mapped out every step towards success, inevitably there will always be hiccups along the way. Do not be disheartened when particulars don’t always go to plan marketing. Practice makes perfect. So, download the document now and lets us be your guide.
Codedesign is a digital marketing agency specializing in data-driven online sales and lead generation solutions for brands in a variety of verticals. Contact us to schedule a consultation with one of our digital marketing experts.
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Thanks a lot for sharing this blog. Really nice and fresh content. All the information is helpful for us.