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Last year, I developed and delivered a digital marketing strategy module for their MSc students at the University of Hull. I wanted to build the sessions around a single framework and selected SOSTAC® due to the depth and simplicity of implementation.
I believe SOSTAC® is one of the most effective digital marketing frameworks for planning and managing marketing strategies, developed by PR Smith in the 1990s. An acronym for Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, and Control, SOSTAC® provides a straightforward, structured approach to creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy.
This comprehensive guide will explore each component of the SOSTAC® digital marketing frameworks and illustrate how to apply it to develop a robust digital marketing strategy.
The first step in the SOSTAC® planning model is the Situation Analysis. This stage involves a thorough examination of your current digital marketing situation. Essentially, situation analysis is about understanding where your business stands in the digital realm and forming a solid foundation for your strategy.
Market Trends: What are the current trends affecting your industry?
Competitive Analysis: Who are your competitors, and what strategies are they using?
Target Audience: Who are your customers? What are their needs, preferences, and behaviours online?
Digital Footprint Audit: What is the current state of your digital presence? This audit should include an audit of your website, search engine rankings, social media engagement, email marketing performance, and any other relevant online activities.
Tools and Resources: Your digital marketing frameworks should use tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, or BuzzSumo to gather data about website traffic, competitor analysis, and content engagement. Surveys and feedback tools can also help understand customer satisfaction and expectations.
After assessing your current situation, the next step is to define clear, measurable objectives. These objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). In digital marketing, they relate to increasing website traffic, enhancing customer engagement, boosting conversions, or improving online brand awareness.
Sales Targets: Specific revenue or sales conversion targets.
Brand Awareness: Metrics might include social media follower growth, engagement rates, or website visits.
Customer Engagement: Increase interaction on digital platforms or improve customer service metrics online.
Guidance: Ensure that these objectives align with your overall business goals. They should also be flexible enough to adapt to changing market conditions or customer feedback.
Strategy should be at the heart of any digital marketing frameworks and plans, outlining your broad approach to achieving your objectives. Your strategy should leverage your strengths and address the weaknesses identified in your Situation Analysis.
Market Penetration: Tactics for increasing market share within existing markets.
Market Development: Strategies for entering new markets.
Product Development: Launching new products or features to meet identified customer needs.
Customer Engagement: Enhancing personalisation and customer service to increase loyalty.
Tip: Your strategy should integrate various digital marketing channels that best reach your target audience and support your objectives, such as SEO, content marketing, social media, and email campaigns.
Tactics involve the specific actions and details of how you will implement your strategy. The tactics should include outlining what marketing channels and tools you will use, what kind of content you will produce, how you will manage customer interactions, and any other specific activities that will help you meet your strategic goals.
Content Marketing: Develop a content calendar that addresses important customer questions and positions your brand as a thought leader.
SEO: Optimising your website and content for search engines to improve visibility.
Social Media Marketing: Engaging with customers on social platforms, using targeted ads to reach new audiences.
Email Marketing: Segmenting your email list to send personalised messages to different customer groups.
Practical Step: For each tactic, define the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure success, such as click-through rates, engagement levels, or conversion rates.
This stage focuses on the execution of your tactics. It involves the management of resources, assigning tasks, setting timelines, and ensuring that all team members understand their responsibilities.
Resource Allocation: Determining budget, tools, and team needed for each tactic.
Timeline Development: Establish a timeline with specific milestones and deadlines for each part of your strategy.
Risk Management: Identifying potential risks in your plan and developing contingencies to address them.
Tool Tip: Use project management tools like Asana, Trello, or Monday.com to keep track of tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
The final stage of digital marketing frameworks such as SOSTAC® is Control, where you measure, review, and refine your strategy based on performance data. Control will involve regularly checking against KPIs, analysing what is working and what isn’t, and making adjustments to improve results.
Performance Analysis: Regular analysis of data to assess whether tactics are meeting the set objectives.
Adjustments: You should tweak tactics and strategies in response to performance data or changes in the external environment.
Feedback Mechanisms: Implementing and managing channels for collecting customer feedback, which can provide actionable insights to refine your approach.
Analytics Tools: You should utilise Google Analytics, social media insights, and other data analytics tools to gather and analyse performance data effectively.
As you can see we selected the SOSTAC® digital marketing frameworks as it offers a structured approach to planning and executing a digital marketing strategy.
By meticulously working through each stage—Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, and Control—your business can ensure its digital marketing efforts are comprehensive, targeted, and effective.
With the digital landscape continually evolving, and using digital marketing frameworks you have the ability to adapt and refine your strategy based on solid planning and feedback is crucial to achieving sustained success in digital marketing.
If you would like to know more about how you may be able to develop your digital marketing strategy using digital marketing frameworks such as SOSTAC®, please get in touch by email at chat@getextra.co.uk or use our contact form.
We offer the initial consultation as a free service as we feel that if you are better informed about the structure, importance, and contents of a digital marketing strategy, you will be in a much better place to make informed decisions to drive your business forward in this digital age.
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