Analyzing Planning Functions In Digital Marketing
Planning functions is one of the most critical functions in Digital marketing as it consists of the basic foundations upon which all other aspects of Digital Marketing lies. In this article, I want to look at some of the major components of planning functions in Digital Marketing.
These functions allow the organization to understand there position in the market as well as what they can do to turn things around for themselves. They are also able to do a complete SWOT analysis that will allow them to capitalize on there strengths and work on there weaknesses.
At this stage as well, the organization has to make use of there knowledge of the market. They will use this as the base of there strategy which will be used to come up with price and position. All that they are going to do here has to be based on research that they have done in order to reach the right target.
For these functions to work, the marketer needs to work with the business and product development team in order to make sure that they align business strategy with marketing goals. This will also allow the organization to put customer needs into consideration when they are developing products and services based on customer feedback.
This also allows the organization to communicate the objectives and put in place the necessary costs that are needed to achieve digital marketing strategy and implement strategies that will allow the organization to achieve overall digital marketing goals.
Some of these functions include activities such as:
#1 Marketing Research
This is one of the most important aspects of marketing activities. It also serves as the foundation for all future decisions. There is no meaningful decision that any organization can make without research. The marketer needs to know everything about the market, the audience, the resources and others that need to be targeted in order to sell the products or services.
#2 Pricing
Another aspect that the marketer needs to work on is the determination of products and services. He has to do market surveys and work with the production department and other stakeholders in order to determine the exact price that will be acceptable to the target audience. Most importantly, they need to look at the product being offered by competitors s that are producing similar products and services.
#3 Objective development
The aim of this function is to translate marketing goals to business goals that will actually move the business forward. This is necessary in order to get buy-in on your project and by ensuring that your objectives are relevant so that you can continue to get the necessary supports for your marketing efforts. It also ensures that the marketing efforts are aligned with the key performance indicators for the project.
#4 Budgeting
All marketing activities also need to be budgeted and approval sought before the marketing department will be able to implement such plans successfully. Such digital marketing budgets might be approved quarterly or as the need arises for such activities. These budgets are also approved based on past marketing success and campaigns. This will determine how much will be approved for present campaigns.
#5 Planning
The planning activities as part of marketing functions allows the marketing department to communicate there strategy with team members and other departments that are affected by digital marketing activities. Each marketing activities have there own functions but planning gives room for planning for the bigger picture so that the different activities can be coordinated together. It will also allow various together to work together towards achieving marketing goals.
With this, we can now have a document that talks about the overall marketing planning activities, list of campaigns and what needs to be done to achieve marketing campaign objectives.
All activities in the Planning marketing function are related and will be the foundation for the next function to work from by building on the blocks created. The planning stage is crucial for success and aligns all other functions towards a common goal, plan, budget, and audience.
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