The other day I was speaking about digital marketing to a group of highly successful entrepreneurs who have great marketing in place and solid knowledge of what their competition is doing. But they were unclear on two things:

1. What should my digital marketing mix be?
2. Which digital marketing channels will work best to drive sales?

Which digital marketing sales channels should I use, when and why?

To build a comprehensive digital marketing plan we need to look outside tactics (social media, email and such) and look at the stages consumers go through from where they  become aware of your brand or product to where they are actually ready to buy. Digital marketing channels will each play a part in one or multiple stages of the process.

There are many models that illustrate the process consumers go through before they buy a product or service. One such simple model is the AIDA marketing model. AIDA is an acronym that stands for:

• A – Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.
• I – Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).
• D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
• A – Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.

I updated the model to make it relevant to the digital marketing space, where forming an opinion through review-seeking replaces the “interest” stage. So we have AODA: Awarenes – Opinion – Desire – Action.

Awareness:

Opinion:

Storytelling and online reviews are critical at this stage. Today’s consumers are comparison shoppers. They read reviews, ask for referrals and feedback on Facebook, Twitter and in forums, for most of their purchasing decisions.

In B2B in particular, they want to feel like they made their own decisions without pressure from the outside. So before they even call you to talk  their opinion is made.

• Monitor review sites and offer help so that they get to see what you have to offer.
• Write, teach, publish: establish thought-leadership.
• Invite your friends and fans to leave reviews, at all touch-points: from Yelp to LinkedIn, you want trails of social proof.
• Publish interviews with happy customers and their stories (text and video).

Now you just need to make them desire to work with you!

Desire

This is where social, online ads and email marketing are particularly useful. So they know about you and they’ve formed a favorable opinion of you. Now it’s time to deliver the last punch – buy now for 10% off. Or give them some other reason to buy. Maybe they should buy that bracelet now because a celebrity just wore it. Or they should start working with you because you just won an award. Or you have a limited time offer. Long story short, give them a reason to want to buy right now.

Email marketing will be your best friend here. A study from eConsultancy shows that email is the most effective conversion method as a contributing channel. So make sure you have a solid email marketing plan in place and you will get action!

Action