7 Steps to Developing a Digital Marketing Plan

Before you set up your golf business on Instagram or roll out a new website, take some time to outline and develop a marketing plan. If you’re already rolling with your online marketing, it’s never too late to take a step back and develop a plan around your efforts. Not only will it serve to guide your digital golf marketing, it can serve as a benchmark for measuring progress and results.

Your digital marketing plan will help you understand who your audiences are, outline points of contact, and refine the major messages that should be included at each touch point. Your plan should address strategies to communicate your golf business.

This does not have to be a large, complex undertaking. However, the process should take an interactive approach that involves your key team players throughout development. This ensures that the two critical components of successful planning are met: 1) there is ownership among your internal audiences, and 2) there is an increase in internal competencies so that the plan can be continually refined in response to golf marketplace changes in the future.

Digital Golf Marketing Strategy – The Process

The foundation of your plan should begin with an understanding and assessment of where you’re at—both internally and externally. Conduct a situational analysis of your golf business, emphasizing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) approach.
Define your target audiences (whom you wish to influence), and develop key target geographies (where the people live and how to reach them). Spend time listening to your current and potential customers—understand how they want to be communicated with online.
Clarify key messages. Understand the main attributes that define who you are and what makes your golf business stand out from the competition. These key messages should be relevant and consistent throughout your golf marketing efforts.
Define your goals/strategies for your digital marketing. What do you hope to accomplish with your online marketing efforts? Is it to increase awareness? Build community/your customer base? Increase revenue? Or, all of the above? Align your marketing goals with the overall goals and objectives of your golf business. Take into consideration your offline efforts as well—and how they will integrate with your online strategies. Make sure your print efforts drive to your online efforts by including your website/social media channels or specific links to information or actions.
Understand digital channels. Multiple opportunities exist to market your golf business online, but that doesn’t mean you need to engage in every one! Take the time to research various channels like Facebook, Instagram, email marketing, or blogging, and understand the demographics of each site’s users so you’re reaching the right audience—and not wasting your time.
Develop tactics to meet your goals. It’s the who (are we targeting/who is the internal owner), what (are we saying), where (are we saying it), when (timing is everything) and why (what is our strategic goal). Once you’ve defined your audience and articulated your key messages, outline the implementation tactics you will use to accomplish your marketing strategies. Identify the online channels you will use, who will “own” these responsibilities, and develop an “editorial calendar” around campaigns or special events.
Tracking and Evaluation. Track your return on investment. Once your strategies are implemented, make sure you have the tracking tools in place to monitor your online activity. The ongoing evaluation and perpetual strengthening of your golf business and online marketing strategy is critical to your long-term success. At the very least, paying close attention will help you:

Determine whether or not your online efforts have increased awareness
Evaluate the effectiveness of specific online strategies
Determine if the brand positions of competing golf companies has changed
Help identify where your golf business has slipped in terms of visibility or accuracy

Developing an digital marketing plan shouldn’t be an exercise in futility. Consult it. Often. It should serve as an evolving document that is evaluated and updated frequently to ensure you’re meeting your goals and objectives.

Are you ready to get started on your digital marketing plan? We can help.

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