Study Guide
Download pdf 197 KB
Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Key research activities
Research activities are intended to help marketers to develop key insights from historical or current performance. You can then use these insights to guide your strategic direction, forecast results, manage expectations, and set budgets.
Several activities conducted during the research phase are intended to develop the key insights that guide your strategic direction. Here are some of them.
- Research mapping involves identifying all the points of data that feed into the strategy.
- Channel analytics covers using your existing data on existing channels to make decisions.
- Audience research is essentially finding out more about your target audience, and then using this information to reach them effectively.
- Customer journey mapping involves detailing the path to purchase (or other goals, such as conversion).
- Digital auditing covers analyzing your web and mobile experience.
- Keyword research involves taking insights from how your customers use keywords in search engines.
- Social listening involves observing how people talk about your brand, category, or industry on social media
The benefits of research
The purpose of researching your audience and competitive landscape is to learn as much as possible before developing a strategy. Full of enthusiasm and excited to get going, we often enter into the strategic process with assumptions. And then, when faced with a challenge, we often assume that we know the answer.
This is where research helps. It doesn’t necessarily always prove that your assumptions are wrong. It may actually confirm that your assumptions are right and support your decisions.
Research plays a core role in learning as much about your target audience, industry, and environment as possible. This information will be the backbone of your strategy, ensuring it is built upon insight, instead of assumption.
So, before developing your strategy, try to learn as much as possible about:
- Who you are targeting to deliver on your objectives
- What the other players in the market are doing
Julie Atherton
Julie is an award-winning digital strategist, with over 30 years’ experience. Having worked both agency and client-side, she has a wealth of knowledge on delivering marketing, brand and business strategy across almost every sector. In 2016, Julie set up Small Wonder. Drawing on her past experience, she now supports a wide range of businesses, from global brands, to educational organisations and social enterprises.She is the author of the book, Social Media Strategy which was a top read chosen by Thinkers360. You can find her on X and LinkedIn.
