If you landed on this page, we have a hunch you’re trying to learn about digital marketing. Perhaps, you’re looking to do some online marketing yourself, and you need a strategy.
Well, buckle up because we're about to break it down. We’ll go over the basics first - what is a digital marketing strategy, and then how you can whip one up that works for your business. Let's dive in without the fluff and get you ahead in the online game.
Digital marketing strategy is the compass that guides businesses through the vast and ever-changing online landscape. At its core, it’s a plan that encompasses a range of online activities, from social media and content marketing to SEO and beyond. It's the blueprint that ensures every digital effort aligns with overarching business objectives.
Digital marketing strategy is a game plan businesses use to map out online marketing activities that will help them reach their business goals. It goes beyond the basics of merely having a website or a social media profile. Instead, it involves the strategic use of various online elements to create a unified and effective approach.
Having a well-thought-out plan is essential in 2023. Consumers are bombarded with information, and businesses, both big and small, are vying for attention. A well-defined strategy acts as a guiding light. It makes sure that your team is focusing on the right activities to lead you where you want to go.
Why is it crucial? Consider this: Your potential customers are not just online; they are actively shaping their opinions, making purchasing decisions, and engaging with brands in the digital space. A robust digital marketing strategy takes all of that into consideration and allows you to meet them where they are, delivering the right message at the right time.
Before we dive into what constitutes a digital marketing strategy, let’s go over some other important things.
First and foremost is Market Research. It's not just about knowing who your customers are but understanding what makes them tick, what challenges they face, and how your business can provide solutions. Simultaneously, a keen eye on competitors is crucial. Analyzing their strategies, and identifying strengths and weaknesses acts as a compass to navigate your unique path.
In the digital realm, setting SMART goals is the North Star. These goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. They serve as the roadmap, providing clarity on what you want to achieve and how to measure success. Aligning these digital goals with broader business objectives ensures that every digital effort contributes to the overarching success of the business.
Choosing the Right Channels is akin to selecting the right tools for the job. Here, an overview of major digital marketing channels is crucial. The key is not to spread thin but to strategically choose the channels where your voice will resonate the most. This is why you should know in detail who your customers are, and where they spend their time.
So, what are the building blocks of a digital marketing strategy? Each of these components should be a whole topic itself, so we will not go into too many details right now. Let’s just briefly explain what they are.
At its essence, a brand story is a narrative that encapsulates the identity, values, and journey of a brand. It goes beyond mere marketing messages, diving into the heart of what makes a brand unique and resonant.
A compelling brand story creates a connection, inviting the audience to become part of the unfolding narrative. A well-crafted brand story not only communicates what a brand does but why it does it, creating a lasting bond with its audience.
A target audience is the specific group of individuals or demographics that a business aims to reach with its products, services, or messaging. It involves identifying and understanding the characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of a particular set of people who are most likely to be interested in what the business has to offer.
This segmentation allows businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to resonate with the unique needs and interests of this audience. Understanding the target audience involves considerations such as age, gender, geographic location, interests, purchasing behaviors, and other relevant factors.
By honing in on a specific target audience, businesses can craft more personalized and effective marketing campaigns, ultimately building stronger connections and increasing the likelihood of attracting and retaining loyal customers.
In the realm of digital marketing strategy, goals serve as the guiding lights, providing direction and purpose to the overall plan.
Goals in a digital marketing strategy act as the benchmarks of success. They could range from increasing website traffic and improving search engine rankings to enhancing social media engagement or boosting online sales. Each goal is a strategic milestone, contributing to the overarching success of the business.
Messaging refers to the carefully crafted content and language used to communicate with the target audience. It's not just about what a brand says but how it says it—the tone, style, and overarching narrative that conveys the brand's identity and value proposition. Effective messaging serves as the bridge between the brand and its audience, creating a connection that goes beyond mere transactions.
Messaging needs to be tailored to the nuances of the target audience, considering factors such as demographics, preferences, and behaviors. As you can tell, defining a brand story at the beginning, and then analyzing your audience helps you nail the messaging, whether it’s an ad headline or a blog post.
Digital marketing channels are the various platforms and mediums through which businesses promote their products, services, or brand messages to reach and engage with their target audience online. Each channel has its unique characteristics, advantages, and audience demographics.
In 2023 there are plenty of channels available. The most common digital marketing channels are:
These could all be their own topics of plenty of blog posts, so we won’t cover them here.
If you’d like to learn more about paid advertising, we have another article explaining what is an advertising strategy and how you can make one.
As its name suggests, a budget is a certain amount of funds that you can afford to spend, or that you project you will spend to reach your goals.
There are plenty of different ways you can budget your marketing efforts, but you know your finances the best, so we will leave that up to you.
Digital marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that help assess the effectiveness and performance of your marketing efforts in achieving specific goals. These indicators provide valuable insights into how well a digital marketing strategy is performing, allowing you to make informed decisions and optimizations.
There are a ton of different things businesses measure, but the most important digital marketing metrics and KPIs are:
This all leads us to the question
To make an effective digital marketing strategy, we are going to take each of the components we defined previously and go through them step by step.
We previously went through what is a brand story. Now, the question is how to write one.
In all honesty, this could be a whole book, and it actually is (we highly recommend reading Storynomics by Robert McKee).
When writing a compelling brand story you first one to look at your target audience. You want to define three things:
Next, you need to define your protagonist. Your customer should always be the protagonist. Why? Because nobody wants to hear a story of how awesome a faceless brand is. When a customer sees himself/herself in the protagonist, there is an immediate connection and relatability. It helps customers immerse themselves in your story and connect with your brand.
Your protagonist (Customer) has a life. He is going about his day. Then, something unusual happens that changes things. The customer is facing a problem, and he wants to make it go away. He tries to solve it, but whatever he does fails.
Then your brand appears and guides the customer towards a solution, which happens to be your product. The customer overcame his challenge and got rid of his pain. Life is again in balance.
This is how an outline of a story looks.
Example: You are a small business owner. After years of hard work, your business struck a stagnation point. No matter what you do, you can’t get your revenue to grow. So, naturally, you try advertising. Since you don’t have experience running ads, you watched a few guides on YouTube on how to make Google Search Ads.
After a few weeks of running ads, you have spent hundreds of dollars, yet, no new customers. You start Googling online solutions, like “How to hire the right advertising agency”. Then, you stumble upon a blog post from Presnt.
Since Presnt offers affordable subscription plans, you decide to give it a shot.
After analyzing your business situation, Presnt team helps you define your goals and creates your advertising strategy. After some more creative razzle-dazzle, your ads are launched, and a few weeks in, you start getting new clients, and your revenue starts going upward again.
You guessed it, this is what an example of Presnt’s story would look like. Our customers (you) are facing a challenge (growing revenue), and because of that, they turn to advertising. We are there to guide them towards their growth goals, so they overcome their challenges and level up.
Defining a target audience differs whether you are a B2B or B2C company.
Step 1: Define Demographic Dimensions:
Start by identifying the key demographic characteristics of your ideal customers. These include age, gender, income, education, marital status, and occupation.
Example:
Age: 25-34
Gender: Female
Income: $50,000 - $75,000
Education: College Graduates
Marital Status: Single
Step 2: Identify Psychographic Dimensions:
Explore the psychological aspects of your audience, including their interests, values, lifestyle, and personality traits. Psychographics offer insights into the motivations and preferences that drive consumer behavior.
Example:
Interests: Fitness and Wellness
Values: Sustainability
Lifestyle: Urban Professionals
Personality Traits: Adventurous
Step 3: Explore Behavioral Dimensions:
Understand the behaviors and patterns of your target audience. This includes their buying habits, brand loyalty, product usage, and decision-making processes.
Example:
Buying Habits: Online Shoppers
Brand Loyalty: Switches brands for discounts
Product Usage: Daily Users of Health Supplements
Decision-Making: Influenced by online reviews
Step 4: Define Geographic Dimensions:
Consider the geographical locations where your audience resides. Geographic dimensions include region, city size, climate, and cultural considerations.
Example:
Region: Northeastern United States
City Size: Urban and Suburban
Climate: Cold Winters
Cultural Considerations: Diverse cultural interests
Step 1: Define Firmographic Dimensions:
In the B2B context, firmographics focus on organizational characteristics. Identify dimensions such as industry, company size, location, and revenue.
Example:
Industry: Technology
Company Size: Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Location: Global
Revenue: $1 million - $50 million
Step 2: Identify Decision-Making Roles:
Understand the key roles within the target companies that influence purchasing decisions. This includes identifying decision-makers, influencers, and end-users.
Example:
Decision-Makers: Chief Technology Officers (CTOs)
Influencers: IT Managers
End-Users: Front-end Developers
Step 3: Explore Budget and Investment Dimensions:
Consider the budgetary constraints and investment capabilities of your target companies. This includes understanding how they allocate resources for technology, services, or solutions.
Example:
Budget: Mid-range
Investment Areas: Technology Infrastructure
Resource Allocation: Prioritizes cybersecurity solutions
Step 4: Assess Growth and Expansion Dimensions:
This includes understanding their market presence, future goals, and willingness to adopt innovative solutions.
Example:
Market Presence: Established in the industry
Future Goals: Global Expansion
Innovation Adoption: Open to adopting new technologies
Whether you are a B2B or a B2C company, having a well-defined target audience helps you gain a better understanding of your customer’s needs. It also allows you to tailor your product and marketing messages to their specific pain points.
Before diving into digital marketing goals, you should first establish clear and specific business objectives. These could include increasing sales, expanding market share, enhancing brand awareness, or launching a new product. Aligning digital marketing goals with overarching business objectives ensures strategic coherence. It also makes sure you are not doing marketing for the sake of doing marketing, but to reach business goals.
For each business objective, determine the KPIs that will measure success. As we mentioned before, KPIs are quantifiable metrics that directly align with your goals. They provide concrete benchmarks for tracking progress.
Once the overarching business goals are set, you should break them down into smaller, actionable steps. Create a roadmap that outlines specific tasks, responsibilities, and timelines to achieve each goal.
Prioritize goals based on their strategic importance and dependencies. Consider the logical sequencing of goals to ensure a smooth flow of activities and optimal resource allocation.
Define benchmarks and milestones that serve as progress markers. Regularly evaluate performance against these benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.
You should regularly analyze data and key metrics to evaluate progress. If needed, be prepared to adjust strategies based on performance insights.
Example:
1. Business goal - Drive More Sales
1.1 Marketing goal - Generate more high-quality leads
1.1.1 Marketing KPIs:
- Get 10.000 website visitors
- Generate 200 leads
- Generate 80 MQLs
- Generate 20 Opportunities
- Close 5 new clients
We mentioned before that your messaging is like a bridge between your brand story and your target audience.
That’s why you should start by revisiting and understanding your brand story. What makes your brand unique? What values and qualities define your identity? Your messaging should align seamlessly with your brand narrative, ensuring consistency and authenticity.
Next up, revisit your target audience. Gain a deep understanding of your target audience. Know their preferences, pain points, and aspirations. Put yourself in their shoes.
Your messaging should clearly articulate what sets your brand apart. The messaging you use will be different depending on the format, channel, and stage of the buyer’s journey. But, your Unique Value Proposition should be concise and communicate the benefits your audience will gain from choosing your products or services.
Define the tone and style of your messaging. Whether it's conversational, formal, or playful, maintain consistency across all communication channels to reinforce your brand identity. This aspect will also be changing depending on the channel and format.
For example, in top of the funnel stages, your customers may not even be aware of their problem or have just started looking for solutions. They are seeking information. At the bottom of the funnel, they are looking for a vendor for a product/service they are ready to buy. In these two situations, your messaging will be completely different.
When choosing the channels in your digital marketing strategy, you should begin by thoroughly understanding your target audience. Identify their demographics, preferences, online behavior, and preferred channels. This foundational understanding is crucial for selecting channels that resonate with your audience.
Consider how your audience interacts with digital channels. Are they heavy users of social media, do they rely on search engines, or are they more responsive to email campaigns? Align your channel selection with their preferred online behavior.
Determine which platforms your target audience prefers. Different demographics may have varying preferences for social media platforms, email, search engines, or specific content types.
Evaluate the types of content that resonate with your audience. Some may prefer video content on platforms like YouTube, while others may engage more with written content on blogs or social media.
Not all channels work, and they are definitely not equal. Assess the effectiveness of each channel based on your specific goals. Some channels may be better for brand awareness, while others excel at lead generation or sales conversions.
Another key tip for nailing your marketing channels is analyzing your buyer’s journey once more. Where are they spending time in each stage of their journey? They might start off by searching for information on Google, then go to Social Media, or even to directory profiles. Knowing this will help you be at the right place at the right time.
This ties back to knowing your target audience. You must know where they spend their time. Also, keep in mind that people go to different platforms with different intentions.
For example, most people are not going to LinkedIn to learn about a new cool video game that just dropped.
Also, if your goal is to reach decision-makers from Fortune 500 companies, TikTok is probably not the way to go. It might work, but you have higher chances on other platforms. So pick your channels wisely.
The channels you pick will also be dictated by the overall budget you have available. Some networks are more budget-hungry than others.
By now, you have defined your specific business and marketing objectives. Now it’s time to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that directly align with them. Your KPIs should provide measurable insights into your progress toward achieving your business goals.
Ensure that your KPIs enable you to track and achieve your goals.
Segment KPIs based on different stages of the marketing funnel. Consider metrics for awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention to get a comprehensive view of your marketing performance.
We have previously defined some of the most important marketing metrics that you should be tracking. You can start with those, and then expand on your needs as you go.
Now you know what is a digital marketing strategy, and how to make one.
To reiterate, a digital marketing strategy is dynamic—a tailor-made plan evolving with your business and the digital landscape. A well-crafted strategy serves as your guiding compass. Having a comprehensive strategy is crucial in 2023 because it ensures you connect with them at the right time and place, delivering impactful messages.
Stefan is a marketer with 8 years of experience of working with various B2C and B2B brands.
Presnt is headquartered in: Podgorica, Montenegro.
