Fundamentals of
digital marketing
strategy
Learn digital strategy in five steps
Step one - fundamentals
There are three aspects to a high-performing digital marketing strategy:
Understanding customers
Their needs, frustrations, aspirations, problems etc
Delivering customer value
Providing a solution to their problems or helping them
Digital channels
Reaching customers and using content to communicate value
Many digital marketing strategies fail as businesses focus on themselves, rather than the customer, when developing their strategy.
They see digital channels as simply an extension of traditional advertising mediums such as magazine ads, billboards, TV commercials etc. This misalignment of strategy is a result of having a poor understanding of both online consumer behaviour and how to correctly use each digital channel to its full potential.
Digital marketing is easy. Effective digital marketing which achieves genuine results is challenging and time consuming.
Marketing is not advertising
Many businesses see website content, Social Media, eDM’s etc as a means of simply advertising products and trying to increase sales rather than as a way to connect with potential customers.
Marketing is based on developing a deep understanding of customers including their online behaviours, their problems/frustrations/pain-points, their aspirations, their demographics (e.g. age, gender etc), their interests etc.
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Many businesses make the mistake of promoting the features of their products rather than understanding why a consumer would be interested in purchasing in the first place (i.e. what problem does the product solve, how does it help them).
Promoting features can be worthwhile but explaining how those features benefit the customer helps people to relate to, and understand, the product on a deeper level.
Ideally, the products and services a business sells will provide a solution to the problems or pain-points a consumer is facing.
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Successful marketing is based on understanding customer emotions and communicating the value a product/service offers through its ability to help improve their situation (e.g. solving a problem, helping them achieve a goal etc).
People don’t buy because of logic; they buy because of emotions. People are buying something to achieve a purpose. They aren’t buying a drill, they are buying a hole in the wall. They buy a luxury watch, not for the time, but for the success status.
Businesses which are able to successfully market their products have a clear differentiation between what they promote and what they sell. A school may sell an education but they promote a brighter future for your child. A high-end fashion brand may sell clothing but they promote the feeling of confidence and status for those who wear their clothes. A security business may sell home security cameras but they promote peace of mind for keeping your family safe.
These businesses understand the power and role emotions play in consumer decision making. Even a seemingly emotionless and commodity driven purchase can be heavily influenced by emotions.
Imagine a business which sells expensive high-end $280 pens. Why would someone buy these pens when they can simply use a standard off-the-shelf pen for $0.20?
The business focuses on the emotions people experience when using the pen. If you’re a lawyer and you use a cheap $0.20 pen to sign a contract, what would a client think?
Even if a client logically knows the cheap pen will ‘perform’ the same as an expensive pen, they develop a subconscious perception. A nicer pen fits with a nice suit, a nice office, a nice car and reinforces the perception of competence and professionalism the client has of the lawyer.
In marketing, perception is reality.
The success of a digital strategy, and marketing in general, is dependent on how much a business understands their customers’ pain points, aspirations and emotions. From here, strategies are developed to communicate how your products/services can help them – this provides the customer with an understanding of value in what you are offering.
Digital channels, such as Facebook ads, are simply the medium for reaching customers and are not the basis for whether or not a strategy will be successful.
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The messaging (and value) which is communicated to customers can be one of the biggest factors for determining whether or not a strategy will be successful.
Messaging should be based on a thorough understanding of customer needs and emotions – what are they looking to achieve by purchasing, how does this product take them from point A to point B and improve their situation? Messaging needs to be customer value-focused, not product or company-focused.
When developing a strategy to determine how you can best provide value, go one step further and ask how you can make the customer experience of interacting with your business as easy and as enjoyable as possible.
Maybe you’re a tradesman and you’ve noticed competitors don’t show up on time, have poor quality work and overcharge customers. These can be the pain-points of potential customers which can be highlighted and addressed in your marketing and advertising.
Creating and developing a digital strategy
When creating a digital marketing strategy, there are three components which need to be considered.
Digital
Online channels including SEO, Facebook Ads, Google Ads etc
Marketing
Understanding and connecting with customers
Strategy
Using digital channels to communicate the value of the brand to online customers
Online channels can include a brand’s website, SEO, Social Media, Facebook and Google ads, eDM’s, display advertising and more.
Marketing relates to understanding customers and the journey people take when deciding to purchase products/services.
Strategy involves deciding how to best use each digital channel to reach customers and communicate value at each stage of their purchasing journey.
A very brief overview of digital channels:
Website: the central location where both organic and paid traffic is directed to with the ultimate goal of eventually turning website visitors in to repeat paying customers.
SEO: adding content to, and optimising, a website to attract visitors who are searching for relevant topics/answers through Google.
Facebook ads: running ads (such as image, video and carousel ads) across the Facebook (and Instagram) platform.
Google Ads: showing relevant ads, within the Google search results, to users who are searching for specific keywords and topics.
Social Media: a platform for communicating organically (i.e. non-paid) with existing and potential customers.
eDM’s: using email marketing to directly connect with customers and website visitors who have provided their email address.
The customer journey
As discussed earlier, marketing refers to understanding the characteristics and emotions of customers. Understanding not what they buy but why and how they buy.
When it comes to a consumer deciding to make a purchase, their journey is usually broken down into three stages (known as the customer buying journey or sales funnel).
Awareness
A consumer becomes aware of a problem or a need.
Maybe they constantly feel tired and decide to search online for how to have more energy. They may come across a variety of websites recommending exercise such as running and weight training as well as dietary changes to help improve their energy levels. Running may be the preferred activity for the user so they now need to purchase a pair of runners.
Consideration
The consumer will consider options available to help solve their problem or fulfil their need.
There are many different brands of runners available each with their own unique features and benefits which the user will consider when deciding between brands and options.
Decision
The consumer makes a choice to purchase a certain product or service which they see the most value in.
The user may decide a certain brand of runners has the best reputation for quality and durability and decides to purchase. This particular brand also has a sale which helps the user make a quick purchase.
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Digital strategy is about reaching the right user with the right message at the right time to move them along the customer journey. It involves deciding which channels are the most effective at each stage of the journey.
Each channel will play a different role at each stage. For example, SEO is perfect when the user is searching for a solution to their problem (how to have more energy).
When the user has visited the websites of various shoe brands, these brands may choose to use Facebook ads to reconnect with and maintain brand awareness with the user once they have left the website. This is known as retargeting and is the process of showing ads to people who have already engaged with a brand (by visiting the website, interacting on social media, clicking an ad etc).
When the user has narrowed down two brands, they may search Google for advantages and disadvantages of each brand. This type of comparison-based search shows the user is close to purchasing and is perfect for showing a Google Search ad promoting a current sale persuading the user to choose one brand over another.
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Why do so many digital strategies fail?
Many businesses fall at the first hurdle of creating a digital strategy as they focus on themselves rather than the customer.
But many also lack the in-depth knowledge of how to use each channel to its full potential. Rather than having a comprehensive integrated strategy, some businesses will jump from channel to channel with sporadic advertising and commitment.
Common channel-specific problems include:
Lack of knowledge:
In terms of understanding digital channels, many believe the below aspects are the only considerations when it comes to using each digital medium:
Website
Being purely sales and transactional focused with little helpful content
SEO
Writing short, keyword stuffed, blogs which are focused on promoting the company
Social Media
A place to push products and try to increase sales
Facebook Ads
Only boosting posts or pushing products
Google Ads
Poorly written ad copy, often taken straight from the home page
eDM's
Purely sales focused with no reader value
Display ads
Reaching out to a cold audience who have demonstrated no interest in the brand
Many businesses see online channels as an extension of traditional sales-focused advertising mediums such as magazine ads, billboards, TV commercials etc. Not only have people become blind to advertising messages but they find them annoying, intrusive and associate a negative perception to corporate brands who try to invade their personal lives.
Trying to be across every channel, despite customers only being present on a select few, is a common mistake made by businesses. It’s also a mistake to only use one or two channels as performance of these channels can be impacted by algorithm changes, increased costs, decreased reach etc. Each channel should be thought of as a tool within a wider toolbox.
Lack of resources:
Correctly using each channel to its full potential takes a huge amount of work.
Within the SEO industry, for example, there are professions who focus purely on strategy and keyword research, those who write content (i.e. copywriters), those who manage outreach (i.e. building backlinks) etc.
Running Facebook ads not only involves solid customer research (so users will relate to the ads) but also involves technical knowledge on how to set up and run ads as well as how to correctly measure and optimise campaigns.
Pay-per-click (PPC) platforms (such as Google and Facebook ads) can become difficult to track with large amounts of data coming in each day (costs, link clicks, user behaviour once on the site etc). If someone is not in the accounts of each platform on a daily basis, it’s easy to lose track. With so much time spent on just maintaining campaigns, it becomes difficult to find opportunities to improve.
Having a few people (or just one person) manage all aspects of digital marketing leads to an excessive unmanageable workload. This results in a company taking shortcuts to save time. Instead of firstly understanding customers to create valuable content, a company will take the easier option and push products directly instead.
Rather than creating long-form SEO content which answers customer questions, a short fluffy blog is created instead. Rather than writing compelling PPC ad copy, which is based on customer research, copy is taken straight from the website.
Some businesses may understand they are not using each channel correctly (or to its full potential) but they simply don’t have the time to sit down and reassess their approach.
Creating the ideal digital strategy:
People don’t care about companies or their products and services, they care about their own pain points, frustrations, aspirations etc. What are you trying to help your customers achieve – this provides the basis for a digital strategy.
Successful digital strategies are built around using content marketing, rather than pushy advertising, as means of communicating with potential customers online.
As mentioned earlier, digital channels are simply the communication medium for reaching customers. The value within the messaging decides whether or not online efforts will be successful.
If using video as a medium for content delivery, valuable and helpful content will result in comments like this:
A product/sales-focused content strategy which pushes products and only benefits the company, will result in engagement like this:
Or Social engagement like this:
If using video, a content strategy can use monetised YouTube videos as a way to not only create value and brand awareness but also generate additional revenue for your business. This revenue can then be used to fund future content creation. This creates a self-sustaining content production model.
The positive comments above relate to an excellent tutorial on how to build your own WordPress website in only two hours.
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This concludes step one of learning digital strategy (fundamentals). In step two (planning a digital strategy), we’ll cover how to tie content to digital channels across the entire customer journey and highlight examples of content marketing done right.
Learn digital marketing in five steps
