1. eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Marketing in a Digital World Digital Marketing Strategy
What you’ll learn
How to define and distinguish business strategy, marketing strategy and digital strategy
The key building-block concepts that are essential to any strategy
The questions that need to be asked when assembling a digital marketing strategy

2. What is marketing?
“The art and science of exploring, creating and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.” (Dr Phillip Kotler, 2012)
Motivate consumers to pay for your product, consider brand superior to competitors
Create meaningful benefits and value for consumer
Doing so consistently to earn trust and loyalty

3. What is digital marketing?
If marketing creates and satisfies demand, digital marketing does so using the internet, and satisfying this demand in new, innovative ways, based on feedback.
Interactive: exchange of value
Value (for brands): time, attention and advocacy of consumer
Value (for customers): entertainment, enlightenment, utility
Create meaningful benefits and value for consumer
Doing so consistently to earn trust and loyalty

4. Marketing strategy
Step 1: Get a grip on the business and brand strategy
Business goals: to be profitable
What business challenges are we facing that prevents us from making more revenue?
What business objective should we strive for in order to increase the money in the bank?

5. Marketing strategy Step 2: Address these business challenges
Based on a solid assessment of:
Environment
Business
Customers
Competitors

6. Understanding the environment
Overall context, or “outside world” in which business functions.
Global economics
Industry developments
PESTLE
(Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental)

7. Understanding the business
The brand itself: what does it stand for? What does it mean? This is essential to establish, as marketing messages will encapsulate the brand’s identity and objectives.
Associations, ideas, emotions
USP
Value proposition
Reason to believe

8. Understanding Customers
Create a clear picture of your customers, based on market research. Don’t assume. Get insight into their needs and desires, as well as their decision-making journeys (which in digital spaces is not always linear).

9. Understanding Competitors
Who else is marketing to your customers, what do they offer, and how can you challenge or learn from them?
Digital space:
Competing not only your customers money but their attention
Disruptive innovations
Potential replacements for your product, service

10. Digital marketing strategy
Start thinking about your digital marketing strategy
Digital marketing strategy builds on and adapts the principles of traditional marketing, using the opportunities and challenges offered by the digital medium. A digital marketing strategy should be constantly iterating and evolving.

11. The building blocks of marketing strategy
Use the following as starting points for thinking about your business and brand challenges
Porter’s Five Forces analysis
The Four Ps
SWOT analysis

12. Porter’s Five Forces
Determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market.

13. The Four Ps Products (and services) Price Placement (or distribution)
Structure the components that make up brand’s offering, differentiators and marketing.
Products (and services)
Price
Placement (or distribution)
Promotion
Additional: People (personalisation, peer-to-peer, participation)

14. SWOT Analysis
This forms part of the situational analysis, and identifies the key issues that direct the marketing strategy.

15. Crafting a digital marketing strategy
A strategy needs to cover the questions of who you are, what you are offering and to whom, as well as why and how you are doing so
Context
Value exchange
Objectives
Tactics and evaluation
Ongoing optimisation
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

16. Step 1: Context
Consider the context of the organisation and various stakeholders
Howe is your context likely to change in future (PESTLE)?
Who is your brand and why does it matter?
Who are your customers, what are their needs, wants, desires?
Competitors?
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

17. Step 2: Value Exchange
Examine your current value proposition or promise, and supporting value-adds to the market. Are there extras? USPs?
Audience defines what is valuable to them
Content marketing, valuable information, entertainment or support
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

18. Step 3: Objectives
Objectives are essential to determining whether your strategy is effective.
Objectives need to be SMART
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Time-bound
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

19. Step 3: Objectives
When setting objectives, ask: “What are we doing any of this? What goal, purpose, or outcome are we looking for?”
Tactics
Specific tools to meet objectives
KPIs
Metrics to determine whether tactics are meeting objectives.
Targets
Values set for KPI
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

20. Customer retention and acquisition
Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
SEO
Customer retention and acquisition
Ensures your organisation’s offering will appear in search results, reach potential customers. An optimised site means great UX, a factor for retention.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

21. Sales, Customer retention, and acquisition
Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Search Advertising
Sales, Customer retention, and acquisition
Allows advertiser to reach people already in the buying cycle, expressing interest in what they have to offer.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

22. Branding and acquisition
Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Online Advertising
Branding and acquisition
Can be targeted to physical locations, subject areas, past user behaviours, etc.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

23. Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Affiliate Marketing
Sales and Branding
Reward referrers, for every subscriber, useful for acquisition.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

24. Branding, customer retention and value creation
Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Video Marketing
Branding, customer retention and value creation
Highly interactive and engaging, capturing attention. Offers tangible value – entertainment or inspiration – and can boost brand image.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

25. Branding, Value creation and Participation
Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Social Media
Branding, Value creation and Participation
Tells story and allows consumer to be part of it. Provide crowd-sourced feedback, allows brand to share content directly.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

26. Customer retention and value creation
Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation
Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Marketing
Customer retention and value creation
Great tool for building relationships, aim to maximise retention (i.e. profitability) and segment properly for best results.
The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.

27. Step 5: Ongoing optimisation
It is increasingly important for brands to be dynamic, flexible and agile when marketing online
New tactics and platforms emerge every week
Customer behaviours change over time
People’s needs and wants from brand evolve as their relationship grows
Allow tactics and strategies to be modified and optimised as you go

28. Doing it right: Nike
Nike transformed its marketing strategy by embracing key digital strategies like data analytics, social engagement and storytelling

29. Embracing best practices
A strong focus on storytelling
Being an authentic brand
Understanding and communicating with customers on their terms
Being remarkable and shareable
Allowing mass customisation

30. What happened?
Nike reaches over 200 million fans every day in an interactive dialogue.
The massive volume of freely shared user data:
Produces meaningful brand insights
Leads to new product innovations
Allows the brand to get closer to consumers

31. That’s all folks You can also read about:
User Experience Design , Web Development and Design, Writing for Digital, CRM, SEO, Search Advertising, Online Advertising, Affiliate Marketing , Video Marketing, Social Media Channels, Social Media Strategy, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Data Analytics and Conversion Optimisation.