BLOG 6: Digital marketing strategy

A strategy indicates the most advantageous direction for an organization to take over a defined period of time. It also outlines which tactics and means should be used to execute this direction. Originating as a military term, strategy is about using your strengths, as well as the context in which you are operating, to your advantage.

In marketing, strategy starts with understanding what the business wants to achieve, or what problem it wants to solve. It then considers the context in which the business and its competitors operate, and outlines key ways in which the business and brand can gain advantage and add value.

You have marketing and digital marketing, but what is the difference? Marketing is that it is the creation and satisfaction of demand for your product or service. If all goes well, this demand should translate into sales and, ultimately, revenue.
If marketing creates and satisfies demand, digital marketing drives the creation of demand using the power of the Internet, and satisfies this demand in a new and innovative ways. The Internet is an interactive medium. It allows for the exchange of currency, but more than that, it allows for the exchange of value.

Once you have a clear sense of what the business challenge or objective is, and you have defined how your marketing strategy will work towards fulfilling it. There are different building blocks for marketing strategy, which will help you structure a marketing strategy – both online and offline – that addresses your core challenges.

Porter’s five forces analysis
Porter’s five forces analysis is a business tool that helps determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market. The Internet’s low barrier to entry means that many new businesses are appearing online, providing near-infinite choices for customers. This makes it important to consider new factors when devising a marketing strategy.

The four P’s
The four P’s contains of four components, which are Products, Price, Placement and Promotion. Each of these will help you structure the components that make up a brand’s offering, differentiators and marketing. They have been fundamentally changed by the Internet and need to be looked at the context offered by digitally connected media and from the perspective of the consumer. How your brand is positioned in the mind of your consumer will ultimately determine your success.

SWOT analysis
Also the SWOT analysis contains of four components, which are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is the ideal way to understand your business and your market. Studying the external threats to your business, and see how learning from these can help you overcome internal weaknesses. This should tie back to your business and marketing objectives. A SWOT analysis is part of a situational analysis and identifies the key issues that direct the marketing strategy.

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. This contains of several things; the context, value exchange, objectives, tactics, and targets.
For the context there are several questions you need to ask yourself:  What is the context in which you are operating (PESTLE factors) and how is this likely to change in the future? 
Who are you, why does your brand matter and what makes your brand useful and valuable? Who are your customers, and what needs, wants and desires do they have? Who are your competitors? 
Thorough market research one will reveal the answers to these questions.

If the marked situations have been examined, the second step is an examination of your value proposition or promise. What unique value has your organization that is can add to that market. It is important to identify the supporting value-adds to the brand that is unique to the digital landscape. What extras can you offer your customers?

When setting your digital marketing goals, there are four key aspects to consider: Objectives, tactics, key performance indicators, and targets. The objectives are about what you are trying to achieve. Then the tactics, which are not the same as objectives, tactics are the specific tools or approaches you will use to meet your objectives. You will need the KPI’s to measure these objectives, for example, with numbers and measurements.
Finally the targets, which are the specific values that are set for your PKI’s to reach within a specific time period.

With all these steps, you will achieve a perfect digital marketing strategy for your organization to be a success in the future.

By Irene de Groot

Source: Stookes, Rob and the minds of Quirk (2018). EMarketing: the essential guide to marketing in a digital world (5th ed). Quirk eMarketing (Pty) ltd. (Ed.).