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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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). http://brilliantnoise.com/brilliant-model-the-loyalty-loop/#more-3873

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

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.

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

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

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)

SWOT Analysis This forms part of the 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Customer retention and value creation Step 4: Tactics and Evaluation Each tactic has its own strengths and weaknesses. Email 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.

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

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

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

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

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, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Data Analytics and Conversion Optimisation.