Good digital marketing starts with knowing what you are trying to achieve. Without that, it is very easy to spend time and money on websites, social media, advertising and content without knowing whether any of it is actually moving the business forward.

That is why strategy comes first.

A digital strategy does not need to be a huge document filled with diagrams, forecasts and marketing jargon. At its most useful, it is simply a clear understanding of where the business wants to go, who it needs to reach and how digital marketing can help it get there.

Just as importantly, it should never be regarded as finished.

Businesses change. Customers change. Competitors change. Technology changes. A strategy that made perfect sense two years ago may no longer be the right strategy today.

Strategy gives your marketing a purpose

It is remarkably easy for digital marketing to become a collection of activities.

A business redesigns its website. Someone starts posting on LinkedIn. A Google Ads campaign is launched. An email newsletter goes out occasionally. Blog articles are written because someone said they would be good for SEO.

Individually, any of those things might be useful. But the important question is not whether you are doing them.

It is why you are doing them.

A strategy connects marketing activity to a business objective.

Perhaps the aim is to generate more enquiries. Perhaps you want to reach a different type of customer, increase repeat business, launch a new service, improve recruitment or become better known within a particular market.

Once the objective is clear, decisions about your website, search visibility, content, advertising, email and social media become much easier.

Instead of asking, “Should we be doing more on social media?”, you can ask, “Would social media help us reach the people we need to reach?”

That is a much more useful question.

Start with the business, not the marketing channels

One of the most common mistakes in digital marketing is starting with the tool.

A new platform appears, competitors begin using it, or somebody suggests that the business should be producing videos, sending newsletters or publishing more content.

The temptation is to start doing it immediately.

A better place to begin is with the business itself.

What are you trying to achieve over the next year or two? Which products or services matter most? Who are the customers you most want to attract? What questions do those customers ask before choosing a supplier? What makes your business a credible choice?

Those answers should shape the marketing.

For one company, search engines may be enormously important because customers actively look for its services when they need them. Another may depend far more on reputation, referrals and repeat business. A third may need to educate potential customers long before they are ready to buy.

Their digital strategies should not look the same.

Your website should sit at the centre of the picture

For most businesses, the website remains the place where the different parts of digital marketing eventually meet.

Someone might first discover you through Google, LinkedIn, an advertisement, a recommendation or an email. In many cases, their next step will be to visit your website.

That means the website has a bigger job than simply describing what you do.

It needs to answer questions, establish credibility, demonstrate expertise and make the next step clear.

Your wider marketing should support that journey.

Content can help people discover you. Search optimisation can make that content easier to find. Social media can introduce your expertise to a wider audience. Email can maintain relationships. Advertising can put an offer in front of the right people at the right moment.

But these activities are much more powerful when they are working together.

That is the difference between having several digital marketing channels and having a digital strategy.

Decide what success actually looks like

A strategy also needs some definition of success.

That does not mean every marketing decision has to be reduced to a spreadsheet. Some valuable outcomes, such as reputation and familiarity with your brand, develop gradually.

But there should still be a connection between marketing activity and business results.

Website traffic may be useful, but traffic on its own is rarely the objective. The more important question might be whether the right people are visiting the website and whether those visits are leading to enquiries, bookings, purchases or other useful actions.

The same principle applies elsewhere.

A large social media following can look impressive, but a smaller audience containing the right potential customers may be considerably more valuable.

Good measurement helps you distinguish between activity that merely looks busy and activity that is genuinely useful.

Then review the strategy

Creating the strategy is only the beginning.

It should be revisited periodically because the assumptions behind it will change.

Perhaps a service that was once important to the business is becoming less profitable. A new type of customer may be emerging. Search behaviour might be changing. A competitor may have entered the market. Your website analytics might reveal that customers are particularly interested in something you previously regarded as secondary.

Sometimes the biggest change is within the business itself.

You may have developed new expertise, hired new people, invested in equipment or decided that you want to concentrate on a different part of the market.

Your marketing should reflect that.

A useful strategy review therefore goes beyond asking whether website traffic has risen or social media engagement has improved. It asks whether the original objectives still make sense.

If they do, you can look at what is helping you achieve them and what needs to change.

If they do not, the strategy itself needs to evolve.

You do not have to be everywhere

One advantage of having a clear strategy is that it gives you permission not to do things.

Businesses often feel under pressure to maintain a presence everywhere. Every new platform creates another potential account to manage, another stream of content to produce and another demand on limited time.

Very few businesses need to use every available digital channel.

It is usually better to do a smaller number of useful things well than to spread your resources across activities that have little connection to your customers or objectives.

Strategy provides the filter.

Does this help us reach the right people? Does it support the customer journey? Does it contribute to something the business is trying to achieve?

If the answer is no, you may not need it.

Strategy should create clarity

A good digital strategy should ultimately make marketing feel simpler, not more complicated.

It gives you a reason for the work you are doing and a framework for deciding what deserves your attention.

It connects the website, content, search, social media, email, advertising and other digital activity to the wider direction of the business.

And it provides something against which results can be judged.

But it should never become a document that is written, filed away and forgotten.

The most useful strategies evolve. They respond to what customers are doing, what the data is telling you and where the business wants to go next.

First, decide where you are going. Then use digital marketing to help you get there. And every so often, check that you are still heading in the right direction.

Related articles

Marketing Strategy Your Website Is Never Finished: Why it Needs to Grow With Your Business A website should not be treated as an online brochure that you build, publish and then leave alone. It is an active business asset:… Read article

Marketing Strategy What Emotion Are You Selling? Have you ever considered what emotion you are selling? Beyond the adage that people buy from those they like, it's evident that purchasing decisions… Read article

Marketing Strategy Is Constant Marketing Spam or Brand Awareness? Every business wants to stay relevant and, more importantly, memorable. But the line between spam and brand awareness often seems blurred. Is constant marketing… Read article

Back to The Briefing