There aren’t many businesses that could operate sustainably without some form of strategy, or long term overarching goals. The role that marketing plays in these projections is integral to the success of the business, as is the digital marketing strategy which should be incorporated into the plan.  

But what form should a digital marketing strategy take, and what is it exactly?

What Is A Digital Marketing Strategy?

Put simply, a digital marketing strategy is a plan to achieve a stated goal relating to the business’ digital presence – usually with the aim of gaining more customers. It tends to have three components:

What - What are the business’ objectives?

Why - Why is the business trying to achieve these goals?

Where - Where is the playing field, and who is your target?

You will then need to map out a set of tactics to help you mobilise your strategy and realise your objectives. For example, a strategy could be to increase website visitors from Facebook, with a look to increase conversions on an e-book offer. The tactics used to do this could be Facebook ads, or a series of posts, with the objective of bringing in that traffic.

How Does A Digital Marketing Strategy Attract Visitors?

So, with that knowledge, you might well be asking, how does a strategy help you attract visitors? You might think that it’s all just about the tactics–the actual doing, so to speak.

Well, the strategy is important as it ensures you keep key objectives in mind, and that you target the right people. A good digital marketing strategy will give you a clear idea of the number of visitors you want to attract, who those visitors should be, where you want to attract them from, and in what sort of time frame you intend to run this for. This gives you the information you need to decide which tactics you want to use for the best effect.

Having a defined strategy helps to ensure that you don’t move straight onto tactics without an overall defined plan - something that could lead to spend being wasted on tactics that you’ve assumed will ‘just work’. That often leads to other, perhaps more effective options, not even being considered in favour of the already decided upon ‘superior’ options.

How Does A Digital Marketing Strategy Convert Leads To Customers?

A digital marketing strategy also helps with guiding your website visitors through the funnel, first to leads and then on to becoming customers. It does this in a number of different ways.

Firstly, a defined strategy ensures that you aren’t just getting visitors, but that you’re getting the right type of visitors, based on your buyer personas. A good digital marketing strategy will ensure that the tactics you use will target the right sort of people, those who will be more receptive to becoming leads, and then customers.

Secondly, it also gives a better overview of which tactics will be used to push users through the funnel, such as emails, calls and meetings. A strategy helps to organise these, ensure you send the right message to your leads at the right time, at the right stage in the buyer’s journey.

Thirdly, it gives you a criteria to judge the quality of your leads by – with clearly set out definitions for what makes a good lead, the successes and failures of tactics – and the strategy as a whole can be easily evaluated.  Well set out and defined goals ensure you don’t lose track of what you’re trying to achieve with your marketing.

In Conclusion

Simply put, a digital marketing strategy is critical to ensuring that you get your marketing right. Without one, you’ll be using tactics in isolation, without an overarching plan to ensure that those tactics target the right audience, hit them at the right times, and work together to turn your website visitors into customers.