Building a effective digital markting strategy

What’s inside: An introduction to some key terms and concepts and a guide to
understanding strategy. We look at the questions to ask when compiling a digital marketing
strategy, and a digital marketing strategy in action.
02Digital
Marketing
Strategy

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Digital Marketing Strategy › What is marketing?Digital Marketing Strategy › Introduction
2.1 Introduction
A strategy indicates the most advantageous direction for an organisation 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 operates, and outlines key ways in which the
business and brand can gain advantage and add value.
In this chapter, you will 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
2.2 Key terms and concepts
Term Definition
Application
programming interface
(API)
A particular set of rules and specifications that software
programs can abide by when communicating with each
other. It serves as an interface between programs and
facilitates their communication, similar to the way
in which a user interface facilitates communication
between humans and computers. APIs are often used by
third-party developers to create applications for social
media websites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Cluetrain Manifesto
A set of 95 theses organised as a call to action (CTA)
for businesses operating within a newly connected
marketplace.
Market share
In strategic management and marketing, the percentage
or proportion of the total available market or market
segment that is being serviced by a company.
Metric A unit of measurement.
Online Reputation
Management (ORM)
The understanding and influencing of the perception
of an entity online. This entails ensuring that you know
what is being said about you, and that you are leading
the conversation.
Pay per click (PPC)
Pay per click is advertising where the advertiser pays
only for each click on their advert.
Return on investment
(ROI)
The ratio of cost to profit.
Really Simple
Syndication (RSS)
RSS allows you to receive/syndicate this information
without requiring you constantly to open new pages in
your browser.
Search engine
optimisation (SEO)
SEO is the practice that aims to improve a website’s
ranking for specific keywords in the search engines.
Short Message Service
(SMS)
Electronic messages sent on a cellular network.
Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP)
A simple XML-based protocol to allow for the
exchanging of structured information over HTTP.
Strategy
A set of ideas that outline how a product line or brand
will achieve its objectives. This guides decisions on how
to create, distribute, promote and price the product or
service.
Tactic
A specific action or method that contributes to achieving
a goal.
WebPR
Public relations on the web. Online news releases and
article syndication promote brands as well as drive
traffic to sites.
eXtensible Markup
Language (XML)
A standard used for creating structured documents.
2.3 What is marketing?
A simple definition for 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.
In 2012, Dr Philip Kotler defined marketing as “the science and art of exploring,
creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.
Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and
quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential” (Kotler, 2012).
In order to motivate people to pay for your product or service, or to consider your
organisation superior to your competitors, you need to create meaningful benefits
and value for the consumer. The value that a marketer should seek to create
should be equal to or even greater than the cost of the product to the consumer.
Doing this often and consistently enough will grow trust in and loyalty towards the
brand.

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2.4 What is digital marketing?
If marketing creates and satisfies demand, digital marketing drives the creation
of demand using the power of the Internet, and satisfies this demand in 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.
A business on the Internet can gain value in the form of time, attention and advocacy
from the consumer. For the user, value can be added in the form of entertainment,
enlightenment and utility; content marketing is one powerful way to create value.
The reciprocity of the transaction is what’s important here – in other words, the
exchange is a two-way street that provides benefit to both parties simultaneously.
The Internet has changed the world in which we sell. It is not a new marketing
channel; instead, it creates a new paradigm for the way in which consumers
connect with brands and with each other. The complete scope of marketing is
practised on the Internet – products and services are positioned and promoted,
purchased, distributed and serviced. The web provides consumers with more
choice, more influence and more power. Brands have new ways of selling, new
products and services to sell, and new markets to which they can sell.
The roles played by marketing agencies are shifting too. So-called ‘traditional’
agencies are getting better at digital marketing, while agencies that started out
as digital shops are starting to play in the traditional advertising space. More
than ever, integrated strategies that speak to an overall brand identity are vital to
achieving an organisation’s goals. Consumers are increasingly more fluent in their
movement across channels and in their use of multiple of channels at once. They
expect the same from the brands with which they connect. Anyone still thinking in
the old ‘traditional versus digital’ dichotomy is sorely out of date.
However, marketing on the Internet does not mean throwing out the rule book
on marketing and business principles. Instead, the Internet provides a new
environment in which to build on these. Profit is still revenue less cost. The Internet
does not change that.
Brands build loyalty among users who love their products or services. Users fall
in love with products and services when their experience is tailored to their needs,
and not the needs of the brand. More than any other type of marketing, digital
marketing is measurable. This gives brands the opportunity to build tailored,
optimised brand experiences for consumers.
2.5 Understanding marketing strategy
2.5.1 Business and brand strategy
Before you can delve into marketing strategy, take a step back and consider the
business and brand with which you are working.
The end-goal of any business is to make money, in one way or another. Business
strategy asks the questions: ‘What is the business challenge we are facing that
prevents us from making more revenue?’ or, ‘What business objective should we
strive for in order to increase the money in the bank?’
The brand is the vessel of value in this equation. The brand justifies why the
business matters, and what value its adds to people’s lives. The value of the brand
is measured in terms of its equity – how aware are people of the brand? Does it
hold positive associations and perceived value? How loyal are people to the brand?
When you have the answer to this question, you can formulate a marketing strategy
to address the challenge or objective you’ve discovered.
2.5.2 Marketing strategy
The purpose of a marketing strategy is to address a business or brand challenge
or objective that has been revealed. An effective strategy involves making a series
of well-informed decisions about how the brand, product or service should be
promoted; the brand that attempts to be all things to all people risks becoming
unfocused or losing the clarity of its value proposition.
For example, a new airline would need to consider how it is going to add value to
the category and differentiate itself from competitors; whether their product is
a domestic or international service; whether its target market would be budget
travellers or international and business travellers; and whether the channel would
be through primary airports or smaller, more cost-effective airports. Each of these
choices will result in a vastly different strategic direction.
To make these decisions, a strategist must understand the context in which
the brand operates: what are the factors that affect the business? This means
conducting a situational analysis that looks at four pillars:
1. The environment
2. The business
3. The customers
4. The competitors
Digital Marketing Strategy › Understanding marketing strategyDigital Marketing Strategy › What is digital marketing?
note
What brand interactions
have you had that
you actually consider
valuable?

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Out of this, you can determine what the brand or product’s unique selling point
(USP) is. A USP is the one characteristic that makes your product or service better
than the competition’s – what unique value does it have? Does it solve a problem
that no other product does?
Understanding customers
In order truly to understand your customers, you need to conduct market research
(discussed in much more detail in the next chapter). Try not to make assumptions
about why people like and transact with your brand – you may find their values and
motives are quite different from what you thought. Ongoing research will help you
build a picture of what particular benefit or feature your business provides to your
customers, allowing you to capitalise on this in your marketing content.
One important area on which to focus here is the consumer journey – the series of
steps and decisions a customer takes before buying from your business (or not).
Luckily, online data analytics allow you to get a good picture of how people behave
on your website before converting to customers; other forms of market research
will also help you establish this for your offline channels.
On the Internet, a consumer journey is not linear. Instead, consumers may engage
with your brand in a variety of ways – for example, across devices or marketing
channels – before making a purchase.
Figure 2. The customer journey is cyclical.
(Source: Adapted from Brilliant Noise, 2012)
Here are some considerations and tools for conducting your brand’s situational
analysis.
Understanding the environment
The environment is the overall context or ‘outside world’ in which the business
functions. It can involve anything from global economics (how well is the local
currency performing these days?) to developments in your industry. Every brand
will have a specific environment that it needs to consider, based on the type of
product or service it produces.
An analysis of the business and brand environment will typically consider political,
economic, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) influences to
identify a clear set of considerations or issues pertinent to the marketing strategy.
Understanding the business
There are several marketing models that can be used to understand the business
and brand you are working with. Since it’s essential for all marketing messages
to encapsulate the brand’s identity and objectives, this is a very important step.
A crucial consideration is the brand itself. What does it stand for? What does it
mean? What associations, ideas, emotions and benefits do people associate with
it? What makes it unique?
There are several levels of branding to investigate:
Figure 1. Understanding the business’ brand.
(Source: Adapted from Noesis Marketing, 2011)
note
This answers the
question: ‘What external
factors will have
an influence on the
marketing objectives
you set?’
note
This answers the
question: ‘What are the
special things about
your brand that make
it marketable and
unique?’
Digital Marketing Strategy › Understanding marketing strategyDigital Marketing Strategy › Understanding marketing strategy
Brand Idea
The essence of
your brand
Brand/Product
Persona
The manifestation of the brand
in human characteristics
Emotional Benefits
How does your product service make
the consumer feel?
Functional Benefits
Summarises the tangible benefits to the consumer
Features & Attributes
Tangible assets of your product or services focus on most
desirable/differentiation
Brand Pyramid Template
Bond
The
Loyalty
Loop
Awareness
Consider
Evaluate
Advocate
Buy!

22 23
The goal is to reach customers with the right marketing message at the right
stage of their journey. For example, you may want to use aspirational messages for
someone in the exploration phase, but focus on more direct features and benefits
(such as a lower price) when they’re almost ready to buy.
Understanding competitors
Finally, it’s important to know who else is marketing to your potential customers,
what they offer, and how you can challenge or learn from them.
On the Internet, your competitors are not just those who are aiming to earn
your customers’ money; they are also those who are capturing your customers’
attention. With more digital content being created in a day than most people could
consume in a year – for example, over 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube
every minute (YouTube, 2013) – the scarcest resources these days are time, focus
and attention.
When considering competition, it’s also worthwhile looking at potential
replacements for your product. The Internet is disrupting and accelerating the
pace of disintermediation in a number of industries, meaning that people can now
go directly to the business instead of transacting through a middleman (look at the
travel industry as an example). To stay ahead, you should be looking at potential
disruptors of your industry as well as the existing players.
2.5.3 Digital marketing strategy
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, you can
start thinking about your digital marketing strategy.
Consider that in the early days of TV, when the new medium was not as yet
entirely understood, there were separate ‘TV planners’ who created a ‘TV
strategy’ for the brand. Over time, this was incorporated into the overall
marketing strategy (as it should be).
The same is going to happen with digital. Increasingly, digital thinking is being
incorporated into marketing strategy from day one. This section considers
digital strategy separately in order to highlight some differences in approach,
but this should change in practice over time.
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. Since
the Internet allows for near-instantaneous feedback and data gathering, digital
marketers should constantly be optimising and improving their online marketing
efforts.
User-centric thinking, which involves placing the user at the core of all decisions,
is vital when looking at building a successful digital marketing strategy. The
digital marketing strategist of today is offered not only a plethora of new tactical
possibilities,butalsounprecedentedwaysofmeasuringtheeffectivenessofchosen
strategies and tactics. Digital also allows greater opportunities for interaction and
consumer engagement than were possible in the past, so it is important to consider
the ways in which the brand can create interactive experiences for consumers, not
just broadcast messages.
The fact that digital marketing is highly empirical is one of its key strengths.
Almost everything can be measured: from behaviours, to actions and action paths,
to results. This means that the digital marketing strategist should start thinking
with return on investment (ROI) in mind. Built into any strategy should be a testing
framework and the ability to remain flexible and dynamic in a medium that shifts
and changes as user behaviours do.
If we defined strategy as ‘a plan of action designed to achieve a particular outcome’,
the desired outcome of a digital marketing strategy would be aligned with your
organisation’s overall business and brand-building objectives or challenges. For
example, if one of the overall objectives were acquisition of new clients, a possible
digital marketing objective might be building brand awareness online.
2.6Thebuildingblocksofmarketingstrategy
The following building-block techniques will help you structure a marketing
strategy – both online and offline – that addresses your core business challenges.
These strategy models are just starting points and ways to help you think through
problems; as you grow in experience and insight, you could find yourself relying on
them less or adapting them.
2.6.1 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.
note
The customer journey
answers the question:
‘What do people
really want from your
brand, and what would
convince them that you
offer this?’
note
This answers the
question: ‘What can you
do to stand out from the
crowd?’
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24 25
Figure 3. Porter’s Five Forces.
2.6.2 The Four Ps
The Four Ps of marketing 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 in 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.
1. Products (and services)
Products and services are what a company sells. The Internet enables business
to sell a huge range of products, from fast-moving consumer goods and digital
products such as software, to services such as consultancy. Online, the experience
the user has in discovering and purchasing can be considered part of the product
the brand provides.
The Internet has enabled mass customisation. For example, Nike (nikeid.nike.com)
and Converse (www.converse.com) allow customers to customise their own
trainers. The Internet as a distribution medium also makes it possible for products
such as software and music to be sold digitally.
2. Price
The prevalence of search engines and of shopping comparison websites, such as
www.pricerunner.co.uk, www.pricecheck.co.za/ and www.nextag.com, makes it
easy for customers to compare product prices across a number of retailers; this
makes the Internet a market of near-perfect competition (Porter, 2008).
These stories then go on to build connections between people, ideas, brands and
products. Communities of people follow truly great brands because they want to
be part of their stories. Apple is a good example of a brand with a dedicated tribal
following. People want their products; they want the world to know that they have
an iPhone or a Macbook. This kind of tribal following spells success for any brand.
With price differentiation becoming a challenge, especially for smaller players
in the market, businesses need to consider differentiating on value. Value is a
combination of service, perceived benefits and price, where customers may be
willing to pay a higher price for a better experience, or if they feel they are getting
something more than just the product.
3. Placement (or distribution)
Product distribution and markets no longer have to be dictated by location. Simply
by making their products visible online (for example, on a website or Facebook
page), brands can reach a global market. The key is to reach and engage customers
on the channels they are using – this is why choosing your digital tactics is vital.
You want to engage customers on their terms, not yours.
Technology such as APIs, SOAP services, RSS and XML allow information and
services to be distributed throughout the world. For example, the API for a hotel
reservations database allows a diverse range of websites to offer instant online
bookings for hotels in the inventory.
4. Promotion
The Internet, as an information and entertainment medium, naturally lends itself
to promoting products. The online promotional mix is an extension of the offline,
but with some significant differences. For one, online promotion can be tracked,
measured and targeted in a far more sophisticated way.
But promotion doesn’t just mean advertising and talking at customers – on
the Internet, it’s crucial to engage, collaborate and join conversations, too.
Interacting with customers helps build relationships, and the web makes this
sort of communication easy. That’s why a good portion of this book is devoted to
engagement tactics and tools.
5. A new P: People
In addition to the existing Four Ps, the Internet requires you to consider a new
P: People. This element speaks to examining the powerful human element that
the digitally connected world permits: personalisation, peer-to-peer sharing,
communities, and consumer- centric organisations that allow people to participate
in the brand story.
Power of
customers
Threat of
new entrants
Power of
suppliers
Threat of
substitute
products
Competetive
rivalry within
Industry
Digital Marketing Strategy › The building blocks of marketing strategyDigital Marketing Strategy › The building blocks of marketing strategy
note
The 4Ps have been
expanded by various
academics to include
many different
concepts. The core ideas
remain - how are you
positioning the essential
components of your
offering to own space
in the minds of your
audience?

26 27
The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999) describes markets as ‘conversations’. Humans
are storytellers; brands create stories, myths and legends around their products
and services. Ultimately, what people say about your product or service is a story
and now, more than ever, consumers are helping to craft the stories that define
organisations.
2.6.3 SWOT analysis
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is an ideal way
to understand your business and your market.
Figure 4. SWOT analysis.
Always have a purpose in mind when conducting a SWOT analysis. For example,
study the external threats to your business, and see how learning from these can
help you overcome internal weaknesses. This should tie back in to your business
and marketing objectives – strengths should be promoted, opportunities should
be sought out, while threats and weaknesses should be minimised as much as
possible. A SWOT analysis is part of a situational analysis and identifies the key
issues that direct the marketing strategy.
2.7 Crafting a digital marketing strategy
Any activity with an end goal (whether it’s winning a war, building a city or selling
a product) should have a blueprint in place for every person in the organisation to
follow. In digital marketing, however, there is no single definitive approach – each
business must create its own roadmap. However, there are questions you can use
to guide the process.
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. 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.
1. Context
The first step in crafting a successful strategy is to examine the context of the
organisation and the various stakeholders. We’ve covered this under marketing
strategy earlier in this chapter, but it bears repeating:
• 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? These may extend beyond organisations that
compete with you on the basis of price and product and could also be
competition in the form of abstracts such as time and mindshare.
Thorough market research will reveal the answers to these questions.
2. Value exchange
Once you have examined the market situation, the second step is an examination
of your value proposition or promise: in other words, what unique value your
organisation can add to that market. It is important to identify the supporting
value-adds to the brand promise that are unique to the digital landscape. What
extras, beyond the basic product or service, do you offer to customers?
The Internet offers many channels for value creation. However, the definition
of what is ‘valuable’ depends largely on the target audience, so it is crucial to
research your users and gather insights into what they want and need.
Content marketing is the process of conceptualising and creating this sort of
content – examples of value-based content include a DIY gardening video for a
hardware brand, a research paper for a business analyst, or a funny infographic
for a marketing company.
Digital Marketing Strategy › Crafting a digital marketing strategyDigital Marketing Strategy › The building blocks of marketing strategy
note
PESTLE is discussed in
more detail earlier in
this chapter.

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3. Objectives
When setting your digital marketing goals, there are four key aspects to consider:
objectives, tactics, key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets. Let’s look at
each one in turn.
>> Objectives
Objectives are essential to any marketing endeavour – without them, your strategy
would have no direction and no end goal or win conditions. It’s important to be able
to take a step back and ask, ‘Why are we doing any of this? What goal, purpose or
outcome are we looking for?’
• What are you trying to achieve?
• How will you know if you are successful?
Objectives need to be SMART:
• Specific – the objective must be clear and detailed, rather than vague
and general.
• Measurable – the objective must be measurable so that you can gauge
whether you are attaining the desired outcome.
• Attainable – the objective must be something that is possible for your
brand to achieve, based on available resources.
• Realistic – the objective must also be sensible and based on data and
trends; don’t exaggerate or overestimate what can be achieved.
• Time-bound – finally, the objective must be linked to a specific timeframe.
>> Tactics
Objectives are not the same as tactics. Tactics are the specific tools or approaches
you will use to meet your objectives – for example, a retention-based email
newsletter, a Facebook page, or a CRM implementation. As a strategy becomes
more complex, you may have multiple tactics working together to try to achieve the
same objective. Tactics may change (and often should), but the objective should
remain your focus. We’ll look at tactics in more detail in the next section.
>> Key performance indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are the specific metrics or pieces of data that you will look at to determine
whether your tactics are performing well and meeting your objectives. For
example, a gardener may look at the growth rate, colour and general appearance
of a plant to evaluate whether it is healthy. In the same way, a marketer will look
at a range of data points to determine whether a chosen tactic is delivering. KPIs
are determined per tactic, with an eye on the overall objective.
>> Targets
Finally, targets are the specific values that are set for your KPIs to reach within a
specific time period. Sportspeople need to reach targets to advance their careers
– for example, come in the top ten to qualify for the final, or run 10km in under
27 minutes. If you meet or exceed a target, you are succeeding; if you don’t reach it,
you’re falling behind on your objectives and you need to reconsider your approach
(or your target).
Here is an example:
SMART objective:
• Increase sales through the eCommerce platform by 10% within the next
six months.
Tactics:
• Search advertising
• Facebook brand page
KPIs per tactic:
• Search advertising – number of search referrals, cost per click on the ads
• Facebook brand page – number of comments and shares on campaign-
specific posts
Targets per tactic:
• Search advertising – 1 000 search referrals after the first month, with a
10% month-on-month increase after that
• Facebook brand page – 50 comments and 10 shares on campaign-specific
posts per week
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4. Tactics and evaluation
Many digital tools and tactics are available once you have defined your digital
marketing objectives. Each tactic has its strengths – for example, acquisition
(gaining new customers) may best be driven by search advertising, while email
is one of the most effective tools for selling more products to existing customers.
The table below expands on some of the most popular tactics available to digital
marketers and their possible outcomes. These will be covered in far more detail in
the Engage section of this book.
Tactic Outcome
SEO Customer retention and acquisition
This is the practice of optimising a
website to rank higher on the search
engine results pages for relevant
search terms. SEO involves creating
relevant, fresh and user-friendly
content that search engines index
and serve when people enter a
search term that is relevant to your
product or service.
SEO has a key role to play in acquisition, as it ensures
your organisation’s offering will appear in the search
results, allowing you to reach potential customers. A site
that is optimised for search engines is also a site that is
clear, relevant and well designed. These elements ensure
a great user experience, meaning that SEO also plays a
role in retention.
Search advertising Sales, customer retention and acquisition
In pay-per-click or search
advertising, the advertiser pays only
when someone clicks on their ad.
The ads appear on search engine
results pages.
The beauty of search advertising is that it is keyword
based. This means an ad will come up in response to the
search terms entered by the consumer. It therefore plays
a role in sales, acquisition and retention. It allows the
advertiser to reach people who are already in the buying
cycle or are expressing interest in what they have to offer.
Online advertising Branding and acquisition
Online advertising covers advertising
in all areas of the Internet – ads in
emails, ads on social networks and
mobile devices, and display ads on
normal websites.
The main objective of display advertising is to raise brand
awareness online. It can also be more interactive and
therefore less disruptive than traditional or static online
advertising, as users can choose to engage with the ad
or not. Online advertising can be targeted to physical
locations, subject areas, past user behaviours, and much
more.
Affiliate marketing Sales and branding
Affiliate marketing is a system of
reward whereby referrers are given
a ‘finder’s fee’ for every referral they
give.
Online affiliate marketing is widely used to promote
eCommerce websites, with the referrers being rewarded
for every visitor, subscriber or customer provided
through their efforts. It is a useful tactic for brand
building and acquisition.
Video marketing Branding, customer retention and value creation
Video marketing involves creating
video content. This can either be
outright video advertising, or can be
valuable, useful, content marketing.
Since it is so interactive and engaging, video marketing is
excellent for capturing and retaining customer attention.
Done correctly, it provides tangible value – in the form of
information, entertainment or inspiration – and boosts a
brand’s image in the eyes of the public.
Social media Branding, value creation and participation
Social media, also known as
consumer-generated media, is media
(in the form of text, visuals and audio)
created to be shared. It has changed
the face of marketing by allowing
collaboration and connection in a way
that no other channel has been able
to offer.
From a strategic perspective, social media is useful for
brand building, raising awareness of the brand story and
allowing the consumer to become involved in the story
through collaboration. Social media platforms also play
a role in building awareness, due to their shareable, viral
nature. They can also provide crowdsourced feedback
and allow brands to share valuable content directly with
their fans.
Email marketing Customer retention and value creation
Email marketing is a form of direct
marketing that delivers commercial
and content-based messages
to an audience. It is extremely
cost effective, highly targeted,
customisable on a mass scale and
completely measurable – all of which
make it one of the most powerful
digital marketing tactics.
Email marketing is a tool for building relationships
with potential and existing customers through valuable
content and promotional messages. It should maximise
the retention and value of these customers, ultimately
leading to greater profitability for the organisation as a
whole. A targeted, segmented email database means that
a brand can direct messages at certain sectors of their
customer base in order to achieve the best results.
Once the objectives and tactics have been set, these should be cross-checked and
re-evaluated against the needs and resources of your organisation to make sure
your strategy is on the right track and no opportunities are being overlooked.
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, and people’s needs and wants from brand evolve as
their relationship grows. The challenge is to break through the online clutter to
connect with customers in an original and meaningful way.
This process of constant change should be considered in the early stages of
strategy formulation, allowing tactics and strategies to be modified and optimised
as you go. After all, digital marketing strategy should be iterative, innovative and
open to evolution.
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32 33
Understanding user experience and the user journey is vital to building successful
brands. Budget should be set aside upfront for analysing user data and optimising
conversion paths.
Social thinking and socially informed innovation are also valuable and uniquely
suited to the online space. Socially powered insight can be used to inform strategic
decisions in the organisation, from product roadmaps to service plans. Brands
have moved away from being merely present in social media towards actively using
it, aligning it with actionable objectives and their corresponding metrics. This is
critical in demonstrating ROI and understating the opportunities and threats in
the market.
Managing the learning loop (the knowledge gained from reviewing the performance
of your tactics, which can then be fed back into the strategy) can be difficult. This is
because brand cycles often move more slowly than the real-time results you will
see online. It is therefore important to find a way to work agility into the strategy,
allowing you to be quick, creative and proactive, as opposed to slow, predictable
and reactive.
2.8 Case study: Nike digital strategy
2.8.1 One-line summary
Nike transformed its marketing strategy by embracing key digital strategies such as data analytics,
social engagement and storytelling.
2.8.2 The problem
As one of the biggest sports brands in the world, Nike was not struggling for exposure or attention.
However, the brand was noticing that its traditional, big-budget advertising strategy was seeing
fewer returns over time.
The biggest market for Nike products consists of young people between the ages of 15 and 25,
who spend 20% more with Nike than any other group. But these Generation Y customers weren’t
paying attention to big, top-down media, and were looking for a brand that offered constant change
and innovation, not just the same old thing over and over.
Nike realised that it needed a new approach to reach this digital audience.
2.8.3 The solution
Understanding that marketing in the digital age is a conversation, not a monologue, Nike dropped
its spending on TV and print advertising by 40% between 2010 and 2012 – but increased its overall
marketing budget to $2.4 billion in 2012.
Nike chose to use a combination of technological innovations, data analytics and social media
engagement to reach this new, digitally savvy audience.
Engineers and scientists associated with prestigious organisations such as MIT and Apple were
hired to build exciting new technologies and examine market insights. One of their biggest
accomplishments was the creation of Nike+ in 2010 – a device that lets users track their exercise
regimens, upload these to the web, monitor their progress, and share their achievements socially.
The product range grew to include the Nike FuelBand.
This new community created incredible volumes of data, which Nike used to track behaviours,
create online communities and spaces for Nike fans, and build meaningful relationships between
the brand and its customers. Nike moved its social media marketing team in-house so that it had
a closer connection to this data and the conversations being generated by its fans.
Nike also embraced a range of other digital best practices:
• A strong focus on storytelling: Nike advertising shifted from delivering one core ‘big
message’ about its products to talking about inspiration, aspirations and overcoming odds.
For example, Nike’s ‘I Would Run To You’ ad (essentially a funny short film) shows the story
of a long-distance couple reconnecting by running across the country to see each other.
• Being an authentic brand: The storytelling approach creates authenticity and a sense
of community. Nike also strives to understand and engage with the subcultures of each
sport, talking to them in the vernacular they are familiar with.
• Understanding and communicating with customers on their terms: When Nike created
its big-budget ‘Write The Future’ ad for the 2012 World Cup, featuring soccer superstars
Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, it flighted the ad on Facebook and YouTube rather
than on TV. Having seeded to a community and primed it with teasers, the ad received 8
million views in the first week and went viral.
• Beingremarkableandshareable:Nikeputupa30-storeydigitalbillboardinJohannesburg,
South Africa that was populated with constantly-updating user tweets, creating a buzz
around the campaign.
• Allowing mass customisation: The Nike iD online store lets fans create their own custom
shoe designs and have them shipped. The concept earned Nike over $100 million in its
first year.
2.8.4 The results
Nike’s new approach – harnessing data for user insight and creating a diverse, social and engaged
digital strategy – has had excellent results.
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34 35
Nike reaches over 200 million fans every day in an interactive dialogue, rather than having to rely
on big sponsored events such as the Super Bowl or World Cup to reach this number.
The massive volumes of freely shared user data produce meaningful brand insights, lead to
product innovations, and allow the brand to get closer to consumers.
In addition to this:
• Nike share prices rose by 120% between 2010 and 2012 – an important consideration,
since every business aims to make money, after all.
• Nike+ experienced a 55% growth in membership in 2012 – as of June 2012, 7 million users
have signed up for the service, and the majority of these connect with the brand several
times each week to upload and review their exercise data.
• As of August 2013, the main Nike Facebook page has over 15 million likes, the Nike
Football page has 19.4 million likes, and the Nike Basketball page has over 5 million –
posts typically see a high level of interaction and discussion.
• Similarly, on Twitter, the brand is also engaging millions of fans – 1.7 million on the core
Nike account, 1.2 million on the brand’s US-based Nike.com store account, and 1.4 million
on the Nike Football account.
2.9 The bigger picture
All of the chapters in this book are linked to digital marketing strategy in one way or another.
A solid business and brand strategy should be the starting point of any marketing venture, and you
should always keep one eye on it as you develop specific campaigns, platforms and approaches.
After all, you should always remember that you are trying to reach your chosen audience by
communicating to them in the most effective way, to build lucrative long-term relationships.
While strategy helps you understand the questions you should ask, market research is the process
used to answer them. From there, content marketing strategy helps you put your ideas into
practice, creating materials that engage, enthral, convert and retain customers.
2.10 Summary
Strategy is the essential first step in positioning your brand within the market and creating a roadmap
for achieving your business goals. While there are many different paths one can take, there is a clear
process for understanding where you are, where you need to be, and how you will get there.
It all starts with understanding the business challenges that your brand faces. From here, an
effective marketing strategy looks at the market context, weighs the available options and makes
important choices, based on solid research and data. Digital marketing strategy adds a layer of
technology, engagement and iterative optimisation into the mix. The wide variety of tools and
tactics offered by the digital medium should inform your strategic choices.
Digital marketing strategy is highly empirical and your strategic thinking should be mindful of ROI
and how it can be measured. This will allow you to optimise your tactics and performance in order
to create a valuable brand story, an excellent user experience, the most optimised conversion
funnels, and the highest ROI.
2.11 Case study questions
1. What was the key insight that helped Nike develop a holistic marketing strategy?
2. What role do you think offline marketing and branding channels played in furthering the
digital strategy?
3. What should Nike take into consideration when rolling out new elements and campaigns as
part of their marketing strategy?
2.12 Chapter questions
1. Why is it important to consider the business context when planning your marketing strategy?
2. How has the Internet affected marketing and the models we use to understand it?
3. Do you agree with the idea that customers are more empowered than they were before
digital communications were so prevalent? Motivate your answer.
2.13 Further reading
www.sethgodin.typepad.com – Seth Godin’s popular blog provides regular insight and food for
thought.
smithery.co – A marketing and innovation blog that teaches marketers to ‘Make Things People
Want, rather than spend all their energy and resources trying to Make People Want Things’.
www.gigaom.com – GigaOM’s community of writers covers a wide range of technological copies.
Digital Marketing Strategy › Further readingDigital Marketing Strategy › Case study: Nike digital strategy

36
www.adverblog.com – A digital marketing blog that collates ideas from marketing campaigns
around the world.
www.baekdal.com – Thomas Baekdal’s articles provide perspectives and models of how the
Internet is changing marketing.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – This book by Ries & Trout published in 2002 offers
excellent advice claiming space in the minds of consumers.
2.14 References
Brilliant Noise, (2012) Brilliant Model: the Loyalty Loop. [Online]
Available at: http://brilliantnoise.com/brilliant-model-the-loyalty-loop/#more-3873
[Accessed 28 August 2013].
Cendrowski, S., (2012) Nike’s new marketing mojo. [Online]
Available at: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/nike-digital-marketing/
Kotler, P., (2012) What is marketing? [Online]
Available at: http://www.kotlermarketing.com/phil_questions.shtml#answer3
Noesis Marketing, (2011) Building a Brand Pyramid. [Image]
http://www.noesismarketing.com/building-a-brand-pyramid/
[Accessed 26 September 2013].
Porter, M., (2008) The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy in Harvard Business Review,
January 2008, p86–104.
Vipat, R., (2013) Digital marketing at Nike. [Online]
Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ojasvipat/final-digital-marketing-at-nike
YouTube, (2013) Statistics.[Online]
Available at: http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html
Digital Marketing Strategy › References

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