“Build it and they will come” isn’t a viable way to run a business. Fierce competition means there’s always an alternative if someone can’t immediately find what they’re looking for—take your foot off the gas for even a moment and you might miss out.
That’s why digital marketing is so important. The majority of today’s consumers spend a considerable amount of time online, whether checking their inboxes or scrolling through social feeds. Meeting them where they’re already spending time will put your brand in the spotlight and help you stay front of mind.
But you need a plan. A digital marketing strategy will help you identify what platforms you should use and how to implement strategies that complement your goals. Here’s everything you need to know about developing a digital marketing strategy.
What is a digital marketing strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a business will use digital channels and platforms to reach and convert its target audience into customers.
It’s focused on digital channels like social media and email marketing, but should align and work in sync with offline marketing campaigns like trade shows, billboards, and direct mail.
Think of a digital marketing strategy as the roadmap that guides your digital marketing efforts. It provides direction and clarity, helping you to effectively connect with your target audience, enhance brand visibility, and hit your goals as an ecommerce business.
A digital marketing strategy supports both specific product launches and everyday sales efforts and goals.
Digital marketing strategy vs. digital marketing tactics
The terms “digital marketing strategy” and “digital marketing tactics” are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings.
- Digital marketing strategy is the overarching plan that guides the implementation of various digital marketing tactics.
- Digital marketing tactics refer to the specific actions and techniques used to execute the strategy. Examples include content marketing, social media ads, and influencer partnerships.
For example, running ads on Instagram is an internet marketing tactic, and the decision to invest in social media advertising—and why—is part of a digital marketing strategy.
A digital marketing strategy is the big picture, while digital marketing tactics are the individual puzzle pieces that come together to achieve the desired results.
Owned, earned, and paid media in a digital marketing strategy
A successful digital marketing strategy makes the most of three types of media:
Owned media
This refers to channels and formats you create, publish, and fully control, like blog posts, YouTube videos, product pages, and social media posts.
Earned media
This refers to coverage of your business you haven’t created or paid for, like a press mention in a gift guide.
Paid media
This refers to content you pay to place in front of your target audience, like paid sponsorships or paid ads on social media platforms and search engines.
Combining these three types of content helps you meet your target audience at every stage of their customer journey, from casual browsing to dedicated research and making a purchase decision.
How to structure a digital marketing strategy
There are lots of moving parts to a digital marketing strategy and it can feel overwhelming trying to cram multiple tactics, goals, and strategies into one system. This is why it can be helpful to lean into tried-and-tested frameworks to give your strategy structure (or, at the very least, give you a solid starting point).
RACE model
The RACE model focuses on setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) at each stage of the buying cycle. Each step has a distinct purpose and the aim of this model is to implement digital marketing strategies that move consumers through each stage.
- Reach. Driving more traffic to your website through search engine marketing and SEO.
- Act. Short for “interact,” this phase involves engaging with consumers and encouraging them to take top-level actions, like adding an item to their cart or signing up for an email list.
- Convert. This describes the activities used to actually convert website visitors into paying customers.
- Engage. This phase takes place after a purchase and involves nurturing an ongoing relationship with previous buyers.
The idea behind the framework is that brands develop and implement tactics to drive consumers from one stage to the next.
AIDA model
The AIDA model stands for attention, interest, desire, and action, and encourages marketers to use strategies that move consumers through each of these stages. It involves developing and implementing tactics depending on where someone is in the sales cycle—for example, someone who has just discovered your brand will need different information than someone who knows you and has bought from you in the past.
Inbound marketing
The inbound marketing model leans heavily on attracting customers to your business instead of seeking them out. It tends to refer to strategies that emphasize content creation, SEO, and social media marketing to drive traffic to a website.
Digital marketers that favor inbound marketing will focus on creating content to meet customer needs at every stage of the buying cycle.
Growth hacking
Growth hacking is focused on running quick experiments to get data ASAP. It’s all about finding creative ways to grow your reach and customer base, often using tactics like A/B testing, SEO, and viral social media marketing. This is excellent for new businesses that want to find out what works for them and use their findings to drive future campaigns.
The funnel model
The marketing funnel comprises five key stages:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
- Advocacy
Marketers that use this model implement strategies that move consumers through each stage of the funnel, leaning into different tactics for each stage. For example, in the awareness stage, they might run social media ad campaigns and leverage SEO to increase their reach but use email and SMS marketing to promote advocacy among existing customers.
Digital marketing plan template
Ready to get started on your digital marketing strategy? Use our digital marketing plan template to get your ideas down on paper, decide what tactics and strategies you’ll implement this year, and stay on track.
How to create a digital marketing strategy in 6 steps
- Define and understand your target audience
- Set your marketing goals
- Establish your budget and tech stack
- Select the marketing tactics to attract, nurture, and convert customers
- Focus on your differentiators
- Define a way to track results
Next up is building an online marketing strategy that will bring results, like reach, revenue, and a healthy business. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the dozens of digital marketing methods, channels, content formats, and directions you can take.
That’s why we’ve boiled this process down to six steps you can follow to create a successful digital marketing strategy plan.
1. Define and understand your target audience
Who are the people who will repeatedly buy from you, rave about you to their friends, and share your business and your products on social media? In other words: Who is your target audience?
Knowing this will allow you to choose the right digital marketing channels, craft compelling messages, and market your online store in a way that attracts, converts, and resonates with customers.
Understanding your target market means you know its demographics, interests, pain points, values, opinions, shopping habits, and how your market consumes the content they care about.
For example, Gymshark targets fitness enthusiasts and casual gym-goers who are seeking stylish, performance-oriented workout attire.
2. Set your marketing goals
Business goals and marketing goals help you eliminate distractions and noise from the dozens of different directions you could take.
Your goals might be to:
- Go viral on TikTok
- Win more revenue compared to last month
- Grow website traffic
These look like valid goals, but they aren’t specific enough to help you choose marketing activities that will get you there.
Instead, set SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Here are some examples of SMART goals that drive an effective digital marketing strategy:
- Grow your email list to 1,500 subscribers in Q2 by offering a free download of your buying guide.
- Increase organic traffic by 30% in the next six months by publishing three search-optimized blog posts per month.
- Reach 1,000 target audience members on TikTok per month by publishing one video every day.
If you’re starting your marketing strategy from scratch, you can begin by focusing on short-term goals—between one and six months. This lets you get your business off the ground. Once you’re established, you can use what you know about your business and your industry to set long-term goals for the business.
3. Establish your budget and tech stack
There’s no perfect figure or percentage you should spend on marketing. Gartner reports the average marketing budget was just less than 10% of total business revenue in 2022, but your budget may be higher or lower based on your revenue, your goals, and funding.
When considering your marketing budget, consider spending on:
- Marketing expertise: in-house marketers, freelance consultants, marketing agencies
- Tools: keyword research, social media management, marketing automation, email service provider, etc.
- Content creation: photo or video equipment, studio costs, etc.
- Campaign-specific costs: ad costs, influencer fees, etc.
Use this list to define your initial budget. It will change based on your results, revenue, time of the year, and goals for that period. A ballpark figure will help you make decisions focused on the results you want.
4. Select marketing tactics to attract, nurture, and convert customers
This step is about defining exactly which digital marketing tactics and activities you’ll spend your time and budget on.
The key is to look at your entire sales and marketing funnel rather than just a part of it. It’s easy to make the mistake of prioritizing the top of the funnel—growing your site traffic and social media viewers—while neglecting the process of turning those visitors into customers.
Choose a marketing tactic for each stage of the customer journey:
Digital marketing tactics to attract customers
During the first stage of the customer journey (awareness), you need to think about how potential customers will find out about you. Tactics at this stage include SEO, influencer marketing, and organic social media, all of which help you promote your brand and products to a large pool of people.
Digital marketing tactics to nurture customers
Once customers know about you, it’s time to nurture them with content that shows them why they should buy from you over a competitor. Tactics at this stage might include sending an email newsletter or running retargeting ads on social media to win back shoppers who have left your website.
Digital marketing tactics to convert customers
In the final stage of the customer journey, your content should tackle any objections and actively encourage shoppers to purchase—anything to get them over the finish line.
Potential tactics to use here include email marketing automation to deliver personalized recommendations and search engine marketing to help ready-to-buy shoppers find what they’re looking for.
5. Focus on your differentiators
What makes you stand out from your competitors? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? These questions are important because whatever type of products you sell, others are already selling them, too.
Sustainable fashion. Men’s wallets. Age-appropriate toys for babies and toddlers. Natural skincare. None of it is a novel, unique idea.
Yet, brands like Allbirds, Ridge, Lovevery, and Three Ships Beauty thrive in their respective categories:
- Allbirds went all-in with PR, affiliates, and video marketing from the beginning to position itself as a brand of comfort and sustainability.
- Ridge uses a bold, sassy tone on social media to stand out from other luxury brands that tend to use a more serious, toned-down approach.
- Lovevery offers a subscription that includes toys based on a child’s developmental stage.
- Three Ships prioritizes transparency in product ingredients through resources like its ingredient glossary.
Double down on what makes your approach unique when it comes to solving a problem or meeting a need. Your brand’s mission, vision, values, expertise, and experience all count as your differentiators—make the most of them.
6. Define a way to track results
Select a few metrics you’ll regularly monitor to track your success. Based on these metrics, you can tweak a tactic that is showing some potential, expand it if it’s bringing significant results, or drop it if it’s not paying off.
Start by listing the ecommerce metrics that represent the overall success of your store, like sales conversion rate, average order value, customer lifetime value, and returning customer rate.
Then, specify the metrics you’ll track based on your selected tactics, like:
- SEO: monthly search traffic, backlinks, click-through rate
- Content marketing: pageviews, time on page, conversion rate
- Email marketing: open rate, click-through rate
- Affiliate and influencer marketing: impressions, discount code uses, engagement rate
- Social media marketing: views, comments, click-through rate
- Search engine marketing: impressions, click-through rate, cost-per-click, conversion rate
No need to overcomplicate this step—start simple by tracking the numbers that can inform your next marketing decisions. You can always build your way up to more metrics when you get the hang of it.
Digital marketing strategies
When we talk about digital marketing, it’s easy to default to the tactics that increase revenue, conversions, and repeat customers. But this often means we get stuck in the weeds and fail to see the bigger picture.
From a top-level view, think about which digital marketing channels you should research in more detail. These will differ depending on your end goal, your business model, and who your customers are (and, more importantly, where they spend their time online).
Here are the most common digital marketing channels.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your content so it shows up in relevant search engine results. “SEO is an excellent form of inbound marketing, where the consumer has a need and finds you for the solution,” says Greg Bernhardt, a SEO senior specialist at Shopify.
“SEO is about positioning your web content to communicate the relevance and value of your offering to search engines, who can then better pair the search they receive with the solution you offer.”
The goal is to use SEO to target people searching online who are looking specifically for what you’re selling. Showing up early in the search results for relevant search terms builds trust and authority around your brand and drives more traffic to your website.
Why use SEO?
- Increase organic traffic from search results.
- Improve user experience by creating content consumers actively want to read.
- Establish authority and credibility.
Content marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach you can use to meet your target audience—your potential and existing customers—where they are by creating high-quality content that fulfills their needs and answers their questions.
Instead of bombarding potential customers with ads and paid content, organic content marketing aims to deliver engaging, useful content.
Effective content marketing builds trust and develops thought leadership by showing consumers you know what you’re talking about and understand their needs. But it also drives action. With a well-placed call-to-action in your content, you can encourage people to take the next step, whether that’s buying something, downloading a guide, or joining your email list.
Why use content marketing?
- Increase traffic to your site through optimized content.
- Establish authority and credibility with expertly written content.
- Drive action through CTAs.
Email marketing
Email marketing is the practice of acquiring your customers’ email addresses and then emailing them regularly to build a connection with them, create value, and promote product launches and promotions.
It’s ideal for nurturing customers who have shown interest in your brand and products because you can bypass new privacy rules to reach people directly in their inboxes. Even better, most email marketing tools come with powerful segmenting features that let you target specific groups of customers with highly personalized messages. This increases trust, rapport, and conversions by sending timely tailored messages.
Why use email marketing?
- Build relationships through customized email campaigns.
- Stay front of mind to encourage repeat purchases.
- Drive traffic to your site with well-placed product links.
- Measure performance with easy-to-access metrics.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing involves paying people—affiliates—a commission when they refer new customers to your business. The commission is usually a percentage of sale (e.g., 15% of their first order) or a fixed amount (e.g., $10 per sale).
Many brands offer affiliate programs open to anyone in their community of customers and supporters, regardless of the size of their social media following. For affiliates, it’s an opportunity to make money recommending the physical and digital products they love, and ecommerce businesses get a chance to continually reach new audiences.
This often works in tandem with performance marketing, which is when a brand pays influencers or affiliates when they hit a desired sales result.
Why use affiliate marketing?
- Reach a wider pool of potential customers.
- Transfer pre-existing trust from affiliates to your brand.
- Drive sales with more people promoting your products.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is similar to affiliate marketing in that it focuses on incentivizing others to share your brand and products. However, influencer marketing focuses on partnering with individuals with an audience on social media, YouTube, an email list, a blog, or a combination of these.
This form of marketing can be highly effective because influencers build audiences who have a high level of trust in their recommendations. This trust then transfers to your brand when an influencer promotes your product, which creates a shorter sales cycle since you don’t have to work as hard to nurture new shoppers. The goal is to find the most relevant influencers and digital entrepreneurs for your campaigns, which might be someone with a highly targeted but smaller following.
Take a look at our guide to creator archetypes for extra insight.
Why use influencer marketing?
- Increase your reach and tap into new audiences.
- Create a library of authentic and relatable content.
- Transfer trust and credibility from the influencer to your brand.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is a form of online marketing that leverages digital channels like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, X, and Facebook to reach your target audience. There are two main avenues you’ll explore when planning your social media marketing strategy: organic and paid.
Organic social media marketing means growing your following without paying for reach. This involves sharing helpful, engaging, or user-generated content from your company’s account. With the rise in recommendation-based social media, such as TikTok, this has become easier than before, because social media algorithms often show your content to people who aren’t already following you. However, it still requires a heavy investment in content creation to succeed.
Paid social media marketing is based on investing a budget to reach people through ads. It’s a form of digital advertising. The benefits of this include more custom, specific audience targeting, less need for new content, and the ability to serve content with calls to action like “Shop now” or “Claim your discount.” The drawback, of course, is you have to pay for people to see your ads—and those costs can add up.
The greatest advantage of paid social ads is the ability to learn from them and optimize them for maximum ROI, but it’s also great for building a community around your brand because you can engage with your followers through comments and messages.
Why use social media marketing?
- Increase brand awareness on different platforms.
- Boost engagement and build a community around your brand.
- Unlock rich insights via detailed follower analytics.
Search engine marketing
Search engine marketing, also called SEM or pay-per-click (PPC), involves paying to appear in search results.
This type of paid advertising can be extremely effective. Unlike strategies that require educating people about why they need your product (known as demand generation), PPC advertising reaches people who are actively searching for it (known as demand capture).
Instead of waiting for your content to rank highly in organic search, you can use a platform like Google Ads to reach the right people at the right moment.
Why use search engine marketing?
- Capture and convert shoppers who need your product.
- Increase your visibility in search results and drive more traffic.
- Target shoppers who are ready to purchase.
Video marketing
Wistia’s State of Video Live 2024 report found that 93% of companies consider video a crucial part of their digital marketing strategy, with 78% planning on creating more videos this year. The rise of short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels has made video content a popular way to reach new audiences and engage with potential shoppers.
Videos (particularly short-form videos) allow you to connect with your followers in a personal way, which instills your brand with trust and credibility. The more we move away from high-production videos to low-cost, behind-the-scenes footage and off-the-cuff material, the easier it is for brands to create and share video content.
Why use video marketing?
- Connect with your audience on a personal level.
- Improve search rankings as Google starts to favor video content.
- Increase your reach across video-heavy social media platforms.
Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing refers to advertising strategies delivered to consumers via their smartphones or handheld devices through SMS, apps, and push notifications. This type of marketing puts your brand directly in the pockets of potential shoppers.
Instead of blending in among multiple other company communications in busy email inboxes or social feeds, mobile marketing puts your messages firmly where your audience’s attention is the most—their text message inbox.
It’s an excellent way to forge deeper, more personal relationships with consumers, and the segmentation capabilities available today mean you can serve highly targeted mobile communications to customers.
Why use mobile marketing?
- Get a direct line to consumer text message inboxes.
- Develop personal relationships with customers.
- Increase loyalty and retention rates with personalized communication.
Examples of successful digital marketing strategies
Ready to build your strategy? Check out these three effective digital marketing strategies for inspiration:
Alo Yoga
Founded in 2007, Alo, a yoga wear and accessories company, reportedly earned more than $1 billion in revenue as of 2022. Here’s what makes up its digital strategy:
- Content marketing with valuable content like a library of yoga poses and guides on mindfulness, movement, and lifestyle.
- Partnerships with yogis, fitness professionals, and influencers through its Pro Program.
- Organic social media photos and videos on Instagram (six accounts with more than five million combined followers) and TikTok.
- User-generated content on Instagram and TikTok, like this video that showcases a full Alo yoga outfit.
- Email marketing that nurtures both new customers and existing loyalty program members.
ILIA Beauty
ILIA Beauty is a clean beauty and cosmetics brand that saw exponential growth in 2020 and reportedly earned $100 million in sales in 2021. Here’s what goes into its ecommerce marketing efforts:
- Organic social media photos and videos on TikTok and Instagram, with a focus on a clean aesthetic on Instagram.
- User-generated content on Instagram, like this video of a makeup routine.
- Paid ads on social media channels that target potential first-time customers.
- Referral programs through affiliates.
- Email marketing focused on valuable tips and product recommendations with a distinct color palette and rich product photography.
Caraway
Caraway sells nonstick, non-toxic cookware, bakeware, and home goods. It was founded in 2019 and has put a lot into its million-dollar marketing strategy, including an ambassador program that accounts for 13% of the brand’s revenue.
Here’s how its digital marketing strategy supported this growth:
- SEO rankings in top spots for search terms like “is ceramic nonstick safe” and “ceramic vs. stainless steel cookware.”
- Organic social media focused on educational videos and captions, like this video about toxic kitchen items.
- Partnerships with influencers (like interior designers and fitness enthusiasts) and celebrities (like Tan France).
- Paid ads on social media that feature individual products, customer reviews, or influencers.
Evolving your digital marketing strategy
An intentional, well-defined digital marketing strategy is a superpower. It gives everyone in your company the foundation to prioritize marketing activities that will take your online store to new heights and bring results time and time again.
Remember: Digital marketing is a long-term game, so stay consistent, keep your ear to the ground for trends and changes, adapt if and when you need to, and be patient as you work toward achieving your business goals. Your effort will pay off.
Read more
- How To Sell Online: A Step-by-Step Guide
- How To Create a Buyer Persona (With Examples)
- The Key to Creating a Regenerative Food Company
- What Is a Focus Group? Definition and Guide
- Peppermint Products Finds Its Offering and Audience Niche With Shopify
- What Is Guerrilla Marketing? Definition and Guide
- How To Use Perceptual Mapping for Better Marketing
- What Is a Persona? Definition and Introduction to Personas
- 5 Ways To Build Better Customer Relationships
Digital marketing strategy FAQ
How to measure the success of a digital marketing strategy?
What are the most commonly used digital marketing channels?
- SEO
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Social media marketing