What is a digital marketing strategy and why do you need one?

By Marie Peters, Regional Director for West Surrey

2020 has seen an increase in time spent on line by all age groups, with UK adults now spending over 4 hours a day online.

People are spending more time on social networks to connect with others as well as catch up on the news, whilst newspaper print sales plunged during lockdown. Consumers and businesses alike are always online and you need to be able to reach them there.  

It’s more important than ever to have a good digital presence so that your ideal customers or clients can easily find you and buy your products or use your services.  

But where do you start with digital marketing?  There’s a huge scope of tactics in the digital space; SEO, PPC, digital content, social media, paid ads, automations, retargeting, video….

Having a clear strategy will help to focus your efforts and achieve the greatest value from your digital marketing, alongside anything you are doing offline.   

So, what is a digital marketing strategy?

A strategy is simply a long-term view of what you want to achieve and why.  If you have a strategy in place, it ensures that you are thinking about your overall goals for any online marketing activities before jumping into the ‘doing’.   

To ensure you have a clear strategy in place, think about…

  1. The big picture objective for your business:

What is your business goal for the next 12 months? Be specific with your targets such as increase online sales by x% or gain X number of online enquiries

  1. Who your ideal customer is:

What do you know about them?  Where are they and what are they doing online? What problem are you solving for them?  What do you want them to do? 

  1. Your positioning:

What is your offering and your purpose?  What do you want to be known for and how do you differentiate from your competitors?

Once you’ve answered this, you have your strategy and can articulate this as…

  • Your business objective – what you want to achieve
  • Your target audience – who you are trying to reach
  • Your communications objective – what you want them to do or think/feel/know about you


From here you can build a plan for digital marketing tactics which will work towards your overall goal, allow you to tailor your messaging for your target audience and shout about why you are great!

This means you can be confident you are focusing your efforts in the right place, can easily evaluate how effective they are and adjust and optimise as you go.

To find out how we can help with your marketing strategy and fulfilment, get in touch today on 01483 332 220.

Find out more about our services or call 01483 332 220 to discuss in more detail.