Top Digital Marketing Strategies Business Owners NEED to Know

Digital Marketing Strategy

A digital marketing strategy should come before individual campaigns and channel tactics. The video distinguishes strategy—the long-term, broad goals a business wants to achieve—from tactics, the short-term actions used to reach those goals. Tactics may attract attention without advancing business results if they are not connected to the strategy.

Recommended Strategy-Building Process

1. Set business goals first. Define what marketing needs to solve and how it should contribute to the bottom line before choosing tactics or channels.
2. Research buyer personas. Build semi-fictional profiles of ideal buyers using customer interviews, CRM demographic data, and input from employees who interact with customers. Consider targeting new audiences after meeting goals for existing personas.
3. Analyze competitors and context. Look for evidence of what works, but don’t copy trends without checking whether they fit your audience and timing.
4. Choose platforms and tools. Select channels and software that suit your goals, customers, and resources. The speaker says most businesses will need tools for project management, social media marketing, online advertising, lead capture, and CRM.
5. Execute and learn. Create and publish content, then analyze the results and adjust. The video presents marketing as both creative work and testing.

Examples and Lessons

• Burger King’s “creepy King” campaign: The ads earned social engagement and awards, but the speaker says they did not bring the hoped-for customers to the drive-through while the company was losing market share to McDonald’s. The lesson: campaign attention is not enough if the strategy does not create customer demand.
• Nesquik’s National Bunny Ears Day: The September 16, 2013 campaign reportedly failed to gain social traction despite a partnership with the Today Show. The speaker suggests competitor research might have shown that successful bunny-themed campaigns were more associated with Easter. The lesson: assess audience expectations and timing rather than blindly following trends.

Tools and Resources Mentioned

• HubSpot’s free Marketing Plan Template for guiding strategy development and clarifying business goals
• Make My Persona, a free tool for outlining buyer personas
• HubSpot’s Competitive Analysis Kit, which includes 10 templates
• The free version of HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, described as covering CRM and several marketing tasks
• A free Ultimate Guide to Content Creation, with more than 150 templates for formats such as blog posts, infographics, presentations, and press releases
• HubSpot Academy’s digital marketing certification course and the channel’s digital marketing playlist

Metrics and Targets

The video provides no revenue, conversion, CAC, or other quantified business KPI targets. It emphasizes measuring whether campaigns advance business goals rather than judging them only by engagement or awards.

Presenter and Sources

Presenter: Jamal Sources: HubSpot and HubSpot Marketing Examples discussed: Burger King and Nesquik