Digital Marketing MBA

1. Develop a comprehensive digital strategy through market intelligence

Information is a competitive advantage.

Market intelligence foundation. Developing a comprehensive digital strategy begins with gathering market intelligence. This process involves collecting and analyzing data about your market, consumers, business operations, and competitors. The goal is to gain a competitive edge by understanding your market better than anyone else.

Two-phase approach:

• Phase 1: Mine Intelligence Assets
• Phase 2: Gather Intelligence Data

By following this systematic approach, you can make data-backed decisions that will inform your digital strategy, allowing you to outthink rather than outspend your competition.

2. Mine existing intelligence assets before gathering new data

Intelligence Assets are elements that exist in your business today and are readily or easily available for you to examine, interpret, and turn into actionable insights.

Leverage existing resources. Before investing time and money in new research, tap into the wealth of information already available within your organization. This approach allows you to efficiently allocate resources and avoid duplicating work.

Key intelligence assets to mine:

• Market research (conducted within the last five years)
• Databases and customer lists
• Existing buyer personas
• Sales processes and scripts
• Marketing collateral
• Customer experience maps

By thoroughly examining these assets, you can uncover valuable insights about your customers, market trends, and potential opportunities that may have been overlooked.

3. Conduct thorough competitive intelligence and stakeholder interviews

The depth of insight you can garner from interviewing stakeholders cannot be matched with quantitative research, big data, or industry reports.

Gain unique perspectives. Competitive intelligence and stakeholder interviews provide invaluable insights that cannot be obtained through quantitative data alone. This qualitative approach allows you to understand the nuances of your market and customers' needs.

Key areas for competitive intelligence:

• Reputation review
• Social media landscape
• Marketing channel assessment
• Marketing message examination
• Search engine analysis
• Offers and innovations

For stakeholder interviews, aim to speak with:

• Internal employees (sales, marketing, customer service, leadership)
• External partners (strategic alliances, consultants, vendors)
• Customers (current, past, and lost prospects)

These conversations will provide deep insights into your company's position, competitive landscape, and customers' motivations.

4. Create buyer personas to guide all marketing decisions

Create a buyer persona. It provides a basis for directing all communications to the market, every message and activity, to one individual: the buyer persona.

Personify your target audience. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers based on real data and educated assumptions. They help align your entire organization around a clear understanding of your target audience.

Key elements of a buyer persona:

• Demographics
• Online behavior
• Personal history
• Motivations
• Concerns
• Questions at each stage of the buyer's journey

By creating detailed buyer personas, you ensure that all marketing efforts are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of your target audience, resulting in more effective and consistent communications across all channels.

5. Review and innovate processes, technology, and customer experience

Seek out the 10x transformations, rather than the 10% iterations.

Transform, don't iterate. To stay competitive in the digital landscape, focus on making significant improvements to your business processes, technology, and customer experience. This approach allows you to align with changing consumer behaviors and expectations.

Areas to review and innovate:

• Online value proposition
• Digital touchpoints
• Digital marketing funnels
• Customer experience map
• Customer loyalty programming
• Marketing technology stack

By thoroughly examining these areas, you can identify opportunities for transformative changes that will set you apart from competitors and better serve your customers in the digital age.

6. Select and prioritize communication channels based on market insights

Prioritize intelligently and strategically.

Channel strategy alignment. Use the insights gained from your market intelligence to select and prioritize the most effective communication channels for your audience. This approach ensures that your resources are allocated to the channels that will provide the best return on investment.

Key communication channels to consider:

• Content marketing (blogging, video, podcasts)
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Paid advertising (search, social, retargeting)
• Influencer marketing

When selecting channels, consider:

• Alignment with your target audience's preferences
• Resources required for effective execution
• Potential for integration with other channels
• Measurability and ability to optimize

By strategically selecting and prioritizing channels, you can create a cohesive digital marketing strategy that effectively reaches and engages your target audience.

7. Implement an agile marketing methodology for rapid testing and improvement

Agile marketing is simply a philosophy. This philosophy emphasizes the importance of identifying key project segments, breaking them into short phases of work, and dividing tasks out from within each phase.

Embrace agility. Implementing an agile marketing methodology allows for rapid testing, learning, and improvement of your digital marketing efforts. This approach helps you stay responsive to changing market conditions and customer needs.

Key elements of agile marketing:

• Cross-functional teams (marketing, IT, legal, finance)
• Short work cycles or "sprints" (typically 1-2 weeks)
• Regular team meetings to review progress and plan next steps
• Continuous testing and optimization
• Focus on measurable results

By adopting an agile approach, you can quickly identify what works, what doesn't, and make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing efforts continuously.

8. Build the right execution team through strategic hiring and outsourcing

Hire an internal asset that deeply understands digital. They act as your strategist and verify legitimacy, need, and fit of new hires or external partners.

Strategic team building. Assembling the right execution team is crucial for the success of your digital strategy. This may involve a mix of in-house staff, new hires, and external partners.

Considerations for building your team:

• Hire specialists over generalists
• Prioritize communication skills and subject-matter expertise
• Use "split tests" to evaluate potential hires or partners
• Balance in-house and outsourced resources based on needs and budget
• Invest in training and development for existing staff

By carefully building your execution team, you ensure that you have the right skills and expertise to implement your digital strategy effectively.

9. Restructure your marketing department to align with digital priorities

Restructuring relies on your needs based on your new digital strategy. With communication channels, technology, and processes changing, the department must evolve, as well.

Evolve your organization. As you implement your digital strategy, you may need to restructure your marketing department to better align with new priorities and ways of working.

Potential restructuring approaches:

• Create separate divisions for content marketing and advertising
• Implement a flat structure to promote agility and collaboration
• Develop new roles focused on digital specialties (e.g., marketing technologist)
• Establish cross-functional teams for specific projects or campaigns

By restructuring your marketing department, you can create an organizational structure that supports the effective execution of your digital strategy and promotes innovation.

10. Establish robust management protocols for measurement and optimization

Measurement, KPI tracking & campaign optimizations

Data-driven decision making. Establishing robust management protocols for measurement and optimization is crucial for the success of your digital strategy. These protocols help ensure that your efforts are effective and continuously improving.

Key elements of measurement and optimization:

• Define clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each channel and campaign
• Implement proper attribution models to understand the impact of different touchpoints
• Use a scientific approach to testing, focusing on statistical significance
• Regularly review and optimize campaigns based on data insights
• Consider both short-term results and long-term projections

By implementing these management protocols, you can make data-driven decisions that continuously improve the performance of your digital marketing efforts and demonstrate clear ROI to stakeholders.

Last updated: August 2, 2024