Marketers aiming to build a strong digital marketing strategy must first gain a clear understanding of their business, products, and target audience before selecting an approach that truly meets their goals.
Our research report, The Marketing Evolution: Leadership, Transformation, Skills, Challenges & the Future, revealed that 53% of senior marketers are investing significantly more in digital marketing channels. However, many also highlighted a shortage of skilled talent needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive and customer-driven landscape. This gap makes a well-structured strategy more important than ever—especially as AI continues to reshape digital marketing.
This guide walks you through how to develop a strategy that enhances customer engagement, strengthens brand awareness, and delivers high-quality leads to support business growth.
This article covers:
- What a digital marketing strategy is
- Four tips for building an effective digital marketing strategy
- The most effective digital marketing strategies today
- Real-world examples of successful digital marketing strategies
What is a digital marketing strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is a structured plan that outlines how digital channels will be used to increase online visibility and achieve business objectives. It considers elements such as audience behavior, internal strengths and weaknesses, and competitor activity.
To create a strategy that delivers real value, marketers should rely on data gathered across multiple channels and touchpoints. This data helps predict outcomes, identify the most effective platforms to use or test, define buyer personas, and shape messaging and brand communication.
It’s important to distinguish strategy from tactics. A strategy defines the overall direction, while tactics are the specific actions taken to execute it.
Four tips for creating an effective digital marketing strategy
Several core components contribute to a successful digital strategy. Let’s explore them one by one.
1. Know your customer
No digital strategy can succeed without a deep understanding of who your customers are, why they purchase your product, and where those purchases take place.
Use audience data and demographics to build detailed customer profiles and guide your marketing decisions by:
- Identifying the channels that best suit your core demographics
- Communicating in the language your audience understands
- Recognizing pain points and emotional triggers
- Creating clear buyer personas to personalize content and anticipate buying behavior
- Being culturally sensitive and aware
- Exploring influencer partnerships
- Emphasizing experiences and outcomes rather than just product features
- Using automation tools for segmentation and targeting
Top tip:A buyer persona template can help streamline the process of defining your audience.
2. Audit and evaluate
Before planning future efforts, it’s essential to understand which digital channels and assets you’re already using.
Conduct a comprehensive audit of all content and channels—owned, paid, and earned—and document them in a single spreadsheet to get a complete overview of your marketing activity.
Next, align each asset and channel with your business objectives. For instance, if revenue growth is the primary goal, map top-performing channels and content directly to revenue impact. This approach reveals what’s driving results and what isn’t, allowing you to double down on what works and experiment with new opportunities where needed.
3. Prioritize outcomes, not just products
Marketing and product teams often focus heavily on product features and revenue metrics, sometimes losing sight of the real customer need being addressed.
What truly matters is understanding who you’re targeting and why. By identifying customer pain points and post-purchase behavior, you can clearly demonstrate the value your product or service delivers—reminding customers why they chose it in the first place.
4. Review and optimize continuously
Any digital marketing strategy should include performance indicators that align with key business goals.
Create a structured plan to define objectives, track progress, and analyze performance metrics. This includes:
- Moving beyond vanity metrics that don’t support long-term success
- Using KPIs as flexible benchmarks rather than fixed targets
- Setting regular review cycles for analysis and reporting
- Identifying and isolating critical metrics when performance issues arise
Most effective digital marketing strategies
The right digital marketing strategies depend on your business goals—whether that’s generating leads, increasing awareness, or driving conversions. Whatever approach you choose should always align with your brand identity and messaging.
Below are some proven strategies that help businesses increase visibility and attract qualified leads.
Content marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and convert audiences through digital channels.
For example, an Instagram post can promote a gated ebook through a landing page, capturing leads while delivering useful information. Beyond blogs, content formats can include videos, ebooks, webinars, podcasts, and expert-led sessions to increase engagement and lead generation.
Social media marketing
Social media offers access to billions of users worldwide and enables precise targeting by age, location, and interests.
Beyond promotion, social media helps brands build communities, engage directly with customers, and create advocates who voluntarily share and support the brand. Each platform requires its own strategy and success metrics, and social listening should remain a core element to better understand audience sentiment.
Top tip:Don’t limit efforts to mainstream platforms—emerging social channels are gaining traction with both consumers and brands.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO enhances online visibility by optimizing content so it’s easily discoverable by users actively searching for solutions.
Effective SEO improves traffic, user experience, and brand authority. Key components include:
- Keywords
- Backlinks
- Internal and external links
- Meta descriptions
- Images
The goal is to attract users who are most likely to engage with your brand.
Paid advertising
Paid channels complement organic marketing by expanding reach and enabling precise targeting.
Platforms such as Google Ads, social media advertising, and PPC allow businesses of all sizes to set budgets, test creatives, and measure performance. Insights gained from paid campaigns can also inform broader marketing efforts, such as repurposing high-performing ad content into blogs or downloadable resources.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing helps brands reach niche audiences through trusted voices. The focus should be on alignment, engagement quality, and shared values—not just follower counts.
Influencers can support campaigns through:
- Event promotion
- Product gifting
- Giveaways and challenges
- Social media takeovers
- Hosting or co-creating content
Clear briefs ensure shared expectations around goals, messaging, and audience targeting.
Email marketing
Email remains one of the most effective digital marketing channels.
With increased privacy concerns and the decline of third-party cookies, email provides a direct and trusted way to engage interested audiences. AI-powered tools now enable advanced personalization, allowing marketers to segment audiences and deliver relevant follow-ups based on user behavior.
Lead capture methods include:
- Strong CTAs
- Social promotions
- Forms and pop-ups
- Contests and giveaways
- Free downloads
- Exclusive offers
- Blogs, newsletters, webinars, and podcasts
B2B digital marketing strategies
Many digital tactics apply to B2B marketing, but success in this space relies on precision, relationship-building, and long-term strategy.
Effective B2B approaches include:
- Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Personalized campaigns for high-value accounts
- Thought Leadership: Long-form content like white papers, case studies, and webinars
- Demand Generation: Combining SEO, paid media, and content syndication
- Social Selling: Building credibility and warm leads through platforms like LinkedIn
- Marketing Automation: Nurturing leads through structured workflows at scale
Together, these tactics create a cohesive B2B strategy that attracts and influences decision-makers.
Digital marketing strategies for SMEs
Small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the flexibility and affordability of digital marketing. To maximize impact, SMEs should focus on:
Local SEO: Google Business Profiles and local keyword optimization
Paid media: Targeted social ads and cost-effective PPC
Email marketing: Incentives like discounts or VIP access to grow first-party data
User-generated content: Reviews and testimonials to build trust
Performance tracking: Using simple tools to monitor and refine campaigns
Best examples of successful digital marketing strategies
1. Content marketing: Salesforce+
Salesforce launched a streaming platform featuring live and on-demand business-focused content. Building on the success of its Leading Through Change virtual series, the platform delivers thought leadership through podcasts, original shows, and expert discussions.
This forward-thinking strategy earned Salesforce a 2022 Content Marketing Award, positioning content as a core pillar of its brand experience.
2. Influencer marketing: Absolut
To celebrate Earth Day, Absolut launched its Planet Earth’s Favorite Vodka campaign, partnering with sustainability advocates and LGBTQ influencers.
Over eight months, 95 influencers produced more than 600 posts, generating millions of impressions and engagements through immersive experiences and storytelling across social platforms.
3. Email marketing: Adidas
Adidas uses AI-driven personalization to deliver highly relevant email content based on language, location, interests, and purchase behavior.
By combining product updates with tailored recommendations, Adidas drives strong engagement while scaling personalization efficiently across markets.
Understanding your digital marketing strategy
Successful digital marketing stays aligned with purpose—not just products. Focus on customer benefits, real needs, and behavioral insights.
Marketers must adapt to shifting social and economic trends and remember that the role of marketing is to follow the customer journey, not force customers to follow the brand.
Become a strategic digital marketer
The ability to research, plan, and execute digital strategies is in high demand. With a certified Digital Marketing Strategy & Leadership course, marketers can develop skills in analytics, customer experience, budgeting, communication, and performance optimization. Enroll today to advance your digital marketing expertise.
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