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Digital Marketing Strategy Planning

There are many areas of practice at our disposal and a limitless number of tactics. However, each piece of the puzzle means little by itself. For instance, understanding social media marketing or persona development is a step in the right direction, but how do you include social media marketing or incorporate the insights from persona development in an actionable, cohesive strategy? How can you do that without cannibalizing other efforts? Clearly, each piece of the puzzle plays an integral role but what really matters is how you put it all together to create a logically structured strategy. Such a strategy must conform to your time, resources, cost, and scope of work. Customized strategy isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. What works for one company may not work for another.

The eBoost Way

One of the most important aspects of strategic planning is to identify where you are and then decide where you wish to go. Are you new to your industry? Are you well-established? Is a competitor entering your market? Are your consumers shifting their behaviors?

A successful strategy is one that is challenging and achievable in speed and sequence. One of the problems with off-the-shelf marketing plans is that they are created for the masses, not the individual company with unique requirements and constraints. And though we are proud to showcase the results of our clients, we are fully aware that each plan must be distinct to each different business case.

So where do you start? 3C Model, BCG Matrix, Game Theory, Scenario Planning, Situational Analysis. The names change, but the majority of their principles remains the same. We are trained on the what, how, why, when, and where of each framework; this allows us to use them as tools to call on when necessary rather than crutches to lean on when unsure. These frameworks help structure the conversation. Universally, we strive for a minimum of 70% data and a maximum of 30% intuition to frame each business case. The result of this problem solving analysis is summarily captured in one sentence describing the most critical business problem and one sentence describing our initial hypothesis to solve that problem.

Let’s now discuss some specifics about strategy design, particularly on how the various areas of practice combine. Many companies must exercise several marketing tools within a single strategy. This situation is particularly common among customer-centric companies whose strategy must be as multifaceted as the behaviors their customers demonstrate.

A generally accepted structure of strategy maintains four key attributes that determine success:

Clearly, with so many items to choose from, it’s no wonder why companies falter in strategic planning. They don’t know the realities of which their strategy exists. Short-run promotions. Long-run advertising. ROI. Once again, the strategy must be customized to the solving the company’s most critical business problem.

Case Study

Situation

A successful entrepreneur seeking funding for a start-up presented a business model geared toward servicing Gen X adventure customers. He sought to monetize by providing a platform for sponsorship and services.

Challenge

eBoost Consulting was engaged to answer strategic growth questions and present its recommendation on the go-to-market digital marketing strategy based on the business concept.

eBoost Solution

The Results

Client was able to secure two additional funding sources based on the digital marketing strategy which became the core of the business plan.

Consulting Services