What is a digital marketing strategy, and how is it different from a marketing plan?
A digital marketing strategy sets the direction: which buyers you're going after, what you'll say to win them, which channels carry it and how you'll measure success. A marketing plan turns that into tactics: campaigns, budgets, owners and dates. Strategy changes rarely; the plan changes every quarter. Without the strategy, a plan is a list of activities nobody can rank, so we write the strategy first and the phased roadmap from it. If you want to draft one yourself first, our guide to building a digital marketing strategy walks through it.
What does a digital marketing strategy project include?
Research first: search demand, competitors' rankings and ads, and interviews with your team and, where possible, your customers. Then the strategy itself: positioning, messages, channel priorities and a phased roadmap with the numbers to track. Every recommendation comes with the evidence behind it, so your team can challenge it. You can carry it out with us, with another agency or in-house.
How long does a strategy project take?
Usually four to eight weeks, depending on how many markets and products it covers. Interviews and research take the first half. The second half is building and testing the strategy with your team, so there are no surprises at the final presentation. A narrower question, such as whether to enter one new market, can take less time.
Do you work with in-house marketing teams?
Yes, and that's usually how it works best. We bring outside data and a second opinion, and your team keeps ownership of the plan. We'll work with whoever carries it out, whether that's your marketers, another agency or us, and we hand over the research so nothing depends on us afterwards.
What industries do you have experience in?
Our case studies cover healthcare SaaS, e-commerce in Mexico, media, academic publishing and construction tech. Strategy transfers across industries better than most people expect, because the method doesn't change: find out what buyers search for and where competitors are weak. If your industry is new to us, we'll say so up front and tell you what that changes.
Does the strategy look different for a small business or a B2B company?
The method stays the same, but the answers change. A small business usually does best focusing on one or two channels it can sustain, often search, instead of spreading a thin budget everywhere. A B2B company with a long sales cycle needs content and messages for each person involved in the decision, not just the end user. A consumer brand leans more on creative and paid social. The strategy says which case you're in.
How do you measure whether a strategy worked?
We agree a few numbers before we start, usually qualified leads, cost per lead and revenue from search or ads. The strategy sets a target for each and says how it'll be tracked. If we stay on to support the rollout, we report on those same numbers. When one doesn't move, we say so and change the plan.
How much does a digital marketing strategy cost?
We quote per project once we've agreed the scope: how many markets, products and customer groups the strategy needs to cover. You'll have the price in writing before work starts. If you'd rather see some of the evidence first, the free competitor snapshot shows where you stand in search against two competitors.
What do I get at the end?
A short written strategy and a working session with your team. The document covers positioning, key messages, channel priorities, a phased roadmap and the numbers to track. It comes with the research behind it, including the search and competitor data, so you can check our reasoning and reuse it as the brief for your next campaign or site.
