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Digital marketing strategy frameworks can extend upto several hundred pages, but if you are a startup owner in a hurry to see your website up and to put your brand in the eye-view of customers, there\u2019s a simple one-page framework you can follow that is both easy to fill and provides you crystal clarity. In fact, with many of my large clients, we do this one-page statement first so\u00a0that we have all the key decisions made with ease, and we can then elaborate the framework, with more empirical research, customer surveys and management team inputs, to justify the business case. This simple strategic digital marketing plan framework has just nine questions to answer but you have to take care to answer them with objective thought, and not just fill the page with some wishful thinking. At the end you\u2019ll have clarity on your communication strategy too!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important that you answer this question with just ONE typical customer. Every business usually begins thinking about its whole panorama of possible prospects, but when you force yourself to reduce your customer to just ONE typical person, you are forced to zero in on the most important segment. For example, a marketing consultant like me could have any number of consumers ranging from marketing heads of large organizations, to startup owners, to solo professionals, to several others. But in thinking hard about that ONE person who could be my ideal and typical customer, I had to spend time to eliminate all the peripheral nomenclatures and consolidate my sights around one persona \u2026 which I named as \u201cdigital entrepreneurs\u201d. Within that there many be many smaller segments, or around that there could be larger segments. But if I had to speak with the one person who is an \u201cideal client\u201d for me, I would plumb for the \u201cdigital entrepreneur\u201d.<\/p>\n
See if you can describe your ideal customer in just one or two words \u2026 like \u201cworking mothers\u201d or \u201csporty men\u201d or \u201call authors\u201d \u2026 within each of these segments you\u2019ll have many sub-segments, but this type of description, you\u2019ll notice is both narrowly specific as a stereotype and yet broad enough to contain sub-segments! That\u2019s what you have to zero in on!<\/p>\n
Okay, now here comes the heart of this strategy framework. The biggest mistake you can do here is to try and think of the types of problems your customer may have for which the product you already have in mind may be an answer! Just because you know what product you want to market doesn\u2019t however mean that you have to look at the customers pain-points in relation to your product. For instance, if you are going to be producing a brand of shoes, you should absolutely not be listing customer problems as \u201ccallouses on feet\u201d, \u201cill-fitting shoes giving pain\u201d, \u201cnot able to find stylish Italian shoes\u201d etc etc. This is retro-fitting the customer pain-points to your product, whereas you actually have to find \u201cgeneral life problems\u201d of the customer and then see how your product will fit into the customer\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Let me stretch one of the previous examples to show you how it is done. Let\u2019s say your product is shoes. But you do not go looking for customer with foot problems. You look for the general life problems of the customer. Maybe your customer is working mothers. maybe their problems in life in general include the fact that they are invariably late to work after looking after their babies\u2019 breakfasts and so they have to rush to work with little time for commute. Maybe many of them have to walk a bit, hop on buses or trains and then walk a bit again to get to work \u2013 and then at work they\u2019ve still got to have stylish looking shoes to get through the day \u2013 before the evening commute back in the rush-hour squeeze (via the supermarket). Okay, so now we begin to see the working mothers\u2019 problem as \u201cwishing to feel comfortable through her rushed day and her different types of movements\u201d!<\/p>\n
The moral of this story: look at the customer\u2019s pains in life in general, not just at her problems that can fit into your shoes!<\/p>\n
For this exercise, make a list of as many problems as you can think of, but then you have to narrow down to the ONE biggest problem \u2026 so you have just the one typical customer problem on hand to deal with. Are you with me, so far? Good!<\/p>\n
Now is your chance to describe your product (not your brand, your product). Again use just two or three generic words like \u201cflatsole leather shoes\u201d or \u201csoft moleskin comforters\u201d or \u201cknee length boots\u201d. Don\u2019t fall prey to a whole grand description of the whole product (I know you love it, it\u2019s your baby, but do keep some of the love back till we finish this statement!)<\/p>\n
Okay, so let\u2019s say we have \u201cworking mothers\u201d as our customer stereotype, and we have a fix on her biggest problem i.e. \u201cshe\u2019s on her feet, in diverse types of movements in a typical day\u201d, and we have our product, say, the \u201cflatsole leather shoes\u201d. Now we have to creatively connect up the consumer\u2019s problem with our product so that our product sounds like just what she would wish for!<\/p>\n
Here, notice the word that I said here \u201cwish for\u201d. You don\u2019t look at what she needs or wants, you look for her \u201cI wish I had \u2026\u201d because wishes like that are whispers from the heart, a cry of wanting relief, an emotional craving for some self-care! Needs are practical things, wants are intellectual things, but wishes are emotional things!<\/p>\n
So we may then decide to tell the customer \u201cSee how our shoes can solve your movement patterns through the day. They run with you, they\u2019ll walk with you, they\u2019ll board buses and trains and trudge to the supermarket with you and they\u2019ll also look professional between 9am and 5pm at the office!\u201d<\/p>\n
So there it is again \u2026 we make the shoe sound like it\u2019ll fit her life like a friend who understands her life. We do not try to find some pain she doesn\u2019t have just to make her feel it fits our shoe!<\/p>\n
Now that we\u2019ve arrived at the principal way our product can solve the customer\u2019s problem, we can go on to list some five or six benefits specifically \u2026 for example:<\/p>\n
1. The outer leather is tough and will not scuff easily, so you need spend less time polishing the shoes.<\/p>\n
2. The flatsole is flexible and soft but hardwearing so your calves and ankles can move with ease and without pain.<\/p>\n
3. The shoes are good for walking or running too, because the arch support is as good as in sports shoes and can support weak ankles.<\/p>\n
4. There\u2019s more room at the front end of the shoes so you can curl or stretch your toes when you need to relax your muscles.<\/p>\n
5. There\u2019s an optional insole you can use if you carry heavy shopping home from the store and so you won\u2019t get cramps when walking carrying weights.<\/p>\n
Notice how all these benefits are not technology or other jargon, they are consumer benefits written in ways that consumers see value. See how each benefit is written as a \u201cconsumer benefit\u201d (the text in bold font).<\/p>\n
Okay, here\u2019s where you get to show off your technology, your design skills, the experience and talents of your master craftsmen, your years of experience, the quality of your raw materials, the global sourcing you do to get the best ingredients together to build your shoes \u2026 all the benefits in the earlier Question #5 that you wrote down are all due to this support that your manufacturing process allows. So list these plus-points down, maybe just five or six of the most important ones.<\/p>\n
At Question #7, we come to your company\u2019s \u201cvalue positioning\u201d. Many, many entrepreneurs confuse this value-positioning with the \u201cvalue proposition\u201d i.e. with the consumer benefits and main solution of the customer problems. But that is not the same as the value-positioning of your company. Your company positioning is about the values that your company and its products stand for. It\u2019s your vision, mission, passion and reason and standards for contribution to the world. It could be \u201ccare for the customer\u201d or \u201cexcellence in manufacture\u201d or \u201cethical sourcing of materials\u201d or \u201csupporting women\u201d. Let your positioning stand for higher things, higher values, principles and standards, or a quest for excellence, and let it again be an emotional appeal of contribution to the world. When Nike says \u201cJust do it!\u201d they charge themselves with the emotional mission to energize people! That\u2019s what the positioning in this statement stands for.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve arrived now at the penultimate question: the customer\u2019s desired response. This is the response you wish the customer would sigh and utter after seeing your website or becoming aware of your brand for the first time. This is not the response your consumer would give after buying the shoes, but the one you wish she would say upon first laying eyes on the fact that your product exists. Put this desired response in the consumer\u2019s own words. For example you may wish for her to say \u201cOh, what a relief. This thing sounds right for someone like me!\u201d or maybe she says \u201cGosh, hope the online e-ordering is easy for I have no time to get to the shops and try my size\u201d or \u201cMandy and the girls at work need to hear about this\u201d \u2026 whatever you think she would say in her own lingo, given that she\u2019s a hassled working mother.<\/p>\n
No strategy document is complete unless it has given rise to something totally new or extremely valuable or exciting as an idea for the customer that can differentiate you from competition. To see how our shoes example may pan out on an actual one-page framework, look at the image below \u2026 and the arising insight!<\/p>\n
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Before we end let\u2019s see what other strong voices say in favour of simplicity of digital strategy \u2026<\/p>\n
We live and work in a world of sometimes overwhelming complexity. Complexity breeds ignorance. Complexity begets paralysis. Complexity leads to confusion. It is within this confusion that the charlatans thrive. And it is these charlatans that make our work harder. Quotes<\/p>\n
We live in an era of boundless choices, rapid innovation, and all-important peer recommendations. The dizzying pace of change presents challenges for many established brands with well-honed business processes, belief systems, and incentives\u2014and profitable business models. A new breed of brands is emerging, and it\u2019s disrupting the status quo, changing consumer expectations\u2014and, in many cases, reshaping category definitions. Often referred to as \u201cdisrupters,\u201d these brands are increasingly commanding more of our attention. No matter their function or the category they\u2019re disrupting, they possess a common characteristic: simplicity. It is at the core of the experiences they deliver. That is, they\u2019re creating brand experiences that are remarkably clear and unexpectedly fresh. Quotes<\/p>\n
If you torture numbers long enough \u2013 they\u2019ll confess to anything! Quotes<\/p>\n