digital marketing strategy: make a marketing plan that delivers results

the digital marketing industry (cough agencies cough) has a dirty secret: it’s built on vanity metrics that look good in presentations but do little for your bottom line. views, likes, shares, and impressions might make for colourful charts, but they don’t pay the bills.

companies pour thousands of dollars into a marketing campaign that generates impressive-looking reports full of clicks, impressions, and engagement rates – yet somehow, these “successful” campaigns rarely translate into the thing you want… yanno; leads, sales and growing your business.

sound familiar? nothing to stress about. through this article we’ll help your business learn the difference between strategy and tactics, what the most common problem is and how to take your marketing strategy from zero to hero. 

the problem with most marketing “strategies”

to be blunt – most of the time there just isn’t one.

when a business is first dipping its toes into online marketing, one of the first thing a business owner is going to bump up against is that there’s just so much of it. a quick google search and your head will be spinning at all the “helpful advice” telling you that you should be doing:

• email marketing
• seo
• social media marketing
• content marketing
• google ads
• facebook ads
• bing ads
• cold outreach
• influencer marketing
• and… well this is getting exhausting just listing them all. you get it.

its no wonder a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs see all that, get overwhelmed and think “i’m just going to run some ads on google and hope for the best”. 

if this applies to you, there’s nothing wrong with that. there’s so many marketing approaches and so much information that its near impossible for any one person to wrap their head around. everyone’s bound to make some mistakes when they’re starting out.

heck; i even made mistakes starting this business. i decided i liked the aesthetic of all lowercase font so much i made it part of my brand identity. 400 freshly-printed business cards later i remembered just how many acronyms are used in digital advertising – PPC, CPC, CPM, ROAS, CTR, CPA… you get the idea.

this truly masterful and strategic approach on my part is going to cost me my sanity from all the spellcheck lines under every draft of everything i write from here on out.

my browser thinks i’m having a complete breakdown every time i write about KPIs. but hey, at least my brand looks cool, right? actually, i’ve just decided on the blog part of my site i’m just going to capitalize the acronyms. everyone cool with that? cool.

all that to say, if you’re a business owner and you weren’t sure how to get started when it came to your marketing strategy, that’s totally fine.

what’s less forgivable are all the agencies out there who profess to be digital marketing experts; will happily take your money… and then just turn on some google ads and hope for the best.

you could have done that yourself, but i guess they’ll at least try to dazzle you with some fancy looking reports each month.

the rest of this article is designed to help you come up with an effective marketing plan, learn the difference between strategies and tactics. hopefully by the end you’ll either:

1. you’ll be prepared for success when running your own marketing activities.
2. you’ll be armed with the knowledge and questions to ask if you do hire an agency so you can sort out the snake oil from the expert marketing professionals. 

this isn’t just another article about “optimizing your social media presence” or “increasing brand awareness.” it’s a methodical approach to creating a digital marketing plan that delivers tangible, measurable results for your business.

so, let’s get started.

understanding the foundation of results-driven marketing

the critical difference between tactics and strategy

before diving deeper, let’s clarify the fundamental difference that makes or breaks any successful digital marketing plan:

• strategy is your master plan — the overarching approach that defines where you’re going and why. it’s the big-picture decision-making framework that aligns your marketing efforts with your business objectives.
• tactics are the specific actions, tools, and techniques you use to execute your strategy. google ads, email newsletters, and instagram posts are marketing tactics — not strategies.

this distinction isn’t just semantic. it’s the difference between random acts of marketing and a coherent strategic approach that drives measurable business outcomes.

think of it this way: strategy is deciding you need to travel from halifax to vancouver (and why), while tactics are choosing whether to fly, drive, or take a train (aha trains, remember trains?). without the strategic direction, you’d just be implementing random transportation methods with no clear destination.

the most common failure we see in digital marketing isn’t picking the wrong tactics—it’s having no strategy to guide those tactical choices in the first place.

i can hear you now “thanks mr. dictionary; but how do i actually do the thing?” you’re right, sorry, here’s how you do the thing:

if you want to make a winning strategy you’ve got to start by thinking of the finish line, or more specifically defining your desired results.

what “results” actually mean for different business models

when we talk about an effective digital advertising strategy, we need to start by defining what success actually looks like. here’s the thing: it’s different for every business.

for an e-commerce store, results might mean:

• increased sales revenue
• higher average order value
• better customer retention rates

for a service-based business, success could look like:

• more qualified leads
• shorter sales cycles
• higher conversion rates from prospect to client

for a SaaS company, it might be:

• reduced customer acquisition costs
• increased monthly recurring revenue
• lower churn rates

unfortunately it’s all too common that folks will skip this critical first step and jump straight to tactics. they’ll set up google ads campaigns, create some social media posts, and maybe throw in some email marketing campaigns — all without first defining what success means to them and their business. 

unfortunately this sort of rudderless, shotgunned marketing approach that doesn’t have a clear objective in mind makes it all too easy for advertisers (or those snake oil salesmen i mentioned) to get caught up in chasing metrics that don’t matter — aka the dreaded “vanity metrics”

the problem with vanity metrics and why they persist

you’ve seen the reports: 10,000 impressions, 500 likes, a 2% engagement rate. these vanity metrics persist because they’re easy to measure and they almost always go up (making the marketing team look good).

but these metrics don’t tell you anything about:

• whether your business goals are being met
• if your marketing efforts are generating revenue
• how your marketing campaign is affecting your bottom line

vanity metrics persist for three main reasons:

1. they’re easy to track and report
2. they create the illusion of progress
3. they help agencies justify their fees without delivering actual business results

in an effective marketing approach, every metric you track should have a clear connection to your business objectives.

anyone can serve 100,000s of ad impressions, but if they’re not getting in front of the right eyes, on the right digital channels with the right message for both your marketing and customer… well you might as well just be setting your money on fire.

so what does the objective based digital marketing framework look like?

core principles of an outcome-focused digital marketing plan

creating a successful digital marketing approach requires building from these foundational principles:

1. business alignment: your digital marketing plan must directly support specific business objectives — not marketing fluff. you’re not out here to serve witty retorts on social media and win advertising awards, you’re here to make money. the success of your strategy is directly tied to how it supports your actual business goals.
2. customer-centricity: understand your customer’s journey across all digital channels and optimize for the interactions that drive conversions. there’s a great saying in the marketing world “if you’re speaking to everyone then you’re talking to no one.” roughly translated this means figure out who your customers are, where they are and speak to them directly. by now we all know “one size fits all” is a lie. there’s no way you’re going to be everyone’s favourite flavour, so find the clients that love your flavour and serve it to them.
3. data integration: connect your marketing analytics across platforms to understand how different marketing activities work together. this doesn’t just mean slapping GA4 on your site and calling it a day. you need to have all your digital marketing tools talking to one another. yes, even your CRM. especially your CRM. 
4. attribution modelling: implement proper tracking to know which marketing channels actually drive results. i’m assuming you listened to me and immediately integrated all of your marketing touch points before continuing on with the article; you get a cookie. now that you have all that wonderful data you’ll be able to see where the money is coming from, which digital marketing channels are burning cash. now that you have that, you get to do the fun part.   
5. continuous optimization: use that data to refine your strategic approach based on actual performance, not assumptions. effective digital strategies are not a set-and-forget activity. after all, what would the point of getting all that data be if you were just going to pat yourself on the back and leave your online presence to fend for itself? once the data comes rolling in allocate the budget to the winning digital touch points. tune, tweak and trim those media channels with the same level of enthusiasm that r/wallstreetbets users throw their money into whatever this week’s meme stock is.

if you get it all right, it’ll form the backbone of an effective digital marketing approach that actually delivers measurable business results.

step 1: establishing clear business objectives

translating business goals into marketing KPIs that actually matter

let’s be real. saying “i want more customers” isn’t a strategy — it’s a wish. every business wants more customers. the question is: how many more? by when? at what cost? and how will your digital marketing plan get you there?

this is where you need to translate those vague business aspirations into concrete, measurable marketing KPIs that your digital strategies can actually target.

here’s how to do it:

1. identify the money metric: what’s the one number that, if it improved, would make the biggest difference to your business? for some, it’s customer lifetime value. for others, it’s conversion rate or cost per acquisition. that’s your north star.
2. work backwards: if your business goal is to increase revenue by 20% this year, what does that mean for your marketing efforts? maybe you need to generate 35% more qualified leads because your data shows about 60% of those convert.
3. assign metric ownership: decide which marketing channel is responsible for driving which metric. your email marketing campaigns might own retention metrics, while your search ads own new customer acquisition.
4. set timeframes: marketing strategies don’t deliver overnight. establish realistic timeframes for each KPI — some might be quarterly goals, others annual.

setting SMART objectives that go beyond “more traffic”

the fastest way to waste your marketing budget is to set vague objectives like “increase brand awareness” or “get more website traffic.” these aren’t SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound), and they’re certainly not business objectives.

instead, try these examples of SMART marketing objectives that actually tie to business results:

• “increase qualified lead generation by 25% within six months while maintaining a cost per lead under $50”
• “improve e-commerce conversion rates from 2.1% to 3% by the end of Q3 through improved product page optimization”
• “reduce customer acquisition costs by 20% within four months by identifying and scaling our most efficient marketing channels”

notice how these objectives are specific, tied to business outcomes, and have built-in accountability metrics. that’s what a winning digital marketing strategy looks like.

storytime: how some marketing used these principles to build a winning marketing campaign

fourscore an— wait that’s not right, four. four years ago a client in the audiology space reached out to some marketing because they needed help with their online marketing strategy.

i know people don’t typically think “digital ads” when they think of hearing aids but the owner of the business knew that the future was online and he understood that being ahead of the curve now would secure a toehold ahead of the competition.

because he was forward thinking, he had already identified that the digital space was going to be a cornerstone of his overall marketing plan. he had even gotten an industry specific online booking tool installed on his site so users could book appointments from their phone or their computer at any time of day! great right? well… sort of.

although he had an intuitive understanding that online advertising played an essential role in modern marketing, when we first spoke his marketing goals extended as far as letting people know about his new hearing aid leasing program. on top of that, his website and booking tool had some technical challenges as well.

the digital content on his website didn’t specifically speak to this hearing aid leasing program, which meant there was no landing page for interested parties to learn more about the offering, and his booking tool was in an iframe, meaning that while clients could go online and use it to book an appointment, there was no way to track which ads or ad platforms actually resulted in these bookings.

how we turned it into actionable, valuable goals.

keeping the principles of marketing that we’ve gone over so far in this article we can identify some issues:

1. his intended outcome was awareness of a program that he offered.
2. his website’s content strategy didn’t include more information on the program he was looking to promote.
3. his booking tool being in an iframe meant he had no way of tracking key digital performance indicators.

that’s where we came in. we love a client that understands the importance of digital marketing campaigns and were more than happy to help. after talking with him and hearing what he wanted and what his current digital presence was like, we were able to take that and use our magic to turn that into real, effective strategy.

when you consider everything we’ve discussed about structuring a digital marketing plan, his goals and needs were obvious.

objective: to increase bookings on his website, especially for their new program they were offering.

challenges: their existing digital booking tool didn’t play nice with tracking tools, as iframes are invisible to software like GA4, and his digital assets on his site didn’t support the offering they were looking to promote.

here’s how we applied the SMART framework to transform a vague “get more awareness” into an actual digital marketing strategy:

specific: instead of “more awareness,” we set a target of increasing online bookings by 30% within 90 days, with a specific focus on the new leasing program generating at least 5 new sign-ups per month.

measurable: to solve for these issues, we updated his tracking software within a week to be able to track the online bookings, allowing for direct attribution to the ad platforms. no more flying blind with metrics that don’t matter — we could now see exactly which digital marketing channels were delivering actual appointments, not just clicks.

achievable: we knew this was doable because we’d seen similar results in adjacent industries. plus, his competitors were still living in 2005 with their marketing approaches, giving us plenty of room to outmaneuver them in the digital space.

relevant: every marketing activity tied directly back to his business objectives: more bookings = more potential customers = more revenue. no vanity metrics, just business impact. we built a multifaceted ad campaign on the platforms his clients were actually on (search and facebook) within a week, focusing solely on channels where his target demographic spent their time.

time-bound: we rolled out a landing page within the span of two weeks to allow for us to quickly test and optimize various messages to match with the advertising messaging. this rapid implementation and testing cycle meant we could iterate on his offerings until we found the messaging strategy that worked, not only for the leasing program, but for all the services they offered.

the results? within 90 days, the campaign had generated exactly 235 confirmed booked appointments at a cost of CA$16.71 per appointment. for context, the automated ads they were running beforehand that were just optimizing on google calls were costing upwards of $60 per call (not even a confirmed appointment). the hearing aid leasing program went from zero to seven sign-ups in the first month alone.

most importantly, the client could now see exactly which parts of his digital marketing plan were delivering real business results and which were just burning cash. no more guessing, no more hoping — just clear data showing the direct line between marketing spend and revenue.

this is the difference between a marketing “strategy” that just aims to make noise and a structured digital marketing approach focused on actual business growth. and the best part? once you have this framework in place, you can continually optimize based on real data rather than marketing gut feelings or whatever tactic happens to be trending on linkedin that week.

conclusion: winning digital campaigns with strong digital marketing strategy

well, we’ve certainly covered a lot of ground, and if your browser is struggling to load this article by now, i don’t blame it. turns out explaining even just the foundation and first step of strategy in digital marketing takes more words than i initially thought. (my editor is definitely giving me side-eye right now.)

but here’s the thing — our audiology client’s success story is just getting started. the 235 booked appointments at $16.71 each wasn’t the end of the journey; it was just the first milestone in an ongoing process of refinement. and yes, a single powerful first step made a massive difference, but imagine what happens when you apply all six core principles we outlined earlier.

in the coming articles in this series, we’ll explore:

• how we used audience research and segmentation to discover the hearing aid client’s actual customers were adult children of seniors, not only the seniors themselves (surprise!)
• the channel strategy that let us double down on what worked and ruthlessly cut what didn’t
• the technical tweaks that turned a decent website into a lead-generating machine
• how we built a measurement framework that made decision-making almost boringly obvious
• the continuous optimization process that turned good results into exceptional ones
• and the common pitfalls that sink most digital marketing strategies before they even start

each of these deserves its own deep dive, which is exactly what we’ll do in the coming weeks. because an effective digital marketing strategy isn’t a one-and-done affair — it’s an ongoing process of alignment, measurement, and refinement.

for now, start with clear business objectives. that alone will put you ahead of 90% of businesses out there blindly throwing money at random marketing tactics and hoping something sticks.

and if you’re thinking “this all sounds great, but i don’t have time to become a digital marketing expert alongside running my actual business,” well, that’s why some marketing exists. not all agencies are created equal, and now you know exactly what questions to ask to separate the vanity metrics peddlers from the results-driven professionals.

because at the end of the day, your digital marketing shouldn’t cost you money — it should make you money. and now you know how to make that happen.

stay tuned for part two, where we’ll dive into audience research that actually matters. (spoiler alert: it’s probably not what you think. or maybe it is. i’m not psychic.)