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Outperforming your competition demands more than dabbling in a couple of marketing channels or blindly following the latest trends. It requires a sharp, cohesive, data-driven digital marketing strategy tailored to your specific business goals.
We’ll walk you through how to create a digital marketing strategy that aligns with your business objectives, prioritises high-ROI channels, and positions your brand to win.
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How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy Fit for 2026
A digital marketing strategy is a focused plan that outlines how your business will use digital channels to achieve its goals.
A strong strategy answers questions like:
- Who are we targeting, and what matters to them?
- Which channels are most effective for reaching and converting them?
- How will we measure success?
- Where should we allocate budget and resources to maximise ROI?
There’s no off-the-shelf digital strategy that works for all industries or every business. Your goals, audience, market, and resources are unique, so your strategy should be too. Businesses that adopt a one-size-fits-all approach often end up investing in the wrong channels, targeting the wrong audience, or chasing KPIs that don’t deliver results that are commercially aligned.
Here’s how to create a digital marketing strategy properly:
1. Set Strong Business Goals
Start with one ruthlessly clear commercial goal.
Tim Cameron-Kitchen, Founder of Exposure Ninja, explains that the strongest strategies are built around “one very clear commercial goal that nobody in the organisation would argue with.”
In an ideal world, that’s revenue. For example, our client Accelex came to us with a strong business goal: increase revenue by 77% within the first year. That gave the strategy a commercial target everyone could align behind.
If revenue is not the right goal, focus on the next closest commercial outcome, such as qualified leads or pipeline efficiency. The principle stays the same: your digital marketing strategy should centre on one goal that matters to the business.
The very worst targets to build a marketing strategy around are those fluffy, easy-to-manipulate numbers like traffic or brand visibility or Share of Voice. Those might be building blocks of the main goal, but they shouldn’t be the main goal. Otherwise, you end up with all sorts of weird incentives and a strategy designed to move some sort of needle which actually has nothing to do with the business growth.
Founder
2. Identify Your One Growth Restraint
In our experience, a lot of companies actually have one key growth constraint, and usually this is in one of four areas:
- Demand Constraint: Not enough qualified people entering the funnel.
- Conversion Constraint: Traffic exists, but it doesn’t turn into leads.
- Sales Constraint: Leads are good, but deals aren’t closing.
- Retention Constraint: Customers churn before value compounds.
Most digital marketing strategies fall apart because they try to improve everything at once. A strong digital marketing strategy identifies the biggest bottleneck and fixes that first. Because until you remove the main constraint, every other improvement is limited.
Let’s look at Accelex as an example. When Accelex came to us, the goal was clear: increase revenue by 77% within 12 months. But they faced a demand constraint: their existing marketing strategy was only generating eight marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) per month. At that level, scaling revenue simply wasn’t possible.
Once we identified the constraint, we built a strategy and marketing plan to fix it:
- Strengthened conversion foundations first. We improved site speed, clarity, and calls to action (CTAs) to increase the conversion rate of existing traffic into leads.
- Targeted high-intent Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) opportunities. We focused on low-competition, high-intent keywords relevant to financial decision-makers.
- Built a scalable content framework. We created consistent, structured content to grow authority and organic visibility over time.
- Aligned content with commercial intent. Every page was designed to attract the right audience and move them towards enquiry.
The result was clear. By month nine, Accelex had achieved 112% of its annual lead target. With demand unlocked, the business scaled and was acquired by Carta.
3. Build a Channel Mix That Matches Your Audience
The right digital marketing strategy focuses on the channels your audience actually uses and where they are most likely to take action.
If your buyers are C-suite decision-makers at enterprise organisations, LinkedIn and long-form thought leadership will almost certainly outperform Instagram. If you’re selling direct to consumers with strong visual products, paid social and video might be your fastest route to growth. If your audience is searching actively for your solution, organic search and PPC deserve serious investment.
DSLD Mortgage, a finance client of ours, is a great example of a digital marketing strategy with the right channel mix tailored to their target audience.
When DSLD Mortgage came to us, their website was underperforming and not generating sales. We needed to build a buyer-ready journey that could convert demand into revenue.
We started by mapping four core customer personas using real conversations from their sales team. This gave us a clear view of how different buyers researched, compared, and made decisions.
From there, we built a channel mix around that journey:
- Google Ads and dedicated landing pages to capture high-intent demand from users ready to act.
- SEO and content marketing to build trust during the research phase.
- Meta Ads to drive awareness and introduce the product to new audiences.
- Automated email sequences to nurture leads who were not ready to convert yet.
This channel mix worked because it aligned with how their buyers actually progressed from awareness to decision. High-intent users were captured through search, earlier-stage buyers were educated through content, and undecided leads were nurtured until they were ready to act. Instead of relying on a single channel to do everything, each played a specific role in driving qualified leads and supporting conversion.
The perfect digital marketing strategy should include different marketing channels. These aren’t based on what you think would be coolest to do or what your competitors are doing, but where your target audience is spending the most time and where you get the highest quality traffic.
Founder
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4. Lead with One Strategic Advantage
A strong digital marketing strategy identifies a single dominant advantage and builds around it.
This is what Tim Cameron-Kitchen refers to as your “signature weapon,” or the thing that makes you the obvious choice for your ideal customer.
It could be:
- Deep expertise in your niche.
- A product that clearly outperforms alternatives.
- A brand that builds trust faster than competitors.
The Ordinary is a clear example of a brand that leads with one strong advantage. They position themselves as a science-backed, affordable skincare brand.
That positioning is simple, specific, and easy to understand. It cuts through a crowded market where many competitors rely on vague claims and premium pricing.
Our strategy was built on that advantage:
- We aligned SEO and content with real customer behaviour using first-party data and persona research.
- We shifted content from brand-led to performance-led, focusing on high-intent topics like skincare routines.
- We optimised content for AI Search to reinforce authority and visibility in emerging platforms.
- We rebuilt key product pages to improve conversion and recover lost revenue.
The result was not just more traffic, but more efficient growth. The campaign delivered 395% ROI, alongside a 555% increase in blog sessions and a 451% boost in blog-driven revenue. This worked because the strategy amplified what already made the brand strong.
Download Our 2025 Beauty in AI Search Report
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5. Allocate Marketing Budget
One of the fastest ways to weaken a digital marketing strategy is to spread the marketing budget too evenly. Another is to put everything into one channel because it is working right now.
Both approaches create problems.
If you split the budget evenly across all channels, you end up underinvesting in the activities that drive results. If you put everything into one current winner, you risk impacting future growth.
A stronger approach is to allocate the budget unevenly on purpose. Tim Cameron-Kitchen recommends an 80/20 split:
- 80% of your budget goes to the channels and activities already delivering results.
- 20% is reserved for experimentation, testing, and emerging opportunities.
This gives you the best of both worlds. You keep investing in what works now, while creating room to build your next growth channel.
6. Measure the Right Metrics
A strong digital marketing strategy measures what actually drives growth.
That starts with your business goal, such as revenue, qualified leads, or pipeline value. This is the number your strategy is built around. It keeps marketing focused on outcomes that matter to the business.
That said, before you see a lift in revenue or leads, you will see movement in supporting metrics. These are your leading indicators, and they show whether your strategy is on the right track.
For example, you might see:
- Keyword rankings are moving closer to page one.
- Organic traffic is increasing on high-intent pages.
- Impression share is improving in paid campaigns.
These signals indicate that visibility and demand are building, even if revenue has not yet caught up.
The key is to treat these as indicators, not end goals. If you build your strategy around traffic or rankings alone, it is easy to generate activity without impact. If you use them correctly, they become a system that helps you double down on what is working.
To make this actionable, you also need a clear reporting rhythm:
- Monthly reporting gives you visibility over performance and early indicators. It helps you spot patterns and track progress against your targets.
- Quarterly reviews give you enough data to make confident decisions. This is where you assess performance against your main goal, identify which channels are driving growth, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
This balance is important. It keeps you responsive without overreacting to short-term fluctuations and helps drive consistent, measurable growth against your main goal.
The Best Digital Marketing Strategy Levers
AI Search Optimisation
For years, digital marketing strategies were built around a familiar mix: organic search, paid media, content, email, and social. But now, there’s a new and non-negotiable element: AI Search.
AI platforms have reshaped how content is discovered, how customers interact with brands, and how search engines display information. Take Google’s AI Overviews, which provide AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. Ranking first is no longer the main goal; ranking in position zero is.
But AI tools aren’t just changing search, they’re changing user behaviour. More users are turning to generative platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to research products, solve problems, and make purchasing decisions. If your brand isn’t mentioned or cited in these responses, you’re missing visibility at the exact moment intent is forming.
If your digital marketing strategy doesn’t incorporate how AI is influencing search, recommendations, and decision-making, you’re falling behind. AI-readiness is now essential to compete and win.
This is where AI Search Optimisation comes in: the strategic process of optimising your brand, content, and products or services to be cited or recommended by AI-powered platforms such as Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
It’s not just about ranking in search anymore. Having an AI Search Optimisation strategy positions your brand as the source AI turns to when generating answers for users. That means increased visibility at the exact moment of intent, before your competitors are even in the conversation.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is still the foundation of any long-term digital marketing strategy. While AI Search Optimisation will get you mentioned by AI platforms, SEO is what establishes and maintains your visibility in traditional results on Bing or Google.
Modern SEO goes beyond keyword rankings. It’s about being up to date with the latest SEO trends, which demand technical SEO excellence, authoritative content, and an outstanding user experience.
Creating and implementing an SEO strategy is an investment. But when done right, it can become your most reliable, cost-effective marketing channel.
Get to the top of Google
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Content Marketing
Content marketing powers your entire digital marketing strategy.
Optimised, E-E-A-T blog posts build organic visibility and authority. AI-friendly content gets you cited or recommended in AI answers. High-converting landing pages amplify the performance of your paid campaigns. Email marketing nurtures your leads. Video content builds connection, trust, and engagement across platforms.
A content marketing strategy aligns every asset with a specific purpose, whether that’s attracting traffic, capturing leads, or converting customers. Done right, content doesn’t just educate or entertain your audience: it drives action and accelerates your wider marketing goals.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is your performance accelerator. It offers the fastest route to visibility, conversions, and scaling. But with rising ad costs and increased competition, success in PPC depends entirely on your strategic execution.
That means adapting to evolving PPC trends, such as adopting a multi-channel approach to reach audiences across platforms like Microsoft and Meta, leveraging AI to optimise bids and targeting in real time.
You need an integrated PPC strategy that works with your content, SEO, and conversion funnel to turn ad spend into profit.
Brands Nailing Their Digital Marketing Strategies
Monzo
Monzo is a masterclass in using digital marketing strategy to disrupt a traditional industry. In a sector known for complexity, slow processes, and jargon-heavy messaging, Monzo has cut through with positioning that’s clear, confident, and conversion-focused.
Its business banking homepage gets straight to the point with the heading “business bank account.” This simplicity immediately communicates the core value proposition; something legacy banks often fail to do with vague, corporate messaging.
Monzo’s site is also designed to convert. The CTA “apply for a business bank account” is unmissable, intuitive, and friction-free. This clarity is what helps improve conversion rates.
Beyond copy and CTAs, Monzo also excels in using language that speaks to real customer pain points. For personal accounts, phrases like “banish bill admin” and “save in clever new ways” address common frustrations in personal banking. This user-first approach aligns on-page messaging with what users are actually searching for.
Rocket Mortgage
Rocket Mortgage is spending big on digital marketing and seeing impressive growth as a result.
Their website demonstrates how a clear value proposition can drive conversion. Instead of bland CTAs like “Get a mortgage,” they use benefit-focused language that aligns with their brand, like “Save up to $10,000” or “Get 0.5% back.” Every word on their site is intentional, customer-focused, and designed to drive action.
What stands out about Rocket Mortgage’s digital strategy is its multi-channel approach. While their SEO and content strategy generate over 2.3 million monthly visits, they’re also investing around $4 million per month in paid search to capture high-intent commercial traffic.
They’re also investing heavily in generating referral traffic. This ensures they maintain visibility across the web, capture potential customers through multiple touchpoints, and leverage third-party credibility to boost conversion rates.
Hims
Hims has built a digital marketing model that’s aggressive, profitable, and scalable.
Their blog, which generates over 1M organic visits per month, supports a tightly structured SEO strategy around core treatments. Each piece is medically reviewed, search-optimised, and packed with smart CTAs that guide users into consultations and product purchases.
Hims also invests heavily in paid media, with $500K/month on Google Ads and multi-million-dollar campaigns behind brand-led video. While many brands lean on UGC, their top-performing creatives are polished, on-brand, and benefit-focused.
What sets Hims apart isn’t one channel; it’s the integration. From content to paid ads to conversion UX, every part of their strategy supports a clear, scalable goal: turning attention into action and action into recurring revenue.
CrowdStrike
CrowdStrike has built a marketing strategy around scale, authority, and compounding search visibility.
At the core is a deeply structured SEO and content model. Instead of relying on branded traffic, they’ve invested in ranking for tens of thousands of non-branded keywords across the entire funnel.
Their use of topic clusters and content hubs allows them to build authority in entire subject areas, not just individual keywords. This positions them as a go-to authority while capturing demand at every stage of the buyer journey.
They also strengthen this strategy with high-value assets such as annual threat reports, whitepapers, and events. These generate backlinks from major publications and build the domain authority needed to scale rankings quickly.
Even as search evolves with AI overviews and zero-click results, CrowdStrike continues to win visibility because its content is structured, credible, and built for how people search today. It is a clear example of a digital marketing strategy designed not just to generate traffic, but to dominate a category.
UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare’s digital marketing strategy is built on visibility at scale across both traditional search and AI Search.
Their SEO performance is driven by a structured content approach. Instead of isolated blog posts, they use a pillar and cluster model that covers entire topics in depth. A core hub page links out to layers of supporting content, allowing them to rank for tens of thousands of keywords across the full customer journey.
This structure does two things well. It makes content easy for users to navigate and for search engines and AI tools to understand and surface.
They also strengthen visibility through digital PR and third-party coverage. Being featured on high-authority sites increases the chances of being cited in AI-generated answers, which is now a key driver of visibility.
Where UnitedHealthcare stands out is how their marketing strategy is not just about ranking in search. It is about building structured, authoritative content and reinforcing it with off-site visibility so their brand shows up wherever decisions are being made.
Drive Results with a Leading Digital Marketing Agency
The most effective digital marketing strategy is built on data.
Data allows you to identify what’s working, where to scale, and how to improve ROI across every channel. Use customer data to segment audiences and tailor messaging. Use campaign data to optimise spend and refine targeting. And review your digital marketing strategy quarterly to ensure it adapts to market changes and business priorities.
Need help turning your data into a revenue-driving strategy? Talk to our team, and we’ll show you exactly where your biggest opportunities lie.
Drill down your marketing strategies with our industry-led guides:
FAQs
What is a digital marketing strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is a focused plan that defines how your business will use digital channels to achieve its goals. It covers which channels to prioritise, how to allocate budget, how to target and convert your audience, and how to measure success.
How does a digital marketing strategy differ from campaigns or tactics?
A digital marketing strategy is different from campaigns and tactics. Tactics are individual actions, like running a Google Ads campaign or publishing a blog post. Campaigns are coordinated efforts to promote a product, service, or message. Your strategy is the framework that ensures every campaign, platform, and piece of content is working toward measurable outcomes.
Why do you need a digital marketing strategy?
Without a strategy, marketing becomes reactive, fragmented, and expensive. A clear digital marketing strategy aligns your team, focuses your budget, and ensures every pound spent is working toward measurable business goals. It also provides a framework for benchmarking performance and adapting with confidence as market conditions change.
How do you align a digital marketing strategy with board-level business goals?
Start by anchoring your marketing objectives to specific commercial targets, such as revenue or leads. Translate those into measurable marketing KPIs that connect directly to the numbers your board cares about. Then build regular reporting that demonstrates how marketing activity moves those numbers.
What is the biggest mistake enterprise brands make with their digital marketing strategy?
The biggest mistake is treating digital marketing as a collection of disconnected channels rather than an integrated system. When SEO, PPC, content, and paid social operate in silos, you lose efficiency, duplicate effort, and miss the compounding effect that comes from channels working together. Strategy-level integration where every channel serves a unified commercial goal is what separates market leaders from the competition.
How often should a digital marketing strategy be updated?
Your strategy should be reviewed quarterly and updated in full at least annually. Markets shift, algorithms change, and customer behaviour evolves, so your strategy needs to keep pace.
How does a digital marketing agency fit into a digital marketing strategy?
A specialist agency brings expertise, tooling, and an external perspective that’s difficult to build in-house at the same level. They can identify opportunities you’re missing, execute tactics with greater sophistication, and provide the dedicated resource needed to deliver consistently.
Should you copy your competitor’s digital marketing strategies?
No. What works for your competitors might not work for your business. Use competitive insight as inspiration, but always tailor your strategy to your specific audience, brand, and goals.
