There are a lot of opinions, views and much information available about digital marketing and digital strategy. This can, in itself, cause confusion about what a business needs as the lines are blurred and it is difficult for non-experts to get a handle on what they really need to help their business move forward.

Digital strategy, often headed up by a CIO, will cover issues like the whole Information Strategy in the digital world including systems, hardware, Enterprise Resource Planning, communications, integration, future proofing and much more.

In contrast Digital Marketing, under a CMO or similar, will include the digital communications both externally to prospects, customers and influencers, and internally to employees and stakeholders, as well as the software and systems that need to deliver these communications.

To help clarify the situation, digital marketing and digital marketing strategy centre around the website and communications as well as the software and systems that help deliver these communications, both externally and internally.

The place to start is with the audience (customers, prospects, channels, influencers, employees and internal stakeholders) and understanding their needs, the buying process, and their preferred devices and channels of communication. This can be a large task and also quite complex.

Understanding the audience and motives will help decide the communication strategy and plans, and therefore the underlying systems that need to deliver them. This includes integrated Enterprise systems like Epi, Sitecore, Oracle, Adobe or others, versus best of breed plug in packages including CMS systems like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, marketing automation systems including Marketo, Hubspot, Pardo and CMS systems including Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

The communications strategy itself will need to consider the website, branding, design and content, as well as SEO, PPC, Social media channels used by the audience and employees, and much more to get cohesive communications plans and multiple touch points to optimise the buying process.

If you need help navigating your way through this process to get the best digital marketing strategy, plans and campaigns to maximise your future business performance, then you could consider an Interim Digital Marketing Director on a full-time, part-time, consultancy or project basis.