Digital marketing – the big difference between a plan and a strategy

Business owners should realise the major differences between a digital marketing strategy and a digital marketing plan – that was the message from our latest webinar, sponsored by Purpose Media.

Ellie Buckle, head of digital and strategy at Purpose Media spoke at length about how businesses should develop a digital journey.

She said: “Digital marketing is now more necessary than ever before. The businesses that are succeeding at present are the ones that are doing well online.

“The problem some businesses have is that they don’t know where their strengths lay. The key to successful digital marketing is matching up problems and solutions – but there is a big difference between having a plan and having a strategy.”

Katie Sloan, head of marketing and strategic partner management at Timico, said that getting the whole workforce on board with digital marketing was vital and that upskilling was also important.

She added: “A marketing strategy comes about through evolution – that’s why it’s so important to engage all your internal teams in the process.

“However, your digital marketing tools are only as good as the people who use them; business owners must also have a strategy to upskill their staff.”

Rachel Quinn, head of people and skills at the D2N2 LEP expanded on this theme.

She said: “There is a real skills deficit in some rural businesses around digital marketing and they have struggled to respond over the last 12 months.

“There needs to be an understanding throughout a whole organisation about a digital strategy and this comes back to a core principle of leadership and management. An improvement in digital skills should be a long-term project for business owners.”