Implementing your digital strategy

In practice, there are 4 key steps to implementing your digital strategy:

1. Build your buyer personas

2. Identify your goals and the digital marketing tools you’ll need

3. Evaluate your existing digital channels and assets

4. Plan your campaigns

Let’s look into each of these in a bit more detail.

Building buyer personas

For any marketing strategy to succeed, you need to know exactly who you are marketing to, and the best strategies are built upon creating detailed buyer personas.

So what are they? 

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer(s) that can be created by researching, surveying and interviewing your business’s target audience.

Remember: This information should be based upon real data whenever possible. Making assumptions about your audience can cause your marketing strategy to move in the wrong direction.

To get a full idea of your buyer persona, your research should include a mixture of customers, prospects, and people outside your contact database who align with your target audience.

The following are some tools from Hubspot that can help you in creating buyer personas:

• Make My Persona

• x6 Persona Templates

• Buyer Persona Tool (Hubspot CRM integration)

After building your personas, your next step is identifying your goals and the digital marketing tools you’ll need.

Identify your goals and tools

Goals

Your marketing goals should always have a direct connection to the fundamental goals of your business.

For example, if your business’s goal is: 

• Increase online revenue by 20%

Your marketing goal might be to: 

• Generate 50% more leads through your website than the previous year

If you are looking for a template to help determine what your marketing goals should be, then you can use this one from Hubspot.

You can also try using the following Inbound Goal Calculator, which can be used as a template for adding tangible numbers to the goals you set.

Tools

If you’re stuck trying to decide which marketing tools are right for you, you can use the following factors to help guide your decision:

• User Interface
  Consider how simple (or overwhelming) the platform’s user interface is designed. Many will claim to be simple and intuitive—but this is not always the case!

• Features & Native Integrations
  Each marketing platform will offer different features, so make sure you’re choosing a platform that has the capabilities you need. It’s also important to first consider the existing technology you have, and whether it is being used to its full capabilities.

• Customer Support
  When using a new or unfamiliar system, having access to the best level of help possible is essential. It’s important to recognise that technology is not perfect and that things may break, so having that extra help to resolve your unique issue can be critical.

• Learning Resources
  When purchasing a new marketing automation tool, having online resources available can help you get the most out of your new system. Some platforms have guides, how-to videos, or even webinars that can help you learn how to use the tool.

• Userbase & Reviews
  Although choosing the right platform for your e-commerce business depends on your personal needs and goals, make sure you acknowledge how other users are actually making use of the tool. Look for case studies or video testimonials that highlight what existing customers are saying about their experience.

After identifying your goals and your toolset, your next step is to evaluate your existing digital channels and assets.

Evaluate existing digital channels/assets

It's easy to become overwhelmed when determining the full range of existing digital marketing channels and assets to incorporate into your strategy. 

To get a better grasp of the big picture, gather what you have and categorise each vehicle or asset in a spreadsheet. To categorise effectively, use the following tags:  Owned ,  Earned , and  Paid  media.

 Owned 
Refers to the digital assets your brand or company owns—whether that's your website, social media profiles, blog content, or imagery. These are the channels you have complete control over.

 Earned 
Refers to the exposure you earn through word-of-mouth marketing. Whether that's content you’ve distributed on other websites (e.g. guest blog posts), PR work you’ve been curating, or the customer experience you’ve delivered. Earned media is the recognition you receive because of these efforts. This can also include mentions in the news and positive reviews, and from people sharing your content through their networks or social media.

 Paid 
Refers to any channel you pay for to catch the attention of your buyer personas. This can include things like Google Ads, paid social media posts, native advertising (e.g. sponsored posts on other websites), or any other medium through which you pay in exchange for increased visibility.

Remember: Content can be repurposed across owned, earned, and paid media to maximise impact. For example, a lead-generating landing page (owned media) can be made shareable to encourage audience distribution (earned media) and promoted through paid ads for broader reach (paid media). While combining all three can boost results, it’s not always necessary—strong owned and earned media alone may be enough. Evaluate what works best for your goals and choose the channels that best support your digital marketing strategy.

Plan your campaigns

Audit stage

The last step in planning how to implement your digital marketing strategy is planning out your campaigns. This will involve doing content audits of existing owned content, earned media campaigns and paid media.

 Owned  Audit
Start by auditing your owned content—blog posts, eBooks, landing pages, etc.—to understand what’s working. List all current assets and rank them based on performance tied to your current goals (e.g., lead generation or website traffic). For example, if certain blog posts or landing pages generated the most leads last year, those should rank higher. This helps you identify gaps, prioritise updates, and plan new content that aligns with what your audience needs and what converts best. Always keep your buyer persona in mind when deciding what to keep, improve, or create next.

 Earned  Audit
Next, evaluate your earned media—mentions, shares, backlinks, and PR placements—based on how they’ve contributed to your goals. Use analytics tools to see which sources drove the most qualified traffic or leads. For instance, if a guest article or LinkedIn engagement led to a spike in conversions, it’s worth investing more in those channels. Rank your earned media sources from most to least effective and look for patterns. While history is helpful, don’t ignore new opportunities that align with your goals, even if they haven’t been tested yet.

 Paid  Audit
Finally, review your paid media efforts across platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Determine which campaigns delivered strong ROI and which underperformed. If certain platforms aren’t meeting your goals, consider reallocating budget or adjusting your approach. This audit should help clarify which paid channels to continue, tweak, or drop. 

With insights from all three audits, you’ll be ready to refine your strategy, close content gaps, and begin developing your overall content creation plan.

Bringing it all together

You should now be ready to develop your content creation plan. Just make sure you've completed the following steps:

☑️ Build your buyer personas
Create detailed, research-based profiles of your ideal customers.

☑️ Identify your goals and tools
Align marketing objectives with business goals and choose the right digital tools to support them.

☑️ Evaluate existing digital channels/assets
Evaluate all existing owned, earned, and paid media to understand current performance and uncover gaps.

☑️ Plan your campaigns
Use your audits to determine what content or channels to keep, improve, or eliminate.

Once these steps are complete, you’re ready to build your Content Creation Plan. This plan can be organised in a simple spreadsheet and should include the following columns:

Content Title
The working or final title of the piece.

Format
Type of content (e.g., blog post, video, eBook, infographic).

Goal
What the content is intended to achieve (e.g., lead generation, traffic, brand awareness).

Promotional Channels
Where the content will be shared (e.g., social media, email, paid ads).

Rationale
A brief explanation of why the content is being created and how it fills a gap or meets a goal.

Priority Level
Label content as high, medium, or low priority based on urgency and impact.

Budget or Time Estimate
Include cost if outsourced, or estimated production time if created internally.

This spreadsheet serves as your roadmap, helping you stay organised, focused, and aligned with your strategic goals throughout the content creation process. Check out the example below for how this could look in practice: