You’ll Never Find Me With A Digital Marketing Strategy Template, Here’s Why

Over the last few months I’ve had some friends reach out to me asking if I have a digital marketing strategy template they could take a look at. When I responded to those who asked me for a digital marketing strategy template, I always said I don’t have one. If I’m being honest with myself, I kind of felt silly, because I would then  wonder “should I have one?”

The answer I realized is no. Or at least that’s the answer for me.

Before I go more into this, I’d like to preface it by saying it’s 100% okay to ask for this, and if templates are your thing, I’m not here to tell you it’s wrong; it’s just simply not my style.

Every single strategy I do for every client of mine in the past (present, and future) has a strategy that starts from scratch – and yes that includes the ‘design’ too. Thinking about this over the past few months and realizing how many people do work off templates for their strategy made me really think about why I do it this way. 

So, I want to share those reasons as to why you’ll never, ever, find me working on a singular template designed as a ‘one size fits all’ digital marketing strategy.

1) With a digital marketing strategy template, innovation gets difficult

Whether you realize it or not, when you work with a template, predetermined ideas enter your mind almost immediately. This often leads to narrow-minded strategies featuring the same solutions. This is especially true when you’re a strategist and build digital marketing plans for a living day in and day out. 

Normally, marketing strategy templates will have the same headings in the same places, with ‘industry standards’ or ‘best practices’ listed to make the process faster. On the other hand, by starting with a blank slate and properly diving into the company data, talking to the team and more, you’re able to get ideas upfront. Following this, your blank slate starts with where you learn the challenges are and where the opportunities are instead of taking that information, slotting in what you learned and simply following it using your ‘best practices’ that may not even translate into success with that company.

2) Different goals

Truthfully, every marketing plan you create should vary because companies have different goals, and goals are constantly changing. This is thanks to ever-evolving marketing challenges within a company, industry, online or even depending on the time of year. The goal of these digital marketing strategies are to support those revenue, engagement and retention (or anything in between) goals, and this will always require different channel focuses, types of communication and what kind of content to create.

Sure, there’s always going to be those overarching goals that look the same. But when you dive in deeper, the marketing goals need to be specific, measured and catered to that business making them always look different. With templates, when you have your listed benchmarks based on industry and have pre-set ideas based on assumed goals, it’s simply not enough (in my opinion) because there’s so much more to consider than just what the rest are doing.

3) Different challenges and opportunities

Overarching challenges and opportunities may look similar, and though it’s important to recognize them, it’s even more essential to look at more specific challenges to find the key issues. You can think of it the same way you think of KPIs and goal setting; you have your overarching goes of revenue, but what KPIs will get you there?

Some examples of these surface-level challenges could look like:

• Low engagement on social media

• Low website traffic

• Social ads not performing well

The problem with these types of challenges is that they’re usually not catered to the company itself, it’s a one size fits all approach that can likely be linked to almost every company. Why? Because every company online can always get more traffic, more social engagement and improve their social ads.

But the question is, what are the true current challenges of the company? Some examples of more narrowed down, specific challenges could be:

• Small drops in web traffic from paid social media each week since X date

• Comments on Instagram have decreased compared to last year

• Ad creatives with sale-focused CTAs are not driving a high CTR

These specific challenges give a more clear view, leading to the company's individual opportunities that will help them stand out and get ahead. It’s easier to find these challenges and opportunities without a template since you don't have assumed solutions to more generic challenges or ideas in your head from previous projects.

4) Different stages & resources

Companies can be at various stages and have access to completely different resources which highly influences a digital marketing plan. When I mention resources, I’m not just speaking about budget. It’s about the amount of people on the team, the understanding they have on digital topics and even the time they have in a day. With this thinking, it’s important to remember that even a large company may not have the resources towards a channel like a smaller company does which will force a different type of digital marketing strategy to be developed. 

As a digital strategist, it’s important to take the stage and resources available seriously, because offering a plan that requires a lot of resources to a small startup business, for example, is just simply not going to work. It can lead to the team feeling overwhelmed, overworked and overspending. In a situation like this, a blank slate instead of a template allows you to come up with innovative ways to meet goals within a company's constraints.

5) It’s important to stay on brand (with the company)

Though I always say the content within the digital marketing strategy is far more important than the design, it’s hard to deny that it’s still a big part of it. Though many consultants and freelancers (like myself) have their own brand, I find it important to incorporate many elements of the client’s branding within the plan as well. This not only makes it easier for the client to share within the company, but it also shows them this digital marketing strategy was made for them and that it isn’t a template. Personally, I have always thought this shows respect for their brand and it makes you feel more connected as a true partner.

Curious to learn more about my digital marketing strategy process and how I work with my clients? Reach out and say hi!