A digital marketing strategy is a short, written set of choices: what you want marketing to achieve, who you are talking to, why they should pick you, which channels you will use and how you will know it worked. Most growing businesses do not need a longer document than that. They need the choices made explicitly, in the right order, and reviewed on a schedule.
This article gives a working framework you can complete in a few sessions, with a decision table for choosing channels and a method for allocating budget without relying on made-up benchmarks.
Strategy versus plan versus tactics
Government small business guidance makes a useful split. The Queensland Government’s marketing guide separates a long-term strategy (the “why” and “what”) from a shorter-term plan (the “how” and “when”), and then implementation on top (business.qld.gov.au). That separation prevents the most common failure: jumping to tactics such as “we should be on TikTok” before anyone has agreed what the business needs.
Keep three layers distinct:
- Strategy: objectives, audience, positioning, priority programs. Changes rarely.
- Plan: tactics, timing, owners, budget, measures. Reviewed quarterly.
- Execution: the posts, ads, pages and emails. Changes weekly.
Step 1: Assess where you are
Before setting goals, write down what is true today. The Queensland guide suggests researching your market and running a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). The business.gov.au guide starts with researching customers, competitors and demand (business.gov.au).
Useful questions for a growing business:
- Where do current customers come from, and which sources produce the best customers rather than the most enquiries?
- What do customers say when they explain why they chose you?
- Which assets exist already: a website, a customer list, reviews, photography, video?
- What can the team realistically sustain each week?
Step 2: Set objectives you can measure
Both government guides recommend SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Add one discipline: separate the business outcome from the marketing measure.
| Business outcome | Marketing measure | Where it is tracked |
|---|---|---|
| More qualified enquiries | Contact form submissions and calls from target locations | Analytics key event, call tracking |
| Higher repeat purchases | Returning customer rate from email | CRM or email platform |
| Wider awareness in a new region | Branded search and direct visits from that region | Search Console, analytics |
Limit yourself to one or two primary objectives per quarter. Five objectives is a wish list, not a strategy.
Step 3: Define audience and positioning
Segment your market and prioritise the segments that suit the business, as the Queensland guide advises. Then write a positioning statement a stranger could understand: who it is for, what problem you solve, why you are different, and the proof you can show.
A simple test: if a competitor could swap their name into your statement and it would still be true, it is not positioning yet. Specific claims you can substantiate beat adjectives. Any claim you publish must be true and supportable under the Australian Consumer Law (see our piece on organic social versus paid advertising for the ACCC’s expectations around promotions).
Step 4: Choose channels with a decision table
Do not pick channels by fashion. Pick them by the job each does and by what your audience already uses.
| Job | Typical channels | Suits when |
|---|---|---|
| Capture existing demand | Search (organic and paid), Google Business Profile | People already search for what you sell |
| Create demand | Short-form video, social, partnerships | Your category is unfamiliar or visual |
| Convert interest | Landing pages, email, retargeting | You already have traffic that does not act |
| Retain and grow | Email, loyalty, community | Repeat purchase or referral matters |
Start with one channel per job at most, and add another only when the first is running reliably. A narrow programme done consistently beats five channels done sporadically. Our guide to landing pages that convert campaign traffic covers the conversion step, which is where many strategies leak.
Step 5: Allocate budget by logic, not benchmarks
Published “typical percentage of revenue” figures vary by source and industry and rarely fit a specific business, so this article does not quote one. Use this logic instead:
- Fix the floor: the minimum needed to keep working assets alive (website, hosting, tools, content upkeep).
- Fund the proven: put the largest share behind channels with measured return.
- Reserve a test budget: a small, explicit slice for one experiment at a time, with a written hypothesis and a stop date.
- Reweight quarterly: move money toward what the measurement shows, and cut what does not work. business.gov.au advises analysing results and removing activities that were not effective.
Budget includes time and production, not only media spend. A video asset or landing page may be a one-off cost that serves several channels.
Step 6: Build measurement in from the start
Decide the measures before launch. In Google Analytics, a key event is an event that measures an action particularly important to the success of your business, and any collected event can be marked as one (Analytics Help). Mark your enquiry form, booking or purchase as key events, then compare channels on those actions rather than on clicks.
Adopt UTM discipline early. Analytics is case sensitive, so utm_source=google and utm_source=Google are treated as different sources, and three parameters (source, medium, campaign) are required (Analytics Help). A shared naming sheet prevents fragmented reports. For the full measurement hierarchy, see how to measure creative campaign performance beyond views.
Step 7: Set a cadence
Strategy only works if it is reviewed. A workable rhythm:
- Weekly: check delivery, publish, fix problems (30 minutes).
- Monthly: review key events by channel, decide what to keep, change or stop.
- Quarterly: revisit objectives, positioning and budget split. The Queensland guide suggests quarterly performance reviews.
One-page strategy checklist
- One or two measurable objectives for the quarter
- A positioning statement with provable claims
- Priority audience segments named
- One channel per job, with an owner each
- Budget split into floor, proven, test
- Key events and UTM naming agreed
- Review dates in the calendar
Where Radiance Impact fits
If you want help turning this into a working plan, Radiance Impact’s Growth & Marketing division covers search visibility and SEO, social, campaigns and strategy, and can connect that work with the Studio’s video production and the Technology team’s websites. Start a conversation through /contact or see /growth.
Sources
- How to write a marketing plan, business.gov.au
- Writing a marketing strategy and plan, Queensland Government
- Key events in Google Analytics, Google Analytics Help
- Collect campaign data with custom URLs, Google Analytics Help
