Digital Marketing Strategy › what is digital marketing? entertainment and utility. The reciprocity of the transaction is what’s important here – in other words, the exchange is a two-way street that provides benefit to both parties simultaneously. The Internet has changed the world in which we sell. It reaches beyond being a new channel for marketing and offers a new paradigm for the way consumers connect with brands and with each other. The online medium provides consumers with more choice, more influence and more power. Brands have new ways of selling, new products and services to sell as well as new markets in which to sell. The roles played by marketing agencies are shifting too. Traditional agencies are getting better at digital marketing, while agencies that started out as digital shops are starting to play in the above-the- line space. More than ever, integrated strategies that speak to an overall brand identity are vital to achieving an organisation’s goals. However, marketing on the Internet does not necessarily mean throwing out the rule book on marketing and business foundations and principles. Instead, the Internet provides a new environment in which to build on these principles. Profit is still revenue less cost. The Internet does not change that. Brands build loyalty through users who love their products or services. Users fall in love with products and services when their experience is tailored to their needs, as opposed to serving the brand. More than any other type of marketing, digital marketing is measurable. This gives brands the opportunity to build tailored, optimised brand experiences for consumers. 1.5 what is digital marketing strategy? Digital marketing strategy builds on and adapts the principles of traditional marketing, using the opportunities and challenges offered by technology and the digital medium. User-centric thinking, which involves placing the user at the core of all decisions, is vital when looking at building a successful digital marketing strategy. The advent of new technologies means the digital marketing strategist of today is offered not only a plethora of new tactical possibilities, but also unprecedented ways of measuring the effectiveness of chosen strategies and tactics. The fact that digital marketing is highly empirical is one of its key strengths. Everything can be measured: from behaviours, to actions and action paths, to results. This means that the digital marketing strategist should start thinking with return on investment (ROI) in mind. Built into any strategy should be a testing framework and the ability to remain flexible and dynamic in a medium that shifts and changes as user behaviours do.22