Online Marketing: Strategy, Tools, and Hands-On Practice

The Human Knowledge Project

Chapter 01 — Marketing Strategy and the Customer

Introduction

Online marketing tools change rapidly.

The underlying purpose of marketing changes much less.

Marketing connects something of value with people who may need or want that value. Before deciding what to post, where to advertise, or which technology to use, you need to understand what you are offering and whom you are trying to serve.

This chapter establishes that foundation.

1. Marketing Begins With the Customer

Organizations naturally think about themselves.

They think about their products, services, history, technology, achievements, and goals.

Customers usually begin somewhere else.

They begin with their own needs.

A prospective customer may be asking:

Good marketing connects the organization's offering with those questions.

2. Product Features and Customer Value

A feature describes something a product or service has or does.

Value describes why that feature matters to the customer.

Suppose an educational service offers instruction in several languages.

The feature is:

"Instruction is available in multiple languages."

Possible customer value might be:

"A learner can study difficult material in a language they understand well."

These statements are related, but they are not identical.

Marketing becomes clearer when features are translated into meaningful value.

3. The Customer Problem

A useful marketing strategy identifies the problem or need being addressed.

Problems can be practical.

A person may need:

Problems can also involve time, convenience, uncertainty, confidence, access, or risk.

The marketer's job is not to manufacture a problem that does not exist.

It is to understand genuine needs and communicate honestly when an offering can help.

4. The Target Audience

"The general public" is rarely a useful target audience.

Different people have different needs, resources, motivations, and ways of finding information.

A target audience is a defined group of people whom an organization is particularly prepared to serve.

Audience characteristics might include:

Demographic information can sometimes be useful, but marketers should avoid assuming that a demographic characteristic automatically determines an individual's interests or behavior.

Audience definitions should be based on evidence whenever possible.

5. The Value Proposition

A value proposition explains why someone should consider an offering.

A useful value proposition answers three questions:

  1. Who is it for?
  2. What important problem or need does it address?
  3. What meaningful value does it provide?

A value proposition is not merely a slogan.

It is a statement that helps guide the entire marketing system.

Website copy, search strategy, content, email, social media, and advertising should all reflect the value the organization actually provides.

6. Positioning

Positioning concerns how an offering is understood relative to alternatives.

Alternatives include direct competitors, but they may also include:

Useful positioning does not require attacking competitors.

It requires understanding what makes an offering meaningfully different and identifying the circumstances in which those differences matter.

7. Marketing Objectives

A marketing objective describes a result you want marketing activity to produce.

Examples include:

"Post more on social media" is an activity, not an objective.

A useful objective connects activity to an outcome.

8. The Customer Journey

People rarely move instantly from first hearing about an organization to becoming committed customers.

A simplified journey might look like:

Awareness → Interest → Consideration → Action → Retention → Advocacy

A person may first encounter an organization through a search result.

Later, that person may read an article.

Days later, the person may return directly to the website.

After comparing alternatives, the person may subscribe, enroll, purchase, or make contact.

Understanding this journey helps marketers provide useful information at different stages.

9. Choosing Channels After Strategy

A common mistake is choosing a marketing platform before defining the marketing problem.

An organization may decide:

"We need to be on every social network."

A better sequence is:

  1. Define the audience.
  2. Understand its needs.
  3. Define the value proposition.
  4. Determine the desired action.
  5. Learn where the audience looks for information.
  6. Select appropriate channels.
  7. Measure the results.

The correct channel depends on the audience and objective.

There is no universally best marketing platform.

10. Organic and Paid Marketing

Online marketing can produce attention in different ways.

Organic marketing includes activities that do not require payment for each exposure or click, such as:

Paid marketing includes:

Organic marketing is not free. It requires time and resources.

Paid marketing does not automatically produce results. It simply purchases access to potential attention.

Both should be evaluated according to outcomes.

11. Trust

Trust is especially important online because visitors often encounter organizations they have never heard of before.

Trust can be strengthened through:

Trust can be damaged quickly by exaggerated claims, deceptive design, hidden charges, misleading advertising, or misuse of personal information.

12. Measurement Begins With the Objective

Measurement should be designed before a campaign begins.

Suppose the objective is to increase course enrollment.

Useful measurements might include:

If the objective is awareness, different measurements may be appropriate.

Metrics are useful only when they help answer a meaningful question.

Hands-On Project — Build Your Marketing Foundation

Choose a real organization, project, product, service, or educational program to use throughout this course.

Write a one-page marketing foundation containing the following:

A. Offering

Describe what is being offered in two or three sentences.

B. Customer Problem

Describe the genuine problem, need, or goal the offering addresses.

C. Target Audience

Identify the primary audience as specifically as the available evidence allows.

D. Value Proposition

Write a short statement explaining why the offering is valuable to that audience.

E. Desired Action

Identify the principal action you want a prospective customer or user to take.

F. Evidence

List the information you currently have supporting your assumptions.

Then list what you still need to learn.

Keep this document. You will revise it throughout the course.

Exercises

Strategy Exercises

1. In your own words, distinguish marketing from advertising.

2. Why should audience and customer need normally be considered before selecting a marketing platform?

3. Give an example of a product feature and translate it into customer value.

4. Why is "everyone" usually an ineffective target-audience definition?

5. What three questions should a useful value proposition answer?

6. Identify three alternatives a customer might consider besides a direct competitor.

7. Explain the difference between a marketing objective and a marketing activity.

8. Why might two organizations selling similar products need different marketing strategies?

Customer Journey Exercises

9. Describe a possible customer journey from first awareness to purchase or enrollment.

10. At which stage might educational content be particularly useful?

11. At which stage might comparison information become important?

12. Why might a customer leave and later return several times before acting?

Measurement Exercises

13. Choose one marketing objective for your working project.

14. Identify three measurements that would help determine whether that objective is being achieved.

15. Identify one metric that might look impressive but would not necessarily demonstrate success.

16. Explain why measurement should be considered before a campaign begins.

Reflection Questions

17. What problem does your selected organization or project actually solve?

18. What evidence supports that conclusion?

19. Who benefits most from the offering?

20. What might prevent that audience from acting?

21. What information would increase their confidence?

22. Where is that audience likely to look for information?

23. Which assumptions about the audience are currently unsupported?

24. How could you test those assumptions?

Chapter 01 — Answer Key

Answers will vary for exercises involving the learner's own project.

For conceptual questions, strong answers should demonstrate these principles:

The hands-on marketing foundation created in this chapter will be used and revised in later chapters.