Introduction
Digital Marketing
- Very broad: online advertising, social media, search engine marketing, automated & affiliate
marketing
- Changes very fast → courses get outdated quickly
How to stay on top of the latest digital marketing trends?
- Newsletters: Digitalmarketer, Marketingprofs, SocialMediaExaminer, Moz Top 10, Social Media
Today
- Podcasts: Social Media Marketing Podcast, The Science of Social Media, Social Pros
- Certificates: Google Digital Garage, Facebook Blueprint, Hubspot, Google Analytics, Google Ads
Search, Semrush, Neil Patel,…
AI impact
- Entry-level jobs disappearing faster
- 5 ways to stay relevant:
• Be better than AI
• Use AI as a companion
• Focus on the customer
• Keep learning
• Become an AI champion
The digital First consumer
Key traits
- Users are more informed than they used to be
• Communities, forums, scores, reactions and feedback do have an impact
• Consumers trutst peer opinions more than teh brand communications
• Can make or break a brand
- Shows emotions and power
• Easily show emotions online (positive & negative) → there are no boundaries
• Strongly influence buying behaviour: like and buy, or dislike and buy something else
- Cares about the opinion of others
• Social proof: Recommendations, endorsements, and the opinions of others strongly
affect decisions.
- Wants ultimate convenience
• = Easy fast: Digital consumers want fast, easy access to relevant content (“monkeys
looking for bananas”) → must be easy to find, navigate and use
• = Personalistaion: You only want to see messages that are relevant for you (=
tailormade messages) → AI can enhances this concenience by providing smarter,
personalized experiences
1
,Critical considerations: While digital marketing offers many opportunities, risks exist, including social
media’s impact on mental health and AI inaccuracies1. Critical awareness is essential alongside
strategic use of digital channels.
Digital strategy: building blocks
Before creating a digital marketing strategy, your business foundation must be strong. Without clear
commitments, goals, and positioning, all digital marketing efforts risk collapsing2
H1 – Your business
1. Digital strategy: building blocks – AS IS
Core commitments - Digital maturity - Target group insights – Competition – Positioning
1.1 Core commitments
- Vision: The purpose - WHY
• What is your cause? What do you believe?
• Ex. Ikea → create a better everyday life for many people
- Mission: The proces – HOW
• Specific actions taken to realize why
• Ex. Ikea → Offer a wide range of home items with good design and quality at low
prices that everyone can afford
- Values: The result - WHAT
• What do you do? The results of why. Proof.
• Ex. Ikea → International home product company that designs and sells ready-to-
assemble furniture, appliances, and home accessories
= The golden circle
1
Onnauwkeurigheden
2
Instorting
2
, 1.2 Digital maturity
- Purpose: Audit3 the performance of your current digital channels (POE) to understand what is
working, what isn’t, and identify areas for improvement.
- Scope: Evaluate social media, search, display, email, website, and mobile app performance.
Assess tools, integrations, and tracking setup.
- Outcome: Identify strengths and weaknesses, then score your organization using a digital
maturity scale.
1.2.1 Digital marketing maturity assessment
- Current state: Where are we today?
- Future state: Where do we want to be?
- Development phases: How and by when will we build digital maturity?
1.3 Target groups insights
- Understand your target group(s) and their psychographic and behavioural pattern
- Defining your target group as: ‘male/female, 18-62 years old’ = too wide!
- Focus on: segmentation criteria, behaviour and trends
1.3.1 Segmentation criteria
Objective Inferred (psychographic)
General Geographic: continenten, landen, regio’s, buurten, Social class
steden, cultuur… Personality
Demographic: income, gender, age, education, Lifestyle
profession, life cycle
Specific (behavioural) Occasion4: situaties waarin men product gebruikt Benefit: voordelen die mensen zoeken bij gebruik
Loyality status: trouw aan merk/product (vb. van product
loyaliteit verhogen door loyaliteitskaarten, Buyer readiness6: bereidheid van mensen om
programma's) product te kopen
User status: niet, potentiële, eerste, regelmatige,
ex, -gebruiker
Usage rate5 : heavy, medium en light users
1.3.2 Trends
- Analyzing trends per target group to:
• Personalize Your Approach: Tailor messages to what each group likes and prefers.
• Maximize Relevance: Keep content current and meaningful for each audience.
• Optimize Resources: Focus only on trends that matter to save time and money.
• Increase Engagement: Align marketing with audience interests to get more
interaction.
- Trends on social media
• Ex. “Noting beats a jet 2 holliday”
• Ex. #CleanTok: showing people’s strong interest in cleaning and home care
- Trends per generation: Baby boomers are now active on social media and e-commerce
3
Controleer
4
Gebruiksgelegenheid
5
Mate van gebruik van product
6
Koopbereidheid
3
, 1.3.3 Behaviour
You must uncover:
- What the audience wants
- Buying considerations (= Aankoopoverwegingen)
- Appropriate prices (= Passende prijzen)
- Likes/dislikes and frustrations
- Expectations in your sector
- Sources of inspiration (friends, media, social media, influencers, blogs)
Methods to get consumer insights:
1. Desk research:
- Use existing sources to understand your target audience
- Ex. UCLL library, Statista, GFK, McKinsey, Google insights, Meta Audience Insights
2. Intervieuws
- Target group interviews: Understand needs, wants, motivations, and feelings.
- Internal interviews: Speak with sales, aftersales, and other colleagues in direct- contact with
customers.
3. Social listerning:
- Track conversations, sentiment, and competitors through social media, reviews, and
competitor monitoring (tools: Mention.com, Brand24, Hootsuite, Talkwalker).
- AI social listening: Goes beyond what happened to understand why it happened, offering
scalable, real-time insights. It creates a more user-friendly and powerful social listening
experience.
- Advantages social listening:
• Proactively offer customer support
• Improve your product or build new features based on 'wants'
• Use ongoing conversations and trends to reach more people
• Influencer campaigns and collaborations
4. Search listening:
- Analyze what your target audience is actively searching for online (tools: Google Trends,
Answer the Public, Keyword Planner).
- Identify micro-moments: moments when consumers act on an immediate need.7
• After research summerize in a buying persona and customer journey
• Base each word on extensive desk and field research
7
momenten waarop consumenten handelen vanuit een onmiddellijke behoefte.
4
Digital Marketing
- Very broad: online advertising, social media, search engine marketing, automated & affiliate
marketing
- Changes very fast → courses get outdated quickly
How to stay on top of the latest digital marketing trends?
- Newsletters: Digitalmarketer, Marketingprofs, SocialMediaExaminer, Moz Top 10, Social Media
Today
- Podcasts: Social Media Marketing Podcast, The Science of Social Media, Social Pros
- Certificates: Google Digital Garage, Facebook Blueprint, Hubspot, Google Analytics, Google Ads
Search, Semrush, Neil Patel,…
AI impact
- Entry-level jobs disappearing faster
- 5 ways to stay relevant:
• Be better than AI
• Use AI as a companion
• Focus on the customer
• Keep learning
• Become an AI champion
The digital First consumer
Key traits
- Users are more informed than they used to be
• Communities, forums, scores, reactions and feedback do have an impact
• Consumers trutst peer opinions more than teh brand communications
• Can make or break a brand
- Shows emotions and power
• Easily show emotions online (positive & negative) → there are no boundaries
• Strongly influence buying behaviour: like and buy, or dislike and buy something else
- Cares about the opinion of others
• Social proof: Recommendations, endorsements, and the opinions of others strongly
affect decisions.
- Wants ultimate convenience
• = Easy fast: Digital consumers want fast, easy access to relevant content (“monkeys
looking for bananas”) → must be easy to find, navigate and use
• = Personalistaion: You only want to see messages that are relevant for you (=
tailormade messages) → AI can enhances this concenience by providing smarter,
personalized experiences
1
,Critical considerations: While digital marketing offers many opportunities, risks exist, including social
media’s impact on mental health and AI inaccuracies1. Critical awareness is essential alongside
strategic use of digital channels.
Digital strategy: building blocks
Before creating a digital marketing strategy, your business foundation must be strong. Without clear
commitments, goals, and positioning, all digital marketing efforts risk collapsing2
H1 – Your business
1. Digital strategy: building blocks – AS IS
Core commitments - Digital maturity - Target group insights – Competition – Positioning
1.1 Core commitments
- Vision: The purpose - WHY
• What is your cause? What do you believe?
• Ex. Ikea → create a better everyday life for many people
- Mission: The proces – HOW
• Specific actions taken to realize why
• Ex. Ikea → Offer a wide range of home items with good design and quality at low
prices that everyone can afford
- Values: The result - WHAT
• What do you do? The results of why. Proof.
• Ex. Ikea → International home product company that designs and sells ready-to-
assemble furniture, appliances, and home accessories
= The golden circle
1
Onnauwkeurigheden
2
Instorting
2
, 1.2 Digital maturity
- Purpose: Audit3 the performance of your current digital channels (POE) to understand what is
working, what isn’t, and identify areas for improvement.
- Scope: Evaluate social media, search, display, email, website, and mobile app performance.
Assess tools, integrations, and tracking setup.
- Outcome: Identify strengths and weaknesses, then score your organization using a digital
maturity scale.
1.2.1 Digital marketing maturity assessment
- Current state: Where are we today?
- Future state: Where do we want to be?
- Development phases: How and by when will we build digital maturity?
1.3 Target groups insights
- Understand your target group(s) and their psychographic and behavioural pattern
- Defining your target group as: ‘male/female, 18-62 years old’ = too wide!
- Focus on: segmentation criteria, behaviour and trends
1.3.1 Segmentation criteria
Objective Inferred (psychographic)
General Geographic: continenten, landen, regio’s, buurten, Social class
steden, cultuur… Personality
Demographic: income, gender, age, education, Lifestyle
profession, life cycle
Specific (behavioural) Occasion4: situaties waarin men product gebruikt Benefit: voordelen die mensen zoeken bij gebruik
Loyality status: trouw aan merk/product (vb. van product
loyaliteit verhogen door loyaliteitskaarten, Buyer readiness6: bereidheid van mensen om
programma's) product te kopen
User status: niet, potentiële, eerste, regelmatige,
ex, -gebruiker
Usage rate5 : heavy, medium en light users
1.3.2 Trends
- Analyzing trends per target group to:
• Personalize Your Approach: Tailor messages to what each group likes and prefers.
• Maximize Relevance: Keep content current and meaningful for each audience.
• Optimize Resources: Focus only on trends that matter to save time and money.
• Increase Engagement: Align marketing with audience interests to get more
interaction.
- Trends on social media
• Ex. “Noting beats a jet 2 holliday”
• Ex. #CleanTok: showing people’s strong interest in cleaning and home care
- Trends per generation: Baby boomers are now active on social media and e-commerce
3
Controleer
4
Gebruiksgelegenheid
5
Mate van gebruik van product
6
Koopbereidheid
3
, 1.3.3 Behaviour
You must uncover:
- What the audience wants
- Buying considerations (= Aankoopoverwegingen)
- Appropriate prices (= Passende prijzen)
- Likes/dislikes and frustrations
- Expectations in your sector
- Sources of inspiration (friends, media, social media, influencers, blogs)
Methods to get consumer insights:
1. Desk research:
- Use existing sources to understand your target audience
- Ex. UCLL library, Statista, GFK, McKinsey, Google insights, Meta Audience Insights
2. Intervieuws
- Target group interviews: Understand needs, wants, motivations, and feelings.
- Internal interviews: Speak with sales, aftersales, and other colleagues in direct- contact with
customers.
3. Social listerning:
- Track conversations, sentiment, and competitors through social media, reviews, and
competitor monitoring (tools: Mention.com, Brand24, Hootsuite, Talkwalker).
- AI social listening: Goes beyond what happened to understand why it happened, offering
scalable, real-time insights. It creates a more user-friendly and powerful social listening
experience.
- Advantages social listening:
• Proactively offer customer support
• Improve your product or build new features based on 'wants'
• Use ongoing conversations and trends to reach more people
• Influencer campaigns and collaborations
4. Search listening:
- Analyze what your target audience is actively searching for online (tools: Google Trends,
Answer the Public, Keyword Planner).
- Identify micro-moments: moments when consumers act on an immediate need.7
• After research summerize in a buying persona and customer journey
• Base each word on extensive desk and field research
7
momenten waarop consumenten handelen vanuit een onmiddellijke behoefte.
4
