Digital marketing foundations: strategy before tactics

Decide who you are marketing to, what you offer them and which channels to use, then write it on one page with a budget.

Most small businesses start marketing with a tactic. Someone opens an Instagram account, boosts a few posts, tries a Google ad, and three months later cannot say what worked or who it was for. They worked hard enough, but nobody decided who the customer is, why they should choose you over the alternatives, and what each channel is supposed to do. This course makes those decisions first, in order, with Singapore examples from hawker brands, tuition centres, online sellers and advisers. You end with a one-page plan, a goal and a budget, so every tactic you learn later has a job to do.

What you'll be able to do

• Explain what marketing is responsible for and what belongs to sales, operations or product
• Map your customer's journey from first noticing a problem to buying again and recommending you
• Write a target customer description and a positioning statement against real alternatives
• Write a value proposition and test it with five people from your target group
• Compare search, social, email, ads and partnerships and choose two channels to start with
• Set a marketing goal tied to a business number and a budget you can explain
• Produce a one-page marketing plan with a 90-day review cadence

Syllabus

Module 1: Know what marketing is for

What marketing is responsible for, what it is often confused with, and how to tell whether your current activity is marketing or just being busy online.

• 1.1 Marketing starts with who, not with posting
• 1.2 What marketing is not: sales, a logo, or an ad
• 1.3 The four Ps still describe the whole job
• 1.4 Audit what your business calls marketing today

Module 2: Follow your customer from stranger to repeat buyer

The customer journey and the funnel as models, what a person needs from you at each stage, and where your business currently loses people.

• 2.1 The journey from noticing a problem to telling a friend
• 2.2 Why the funnel is a useful lie
• 2.3 What each stage needs from you
• 2.4 Map the journey for one real customer type

Module 3: Choose who you are for and why they should pick you

How to describe a target customer narrowly enough to market to, and how to position your business against the alternatives that customer already has.

• 3.1 Pick a customer narrow enough to picture
• 3.2 Customers hire products to get a job done
• 3.3 Position against the alternatives, not against everyone
• 3.4 Write a positioning statement you can test

Module 4: Write a value proposition a stranger understands

Turn your positioning into a value proposition that says who it is for, what it does and why to believe it, then test it on real people before spending on it.

• 4.1 The parts of a value proposition
• 4.2 Match what you offer to jobs, pains and gains
• 4.3 Test it with five real people before you spend
• 4.4 Run the five-person value proposition test

Module 5: Compare the channels and pick two to start

How owned, earned and paid media differ, what search, social, email, ads and partnerships are each good at, and how to choose two channels a small team can run well.

• 5.1 Owned, earned and paid media
• 5.2 Search catches demand, social creates it
• 5.3 Email, ads and partnerships compared
• 5.4 Score your channels and choose two

Module 6: Set goals and a budget you can defend

Connect marketing goals to a business number, pick the few metrics that matter for each channel, and set a budget using methods you can explain to a partner or boss.

• 6.1 From business goal to channel number
• 6.2 Leading and lagging numbers
• 6.3 What a customer is worth and what you can pay for one
• 6.4 Set a starting budget and a test budget

Module 7: Put the plan on one page and run it

Bring every decision into a one-page marketing plan, set a 90-day rhythm for running and reviewing it, and decide what to change at each review.

• 7.1 What goes on a one-page marketing plan
• 7.2 Run it in 90-day cycles
• 7.3 When to keep going, change or stop a channel
• 7.4 Finish and present your one-page plan

Module 8: Find your place in a marketing team

The main roles in marketing, how small businesses, agencies and in-house teams divide the work, and how to choose and build skills toward a role.

• 8.1 The roles in a marketing team and what each produces
• 8.2 In-house, agency or freelance
• 8.3 Build a portfolio from this course

Frequently asked questions

How long does the course take?

About eight and a half hours across eight modules, including the exercises. The final project adds 30 days of running your plan, at whatever pace your business allows.

Do I need a business to take it?

No. You can use your employer, a family business, a friend's shop or a side project. The exercises work best on a real business with real customers you can talk to.

How is this different from the other digital marketing courses?

This course is the plan. The others go deep on one channel each: Content and copywriting that people read, SEO and AI search, Social media and short-form video, Paid ads: Meta, Google and TikTok, and Email marketing and automation. Take this one first.

Will this tell me which platform to use?

It teaches you how to choose, using your customer, your budget and the time you have. Two businesses in the same industry can reasonably pick different channels.

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