First off, the notion that digital marketing is something more, or something less, than Marketing is silly. Digital marketing is simply marketing. It’s the craft of attracting, converting and retaining customers. And, if you’re good, it’s also making them loyal and even turning them into active advocates.

Depending on what you’re marketing, digital marketing can be the entirety of the plan, or it can be part of a bigger plan that includes traditional marketing (i.e. television, radio, print, and out of home, etc.).

What separates Digital, however, is its ability to more accurately target specific consumers, and to measure its success in reaching them. Hence, there is a new tactical skill that is required in digital marketing — and it centers on data. With digital marketing, the process of targeting can go well beyond simple demographic segmentation. Now it can be trigger-based, using things like behavior, location, recent interaction, and even physical movement. With data, entirely new ways of targeting customers are created.

Audiences are more fragmented than ever, and digital media is a big reason. No epiphany there. The average American is exposed to an estimated 3,000 ads per day. The secret to getting your message through, however, is crafting a compelling story to a specific audience that cuts through the clutter. And to cut through in marketing, you need more than a great product . . . you need a great message and you have to deliver it through the right marketing channels — and very often those channels are digital channels.

But let’s take a step back. Before even thinking of diving into digital marketing, you’ve got to do some homework. And the first order of business? You’ve got to figure out the who, what, why, when, where and how of your business.

• Who are you targeting?
• What are you targeting them with?
• Why should they care?
• When and where will you deliver your message?
• How is what you’re pitching any different than what your competitor is selling to the exact same audience?

Answering these questions first is where marketing really begins. The secret though is that these are in the wrong order, and the order is vitally important. It starts with Why?

If you haven’t yet watched the most-watched TED talk of all time, you should check out Simon Sinek’s talk. The fundamentals are not new. This is the same stuff that Joseph Campbell detailed in his now famous Hero’s Journey. But the story Sinek tells about why it matters is brilliant and makes intuitive sense. (I’ll address the importance of storytelling in a later post, but suffice it to say that it’s really really important.) And the WHY is at the core of your story. It’s what you’ll end up turning to when you look to grow, differentiate, and even pivot your business. The WHY defines the bounds of your marketing sandbox. It answers the big questions. What it doesn’t do is extend into the the other critical areas of marketing — the Who, When, and Where. So let’s expand the Golden Circle Sinek outlines, and get the order clear.

Now before you start answering these questions, take a step back. BREATH.

Step One: I want you to imagine that YOU are a visionary marketer. For a visionary, a small answer to the biggest question of WHY simply will not do. (Hint, your WHY is not about increasing sales, awareness or anything of that sort.)Your WHY is something universal. Summon your inner philosopher/guru/Gandalf and try to create a gigantic, vital, necessary PURPOSE that your business begins to chip away at.

A few examples of possible WHYs for inspiration:

• Apple’s Why: We believe in thinking differently, in everything we do and make.
• Starbucks’ Why: We believe there should be a third place where people can share and enjoy a cup of coffee with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
• Southwest Airlines: We believe the business of business is people.
• Wal-Mart: We believe in everyday low prices.

Got it? Have you come up with a huge WHY that helps explain how your company sees the world and it’s purpose in it?

Step Two: Now you’re ready for your HOW. Think of your HOW as your secret sauce. HOW do you deliver your WHY in a differentiated way. What’s unique about the way you do business?

Step Three: What was it that you’re trying to pitch me again? What’s your product or service? Don’t complicate this one. It’s where you wanted to start at the beginning of this exercise.

Step Four: Who are you trying to sell to? Who will align with your WHY and your HOW? In my next post, I’ll dive into Personas. But if you’re over-eager to answer this question right now, I want you to imagine a single person, with a name and a life, who, if you could only have ONE IDEAL CUSTOMER, would be that customer. What’s her name? What’s her background? Where does she live? What does she do all day? Who does she spend time with? You get the idea. And yes, this applies to B2B as well, but a business can’t be a Persona. It’s more likely the influencer, decision maker, buyer or such. More on Personas in a future post.

Step Five: Where and When should you tell them about this awesome, audacious, life-changing product or service you have? And here’s where digital really kicks in. With digital marketing (and targeting) you can decide exactly when and where your prospect sees your message. Knowing your target customer (see step four), and understanding her habits deeply, you’ve done the work of knowing what she does and where she hangs out online, right? Now, with the targeting capabilities of digital marketing, you can insert your message into the exact right context.

See? Easy.