Discover the principles of a successful digital marketing strategy

In a world of acronyms, SOSTAC® is one that any successful digital marketer should be aware of.

Created by PR Smith, SOSTAC® stands for Situation Analysis, Objectives, Strategy and/or Strategic Positioning, Tactics, Action and Control. It’s a valuable framework to help you develop your marketing strategy.

This two-week course, designed by digital marketing experts Target Internet and The Open University, will provide you with a key overview of the framework and how you can use it in practice.

Explore the role of SOSTAC® in developing an effective digital marketing strategy

You’ll gain an introduction into how each step can support your strategic planning. You’ll cover the importance of using insight to guide your objective setting and discover why strategic positioning is key in determining your overarching approach.

You’ll also find out how SOSTAC® can help you think strategically about your tactics and how to put them into action, considering resources and which tools and processes to use. Furthermore, you’ll be introduced to ways to review, measure, and iterate your strategy with SOSTAC®’s control process.

Understand how to carry out situation analysis

You’ll discover how to carry out the first ‘S’ in SOSTAC® - ‘Situation Analysis’. This will include examining external data about things like channel adoption and usage, and internal data to gauge how effective your current approach is. You’ll also define your user personas and map out existing user journeys.

Learn essential skills from digital marketing experts

You’ll learn with Target Internet who have provided expertise to leading brands including the BBC, Sony, Tesco, Vodafone, Mercedes, L’Oreal, and Warner Bros.

What topics will you cover?

SOSTAC® in perspective
Exploring the steps of SOSTAC®
Situation analysis in perspective
External insights
Internal insights
Organisational capability

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Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Explore the role of planning frameworks in developing an effective digital marketing strategy
Identify the need for insights to help decide on the most appropriate objectives, strategy and tactical plans
Demonstrate the role of setting objectives and having a measurement approach to report on progress against these goals
Evaluate the need for an overarching strategy that can then be implemented using tactical plans

Who is the course for?

This course is ideal for those who are interested in deepening their understanding of digital marketing strategy as part of their overall approach to digital marketing.

It will be of particular interest to anyone wishing to further their studies in marketing, communications and business more generally.

Who will you learn with?

Daniel Rowles

MD TargetInternet.com - helping upskill the world's leading organisations in Digital Marketing & Digital Transformation.

Host of the Digital Marketing Podcast, a global top 20 business podcast.

Who developed the course?

The Open University

As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.

Established
1969
Location
Milton Keynes, UK
World ranking
Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Target Internet

Target Internet delivers digital training to some of the world’s leading organisations, as well as building online learning that is used in over 100 countries worldwide. As publishers of the global Digital Marketing Skills Benchmark and the Digital Marketing Podcast, they have unrivalled access to market insights and expertise.

About this ExpertTrack

Learn how to plan and build an effective digital marketing strategy using PR Smith’s SOSTAC® framework.

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