Marketing is no longer about making cold calls, spreading flyers and shaking hands while exchanging business cards. While those things are still essential, a significant part must also include a digital marketing strategy. These guidelines will show you how to develop a digital marketing strategy. When put into simple terms, these are marketing strategies that include action steps for your digital marketing plan. When you develop these strategies, you’re doing so to achieve marketing goals. The best marketing strategies include carefully selected Internet marketing channels that involve owned, earned and paid media. Don’t confuse your marketing strategy plan with your digital marketing campaign, which consists of the building blocks within your action plan you’ll be using to achieve your goals. You know your audience, but do you know where to find and connect with them? The best marketing strategies use analytics for creating buyer personas instead of relying on stereotypes or assumptions. Once you complete that, think about all organic and paid digital marketing channels that are available. Which ones will your audience be using and at what stage of the sales funnel? Answering these questions will help you determine which marketing channels you should be using, as well as which audience members you should be targeting during each phase of your strategy.