The document outlines 50 questions that should be asked before developing a digital marketing strategy for Medicare. It discusses developing an understanding of the marketplace, audience, organization's current digital capabilities, goals, brand and messaging. Key areas addressed include the buyer's journey, digital content strategy, and customer relationship management. Developing a digital strategy requires research and understanding opportunities in areas like search engine marketing, social media, websites and more to increase competitive advantage.

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The Comprehensive
Medicare Marketers
Digital Marketing Handbook
Chapter 3- Digital Strategy 101:
A Prerequisite to Building a Digital Strategy
2nd Edition © 2018 KERN, An Omnicom Agency

2. CHAPTER 3
Digital Strategy 101:A
Prerequisite to Building a
Digital Strategy
What is a Digital Strategy?
A Digital Strategy is the process of
identifying, articulating and executing on
digital opportunities that will increaseyour
organization’s competitive advantage.
Building a digital strategy will obviously
require knowledge of the digital landscape,
along with the knowledge that anyMedicare
marketing strategist would need to developany
marketing strategy.
Part of the confusion surrounding digital
strategy is the definition of the term digital
itself. A digital strategy can be all things
digital, from the digitization of paperrecords
to the implementation of adigital backend
member portal complete with Electronic Health
Records (EHRs). From the development and
deployment of mobile digital applications, to
the management of the organization’s social
media properties, to the decision to purchase
and implement digital systems—allfall underthe
broad digitalumbrella.

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• SearchEngine
Optimization
• DigitalDisplay
Advertising
• Social MediaAdvertising
Specifically, for the purpose of Medicaremarketing,
we will define digital as it pertains to marketing in
areas suchas:
• Search Engine Marketing •Social MediaMarketing
• Website andLanding
Page Development
• Email
• MobileApplications
• MobileMessaging
Each ofthe abovetopicshasbeenandwill continuetobe
an entire subject of marketing books.It is the intention
ofthisebooktoprovidea brief,consolidatedoverviewof
the digitaladvertisingtoolsthat are available,inorder
to enlighten Medicare marketers as to what needs to go
intodevelopingandcreatinga digitalmarketingstrategy.
Before ANY marketing strategy can be developed
or created,questionsmust beaskedandanswered.
Oftentimes, in order to provide answers, research
must beconducted,assessedandstudiedinorderto
understandthe insightsgainedfromthe research.
The Marketplace
1. What is the marketplaceopportunity?
2. What is the market share of our
top three competitors?
3. What is our marketshare?
4. Where within our DMA (designated market
area) are the best opportunities for growth?
The Audience
5. How many people 65+ yearsold are
in-market within the DMAnow?
6. How many people are 64 years old this
yearwho will be aging into Medicare within
the DMA this year, and nextyear?
7. Have we developedtarget-audience
progressive personas?
8. Have we developed segmentation
studies, informing segmentationthrough
digital analytics andinsights?
9. What are the digital media consumption
behaviors and habits of our target audience?
10. What is the buyer’s journey for
60–65 year olds(Age-Ins)?
11. What is the buyer’s journey for 65+ year
olds with apropensity to switch (AEP)?
12. What is the buyer’s journey for 65+ year
olds able to enroll year-round in plans
enjoying a CMS 5-Star Quality Rating?
13. What is our audience thinking, feeling,
experiencing, expecting and considering at each
stage of the modern buyer’s10-stage journey?
Your Organization’s
Current State of
Digital
14. Specifically regarding each of the digitalchannels
and capabilities, what are theorganization’s:
• Strengths?
• Weaknesses?
• Opportunities?
• Threats?
Digital Goals
15. What are the growth goals, or how many
new incremental members are being
sought, to add through digitalchannels?
16. What digital goals can bedeveloped
to better engage withmembers?
17. What is thedigital transformation
vision for theorganization?
18. How can better service be providedto
members through digitalmeans?
Let’s begin with:
50 Questions to ask your organization before developing a
digital Medicare marketing strategy

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19. How can operations be moreeffective
and efficient through digitalmeans?
20. What is thecapacity for integrating the
different parts of adigital strategy?
21. What is the plan to integrate digital
advertising with other advertising,
marketing and event-drivenefforts?
22. What defining Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) andother metrics will digital programs
and progress be measuredby?
23. What is the capacity to perform an analytical
review of efforts to gain insight into how
digital efforts can beoptimized?
24. What is the plan for agility in refining the
digital strategy at regularintervals?
25. What are the estimates for the future
digital investment roadmap?
Brand, Positioning and Messaging
26. How to best communicate thecore
features and values of thebrand?
27. How to addvalue to the brand
through digitalmeans?
28. How to differentiate from competitorsand
communicate this through digitalmeans?
29. What are the positions and messages
of keycompetitors?
30. What is the “white space” within the industry
messaging that can be leveraged, controlled
and owned by theorganization?
31. What is the brand messaging and
positioning for products andpeople?
Digital Content Strategy,
Digital Content Audit and
Digital ContentCreation
32. What is digital contentstrategy?
33. Is our content strategy mapped to the buyer’s
journey for eachsegment of our audience?
34. What is the organization’s owned mediastrategy?
35. What is our earned mediastrategy?
36. What’s the best way to promote, advertise, leverage
and exploitour owned and earned media, with digital
paid media, through various targetingoptions?
37. Can the digital e-communicationsstrategy
be streamlined andrefined?
38. Can implementation of personalized messaging
through digital means to our audience berealized?
39. Are there plans to create a content hub?
40. Have digital assets been audited? And if so,when?
41. What’s the best wayto perform a
gap analysis ofcontent?
42. How do we create a digital editorial calendar?
Digital CRM
43. How can we best engagewith
our membersdigitally?
44. How to determine the current level of
online member engagement?
45. What goals can be set to improve
digital engagement?
46. What KPIs can be put in place to
measure digitalengagement?
47. What are the digital loyalty drivers that exist
now, and what drivers do we need to have?
48. What are the digital loyalty barriers that need
to be overcome, and how do weovercome?
49. How can member advocacy be
improved through digitalmeans?
50. Whatis our eCRM approach and
method for dataprofiling?
There are other important questions that need to be
askedand answered in order to craft a digital marketing
strategy. Many of these will be posed in the following
chapters that specifically discuss digitaltactics.
There are other important
questions that need to be
asked and answered in order
to craft a digital marketing
strategy, many of which will
be posed in the following
chapters that specifically
discuss digital tactics.
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