I think a significant mistake I often see is that strategy is not just a plan. But, by definition it is a plan to beat the competition. And these are not the same thing. So in turn, marketing strategy MUST start with a deep understanding of your competative space; your market, your customer, your competitors, and yourself. Yes, this is the boring / pedestrian part of marketing, but it is so often just given lip service, or worse yet, overlooked completely. I sometimes even see mid-sized corporates ignoring this stuff; crazy. Intelligent segmentation, positioning, and message clarity likely has a larger impact on marketing success, than the newest tactic-of-the-week that just came down the pike. You'll notice we haven't even gotten to the "digital" part yet. Great marketing tactics, will rarely compensate for lousy marketing strategy, which will rarely compensate for a lousy offering. Here's a story. I was a young fella taking a flight to basic training. I was sat next to a grumpy old Sergeant Major; very intimidating. However, I plucked up the courage to ask him a question, "Sergeant, (addressing him incorrectly, was not a good start), what advice would you give a new solider?" I was surprised by his answer, "Son, firstly, you just demoted me a couple of ranks. But to answer your question, become a master of the basics, mastery of the basics will win, every time." I've found that advice applies to just about everything in life, including marketing. With digital having revolutionised marketing over the past 20 years or so, more and more people in marketing are not actually marketers, but are instead marketing technicians. They know the "how" of something, but often don't know it's "why". In our agency, every new staff member, no matter their position, is given a copy of "Principles of Marketing - By Kotler". With a 12 month reading plan, and monthly tests. And given time, during work hours to study. As in the US Marine Corps, where every man is a rifleman, no matter their technical speciality, so it is in marketing. Every marketing tech must be a marketer first, no matter their speciality. Otherwise you're just a swinging Joe in a gun fight with no rifle. Hope this helped. More on reddit.com

Research-backed advice on how to walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk with Reddit Ads. More on business.reddit.com

For SEO, I have had better luck mixing AI with actual contextual research. I run keyword mapping through tools like Surfer SEO or Clearscope, then cross-check content gaps with user behavior data….real win has been in testing SaaS platforms before committing to invest. I use Sprout Score at Sprout24 to shortlist options, because it gives me a 1–10 score breakdown along with contextual analysis. That context shows me if a tool is strong in my use case, not just in general. I have skipped a few “hyped” AI tools this way, and doubled down on the ones that proved value in both ranking gains and workflow savings. More on reddit.com

I've done all of this before, I built a digital product, put it up for sale, promoted it over and over again but to no avail, I never even received a response. More on reddit.com