1Triggered
'ato letter what does it mean'
Accounting
- What they're thinking
- Am I in trouble, and how fast do I need help?
- What to say
- Calm and specific: what the letter usually means, and that you can look at it this week.
Digital marketing
strategy.
A digital marketing strategy decides who you're selling to, where they look, what they need to hear and where the budget goes first. Mine is called the Market Blueprint. It maps the searches in your market, the state of mind behind each one and the follow-up questions AI looks up, then turns that into a 90-day plan ranked by impact. It's a one-off piece of work, and you keep it whether I run it or you do.
Written by Dan Picken, founder. Last checked 28 October 2026.From my audits
What I see before
a Blueprint.
Most businesses that ask for strategy help already have a plan of sorts. These are the patterns that come up most.
- 1
Budget set by last year
This year's spend is last year's plus a bit, split the same way, without anyone checking which part earned its keep.
- 2
Every channel at once
A little on Google, a little on Meta, some SEO, a newsletter. None of it enough to work, all of it enough to cost.
- 3
Keywords chosen by volume
The biggest search terms picked first, because they're big. The smaller, specific ones that actually turn into customers get skipped.
- 4
Personas nobody uses
A document with stock photos and invented names that nobody has opened since the workshop.
- 5
Nobody asked sales
The person who answers the phone knows what customers worry about. They're rarely asked.
- 6
Strategy as a deck
Forty slides, presented once, then filed. A strategy that doesn't change what happens on Monday isn't one.
What the research says
Most of your market
isn't buying yet.
Most strategies are built for the people searching today. The research on how businesses grow says that's a small slice of the market, and planning only for them leaves money on the table later.
- 01
Most buyers are out of the market
Research by John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found only about 5% of B2B buyers are in the market at any one time. If 80% of companies switch business banks once every five years, about 2% are looking in any given month.
What I do: Plan for both groups: search and ads catch the few buying now, and being known reaches the rest before they start looking.
- 02
Buying starts with a moment
Ehrenberg-Bass researchers call them category entry points: the moments when someone starts thinking about a category. The more of those moments a brand is linked to, the more likely it comes to mind.
What I do: List the moments your buyers start looking: a leak, a tax deadline, a new hire, a birthday. Many of them show up as searches.
- 03
Short and long term work differently
Binet and Field's analysis of advertising effectiveness cases found the best results came from a split of about 60:40 between brand building and sales activation.
What I do: Don't put every dollar into ads that only reach people already searching. For a small local business the split leans further to sales, but rarely to 100%.
The 60:40 figure comes from large advertisers' campaigns, so I use it as a direction, not a formula. These are published findings, linked so you can read them. My job is turning them into a plan for your budget.
In-market calculator
How many are
buying right now?
If your customers only buy every few years, most of your market isn't looking for you today. Put in roughly how many potential customers there are in your area or niche, and how often each one buys. This is the split every strategy has to plan for.
Businesses, households or people who could realistically buy from you. A rough number is fine.
For example: a new accountant every 60 months, a dentist check-up every 6, a kitchen renovation every 180.
In the market this month
33
- In the market this quarter
- Not buying this quarter
- Share of your market buying this month
An average. Real buying comes in waves: end of financial year, school holidays, the first cold snap. Search data, like Google Trends, shows when the waves arrive, which is part of the Blueprint.
Method: Buyer State Mapping
What a Buyer State Map
looks like.
One row from the map for four different businesses. Each search comes from a different state of mind, so each needs a different message.
2Comparing
'solar battery worth it nsw'
Energy
- What they're thinking
- Will this pay for itself, or am I being sold to?
- What to say
- An honest payback range with the maths shown, before any quote form.
3Ready
'physio open saturday gosford'
Health
- What they're thinking
- Can I get in this weekend?
- What to say
- Saturday times and book online, in the first line.
4Checking
'[business name] reviews'
Any
- What they're thinking
- Is this place what it looks like?
- What to say
- Recent, specific reviews and a real person's name on the page.
What's in the Blueprint
Three maps,
one plan.
Each part uses one of the methods. Together they show what your market searches, what it's thinking, and where you can win.
Search Relationship Map
Every search in your market, grouped the way Google groups them, with the gaps nobody covers. Built with Search Relationship Mapping.
Best for: Decides which pages to build and which campaigns to run.
Buyer State Map
The state of mind behind each group of searches and the message that fits it. Built with Buyer State Mapping.
Best for: Decides what every ad and page says.
Fan-out Map
The follow-up questions AI tools look up behind your most important searches. Built with Fan-out Mapping.
Best for: Decides what your pages must answer to be quoted by ChatGPT and Google's AI.
Competitor read
Who shows up for your searches, what they say, what their reviews complain about, and where they're thin.
Best for: Shows where you can be different, not just louder.
90-day plan
The work ranked by likely impact and effort, with the first two weeks spelled out.
Best for: What to do Monday, whether I run it or you do.
How most strategies are made.
How I make mine.
Most strategiesHow I do it
Starting pointA template and a workshop.Your market's real searches, reviews, competitors and sales data.
AudiencePersonas with stock photos.Buyer states, from what people search and say.Buyer State Mapping
KeywordsA list sorted by volume.A map of how searches connect, and the gaps.Search Relationship Mapping
OutputA deck that sits in a folder.A 90-day plan, ranked by impact, that you can run without me.
How it works
Four steps.
Nothing hidden.
- 01
Free audit
I look at what you're doing now and tell you honestly whether a Blueprint is worth it yet.
- 02
Research
Your market's searches, competitors, reviews and AI answers, plus your own sales and enquiry data.
- 03
The maps
Search Relationship Map, Buyer State Map and Fan-out Map, built from that research.
- 04
The plan and walkthrough
A 90-day plan ranked by impact, walked through on a call. Yours to keep, run it yourself or with me.
What you get
- Search Relationship Map: your market's searches, grouped, with the gaps
- Buyer State Map: the message for each state of mind
- Fan-out Map for the AI searches that matter to you
- A competitor read: who shows up, what they say, where they're thin
- A 90-day plan ranked by impact, with the first two weeks spelled out
- A walkthrough call, and the files to keep
- Direct access to me, start to finish
Signals this works on
Out of the 8 signals every page and ad sends.
- Relevance signal
- Message match
- AI legibility
Questions
people ask.
What should a digital marketing strategy include?
Who you're selling to and what triggers them to look, the searches and channels where they look, what each type of buyer needs to hear, where the budget goes first, and how you'll know it worked. If it doesn't say what to stop doing, it isn't finished.
How is the Market Blueprint different from a marketing plan?
A plan lists activities. The Blueprint starts with evidence from your market: what people search, how those searches connect, what they're worried about and what AI tools look up. The plan comes last, built from that.
Does a small business need a marketing strategy?
A small business needs one more, because there's less money to waste. It doesn't need to be long. One page that says who, where, what to say and what to spend first beats a thick document.
Can I run the plan myself?
Yes. It's written so you or your team can follow it. Some people run it themselves, some hand it to me, some split it.
What do you need from me?
Read-only access to your ad and analytics accounts if you have them, your rough sales or enquiry numbers, and a short chat with whoever answers your phone or makes the sales. They know what customers worry about.
When is a Blueprint worth it?
When the decision is bigger than a single fix: launching a new product or area, moving a lot more budget into marketing, or running several channels when nobody can say which one is working. For one leaking account, the free audit and monthly work usually come first.
Know where the money
should go first.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.
Keep going