Digital as a defensive marketing strategy

Digital marketing can be used as both an offensive and defensive marketing strategy. In defensive marketing, the goal is to prevent competitors from snatching up prospective buyers.

Cracks in your marketing (purchase) funnel are opportunities for smart competitors to seize upon. This is a primary reason we always recommend a marketing strategy that covers all aspects of the consumer journey before strengthening a certain area. This doesn’t necessarily equate higher spending, but rather wiser allocation of your advertising budget.

For instance, an advertiser can be effective at marketing to the top of the funnel by building a strong brand awareness. If this same advertiser neglects marketing to the research or conversion sections of the funnel, and a competitor is more effective in marketing to that weakness, this is an opportunity for your competitor to steal hard-earned leads.

All consumers in all industries go through the same journey through the purchase funnel, from stimulus to purchase, even if the amount of time they spend in the funnel differs by industry. An advertiser can only defend against losing leads when marketing to each stage. Sometimes different sections of the funnel need more shoring up than others.

We can help you better understand how defensive marketing plays into your overall strategy and identify where potential cracks could be forming in your marketing funnel.