Our strategy framework: a clear path to digital marketing that works

If you're tired of ambiguous digital strategies and overblown agency slides, you're not alone. At Critikal, we cut through the noise with a tested strategy framework built for clarity, action, and results.

Whether you’re planning a new campaign, rethinking your funnel, or trying to get your digital marketing under control, this framework helps you focus on what drives growth.

Why You Need a Strategy Framework

Most digital marketing struggles result from three factors: lack of focus, lack of structure, and lack of execution. Our strategy framework solves both.

It gives you:

• A clear starting point

• Aligned business and marketing goals

• A practical implementation guide

• A way to track what’s working and what’s not

Let’s break it down.

The four key steps of our strategy framework

1. Audit

We start by understanding where you are based on data, not assumptions. We analyse:

• First-party data (from your CRM, website, campaigns)

• Publicly available data (Google Trends, ad libraries, forums, etc.)

• Third-party research (like GWI, competitor scans, market reports, and industry benchmarks)

This is not just a surface check. We dive deep into how your channels perform, where your audience is active, how you're positioned against competitors, and what untapped opportunities exist.

We also review your messaging, creative assets, and user experience to understand how each piece contributes to (or holds back) your performance.

The goal is to build a complete, honest picture of your current state. No templates. No guesswork. Just a solid foundation for a strategy that fits your business and market.

This is exactly how we supported TomTom in 2020. By applying our audit process, we uncovered a major gap: customers were actively engaging on Facebook and Instagram, but the brand only responded to customer service queries, missing a huge opportunity to shape perception.

We developed a new community management strategy that empowered our social media manager to engage with every relevant mention and proactively join conversations where TomTom could bring value. We then aligned the engagement playbook to match the brand’s tone of voice, ensuring every interaction felt authentic and on-brand.

The result? A 100% increase in engagement rate and a 200% boost in positive sentiment. Clear proof that the right insights can unlock real impact.

2. Objectives

We work with you to define the right business and marketing objectives. What are you actually trying to achieve? Leads? Revenue? Awareness?

We align the strategy with your goals, resources, and timeline so the plan makes sense for your reality, not some theoretical best practice.

Getting this alignment right is crucial. When business and marketing goals are disconnected, your campaigns risk becoming expensive noise. But when they are clearly aligned, your strategy becomes sharper, your targeting improves, and your results follow.

That’s exactly what we did with Ultimaker. Through a deep objective-setting process, we developed a full-funnel approach with clear goals for each stage. This allowed us to refine targeting, messaging, and measurement, improving the quality of leads and dramatically lowering cost per lead by 5x.

By assigning the right metrics to the right funnel phases, we could focus efforts where they mattered most. It’s a simple shift, but one that made a massive difference in performance.

3. Strategy, Tactics, and Actions

This is where the real plan comes to life. We outline:

• The core strategy (your positioning and growth angle)

• The supporting tactics (channels, content, campaigns)

• The specific actions you need to take (step-by-step guidance for execution)

Everything is documented in a clear, easy-to-follow format. You’ll know what to prioritise, what to delegate, and what to test. Because even the best strategy is useless if it cannot be executed.

The Uber Eats South Africa campaign is a perfect example of this. The goal was to increase brand consideration, and the idea was strong: leverage influencers to make Uber Eats feel more relatable and part of daily life. But what made the difference was how clearly the strategy translated into action.

We created a detailed tactical plan that defined influencer tiers, content types, timelines, and KPIs. We ensured every brief gave influencers enough creative freedom to stay authentic while still hitting core messaging. We also provided hands-on support to keep the execution tight and on track.

The result? Over 5 million impressions, a 5.9% engagement rate, and a 3-point lift in action intent. The campaign also reduced negative sentiment by 9.2 points, proving the emotional connection worked.

A good strategy is not about inspiration. It's about clarity, ownership, and action.

4. KPI Framework

Finally, we build a custom measurement model around your goals.

It’s not just about tracking clicks or impressions. A solid KPI framework connects your channel-level performance metrics to your overarching business objectives. This gives you clarity on which levers to pull and which metrics actually matter for growth.

When done right, it helps you:

• Track performance clearly

• Spot what’s working (and what’s not)

• Optimise as you go

• Prove the impact of your marketing in business terms

We’ve seen this approach work time and time again. A great example is our work with ASICS. Since 2020, we’ve supported their paid media efforts to grow brand visibility, not just to drive immediate e-commerce sales.

Because we’re focused on the brand category, direct conversions don’t tell the full story. That’s why we developed a custom KPI framework that looks at upper-funnel metrics like brand consideration and purchase intent.

We then mapped those outcomes to platform-level signals. Things like in-platform engagement, video completion rate, and reach-impression frequency. These indicators help us measure progress and optimise in real-time.

This way, we’re not guessing. We’re making smart decisions based on the metrics that actually move the needle.

The Outcome: A Strategic Plan You Can Actually Use

Our clients don’t need 80-slide decks. They need direction, clarity, and a plan they can trust.

With our strategy framework, you walk away with:

• A fully documented digital marketing strategy

• An implementation guide you can follow or delegate

• A KPI model to track and optimise your results

But we don’t stop at strategy. Execution matters just as much. That’s why we offer fractional support from our team of digital experts who can help bring your plan to life.

Whether you need help running a campaign, building out a content plan, managing your paid media, or shaping your digital operations, we can plug in for a single project or provide ongoing support as an extension of your team.

No jargon. No fluff. Just a practical, data-backed plan, and the team to execute it.

Ready to Build Your Strategy?

If your marketing feels scattered or stuck, this framework can give you the clarity you need.

Let’s cut the noise and build something that works.