Digital marketing models guide

Frameworks and mindtools to create digital audits, strategies and marketing plans

How will this guide help me and my business?

Many digital or ‘e-marketing’ models have emerged over the last two decades. Partly in response to the introduction of the digital era, and partly as a result of new disruptive methods of marketing.

We believe that models are powerful 'mindtools' to help marketers use a more strategic approach to improve their digital marketing when they create plans to exploit digital marketing.

The guide lists 10 useful models the authors, Annmarie Hanlon and Dr. Dave Chaffey, use in their teaching and books. It is structured in sections for digital audits, planning and strategy. Digital marketing models are useful ways to structure your efforts and can help you tease out insights where you previously were unable to.

As with our companion Essential Marketing Models guide, this guide explains the fundamentals of each digital model, how it works, and gives examples of how to use each model along with best practice advice and templates to use in your business.

How is this guide structured?

This guide is broken down into 3 main sections which the 10 different marketing models fit into. These are:

Audit Models 

• Forrester’s 5Is
• Lauterborn’s 4Cs
• Ten Cs of Marketing

Planning models 

• 6Cs of customer motivation
• Hofacker’s 5 stages of information processing
• RACE Planning Framework
• Technology acceptance model

Strategy models

• 4Cs for marketing communications
• McKinsey’s consumer decision journey
• The Honeycomb model

For each model we explain what it is, who originated it, how to apply it and give examples of how it can be used.

Latest updates

This content is generally evergreen, but has been updated in 2024 to reflect recent digital changes and features updated examples to ease understanding.

Resource Details

• Authors: Annmarie Hanlon and Dr. Dave Chaffey
• Editor: Amelia Cooper, Smart Insights
• Format: Downloadable PDF e-book
• Companion guide:
  • Essential marketing models guide – Discover how to use classic marketing models and planning tools to inform your marketing strategy

About the authors

Dr Annmarie Hanlon

Dr Annmarie Hanlon is a Chartered Marketer and an Associate Professor in Digital and AI Marketing at UCL within the Global Business School for Health. Previously she was the Course Director of MSc Marketing and Leadership at Cranfield University. She is an experienced academic with a strong teaching portfolio in digital marketing.

Before joining academia, she worked in consultancy for 25 years. As an early adopter of technology and ‘online marketing’ she has led digital strategy and planning projects across Europe, in sectors including healthcare and IT, legal and financial, software and manufacturing.

Annmarie has written several SAGE textbooks including Digital Marketing, Digital Business and The Digital Marketing Planner. She is co-editor of The SAGE Handbook of Digital Marketing, and The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Marketing. Her textbooks are adopted in nearly 30 countries by over 100 universities and are the leading textbooks in SAGE’s digital topic collections.

Dr. Dave Chaffey

Dave is co-founder of Smart Insights and creator of the Smart Insights RACE Planning Framework. He has consulted and trained for many businesses including large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses.

For his full profile, or to connect on LinkedIn or other social networks, see the About Dave Chaffey profile page on Smart Insights. Dave is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. He has been recognized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing.