# The Five Digital Markets

All digital channels organise into five fundamental market types. Understanding this taxonomy prevents the most common mistake in digital marketing: treating every channel as independent and choosing channels by what is trendy rather than by where the audience actually is.

The market type determines the channel — never the other way around.

## The Five Markets

### 1. Search

**Customer mode:** Actively looking for solutions. They have intent. This is **demand capture** — the closest to purchase.

**Mental state:** "I have a problem. I need to find a solution. Let me search."

**Channels:**
- Google Search (paid + organic)
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization — visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot answers)
- YouTube Search
- Bing Search
- Marketplace search (Amazon search, Flipkart search)
- App Store search
- Voice search (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri queries)

**When to invest heavily:** When the problem is well-formed and the customer knows to search for it. B2B SaaS, professional services, considered consumer purchases.

**When to deprioritise:** When the customer does not yet know the category exists, or when the search volume is too low to scale.

### 2. Profile / Social

**Customer mode:** Interacting in their personal/professional social contexts. **Demand generation and nurturing**. They are not searching — you are interrupting.

**Mental state:** "I am scrolling for entertainment / professional updates / community."

**Channels:**
- Meta (Facebook + Instagram)
- LinkedIn
- X (Twitter)
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- Pinterest
- Threads
- Bluesky

**When to invest heavily:** When the audience is well-defined demographically/psychographically/firmographically AND the brand has visual or narrative appeal.

**When to deprioritise:** When the brand has no visual story OR when the audience does not spend meaningful time on these platforms.

### 3. Contextual

**Customer mode:** Consuming content elsewhere. You appear alongside relevant content. **Awareness and consideration**.

**Mental state:** "I am reading / watching / listening to something." (You appear in their context, not because they sought you out.)

**Channels:**
- Google Display Network
- Programmatic display (DV360, The Trade Desk)
- YouTube Pre-roll / Mid-roll
- Native advertising (Outbrain, Taboola)
- Podcast advertising
- Connected TV (CTV)
- Newsletter sponsorships

**When to invest heavily:** When the brand has established positioning that benefits from broad awareness, or when retargeting cookies/CDP audiences need re-engagement.

**When to deprioritise:** Early-stage when there is no audience to retarget AND no clear brand story to tell at scale.

### 4. Marketplace

**Customer mode:** Browsing or buying on e-commerce platforms. **High purchase intent but price-competitive environment**.

**Mental state:** "I am buying something. Show me options."

**Channels:**
- Amazon Ads (Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display)
- Flipkart Ads
- Marketplace SEO (listing optimisation)
- Quick-commerce platforms (Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart)
- B2B marketplaces (IndiaMART, TradeIndia for B2B)
- Etsy, Shopify Marketplace, Walmart Marketplace
- App Store Search Ads

**When to invest heavily:** D2C brands with marketplace listings where buyer intent is high and competitive density is manageable.

**When to deprioritise:** Service businesses, considered B2B sales (marketplace dynamics do not apply), brand-building goals (margins too thin, attribution to brand limited).

### 5. Utility

**Customer mode:** Using tools, communities, or resources you have created. **Relationship-building through value**.

**Mental state:** "I use this brand's [tool / community / content] regularly."

**Channels:**
- Email
- WhatsApp
- SMS
- Chatbots (on website, on Messenger, on WhatsApp)
- Mobile apps (your own app)
- Calculators / interactive tools (mortgage calculator, ROI calculator, fit-finder)
- Communities (Slack groups, Discord servers, branded forums, Circle communities)
- Webinars / virtual events
- Free tools / templates / playbooks (gated or ungated)
- Newsletter subscriptions (the brand's own newsletter)

**When to invest heavily:** Always. This is the highest-LTV channel category because you own the relationship. Build here from day one.

**When to deprioritise:** Never deprioritise utility — but pace investment based on team capacity. Better to have one well-run email programme than six neglected utility channels.

## How to apply this taxonomy

When a client says **"we want to do Google Ads"** or **"we should be on TikTok"** or **"let us start a podcast"**, the strategist's first job is to ask:

> Is the target audience in Search mode (actively looking) — or Profile mode (browsing socially) — or Contextual mode (consuming content elsewhere) — or Marketplace mode (buying) — or Utility mode (using tools/communities)?

**The mode determines the market. The market determines the channel set. The channel set narrows to specific platforms.**

If the client says "Google Ads" but the audience is in Profile mode (no active searching), Google Ads will under-perform. The right answer is Meta or LinkedIn, not Google.

If the client says "TikTok" but the audience is in Search mode (high purchase intent, comparing solutions), TikTok will struggle to convert. The right answer is Google Search + retargeting, not TikTok.

## Common multi-market customer journeys

Most customers move through multiple markets during a buying journey. A typical B2B SaaS journey:

1. **Profile/Social** — sees a LinkedIn post about a problem they didn't know they had (awareness)
2. **Search** — Googles the problem the next week (consideration)
3. **Profile/Social** — sees a retargeted LinkedIn ad with a case study
4. **Search** — Googles the brand name + "vs [competitor]" comparison
5. **Utility** — downloads a comparison guide (gated, captures email)
6. **Utility** — gets an email nurture sequence over 2 weeks
7. **Search** — Googles "[brand] pricing"
8. **Utility** — books a demo via the website chatbot

The strategy for this brand is not "do LinkedIn" or "do Google" — it is **all five markets in sequence**, each playing the role appropriate to the stage. The DMFlow document (Core Doc 3.4) maps this end-to-end.

## How channels in different markets reinforce each other

Markets are not independent. Investments in one market lift performance in others:

- **Brand-building in Profile/Social** lifts CTR on Search ads (people recognise the brand, click more)
- **Content marketing in Search/SEO** feeds Utility (newsletter signups, downloads, community joins)
- **Utility (email)** feeds Profile/Social (engaged email subscribers become engaged social followers)
- **Marketplace presence** lifts Search (people search the brand name after seeing it on Amazon)

Cutting investment in one market often weakens performance in another. This interdependency is why DMFlow (Core Doc 3.4) requires explicit channel sequencing logic.

## Five Digital Markets vs Channel Families

The Five Digital Markets is the **strategic taxonomy** — it answers "what kind of attention is the customer giving?"

The [Channel Families](channel-families.md) taxonomy is the **operational grouping for Part 9** — it groups channels by how they are produced and managed (Search & Campaign, Paid platforms, Organic & Influencer, Marketplace & CRM, Content/ATL/BTL/PR, Web + Measurement).

The two taxonomies map to each other but serve different purposes. Use Five Digital Markets when deciding *which markets to play in*. Use Channel Families when *executing across the chosen channels*.
