How to Create a Winning Digital Strategy for Your Business

Perhaps you've heard your organisation needs a digital strategy in today's business environment but don't know where to start when it comes to putting one together.

Well, you've come to the right place!

This blog takes you through all the steps in creating a digital strategy that gives you the upper hand over your competitors.

Here's how to create one:

The Planning Process

Before creating a digital strategy for your organisation, planning is essential. Planning should identify key problems a digital strategy should solve and opportunities to exploit.

Here's what you should be doing at the planning stage:

Audit your existing digital activity

Start by taking a look at your current digital activity. Take a moment to review existing campaigns and see how they're performing and what areas of improvement you can take from them. Consider whether or not the strategies are still relevant and if they need to be updated or changed.

For example, if you've been working on SEO for some time but haven't seen any results, it would be worth checking out other channels that could offer more immediate benefits, such as paid advertising (AdWords) or social media advertising (Facebook).

Review your current digital strategy (or lack thereof)

Whether you've had strategies in the past that haven't worked out, have a current strategy that isn't delivering results or are just doing things ad-hoc, within your marketing efforts lie lessons that could underpin future success.

Do a comprehensive audit of all digital marketing channels and determine what's working, what isn't, and potential growth opportunities. For example, you may find that your online audience is an entirely different demographic from your regular target market. But your promotion is consistent across all channels, so your marketing doesn't speak to them and their unique needs.

Competitor research

Competitor research is an essential step in your digital strategy. You need to know what your competitors are doing and how well it's working for them. Look at the websites of some of your top competitors and see what you can learn from their strategies. Check out their social media profiles, as many brands post content that gives away a lot about their business—including customer service issues that need attention. Also, consider how consumers interact with these businesses online and whether or not they have any complaints about them (an easy way to do this is by searching Google's review section).

Identify new opportunities to connect with your audience online.

A good digital strategy will justify, through thorough research, the digital marketing mediums your organisation should focus on to make the most of your marketing efforts.

And while you think they may be obvious, you'll only confirm that through a thorough analysis of all available digital channels.

In the planning stage, look for new opportunities to connect with your audience online. Look for opportunities to engage with your audience, build brand awareness, build brand loyalty, and establish trust in the brand.

Set Goals

Before you create a strategy, it's crucial to determine its intended goal.

• Are you looking to increase your online presence?

• Do you want to drive more traffic from search engines?

• Are you trying to attract more customers or clients?

If so, then the next step is figuring out how much time and money it will take for your team (if any) to achieve these goals. Your budget should include the cost of getting started and hiring freelancers to fill skills gaps in your team if needed. The more realistic this number is, the better off everyone will be in the long run.

The digital strategy - the key elements to include

Define your audience.

The first step of creating a digital strategy is defining the people you want to reach. What do those people care about? What problems do they have? What solutions would make their lives easier or more fulfilling? And why should you, as a business owner, help them with that problem or fulfilment? Once you've figured out your target audience, it's time to develop personas based on this information.

Define your objectives.

At this point in the process, think about what success looks like for your business. Objectives will come from the overall goal you set in the planning stage and are a series of metrics that, if met, will mean you've reached that goal. Ensure that your objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound) so you can track them later when gauging success against your goal. 

Be ambitious but stay realistic. If all goes well, this will be a living document - meaning that as time goes by and things change within your organisation or industry, some things will naturally become outdated or no longer relevant. If this happens, don't worry about it - simply update or remove those sections so they're no longer part of your plan moving forward!

Map current customer journeys: 

Before creating a plan for what's next, it's essential to understand where your customers are now and how they interact with your business. The mapping process includes the following: 

• Mapping where potential customers go before contacting you via social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter;

• Mapping where existing customers go online before buying something from your store;

• Identifying which channels are used most often by each type/stage demographic segment; and

• Figuring out how much time each stage takes per day before reaching out again.

Once you've completed your customer journey mapping, you have data that tells you where you should best allocate your resources. 

Define the right channels for each audience and evaluate the effectiveness of each channel

You need to evaluate the effectiveness of each channel. Knowing your goals and how to meet them with each channel is essential. You also want to measure results, so you need a way to track them without overcomplicating things or spending too much time on them.

You should define which platforms will meet the needs of your business objectives and where you'll find your audience, then measure how well those channels perform. 

Make sure you're using the right tools for tracking success in each area so that you can easily see what's working and what isn't as well as possible.

Build in measurement and review points

As you create your digital strategy, it's essential to build in measurement and review points to check that all activity is on track and meets marketing objectives. Review points should include defining how the digital strategy integrates with other elements into a broader marketing strategy.

For example, you might want to measure the effectiveness of your website by looking at traffic levels, tracking customer behaviour, or measuring sales conversion rates through specific campaigns. These measurements can all be reviewed and used for continuous improvement as an overall approach to measuring success across multiple channels and initiatives.

Conclusion

A digital strategy is a vital part of any marketing plan and can be used to drive your business forward.

A robust digital strategy can help you meet your business goals while providing meaningful engagement with customers online. The strategy should Identify your audiences, define your goals and objectives, audit current activity and provide a framework to meet your organisation's goals.

Need help with your digital strategy? We can help! For expert guidance on creating a digital strategy that meets the unique needs of your business, get in contact with us today.