What is Digital Strategy. A Complete Guide
Digital strategy is a wide-ranging term. It is an evolving business strategy designed to improve performance and operations by use of technology. As the world continues to digitize almost everything, all strategies of business will soon focus primarily on digital strategy.
In this post, we’ll cover:
-
- What is digital strategy?
- What should a digital strategy include?
- How do you create a digital marketing strategy?
- Why do you need a digital marketing strategy?
Business professionals and executives are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of a well-thought-out digital strategy. If you are one of those people, or you’re simply curious about the basics of digital strategy, we’ve got you covered.
At Digital Logic, we excel in this area. Being digital is kind of our thing. In this post, our experts will cover the basics of digital strategy and what it takes to create a successful one for your business.
At its core, digital strategy is a plan of action put forth to help businesses achieve their goals, whatever they may be. This type of strategy focuses on taking current business methods and digitizing them. By taking what’s proven to work in the past, it takes a typical business strategy and enhances it by implementing technology. [ps2id id=’What should a digital strategy include?’ target=”/]
Think of it this way. Going digital is a tool designed to help reach your goals, but is not the goal itself. Whatever improving your business looks like to you, digital strategy is a way to lay out the steps needed to meet those objectives. Whether that be creating new digital media, pulling traffic towards a site, or reinventing current processes.
Digital strategy makes specific the steps a company or organization should take to create and achieve competitive advantages. It also incorporates the step-by-step plan for how to get there.
As the realm of technology expands, businesses are able to provide services that may not have been available before. This has become even more apparent in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever, companies are needing to get creative with technology. Computerizing their operations has become not as much something that’s desirable, but something that’s necessary.
What should a digital strategy include?
As you become familiar with digital strategy, it is important to remember that it’s meant to integrate into your current business model. It is not a separate aspect. With that in mind, digital strategy should incorporate your basic business model. Within it is a variety of aspects. These include:
The Consumer
As with most organizations, at the heart of the business model is the consumer. Who you are looking to target is one of the most important aspects of digital strategy. After all, your goal for going digital is more than likely to attract new customers through your business or product.
The Product
With that said, you want to make sure your strategy sells your product. This could be an app, website, experience, food, wearables, or anything in between. The individual products that comprise your digital strategy must be clearly identified.
The Process
Your strategy should define what your human capital will do and how they will do it. This makes up a very important part of your digital strategy.
The People
A proper strategy will take into account the abilities of the entire team. It includes the efforts of every individual that keeps your company running. In addition to the employees, it also considers your suppliers, vendors, partners, and stakeholders.
The Platform
The platforms used to streamline your digital strategy depend on the individual goals of the company. Platforms can include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Content management systems
- Cloud servers
- Geo-based applications
- Data analytic systems
- Mixed reality
-
Artificial intelligence
The Channel
Finding a channel means discovering what will be most effective in delivering your strategy.
A channel for digital strategy may include (but again, is not limited to) the following:
[ps2id id=’How do you create a digital marketing strategy?’ target=”/]
- Social media platforms
- Workplace networking
- In-person or virtual shopping experiences
- Websites
- Remote connections
- Intranet
The Experience
With all things considered, it is important to maintain a vivid sense of your user experience. What are people seeing when they see your brand online? You should always make sure that your digital presence is both convincing and consistent. It is also important to keep the voice of your brand or company as authentic as possible.
How do you create a digital marketing strategy?
Creating a digital marketing strategy is more than just transferring your services online. There is a lot that goes into the creation and execution of a successful marketing strategy.
To start, you must consider your consumer’s persona. Who are you looking to target? How will you reach them?
Next, you need to create a step-by-step plan for how you intend to engage with your consumers. How you engage with them determines how they will engage with you. Consider what might influence your target audience to buy your product or service.
Content is important when it comes to digital strategy. Blog posts enable you to push quality content for your site and draw your audience in. The more valuable content you have, the more traffic you will draw to your site. Generating leads is one of the most important aspects of digital strategy.
Another thing to consider when creating a digital marketing strategy is your online presence. You’ll want to make sure you are easily accessible for the average consumer. Having a well-designed website and an appealing social media presence is crucial. Optimizing your online appearance can do wonders for your business.
Finally, make sure that you’re tracking your progress. You need to pay close attention to what does and doesn’t work for your brand. If you find something isn’t working towards your specific goals, you may want to take a different approach.
This is merely a broad outline of what it takes to create a successful digital marketing strategy. It takes an entire team of people to implement and maintain a successful strategy. It’s not something that can get done overnight. If you’re interested in creating a digital marketing strategy, let the experts at Digital Logic help you.
Why do you need a digital marketing strategy?
With the evolution of technology comes a constant need for businesses to stay in the know. You need to be on a level playing field with your consumers, meeting them where they are most comfortable. These days, that is most often going to be on a digital level.
You’ve heard it many times before, but in light of the surging pandemic, we are all learning to adapt. For most companies, this means implementing technology to their current business plan to maintain consumer relations. That is why having a digital strategy in place is so crucial to the success of a business.
If you are still unsure of whether you need a digital marketing strategy, consider this.
Harvard Business Review encourages businesses to ask themselves the following questions:
- Does digital technology change the businesses you should be in?
- How could digital technology improve the way you add value to the businesses you are in?
- Could digital technology change your target customer?
- Does digital technology affect the value proposition to your target customer?
-
How can digital technology enhance the enterprise capabilities that differentiate you from your competition?
By asking these questions, you can gauge a clearer understanding of the purpose of your company and how a digital strategy might enhance it. If you find that reaching a digital audience brings the potential for new competitive advantages, then you need a digital strategy in place.
Let The Experts Help
At Xekera Systems, we know everything there is to know about creating a successful digital strategy. It’s in our name! If you want to boost your business, call us at (408) 982-5851 or fill out our form for a free proposal!
