When you hear the word “digital strategy,” marketing probably pops into your head automatically. But it’s not just about marketing. A digital strategy is an overall approach to how you intend to use all of your digital and online marketing tools and how you will use them to grow your business. It’s how you will choose which type of software to invest in and how you will maximise them.
Thus, it’s critical to have a clear goal in mind when crafting a digital strategy. As we enter the modern age, creating and developing your own digital strategy is becoming less of a choice but more of a priority. After all, if a business wants to stay competitive, it has to adapt to the current environment. Do you want to raise brand awareness? Do you want to increase revenue? Or maybe, you want to educate your customers about your product? It could even be a hybrid of these three. Big or small, businesses today must reevaluate every component of their internal and external processes. Injecting digital solutions ad hoc is no longer sufficient. You need to be more intentional about your digital strategy and build it from the ground up.
What Is A Digital Strategy?
The term “digital strategy” refers to the deliberate application of new digital capabilities and software systems that enable the scaling up of corporate operations and goals. It advocates for the use of emerging technology to improve supply chain efficiency, product fulfilment, customer experience, relationship nurturing, and internal alignment and management.
In simplest terms, it’s all about creating a business flow that is seamless for the customer from attention to engagement, conversion to fulfilment, after service to forming long term relationships. It is leveraging digital solutions and technology to create a delightful experience unique to your brand.
What Should A Robust Digital Strategy Include?
A robust digital strategy involves several components. If you want to build a solid digital strategy, you need to consider the following:
People: The success of a digital strategy is contingent upon the collective abilities of the entire team. It does not start in the cloud; instead, it is inextricably linked to the work of developers, designers, marketers, strategists, and content writers.
Process: The next step is to define precisely what the business’s human capital will perform and how they will connect their efforts to create a fully integrated strategy.
Platform: We evaluate the platforms that will be required only when the objectives, people, and processes are in place. Again, technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Platforms vary according to the objectives of each business; they may include cloud servers, content management systems, data analytics systems, mixed reality, artificial intelligence, and location-based applications, among others.
Products: After identifying platforms, the specific products that comprise your digital strategy are identified. These may include mobile applications, wearables, responsive websites, Internet of Things (IoT) smart goods, and augmented reality experiences.
Channels: Once you’ve identified your products, the next step is to choose how you’ll link them to consumers. Which channels are the most effective conduits for your strategy’s delivery? These include in-person retail experiences, email, social media, workplace networking, intranets, websites, and Internet of Things (IoT) distant connectivity.
Experience: It is critical to explore and maintain a thorough understanding of your user experience. Are the visual cues for your brand consistent and compelling? Is the voice of your business authentic? Are you instilling a sense of comfort and delight in your customers’ interactions with your business?
Customers: At the apex of the digital strategy framework, it’s all about people and not just those who purchase your products or services. However, those are critical as well. Additionally, a good digital transformation improves the experience of your employees, vendors and suppliers, partners and stakeholders.
Why Is A Digital Strategy Important?
As we’ve said, going digital is no longer an option or ‘best practice.” It is the minimum need for a successful business strategy and organisational alignment.
Almost every business on the planet will require digital strategies and creative technologies to support the requirement to scale and remain adaptable as the landscape continues to shift at a breakneck pace.
Cutting corners and performing manual repairs may be convenient in the short term, but neither will benefit you in the long run. Apart from delaying the inevitable, businesses that delay digital implementation risk incurring a significant and potentially irreversible market disadvantage.
Moreover, customers today demand a certain level of digital services, communications, and connectivity when it comes to UX. If this is wrong or non-existent as a result of a lack of digital strategy, customers will notice—and your bottom line will suffer.
Using the appropriate approach and implementation plan will significantly reduce long-term costs and dramatically increase production. True, this may be a huge long-term financial commitment, and the unknown might be frightening. However, the graveyard of non-adaptive technology companies is full of Kodaks and Nokias.
Don’t let it be you.
The Key Takeaway
While social media is an integral part of your digital media strategy, your website’s User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI), as well as SEO, are just as critical. In other words, your website must be user-friendly so that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for, as well as make purchases if necessary.
Content connects your website and your social media accounts in a strategic way. Content that is shared, liked, and engaged with is the key to achieving brand awareness, eliminating barriers, and increasing sales. The more connections you make, the greater your reach will be.
The most important thing is to stick to a consistent strategy. You must regularly communicate with your customers and clients and post new content to your website and social media channels.
In the end, content is king, connections are essential, and consistency keeps you in your customer’s mind.
