As we firmly make our way into 2024, there’s no better time to fine-tune your digital business strategy. Whether you already have a strategy in place that needs a little more work, or you are starting completely from scratch, we share seven key elements that you should be considering for your digital business strategy.
What is a digital strategy?
A digital business strategy is a plan that outlines a variety of digital initiatives to achieve business goals. This can consist of the technologies you may use and the channels you’ll utilise to accomplish these goals. It provides a consistent direction and allows for everyone involved to work towards the same goals and vision.
Most digital strategies are created to help an organisation reach their audience, increase conversions and enhance their brand awareness. But devising digital business strategy requires expertise and experience to both plan and implement successfully.
7 elements to consider in your digital business strategy
Here are seven key elements every digital business strategy should include.
Know what you stand for
This is the first step to creating your digital strategy – knowing what you stand for. This will include your brand and its mission. Be sure to clearly define this in your own mind and speak with your colleagues to get their point of view on what you stand for. Once you’ve done that, you can outline how you expect your customers to identify with you.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- What makes you different from your competitors?
- What is your tone of voice?
- What are your key USPs?
Create your buyer persona
Creating your ideal buyer personas allows you to create a story around your customers. This kind of audience research allows you to truly understand your audience – what they think, how they act and what they like and dislike. This means your digital business strategy can be tailored and your marketing efforts streamlined to your buyer persona.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- What do your typical customers look like?
- What motivates them?
- What are their challenges?
Plan your buyer journey
When you understand your ideal buyer persona, the next step is to plan their journey. Mapping out this journey allows you to identify the optimal times you can reach out to them. It will also allow you to understand any pain points your buyer persona might face within their journey, giving you a chance to fix them.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- Why is this person coming to your business?
- What problems would drive them to find you?
- How would they find you?
- How often would they need to visit you?
Identify your channels
With so many digital channels available for attracting your customers at your fingertips, like social media, pay-per-click (PPC), content marketing, digital PR and more, it’s important to understand which channel is right for you, because not all will be relevant to your business. Being clear about your objectives will help you understand which channels to utilise.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- What are you trying to achieve – generate a return on investment (ROI)? Drive enquiries? Increase brand awareness?
- Where are your audience – online or offline?
- What is your budget for using these channels?
Conduct a competitor analysis
Understanding your competitors is key in making your business stand out from the crowd. You should take your top 3 or 4 main competitors and research what they are doing – this will include analysing their social media channels, their search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts and even their customer ratings. This will allow you to see if there is a gap in their marketing efforts that you can take advantage of.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- What are your competitors doing well at?
- Where are you falling behind?
- Can you carve out a niche on marketing channels your competitors are not using?
Plan your budget
Some channels are more expensive than others, and some may have a stronger provable ROI. If you’re opting for PPC marketing for example, you’ll need to be able to put some money behind your campaigns to see any real return and similarly, if you’re opting for creating paid social media campaigns. You may even want to consider upping or decreasing your budget depending on campaign performance.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- What is my monthly budget?
- How much am I prepared to spend per campaign?
- Is there room for manoeuvre with my budget?
Engage with your audience
If you’re putting content out across multiple digital channels, you need to be prepared to respond to the reaction from your consumers – good or bad. Take time to engage and build a following, ensuring your content and comments are all in-line with your brand tone.
Some key questions to ask yourself:
- Is there a plan in place for negative feedback?
- How promptly should I respond to customers?
- Can I solve this customer’s query or do I need help from the rest of the team?
Let us help create your digital business strategy
We hope we’ve provided you with more insight into what you need to include in your digital business strategy. If you need more help with your strategy, or you’d like more advice, be sure to get in touch with us today. Our digital marketing experts can work closely with you to create a digital business strategy that will drive your brand to success.