You’ve heard that you need to take your online strategy or digital strategy seriously. Has anyone ever really told you why? The truth is that there are several different reasons that you might want to be online. That might already be clear, but what people don’t tell you is that these reasons don’t all overlap, and you don’t have to dedicate your energy to all of them. Each reason is essentially the core of a particular online strategy, and if you think about it that way you’ll find it’s much simpler to make decisions about your online activity. Let’s take a look at the main online strategies out there.
Note that when people say “online strategy,” they usually mean “online marketing strategy,” which is separate from an online business strategy. You should keep in mind that an online or digital business strategy is really about leveraging tools and technologies to transform your business into an online enterprise or innovating your existing digital business in some significant or even radical way. Digital business transformation can be a complex task and is very different from marketing your business. For our purposes, we’re talking about digital marketing strategy. (But see the note at the end about digital transformation strategy.)
There are thousands of websites, Facebook pages, and other online business locations that are the digital equivalent of deserted storefronts. They are basically inactive. Perhaps they haven’t had any new content in years. In many cases, someone thought that a particular type of social presence was a good idea, but then they didn’t really know what to do with it, or they didn’t have the ability to keep it updated.
They jumped in headfirst, most likely without a plan. A plan, or better yet a fully-developed strategy, is designed to define where you want to go and outline what it will take to get there.
But the first thing you have to do is figure out what you want.
Your immediate reaction might be, “I want to increase profits.” Most of us want to make more money, but that on its own isn’t a clear goal. Do you have lots of traffic to your website, but no one’s buying? Or are you not getting many visitors at all? Clarify your goal, because there are lots of ways to make money–but they might not all work for you.
Conversion Rate
If your business does online sales, then converting visitors into purchases could be your goal. Say, for example, that you do get lots of online traffic. If visitors to the site are not completing purchases, you need to find out why so you can address that problem. It may be as simple as bad website design, and you just need to improve the customer’s experience on your website. There may, however, be something else going on: does the actual purchase process work smoothly? Does it take too many clicks to get from the moment of decision to completing the purchase? No matter what, for this goal the bulk of your strategy will probably focus on your website, its design, and its functionality.
Attracting More Customers
On the other hand, maybe your website is fine. Your visitors do tend to buy, but you just don’t have enough visitors. In this case, your goal is to attract more visitors to the website. A strategy based on this idea would focus on things like improving your ranking on search engines like Google to help more people find your site. In this case, you should review your website for its SEO strength, but you’ll also want to look into a larger content-marketing strategy, something that will leverage your site as a quality asset that can rise above the background noise. Paid advertising might be a part of such a strategy, but never believe anyone who tells you that paying for attention is a requirement for marketing. Large and small businesses alike have been able to thrive by other means, and without proper planning and guidance paying for ads is as bad as flushing your money down the toilet.
Increasing Engagement
Then there’s the situation where you have an audience, but you want to get them involved and excited with your brand, your content, or a specific event or promotion. There are several ways to increase customer engagement, which can keep your brand top-of-mind and prime people for their next purchase. Engagement and interactivity also create buzz around things like product launches or other news. An engagement strategy will be mindful of the different ways that potential customers can come to you. Social media of course comes to mind for such an approach, but it doesn’t have to be the centerpiece of your strategy if that’s not your thing. Specific kinds of content on your website can do the same trick, and direct marketing via email, mail, flyers, and so on can be powerful when paired with the right kind of offer, event, or information. Again, paid advertising can be a part of an engagement strategy, but there is never a need to put all your eggs into that particular basket.
Brand Awareness
It might be that you’re looking to expand your business in some way: growing geographically, scaling up, moving into a new industry. Your brand is your identity, your reputation, and you want it to be something that stands out, that people will recognize and remember, that communicates authenticity and credibility. A brand awareness strategy focuses on getting your name out there and keeping it top of mind for potential clients. Such a strategy will probably include SEO to improve search ranking, social media to create buzz, and perhaps some specialized content to maintain momentum.
Grow a subscriber or email list
Another reason to develop a digital strategy is to grow an email or subscriber list. A list is particularly useful because those who sign up are usually more predisposed to making a purchase. In addition, an email list allows you to retain customers after they’ve made a purchase, since they’re also more likely to make another one in the future. Of course, people rarely just give out their email address for nothing. You’ll need to offer them something in return, usually some sort of content. This might be a monthly or weekly newsletter, a free PDF ebook, or something else of value that makes it worthwhile for them to hand over their address. This is one area where paid ads might be a main strategy, but in this case you’d be paying to play a long game. Again, it’s not necessary to use paid ads for this kind of strategy to work. It only takes focus, commitment, and patience.
What’s Your Why?
So what’s your “why”? There are still more digital marketing strategies out there, but it’s important not to just jump online blindly. A strategy will ensure that know what you want and that you use the right tools to get there. Remember the four basic principles of effective action:
- Commit: Make sure you really need to take action, and be clear about your goals.
- Plan: Build an intentional strategy, so you know exactly what to do.
- Re-Commit: Take a deep breath and double-check your preparations.
- Execute: Get it done. No excuses, no hesitation, no regrets.
You might notice that SEO and social media show up several times here. Forbes magazine considers these to be two of the three fundamental online marketing strategies. Again, though, it’s crucial to remember that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions or strategies. You need to figure out what’s best for you and your business.
If you’re going to do it, do it right.
Need help creating a strategy? Schedule a free consultation with us to find out how we can help.
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