A good digital strategy explains the priority of an organization and its plans in terms of innovation, process, technology, and business model.

Digital strategy does not only cover technology, it has to do more with issues in organizations bordering data, and how to manage change with innovation.

Having a well-planned digital strategy is key to the success of all parts of a digital marketer’s customer lifecycle. Without a plan, measuring success, reviewing plans, and learning from mistakes will be difficult.

Digital strategy is a plan of action that helps organizations perform optimally and achieve their set target.

A proper digital strategy should include processes, platforms, people, products, channels, etc.

Other Things to Consider Before a Digital Strategy

1. Aims, objectives of the organization
2. Description of the organization
3. The target audience of the organization
4. Interested social media handles
5. The organization’s intentions for using digital platforms

3 Tips for a Successful Digital Strategy

1. Content Strategy: It is imperative to determine beforehand the right content that will be relevant for a given campaign
2. Channel Strategy: Always think of the best channels where your audience is. Think also when (time) and how to share these contents
3. Campaign Strategy: Not all digital campaigns will work with all organization’s objectives. Always bear in mind the expectations of a campaign before choosing a strategy as that will enable you to measure the output.

The Strategy

Have a Clear Objective:

Always know what you are up to by having an objective, goal, or mission, which should be in line with the organization’s plan. Your goal may be to have a digital community or large following which in some cases generates revenue. Your goals determine your content as well as your campaign strategy.

Examples of Objectives

• Have a large following or increase brand awareness: Having new and more social media followers is as good as introducing your brand to new prospects. If you want to create awareness about your brand, practice sharing content that emphasizes values, niche, and personality rather than promotions or adverts.
• Increase sales/leads: If your goal is to increase sales, your content should be more about promotions, new products, or freebies with a call to action.
• Boost social engagement: This deals with devising ways to make your present followers react to content on your wall. Either read your post or zoom, share, click on links, or comment on your content. If your content is interesting, your audience will engage and they will invariably become your advocates. To achieve this your content must be user generated. You need to generate content in line with the needs of your audience and think like them.
• Increase traffic on your website: Social media increases ROI. It is advisable to share content with URLs on social media handles as a click on the link redirects the social media audience to the website.

Know How to Measure Your Output/KPI:

The organization’s overall plan should determine your key performance indicators (KPI)

Know the right digital analytics tool to use in measuring your success at every stage. Always focus on data that matters or works for you. On your Key Performance Indicators (KPI), pay attention to the following:

• Clicks: It is the record of click-through rates on your content, website, or social media account. To understand what works for you or what encourages your audience to engage with your content it is advisable to keep a record of clicks per time.
• Reach: This has to do with the number of unique visitors who saw your content.
• Engagement: Engagement on social media is the total interactions when divided by the number of impressions. It has to do with how your followers feel about your brand.
• Set realistic goals/targets. Have high and achievable expectations
• Be specific with your KPI’s

Understand your Target Audience:

Always think like, and speak the language of your audience if you want them to identify and engage with your content. Your audience should always be at the center of all your strategies and plans. Your campaign is a success when you meet the needs and aspirations of your audience.

Tips:

• Know and solve the problems of your target audience
• Get acquainted with them. Know their locations, age, gender, social class even religion.
• Know their needs and learn how to solve it
• Know whom your audience listens to. These may be a political or public figure or a social media influencer.

Stick to Your Budget:

Your budget should cater to your team, preferred channels, and or content.

• Your budget should include your desired digital channels for the specific campaign.
• Assign responsibilities to your team members with specific deadlines. If need be hire more people to ensure that no one is overworked. Some team players may be outsourced.
• Have specific expectations from each digital marketing channel as well as KPI.

Have a Content Calendar:

A digital marketing content calendar is a schedule of where, when, and how you intend to accomplish upcoming marketing efforts. A marketing calendar may include the following: events, social media/advertising campaigns, content strategy, and or social media channels.