Many senior leaders lack fluency with digital and the ways it reshapes their businesses and competitive contexts. They’re more likely to fall prey to the “shiny object” syndrome and invest in technologies without understanding their competitive advantages or potential to deliver new value.
The more clarity there is around goals, determined by user needs, current resources, digital trends and more, the better.
Defining Your Purpose
The digital space is rapidly evolving and a strong Digital strategy is necessary to keep up with technological trends. A digital strategy is a clear plan for implementing and using online tools to achieve your business goals. It can efficiently increase brand awareness and strategically optimise business procedures.
The goal of a digital strategy is to leverage new technology to create competitive advantages. The most successful digital strategies start with bold visions that seek to tap new opportunities. This is necessary because many digital domains are winner-take-all, creating a premium for first movers.
It is also important to understand that new technology can have unintended consequences. It’s important to take a measured approach and consider how each new tool will impact your business. For example, a charity can use a digital strategy to promote its cause but must ensure that its content is engaging and informative. Moreover, charities must be aware of changing demographic trends and how these trends may influence digital behaviour.
Identifying Your Target Audience
A digital strategy identifies ways to use technology to achieve business goals. These could range from boosting social media engagement to improving organic search results and customer retention.
A key part of any digital strategy is understanding your audience and how to reach them. This includes identifying the demographics and psychographics that make up your target audience.
For example, understanding your target audience can help you decide what type of messaging to use for your campaigns. Different age groups have different needs and buying habits, so it’s important to tailor your marketing strategies accordingly.
Knowing your audience can also help you identify new opportunities. For example, e-commerce retailers have seen tremendous success using augmented reality to give customers an immersive shopping experience. This helps them stand out from their competitors and boosts conversion rates. This is one of the many ways that digital strategies can help businesses grow and succeed in a competitive industry.
Identifying Your Competitors
The digital landscape is constantly changing with new tools, platforms and tactics. A clear digital strategy helps you stay ahead of the curve and ensures your online activities align with your business goals.
Your digital strategy can include defensive or offensive goals. For example, you might adopt digital technologies to strengthen your existing advantage, or to tap into new markets. Kodak and Blockbuster missed out on a huge opportunity to evolve into video streaming services when Netflix innovated in that space.
A comprehensive competitor analysis can help you identify potential digital opportunities. You can use tools like Market Explorer to look at competitors’ traffic and social media performance. This will give you a good idea of who is attracting the most attention in your industry. Be realistic in your assessment of who you can compete with – too much of a competitor is just as bad as too little! This will also allow you to focus on opportunities that you can effectively manage.
Creating a Strategic Plan
Digital strategy is the process of identifying and implementing new technologies that will allow your company to reach its goals. This is more than just using new hardware or software; it involves changing how your business operates in order to take advantage of these tools.
Digital strategies can be offensive or defensive. Offensive digital strategies are designed to help your company grow and expand its market share by leveraging new innovative technology. This could include new ways to attract customers or a new way to sell products and services.
To be successful, digital strategies must be backed by a strong implementation plan. This means a clear plan for how employees, users, and customers will learn how to use these new tools and processes. This is where a digital adoption platform like Whatfix can be helpful. These platforms create engaging experiences that allow employees and users to find true technology ROI. They also provide digital support to keep everyone engaged and on track with their training.
