How to create an effective digital strategy

An effective digital strategy is a crucial part of a successful business as it is a necessary step in determining the path your company should take to achieve its business goals. However, when we talk about digital strategy, it is surprising how many online businesses do not have a plan to help them achieve their goals.

Because it is important?

When asking many business owners what result they seek to obtain from their website, they generally respond that they want to sell more of the products or services they offer or that they want to improve the positioning of their brands.

However, most businesses do not have large budgets and if they had a choice, they would prefer to sell their most profitable products or those that have a surplus of stock. This is the main reason why an online business needs a strategy, which allows them to distribute their efforts based on what they want to achieve.

To start planning a strategy, it is recommended that you ask yourself questions such as the following:

• Would you rather sell a $10,000 product or 10 $1,000 products?
• When you make a sale, can you generate a cross-sale of some other product?
• What is the value of your customer's life for a given product?
• What products have a clear competitive advantage over others of the same type?
• What online competitors do you have for a certain product?

Once you know the real value of your products and services, you can create a strategy in which you can better allocate your resources, depending on your sales objective. This is how an effective strategy, in addition to generating sales, can change the course of your business in a positive way.

Here is a short guide on how to create a strategy, define your goals and indicators, and what results to expect.

How to develop a digital strategy

Search engine optimization for your website is not an easy task for any business. In addition, there are very competitive markets that handle large budgets, which leaves small merchants with few tools to work.

To begin, it is necessary to review the products that your company offers and find the market opportunities to allocate your resources. In this instance, you need to perform the following tasks:

• Research and analyze online competition data.
• Know the virtues of the client's offer.
• Know the profit margins of the business.
• Detect opportunities for cross-selling of other products.
• Determine the real capacity for growth of the business.

Define North

The next step is to define the main objectives and determine the guides that will allow your company to reach its destination. At this point I recommend you determine what parameters you can follow within 18 months.

Define business objectives

To help with the goal setting process, you need to set short-term goals. For this point, it is important to choose the evaluation and analysis cycles in semesters, trimesters or bimonths.

To determine your goals, they should be:

• Specific: What do you want to achieve and why?
• Measurable: How to determine if you achieved what you had set out to do?
• Achievable: Are your goals realistic, for the resources you have?
• Relevant: Are your goals adequately contributing to the growth of your business?
• Bounded in time: What is the deadline you have to specify what is proposed?

Define performance indicators (KPIs)

Once you have planned the objectives of your business, the next step is to define those indicators that will determine the level of progress or completion of your action. With the creation of these guidelines you will have a better guide to how you are carrying out your plan.

When determining your indicators, it is recommended that you do not use more than 5 or 6 since after that number the interpretation of your progress becomes more complex. Remember that the purpose of these metrics is to control your progress so you can manage it based on your main business needs.

For example, if one of your indicators is to reduce the abandonment rate of your website by 5% and you manage to reach that goal earlier than projected, you can focus your efforts on other more important points for the moment of measurement.

Here are some examples of KPIs so that you have a guide when configuring yours.

• Increase CTR in search results by 10%.
• Get 40 high-quality targeted links through network content.
• Increase your keyword footprint on 6 product pages.
• Increase conversions on a 10% through newsletter subscriptions.
• Increase PPC ROAS by 25% by improving landing page quality.
• Increase of 50% in LinkedIn followers through sponsored content and email.

The results of an effective digital strategy

Making a marketing plan is not synonymous with success. The execution of this plan and the constant evaluation and monitoring of what is planned will improve the chances of success of what you propose.

For example, determining cross-selling opportunities is an excellent tool to improve online sales, however the execution of this action may depend on a commercial department, so if the correct communication is not made to said team it may cause the non-concretion of said objective.

To determine if an indicator was as successful as expected, it is necessary to determine in advance what is the percentage of completion that determines whether the objective was met or not. In sales teams that work on commission, this is a known practice since the commissions of the sales force depend on the fulfillment of what is planned.

I recommend that you use this parameter as an example so that you can apply it to all areas of your objectives in general and that way you can generate the necessary pressure that allows you to specify what has been agreed.