Digital strategy work requires not only a keen sense of the modern marketing environment and its myriad channels, but an understanding of business goals, ways of working and the ability to envision the future implications of decisions made today. When considering how to approach a digital strategy project, the following five principles can help guide efforts and ensure an effective process.
Experiences Must Take an Audience-First Posture
As a first step to any engagement, you will want to define your audience and ensure you are meeting their needs. Brands that put themselves first will not succeed. Always ask what you can provide to your audience— utility, entertainment, tangible value, maybe something more? One place to start is evaluating your consumer’s journey online and understanding what types of content and factors assist in their decision-making. In July 2020, Google released a new report on the “messy middle” digital journey that serves as a useful reference guide for marketers looking to understand how to reach customers in a cluttered and complex environment. Resources like these can help ensure the proper perspective is kept in mind when determining what content, channels and features to consider in a digital experience.
(Source: Google)
Beyond meeting your customers where they are and providing them what they need, it is critical that your overall digital brand expression feels human. A 2018 Forester Consulting and Accenture Interactive survey, found that “making our interactions more human” was tied as the top priority for senior marketers along with driving a new technology strategy. With this in mind, utilizing tools like the “five Ws” to interrogate your purpose takes on paramount importance. Considering the audience and all the contexts they may encounter your brand or experience will always lead to better decision-making.
Business Priorities Should Be The Focus
When setting out to determine the design of your digital strategy, you must revisit business objectives and align your work toward achieving them. Ultimately, anything being created will be evaluated against performance and progress on key priorities. Although it can be tempting to propose exciting new solutions or unique concepts, if they can’t be backed up by data that shows they are the right solutions they won’t be approved by stakeholders. Because of this, it’s important not to force creative work for the sake of it. If it is not designed to support the core goals of the organization, it shouldn’t be made.
(Source: eMarketer, American Marketing Association, Deloitte)
Equally important to actioning against business priorities is being able to measure your efforts. Marketers have become enamored of digital media and all the trackable metrics that come with it. Unfortunately, vanity metrics won’t hold water and most of them aren’t useful when justifying investment. As it is now, Nielsen’s 2018 CMO survey found that only 22% of executives were very confident that they could quantify ROI of digital media. It’s not surprising that a recent Gartner CMO survey found that marketing analytics was a top priority. Knowing the difference between a directional performance signal and a needle-moving behavior is required for digital strategy development.
Good Work Requires Ambitious Efforts
Providing guidance in the digital era requires a multitude of capabilities. In order to efficiently work toward a solution, a variety of faculties will need to be engaged and continually evaluated over the course of a project. Try your best to recruit the talent, tools and resources needed to provide a comprehensive solution at the outset of your work. Inevitably, challenges will be encountered that require deft navigation. It is important to try and not sacrifice effectiveness based on things like budget, talent gaps and timing pressure. When roadblocks are hit, creative solutions and strategic pivots can help you course correct.
Remember that you are building a solution that fits the problem. If you are focused on a digital strategy that will set the course for an organization’s online presence for the next several years, then teams should be hesitant to skimp on developing strong work. Stop gaps and half measures are just that— a band-aid on larger issues that ultimately put your work in a position to fail.
New Technologies Need to Be Adopted Early
In a 2018 Forbes article, technology writer Parmy Olson states: “Remaining innovative means making a decisive bet on a technology that has yet to be proven out, even when there's no obvious customer.” When building a digital strategy, these new channels and technology platforms need to be considered as future opportunity areas. Early entries into new contact points and technology are crucial for businesses to keep pace with an ever-expanding ecosystem. No one wants to get stuck playing catch-up. It is better for businesses to get in early and experiment than fight to build a presence later.
(Image Source: BlackRock, Asymco, Tony Seba)
It’s necessary to caveat that working with new technology or digital platforms isn’t likely to make an immediate, monumental impact on business. Much like any other new arena a business enters, it will take time to build proficiency and maximize the value. However, being prepared and present may yield unexpected dividends. In the COVID-19 era, we have seen the U.S. experience 10 years’ of e-commerce growth in the span of 3 months (McKinsey). Businesses that developed strong ecommerce capabilities over the last several years are now reaping the benefits of their preparation. Creating a formal learning agenda for the new technology you want to utilize can help set expectations and align a team on when to anticipate growth.
Considered Collaboration
At the outset of your digital strategy work, it should be considered a prerequisite to define ways of working with your team and partners. While everyone has a unique style and it is important to respect that, it is also beneficial to develop an understanding of what working styles will lend themselves best to different stages of the project. There is a time and place for meetings and group work sessions, but you must realize when autonomous progress is necessary to the process.
“Brainstorming in groups works well to build trust and establish yourself within a social matrix. However, studies have shown that unique idea generation suffers in group settings, particularly as the group size increases.” — Erin Urban, Professional & Leadership Development Coach, Forbes
At the beginning of your working relationship it is critical to define each team member’s role and align on expectations. As you bring together your team and establish preferred communication preferences, the group should also collectively work to clarify roles and responsibilities. As you move through the project and work together, it will be key to convene the skillsets you need to succeed at different points. However, it is equally important not to get mired in groupthink and be able to press on individually when needed. No one likes having too many cooks in the kitchen.
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