For all you non-geeks out there, let me make sure that you at least get what digital strategy means before we get started. It’s about finding the best ways to achieve your goals (probably promoting a brand or service in our case) through electronically connected media. That means using the world-wide web, various programs and mobile applications. But before you start, you’ve got to plan your attack.
Planning your digital strategy
Above all you’ve got to analyse and define your target audience. What do you hope to achieve with your plan, and what do you expect to get in return for your investment? Where is this audience you seek; how are they different? How are they the same? How do you deliver your message straight to their front door? Seems like a lot of questions, well it is. But before you start, you have to know where you are headed.
The creation phase is fully concentrating on the formalization of your strategy. This is where you and your team must create KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) and start on building and designing the elements to be used in your campaign. This stage is mainly considered to be the kick-off of your strategy where you also must establish actualization routes, communication flows and expectation of what is about to happen next. In English: This is where you would write the programme that will execute your plan.
Actions speak louder than programming?
This is where you would yell, ‘ACTION!’ if we were making a movie. We’re not, so, in digital speak we would call this actualization. This stage concentrates on delivering on what you promised. This is where engagement occurs. Your brand has been spreading digitally and it’s time to optimize your campaign message. Recording salient information and tracking records also takes place to be used in the next stage.
Evaluating your results
This is the stage where you get to do 2 things; either you celebrate for achieving your expectations or (which is most likely to happen initially) you have to learn from your mistakes – major or minor- that have occurred throughout the campaign. I see this stage as the most important one for two reasons; one of them is that your results might motivate you to work harder and stronger on future campaigns, and another is that you get to evaluate the KPI’s and fiscal achievement.
So is that it? Is that all you have to do? Sorry, but nope. The life cycle of your digital strategy is just that – a cycle, and you are bound to be going back and forth as you make your way through the digital food chain.
Do you have to be a geek to do it digital?
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