Where to Start When Creating a Digital Strategy

Michael Porter described strategy as making choices and trade-offs and deliberately choosing to be different. A digital strategy is a core part of the overall marketing strategy, and it can be built in a clear sequence.

Everything starts with understanding customers and their preferences. The first step is defining customer profiles or personas, including general characteristics, digital needs, preferences, challenges and what they value.

The second step is drawing the customer engagement journey. Journeys describe customer behavior from the current state to the desired future state and should clearly reflect marketing goals.

The third step is mapping relevant content and services to each journey step. At this stage common types are enough, such as a website, a short video or an email program.

The fourth step is identifying existing content and services and the gaps against each journey step. Here the detail should be specific, such as an unbranded website on a defined service or an email program of three messages on a defined topic. The output is a clear view of what is ready and what must be created.

The fifth step is building the content and service calendar so marketing teams know when each item will be available to customers. A content marketing strategy should follow.

With these steps complete, the digital strategy and its tactical plan are ready for implementation and for measuring impact as part of continuous improvement.