Digital technology is now one of the most valuable allies to grow a business, whatever it is. But for this to happen in the best possible way, you need to have a clear digital strategy. We explain what it is and how to do it.
Every business has to deal with digital technology. But too often we see companies and professionals moving in this field by trial and error, without a long-term plan. This lack of method leads, not infrequently, as already seen in "Project management. Why it is not done and why it fails".to the dissolution of dreams and energy.
And that's where digital strategy comes in. The digital strategy is the action plan designed to ensure that a company takes full advantage of the opportunities offered by digital technologies to achieve its business goals. We talk about a roadmap capable of implementing and analyzing the effectiveness of the many different digital tools now available. With a digital strategy you plan and guide the implementation of modern technological strategies necessary to lead to business growth.
Defining such a plan, and managing its implementation, is a complex operation, requiring heterogeneous skills and the coexistence of different analysis skills, evaluations and tools. In fact we talk about a transversal strategy, which considers business, marketing, branding and much more, so as to select the technological platforms to achieve the objectives.
What does it mean to have a sound digital strategy? It means having a trackable, improvable and repeatable plan to achieve specific goals.
La digital strategy is a starting point, but also, and above all, a work in progress. In fact, it consists of reflecting and adapting, periodically, in relation to the objectives achieved, the changing market scenario and technological progress. Putting an operational plan down on paper reduces the possibility of a strategy remaining in the "book of dreams" and instead being practical.
In short, you structure a plan with these ends in mind:
- Reduce the chances of making mistakes when developing a digital project
- Emphasize the actions to be taken
- Relating digital technology to corporate policy
- Implementing a technology strategy
The case of start-ups or kick-offs. When it comes to start-up or kick-off, the strategic business/digital question becomes more complex, as each area of the web project is even more interconnected. And even in this case often projects, even if smart and stimulating, fail where a clear technology strategy is not implemented from the kick-off. For advice on this: "How to define strategy in start-ups".
5 essential steps for an ad hoc digital strategy
Here are the essential and necessary steps to create a path that not only grows a web project, but also becomes a valuable ally for a business or activity.
- First of all, you need to establish the technology and online goals to be achieved
- Then, create a plan of attack to reach them...
- One must not forget the importance of monitoring and maintaining the strategy, on a regular and continuous basis
- If necessary, based on data and other elements, if not SEO technologies and insights, be ready to implement possible improvements or changes
- Never forget to try something new, always tracking results and data
Who does digital strategy?
The digital strategist Is responsible for the long-term planning and decision-making of a web project. They are the wizards of problem solving. It is up to them to bring together the various needs, if not the business, branding and marketing objectives of the company. This must also be combined with the ability to respond to the specific desires of customers. Because having a digital strategy that has no correlation with the business strategy is like having two magnets with equal poles. They will repel each other and will not bring the desired or required results.
Therefore, a good digital strategist is one who manages to synthesize all these elements in order to implement them in the best roadmap. Not infrequently in large and medium-sized companies they work directly with the company's stakeholders so they have a clear and detailed understanding of what the challenges are.
A competent digital strategist must have a wide, deep and global vision of the online world, but not only. It is a profile as sought after as it is complex, capable of moving from the more technical side of the web, to the basics of corporate marketing, and project management, if not pure business. In addition, a digital strategist must be able to understand the mechanisms at work in any digital product or service.
So in addition to having to be able to plan and coordinate, you can't shy away from thinking strategically, step by step. In any roadmap, being driven by strategy is essential, but you can't remain short-sighted in your approach. It is one thing to develop solid digital strategies and another to be able to activate them, and to change them if necessary. And it is this skill that makes a digital strategist excel.
The 7 basic skills of a digital strategist
Looking around, and reading the ads of companies looking for these figures, you can be amazed by what and how many skills and expertise such a figure must contain. Below we list the 7 main ones:
- Is able to communicate and implement the requirements of business stakeholders, marketing and technology managers
- Defines and manages an integrated digital strategy, considering management and monitoring objectives
- Communicates effectively directly with customers to define business, marketing, digital and technology objectives.
- Creative problem solver, is able to read and interpret a set of inputs and facts, in order to implement the best proposal and/or solution strategy.
- Excellent at identifying priorities related to digital monitoring, if not those related to marketing and business performance measurement
- Has strong analytical skills in evaluating ideas, considering priorities in initiatives, quantifying advantages and disadvantages based on performance
- Configures, manages and integrates a wide range of standard commercial marketing technology (COTS) platforms and tools
A winning digital strategy is, in essence, a planned journey that takes a company or an activity from where it is to where it wants to be. It is not a simple list of things to do or a list of aspects to check, but it is a complex and almost infinite set of steps that allow you to plan, monitor, but also to change the path as you go along. And all in an analytical, rational way, based on the study of results, algorithmic analysis, competitor performance, insight and much more.
The platform that simplifies and helps
If you've come this far, you'll understand that in order to have a digital strategy, with short and long term results, you can't ignore a continuous monitoring of the performance of the choices made. Precisely for this reason we at Quodigi have created Ia web intelligence platform.
Quodigi IO. What is it? It's a platform based on data analytics, able to control and optimize the strategy of any site or company that operates on the online market in relation to that of direct competitors. In this way the management of a company can have an overview, continuous, of the performance of its digital project, but also clear indications to improve based on the competitors in the sector. And everything is communicated in a simple and effective way with general and category sheets. Not bad, right? Here a short presentation
