Companies who have marketing or advertising budgets typically have a marketing strategy or marketing plan created to ensure that their dollars are spent wisely and achieve their objectives.
A Digital Strategy is a document that lives within your overall marketing strategy and specifies key objectives for your digital channels. It is extremely important to note that a digital strategy should be continually updated, adjusted and is reactionary in nature. The digital advertising eco system is continually changing and the ability to quickly pull data in the form of analytics gives you the opportunity to make changes “on the fly”.
Your digital strategy document should address in the following, and in most cases in this order.
- How your digital channels will support your primary company objectives (sales targets, growth, etc…)
- Identifies your key digital channels and platforms for the upcoming year (ie, Facebook, Website, Twitter, etc…)
- Identifies key objectives for each channel (website visits increase of XX%, Facebook growth of xx%)
- Lays out high level definitions of how your digital channels will support your paid advertising efforts (facebook ads, etc…)
- Lays out high level definitions of how your digital channels will reach customers organically.
- Benchmarks your current analytics and data for year over year reporting.
- References brand guidelines, ton of voice, etc…
Note it is important to know that your social media strategy is entirely separate from your digital strategy. Your digital strategy may lightly touch on some of your key initiatives and objectives with social media, but ideally you want to write out a specific plan for social that includes your content calendar, tone of voice, branding, and specific objectives for both paid campaigns and organic reach.