What is a digital (global) strategy? How to create one for its website to increase its visibility, its traffic, its sales, its online presence etc … What is it and what are the steps to develop it?
What is a digital (global) strategy?
The digital strategy is generally linked to all actions or action plans implemented, to communicate via the internet and through different channels, such as social networks for example. It aims to give the various steps to follow to achieve pre-defined objectives.
The digital strategy incorporates many points to define that come mainly in response to issues. These problems may have a link with the visibility, the traffic, the image etc. In these cases, it is often necessary to work the digital strategy together with sub-strategies that will integrate with the latter.
The content to be disseminated and all that implies as the editorial planning, the community strategy where it will be a question of management and animation of communities and actions to deploy to engage its members. You also have the influence marketing strategy if it is part of a logic of promotion and search for visibility and traffic.
As a reminder :
- The content strategy
- The editorial strategy
- Community strategy
- The influence of marketing strategy.
To the extent that any company wishing to position itself on the internet is looking to develop its sales, it will be said that the purpose or purpose of the majority of digital strategies is to increase sales.
We can also work on the brand, the reputation, the image or the customer relationship insofar as it remains related to online actions via the InternetInternet in particular.
Any company wishing to set foot on the InternetInternet, must necessarily go through a digital strategy by setting goals flat, and the means available to achieve them.
The net becomes a new opportunity for many companies at the same time as a vast field to conquer new customers; it is not necessary to miss its entry. The first step will be to develop a schema that will answer the primary questions.
Note: Developing a digital strategy requires a good knowledge of the Internet, social networks, and tools to perfect the smooth running of its work. It is essential to understand in parallel, the vision of the company that will enter the net.
How to create a digital strategy for your website?
The digital strategy for your website has the role of giving you a course of action to begin or improve your online presence. This is to establish an action plan with all that will be necessary to prepare your presence on the web, to achieve your goals.
You want to develop your online presence via various levers like increasing your visibility, your traffic, working your e-reputation, make known your products, your services all this through the Internet?
You will then have to go through the digital strategy to cover all of your needs and then deploy it online. During and after, you will follow your results according to performance indicators: the KPIs and you will thus be able to establish your ROI (Return on Investment)
How to establish your digital strategy for your website?
To start the digital strategy of your website, nothing like a blank sheet to develop the QQOQCCP is a familiar term used in marketing and different areas requiring an action plan.
Comparable to the 5W in English (Who, What, Where, When, Why) the QQOQCCP in French allows to draw up a global vision of the way of an Internet presence, for example.
By answering all these questions, we will obtain the first frame before going further by developing each point raised.
Who? – What? – Or? When? – How? – How? – Why?
The questions
The sub-questions
1 Who? Of whom, with whom, on behalf of whom
2 What? What, with what, in relation to what
3 Or? Where, where, where to
4 When? All when, from when, until when
5 How? How, under what conditions, by what process
6 How? To what extent, values involved, at which dose
7 Why? Cause, triggering factor
Why? Reason, purpose, objective
Source Wikipedia
The QQOQCCP is the base. Answering all these questions is a necessary step to get started.
- Why do I want to be present on the Internet?
- What will be my target?
- What services/products will be exhibited/sold?
- What will my needs be to activate my digital presence? (blog, social networks accounts)
- What are and will be the means at my disposal? (time / men / tools …)
- What will be the budget allocated to establish my digital presence?
Analyze your old communication plans to improve your digital strategy
To allow you to measure the effectiveness of your digital strategy, it would be interesting to make a census of your previous actions in terms of communication (if they existed).
You will be able to compare your past orientations and those to come. See what you have done in the past and what has paid off. You will be able to improve specific points or review your action plans in depth.
If you already have a website, plan an audit to see if it is always up to date and whether it meets your current and future needs, but also those of your visitors.
- Is it necessary to update the website?
- And if so, what will be improved or revised?
- Do I have to recast completely?
- How to integrate the latest technologies?
- How to speed up its loading time? Etc…
Why revisit your website first?
In most cases, companies are looking for visibility and traffic on their website. If you develop a digital strategy for your website in this way, it is clear that the purpose will be that users can browse your site to find products, services and information.
If your site is out of date, if its ergonomics is to be reviewed or that many elements may cause users to leave, this is the first point to consider. Without this, your digital strategy would not have the desired impact.
So it’s best to focus on the basics of your strategy: Where you drive people. So the base of your plan is the first element to care, be it a social network, a website or any other channel through which you want to develop a presence, sales, visibility etc
In our case, we will leave on the site as a starting point (base)
The primary foundation of your digital strategy and content
As we have just seen, the website which will be associated with the blog or the news section will generally be the main base of your strategy.
your website
Your web site is thus the support towards which you will direct the Internet users because it is on this one that is where your content and your offer will be. It will be your showcase from which your services and your products will be exposed.
The blog section (news, information) will be the reflection of your expertise through the content that will be written. If everything starts from your site, then it will be the section to look after and not to neglect.
For a website/blog it will be essential to establish strict specifications, including various points
We will not develop everything a website should have, but here are some concepts to incorporate for your specifications:
- Responsive design
- graphical charter
- Sections / Categories
- Editorial slant
- Call-to-action
- The offer of services/products
- His identity: by the way, social media presence
All that will have to be integrated on the site will be to be notified on the specifications. Always keep in mind that a website must immediately answer the question “What is it about?” During the first visit to the homepage.
Integrate if possible the latest trends to ensure the ergonomics and fluidity of loading your site, flat design, Google AMP and responsive design to meet the diversity of screen resolutions. The mobile is a factor to consider today because it should not be neglected in terms of navigation.
Note: The website/blog can also be the subject of a QQOQCCP in itself if it is taken apart.
The content of your website
Any person or company wishing to gain visibility and traffic will have to produce content to meet the needs of its visitors. It’s through your content that people will find you and know you.
Two possibilities to find you via Google on the Internet:
- The user knows your name, and he can enter it on Google or directly in the URL bar.
- The user will enter a query on Google, and you hope your content will appear in the top 3 results.
It’s as simple as that in the facts on the Internet side!
On your side, this means that you will have to work on your content by putting yourself in the shoes of your customers. What information do they need? How will I treat them? How to optimize and position them? Etc…
There are many parameters to integrate at the content level, and it is subject to a strategy on its own; the content strategy. It is through the content that you will attract Internet users to you according to the principle of inbound marketing.
Digital strategy and social networks! On which to be present?
Within the digital strategy for your website, you will define the social networks on which you will have to be present. It will not be to be there to be because all will not allow you to make you know effectively. Define your goals first and learn to know your target well to know where she is and what is her schedule.
The most used social networks remain Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Beyond this will be case by case according to their specificities.
With more than 2 billion profiles registered worldwide, Facebook will be able to ask you to invest initially because visibility is paid on Mark Zuckerberg’s network. Twitter will provide you with excellent support for sharing your information, with interactivity via your subscribers, while creating virality. To do this, you will need to build your community over time and engage in your actions.
Linkedin meanwhile is a professional social network mainly used for B2B where it is possible to reach its target by profession and socio-professional category more easily. Linkedin also offers discussion groups and professional pages like Facebook.
Note: Linkedin users only spend an average of 17min / month on the network integrate it.
Bet on Linkedin within your digital strategy and reach your target B2B through the professional social network
Establish your graphic chart on your various social networks, so you will maintain a line of conduct and consistency that will identify you more quickly.
Do not try to be present on all social networks; be sure of your choices according to your objectives and optimize your digital presence on the chosen channels. Subsequently, it is possible to introduce one or more others according to possible actions to carry out or if it proves necessary.
Your presence on social networks must be part of your digital strategy, and it must perfectly meet your goals defined upstream. Social networks are for many of them very time consuming; it is better to optimize its presence on 2/3 channels than to venture on several of them.
The community manager to deploy the digital strategy of your website
This is where the community manager comes in. If you have planned one in your development phase, it will be appropriate to have it involved in the deployment of the digital strategy of your website. He can also give you his opinion, with an expert look at your presence in social networks.
It appears that the community manager will quickly be essential to ensure the deployment of your digital strategy, but also to monitor your performance indicators. This is the person you will need not to lose control of your actions, and sustain them to achieve your goals.
When you have reached this stage, you will undoubtedly have to wait several months to stabilize the beginning of digital presence and perhaps redefine some orientations. It happens that at the start, we do not necessarily think of everything. For questions of time, budget, or any other reason you will have to address it by monthly points, to see your evolutions and the orientation that your presence will take.
All the fruits that will come out of your digital strategy will be the most rewarding phase for your business. Once again, after the efforts and the budget allocated, it will not be a question of letting the magic operate.
The pilot of the project will be either a digital manager, a community manager, or yourself if you have decided to devote yourself to it. However, pay attention to the mass of tasks that will gravitate around. If you want to commit, you must carefully follow your plan and refine it as and when
Thus the community manager must be seen as an investment and not an expense. It will be essential to address the high return on investment (ROI) of your operations. Measure your different objectives on different axes and according to your digital presence.
These different points can be:
- Number of profiles subscribed to a newsletter
- Number of qualified Twitter subscribers
- The engagement rate of your members
- The conversion rate according to your axes
- The retention rate on your communities
- The ratio with orders placed on your products/services
- The number of VUs (unique visitors) on your site
- Your ambassadors etc
