What is a Digital Strategy?

Google “what is a digital strategy” and you’ll find lots of white papers full of business-speak. That’s because developing and executing a digital strategy is a complex endeavor, involving multiple teams, lots of planning, and expert guidance. But when you boil it all down, it’s a pretty simple idea:

A digital strategy is a prioritized roadmap that defines what a brand will achieve, be and do in digital spaces.

Your digital strategy identifies where external and internal audiences are active online and which platforms are the best places to reach them. It takes into consideration how people look for information, what types of information are most useful, and how they act on that information.

It establishes workflow and governance for content development, measurement and continuous improvement.

And it results in a content strategy that identifies the objectives, audiences, content types and themes, and tactics for each owned and paid digital property.

In other words, it answers questions like these:

• What spaces should you participate in?
• What do you want to accomplish in those spaces?
• What content do you want to produce?
• How will you measure the value and usefulness of this content to your consumers?
• What people and processes will it take to accomplish these goals in an effective and meaningful way?

So how is this different from your brand strategy?

Your digital strategy isn’t separate from your brand strategy. It’s an application of it.

A digital strategy applies brand positioning and business goals to digital platforms, determining the best types of digital experiences to extend the brand (websites, customer portals, employee intranets, blogs, apps, social media platforms, paid search, digital wayfinding tools and more).

And keep in mind that brand is expressed not only in content, but in the experience itself. Digital tactics and interactive experiences impart the essence of the brand as much or more than what you see or read in these spaces (and certainly more than print or television).

Does your brand have a clear digital strategy? If not, talk to your agency or contact us. We’d love to help you become more effective in digital spaces.