Digital strategy? What it is and Why You Need One Now.
Are you spinning your wheels trying to get started with your website or online project? Should you start now or wait until you have the whole thing thought through completely? Should you do it yourself or hire a web designer? Do you need to start blogging? Should you just do everything on Facebook?
Hopefully you have an objective (the why) for getting growing your business and getting your new website launched.
Until you have a digital strategy - basically a plan on how to use the internet to achieve your objective, it can be hard to get much traction.
Sadly, a lot of your efforts may end up being a waste of time and effort.
Katelyn showed up at a wine and chat I hosted a few months ago. We met at the Democrats Abroad Germany Annual Meeting where I was giving away a Squarespace website in a fundraising raffle.
I noticed she was looking over the write-up and seriously thinking it over.
“Need a website?" I asked. She explained that she had already started with a Squarespace site, but had gotten stuck.
I asked her what she was trying to do. When she explained her (really good) business idea, it was clear to me that her ultimate goal would be e-commerce.
“What you really need is a Shopify site then, not Squarespace”.
I gave her my card, and at the wine and chat I learned a little more about her idea. After chatting we realized that while she wasn’t quite ready to launch her store, there were several things she could and should be doing now:
Open a Shopify account and get some pages and a blog set-up
Start blogging regularly to build an audience in her very niche space
Build a mailing list and start a newsletter (you can do this with Shopify now)
Get on Instagram to connect with influencers
When the time is right, and she’s ready to launch the store, she will have an audience primed and ready to buy what she’s selling.
This is a digital strategy.
It’s very different from waiting until you have enough products to open a store, going crazy launching it and wondering why no one shows up.
Katelyn had some tactical questions like whether or not she should use product copy from suppliers or write her own.
This is an important question, but one that can be addressed down the road. The most important thing was to get online NOW and start building an audience.
I suggested Instagram as a social media channel because she will eventually sell products (visual).
For someone else LinkedIn or YouTube might make more sense. For other types of small or solopreneur businesses, focusing exclusively on blogging or a newsletter for marketing may be the best approach.
When I say “digital strategy” what I mean is a kind of game plan for putting together all of the tools you’ll need in your online toolkit.
These tools may only be for your online activities or both your online and offline business tasks.
The game plan may involve a lot of different tools like an online shop, a project management tool, a mailing list service and cloud storage, or it may simply involve a website and email.
Figuring out the right digital strategy really depends on what you do and what you need. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming and complicated.
The internet is an amazing place full of wonders and magic. It’s also a very confusing place that can sometimes make you feel like you’re trying to drink from a fire hose.
Maybe you need to pick a platform for your business website. Should you use Wordpress? Wix? Squarespace or Shopify? A hosted or non-hosted solution? What’s the difference?
Figuring out your digital strategy requires taking a look at how you run your business and do your work, identifying “pain points” and understanding which tools can make your work easier and more streamlined. This is easier said than done.
When you’re just starting out, it is easy to get overwhelmed by #allthethings. A digital strategy will help you understand where you are, where you need to go and what you need to get there.
The same is true with tools. Mailchimp or ConvertKit? Dubsado or 17Hats? Asana, Basecamp or Trello?
Perhaps this sentence sounds like gibberish to you and you don’t even know what these things are.
That’s okay, when you learn about these tools they may totally light you up the moment you realize they have the power to solve a problem you’ve got; or, you may take one look and run for the hills.
For starters, you may not know what these tools do or that they even exist, and determining whether they are a good fit for you isn’t always straightforward.
A few factors to consider: your comfort level with technology, and which tools are super user friendly and which have more of a learning curve.
You’ll also need to figure out the features you need and whether or not it’s worth it to invest in a free or premium service.
Even experienced business owners struggle with finding the right tools for their digital tool kits. Sometimes the best solution is to rig a bunch of tools together using a tool like Zapier.
The fact is, you don’t know what you don’t know. Talking to someone who does know and can provide guidance on what to do and how to do it can save a lot of time, effort and cash in the long run. Having a digital strategy is like having a map that will help you get from point a to point b without out a lot of frustrating detours.
Interested in a digital strategy strategy session with me?
Read more about it here or schedule a quick chat below.