Do You Have A Digital Strategy Or You Still Experiment?

[Updated] According to CMO Council, the trade body, and Acceleration, the consultancy, many major companies believe their digital marketing schemes are still "exploratory" and describe their digital portfolio as a “random collection” of solutions. (WARC, 2012)

Digital platforms develop so fast that it is impossible for any institution to create a scalable programme which trains savvy digital marketers, says Drew Panayiotou, SVP, US marketing, at Best Buy. Everyone learns here and now, and advantage is hardtop get because it requires close to unlimited resources, 24/7 work and many tests and experiments. 

The companies that have managed to integrate the exciting innovative digital platforms with the legacy in their marketing communications are very few. Aston Martin, the carmaker, is a brilliant example how the IT and the marketing department (as well as all other departments) work together to find the right balance between innovation and tradition, risk and investment, budget and return on investment.

Where is your business?

The advancement of your digital strategy certainly depends on the stage of your business. The possible scenarios are three:

1. The business is about to be established, which means that a marketing strategy must be developed (and it better include digital, too). 
2. The company is relatively new and its marketing communications could be varied in order to fit in the new trends. In that case, experiments are very likely. 
3. The business has established marketing communications strategy which creates / has created the need to decide how digital fits the company’s strategy.

Where is digital marketing?
[Updated] Roger Menz, VP, global marketing, at Sony Music Entertainment says that the level of real understanding and expertise in digital marketing is just not fully developed even though there is exceedingly high enthusiasm and excitement over new and shiny platforms.

At present, email is the most widely used digital tool, followed by web analytics, online ads and social media monitoring. Probably some will be glad to hear that social media tracking topped the list of future priorities, ahead of marketing analytics and email.

According to the study, published by WARC, 23% of interviewed marketers boasted a formal budget and mandate to execute schemes, and 42% received “strong interest and active support”. And an additional 23% of the sample agreed senior corporate management was grappling to see where new media “fits” into their business.

What exactly ‘digital strategy means’ for your business?
If you have done some marketing course you are probably aware that strategy is succinct and long-term. Everything else which is not long term and requires the explanation of further details goes under objectives or tactics.

Let’s look at this example:

Company ABC Ltd has the following objectives:

• To acquire 1,000 new customers at cost not exceeding £23 per customer and ROI 1:3,25 by the end of 2012. 
• To increase the retention rate with 15% and the LTV by 10% at cost not exceeding £6 per customer. (These objectives are SMART – specific, measurable, aspirational, realistic and time-based.)

The strategy is:

• By providing exceptional customer service and the lowest price on the market for our core product. (This will not change even in the long term unless the market environment changes dramatically. It sounds like descriptive, generic, theoretical guidelines.)

And the tactics include:

• Through using SEO, Google adverts, email marketing, , online time-limited promotions, Facebook marketing and a retention programme. (Each of these will need further clarification and planning. And the final result must be DOCS - detailed, operational, costed and specific.)

Where is your knowledge and resources?

Ok this being said we can move on. The answer of this question is very specific to your business organisation. The best advice, I could give you is to use Dr. Dave Chaffey’s diagnostics tool. It is absolutely free and once you have used it, you can go back to his website and find the answers you need to move on. 

Check out the links below:

http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-healthcheck/ 

And let us know how it worked for you in the comments section or on our Facebook fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/BusinessChat


Good luck!!!