Blazing the Trail: Uncovering 7 Elements of a Digital Strategy to Slay Your Competitors
The number 7 has always fascinated and intrigued civilizations as a symbolic number for fortune, pure wisdom, and even perfection itself. In digital marketing, the number 7 is equally significant as a guiding principle for defining and creating an effective strategy for clients.
Looking at enterprises specifically, the digital marketing team at Powered Labs laid out the 7 steps in creating and executing a strategy to claim victory over the competition in your industry.
Did we pique your interest yet? Read below about the 7 essential elements that define a digital strategy. This blog will shed light on how enterprises can bridge the gap between ideas and action, turning innovation and initiatives into new conversions and elevated growth.
The chapters of our quest:
- The Customer Journey
- Strategy
- Scope of Work
- Project Management
- Deliverables
- Maintenance
- Results
- The Customer Journey
The first step in creating a digital strategy is to study the customer journey or analyzing the path of gaining a conversion on your website. This can be done by assessing your analytics and tracking the path users followed before converting on your website.
Work your way back through the journey the customer had taken. See what pages they viewed and how long they engaged with each of the pages. Determine what the first landing page was and where the user came from.
We recommend doing this with at least 25 conversions to get a thorough understanding of what is working, what can be improved upon, and what you should expand on for more conversions. Assess all aspects of each page from both a design standpoint and a user experience standpoint. Check all copy, images, and CTAs. See what is working and perhaps what is not as effective or what you can improve upon.
- The Strategy
Once you have a thorough understanding of the customer journey and have identified the areas that are working and not working, it is now time to create the strategy. Your strategy should include all the action items needed for the website, the elements of branding, any assets, and all other items needed for a digital marketing plan. This is a critical stage to set the tone for what is going to happen next, and how it will unfold.
The Scope of Work (SOW)
From here, you should receive a scope of work (SOW) identifying exactly what is going to be included in the projects, their phases, and associated timelines and costs. The SOW is the first deliverable you will receive, and it is the most important document.
While the format of a SOW can vary, it will typically include the following:
- Project or campaign objective
- Scope
- Schedule
- Price
- Key Assumptions
- Pricing
- Acceptance
Succinctly put, the SOW is an all-encapsulating document that explains the “why”, “how” and “what” of the project. It should identify a problem and present the solution to solving the problem, and it is the legal document outlining the work that is going to be done, timeframes, and the price.
Quest to success
4. Project Management
Project management begins from the moment the project is kicked off. Usually, there is a COO within the design/development/marketing agency to oversee the projects. In addition, each project will have a Lead Creative Director, Developer, and VP of Marketing, who will coordinate the phases and milestones within the project. Together, you plan your departure to slay the competition.
The COO will issue a tentative timeline of the phases and the project will be executed from there. You can expect a lot of back and forth during this time because feedback and interaction is essential to achieve success. It is crucial for the client to be responsive to the needs of an agency and get all required materials to them as soon as they possibly can. Otherwise, things may stall, and completion will be delayed. It is a special time that allows you to truly understand your ally and solidify your partnership, and to realize that you are both trying to accomplish the same endeavor.
5. Deliverables
Deliverables include all assets such as branding guidelines, brochures, presentations, website, social media pages, and access to email marketing platform(s). They should include exact numbers of how many, size (as in how many pages), and have detailed descriptions. If the initial deliverables are completed, and your enterprise wishes to continue SEO, social media management services and email marketing, then a new SOW will be put into place outlining exactly what is being done and how much the services will cost.
6. Maintenance
Maintenance will be required to keep the website and other digital assets current and fresh for your enterprise. We recommend devoting a minimum of 5 hours each month for this.
In order to remain relevant in search engine results, it is also recommended that the website continually gets new fresh content. Every business is a little different, and therefore, has individual needs. Years of managing and executing award-winning campaigns have taught the team at Powered Labs that each of our solutions must be decided on a case-by-case basis, based on the requirements of our clients, and their objectives.
7. Results
Within a short time frame, your enterprise should begin trending in a positive direction. The traffic should increase as well as the number of conversions. While it may not happen overnight, the website should see an uptick in the coming weeks as search engines index and crawl your fresh new content.
Here at Powered Labs, we provide our clients with a comprehensive monthly report that shows all our activities and the growth trends on digital as we continue to build your audience and produce original content. Typically, it takes a minimum of 30 days of data to create a benchmark report and ascertain valuable insights.
If you have a digital project that you want to get off the ground, please contact us today. We are happy to take on new projects and will be happy to provide a custom solution and quote.
If your company needs guidance with mobile application development or maybe you have an idea that can take advantage of these new features, feel free to drop us a line at sales@www.poweredlabs.com