Creating a digital strategy for your website is equivalent to building an action plan through which a company can effectively establish its online presence.
It’s about approaching a set of points, means and objectives to have a course of action to follow while knowing what to do and how to do it.
What is a (global) digital strategy?
The digital strategy is generally linked to all the actions or action plans implemented, in order to communicate via the internet and through different channels, such as social networks for example. Its aim is to provide the different steps to follow in order to achieve previously defined objectives.
The digital strategy includes numerous points to be defined which mainly come in response to problems. These issues may have a link with visibility, traffic, image, etc. and in these cases it is often necessary to work on the digital strategy in conjunction with sub-strategies which will be integrated into the latter.
The content to be distributed and everything that this implies such as editorial planning, community strategy where it will be a question of management and animation of communities and the actions to be deployed to engage its members. You also have the influencer marketing strategy if it is part of a logic of promotion and search for visibility and/or traffic.
As a reminder :
- Content strategy
- Editorial strategy
- The community strategy
- Influencer marketing strategy.
To the extent that any company wishing to position itself on the internet seeks to develop its sales, we would say that the implied goal or purpose of the majority of digital strategies is to increase its sales.
We can also work on the brand, notoriety, image or even customer relations to the extent that it remains linked to online actions via the internet in particular.
Any company wishing to set foot on the internet must necessarily go through a digital strategy by laying out its objectives, and the means made available to it to achieve them.
With the Internet becoming a new opportunity for many companies as well as a vast area for conquering new customers, there is no question of missing out. The first step will therefore consist of establishing a diagram that will answer the primary questions.
Note: Developing a digital strategy requires good knowledge of the internet, social networks, and tools to ensure the smooth running of your work. At the same time, it is important to understand the vision of the company that will enter the internet.
How to create a digital strategy for your website?
The role of the digital strategy for your website is to give you a course of action to follow, to start or improve your online presence. This involves establishing an action plan with everything that will be necessary to prepare your presence on the web, in order to achieve your objectives.
Do you want to develop your online presence via different levers such as increasing your visibility, your traffic, working on your e-reputation, making your products, your services known… all this through the internet?
You will then have to go through the digital strategy in order to cover all of your needs and then deploy it online. During and after, you will monitor your results based on performance indicators: KPIs and you will be able to establish your ROI (Return on Investment)
How to establish your digital strategy for your website?
To begin the digital strategy of your website, there is nothing like a blank sheet of paper to develop the QQOQCCP which is a familiar term used in marketing and in different areas requiring an action plan.
Comparable to the 5W in English (Who, What, Where, When, Why) the QQOQCCP in French allows you to establish a global vision of the why of a presence on the internet for example.
By answering all of these questions, we will obtain an initial framework before going further by developing each point raised.
Who ? – What ? – Or ? – When ? – How ? – How much ? – For what ?
The QQOQCCP is the basis. Answering all of these questions is a must to get started.
- Why do I want to be present on the internet?
- What will my target be?
- What services/products will be displayed/sold?
- What will my needs be to activate my digital presence? (blog, social media accounts, etc.)
- What are and will be the means made available to me? (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 enable you to measure the effectiveness of your digital strategy, it would be interesting to take stock of your previous actions in terms of communication (if they existed).
You will thus be able to compare your past directions and those to come. See what you have done in the past and what has worked. You will thus be able to improve certain points or review your action plans in depth.
If you already have a website, plan an audit to see if it is still up to date and if 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 the points to improve or review?
- Do I need to completely overhaul?
- How to integrate the latest technologies?
- How to speed up your loading time? etc…
Why review your website in the first place?
In most cases, companies are looking for visibility and traffic on their website. If you develop a digital strategy for your website in this sense, it is clear that the aim will be that Internet users can browse your website to find products, services and information.
If your site is no longer up to date, if its ergonomics needs to be reviewed or if many elements risk driving Internet users away, this will be the first point to review. Without it, your digital strategy would not have the desired impact.
It is therefore preferable to focus on the basis (the foundation) of your strategy: Where you will lead Internet users. So the foundation of your strategy is the first element to take care of, whether it is a social network, a website or any other channel through which you wish to develop a presence, sales, visibility, etc.
In our case, we will start with the website as a starting point (base)
The main basis of your digital strategy and your content
As we have just seen previously, the website to which the blog or news section will be associated will generally be the main base of your strategy.
- your website
Your website is therefore the medium to which you will direct Internet users, because it is on it that your content and your offer are or will be found. It will be your showcase from which your services and/or your products will be exhibited.
The blog part (news, information, etc.) will reflect your expertise through the content that will be written there. If everything starts well on your site, this will then be the section to take care of and not to neglect.
For a website / blog it will be essential to establish strict specifications, including different points
We will not develop everything that a website should include, but here are some concepts to include in your specifications:
- Responsive design
- Graphical charter
- Sections / Categories
- Editorial slant
- Calls to action
- The offer of services / products
- Their identity: about, social media presence…
Everything that must be integrated on the site will be notified in the specifications. Always keep in mind that a site must immediately answer the question “what is it about?” » during the first visit to the home page.
If possible, integrate the latest trends to ensure the ergonomics and smooth loading of your site, flat design, Google AMP and responsive design to respond to the diversity of screen resolutions. Mobile is a factor to consider today, because it should not be neglected when it comes to navigation.
- The content of your website
Any person or company wishing to gain visibility and traffic will need to produce content to meet the needs of its visitors. It is through your content that Internet users will find and know you.
2 possibilities to find you via Google on the internet:
- The Internet user knows your name and can enter it on Google or directly in the URL bar.
- The Internet user will enter a query on Google, and you hope that your content will appear in the top 3 results.
It’s as simple as that in reality on the internet user’s side!
For your part, this means that you will have to work on your content by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes. What information do they need? How will I treat them? how to optimize and position them? etc…
There are a lot of parameters to integrate at the content level and it is subject to a strategy on its own; content strategy. It is through content that you will attract Internet users to you according to the principle of inbound marketing.
Digital strategy and social networks! Which ones to be present on?
Within the digital strategy for your website, you will define the social networks on which you will need to be present. It will not be a question of being there for the sake of being there because not all of them will allow you to make yourself known effectively. Define your goals first and get to know your target well to know where they are and what their schedule is.
The most used social networks remain Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Beyond that it will be on a case by case basis depending on their specificities.
With more than 2 billion profiles registered around the world, Facebook may ask you for initial investments, because visibility is paid for on Mark Zuckerberg’s network. Twitter will offer you good support for sharing your information, with interactivity with your subscribers, while creating virality. To do this, you will have to create your community over time and engage it in your actions.
Linkedin is a professional social network mainly used for B2B where it is possible to more easily reach your target by profession and socio-professional category. Linkedin also offers discussion groups and professional pages like Facebook.
Note: Linkedin users only spend on average 17 minutes/month on the network… include it.
Focus on Linkedin within your digital strategy and reach your B2B target thanks to the professional social network
Establish your graphic charter on your different social networks, you will thus maintain a guiding line and a consistency which will identify you more quickly.
Don’t try to be present on all social networks , just be sure of your choices according to your objectives and optimize your digital presence on the selected channels. Subsequently, it is possible to introduce one or more others depending on possible actions to be carried out or if this proves necessary.
Your presence on social networks must be part of your digital strategy and it must perfectly meet your objectives defined in advance. As social networks are very time-consuming for many of them, it is better to optimize your presence on 2/3 channels than to venture into 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 involve it in the deployment of the digital strategy of your website. He will also be able to give you his opinion, with an expert look at your presence on social networks.
It appears that the community manager will quickly become essential to ensure the deployment of your digital strategy, but also to monitor your performance indicators. This is the person you need to not lose control of your actions, and to sustain them in order to achieve your objectives.
When you have reached this stage, you will certainly have to wait several months to stabilize the beginning of your digital presence and perhaps redefine certain directions. It happens that when starting out we don’t necessarily think of everything. For questions of time, budget, or any other reason you will need to remedy this with monthly updates, in order to see your progress and the direction your presence will take.
All the fruits that will result from your digital strategy will represent the most rewarding phase for your business. Once again, after the efforts and the allocated budget, it will not be a question of letting the magic happen.
The project leader will be either a digital manager, a community manager, or yourself if you have decided to dedicate yourself to it. However, be careful of the mass of tasks that will revolve around it. If you want to commit, you will have to scrupulously follow your plan and refine it as you go.
So the community manager must be seen as an investment and not an expense. It will therefore be important to address the famous 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 followers
- The engagement rate of your members
- The conversion rate according to your axes
- The retention rate in your communities
- The ratio with orders placed on your products/services
- The number of VUs (unique visitors) on your site
- Your Ambassadors etc…
Good luck with the creation and deployment of your digital strategy for your website, with a view to gaining visibility and traffic but also to increase your sales.
Read More: What is the best price for digital software or a website?
