8 steps to improve and grow your business's online strategy
Written by Barry Eichhorn
Owner & AI Advisor
An online strategy is really nothing more than a regular business strategy, with the difference that you focus on your online activities and the online channels available to you. With an online strategy, you therefore define a company's general long-term online marketing objectives, the course of your approach on the internet and the allocation of the online resources needed to achieve these goals. Here are 8 steps to set up a successful online strategy for your business:
Explore the environment and analyse the results.
A solid online strategy starts with analysis and research. This gives you a clear picture of where you stand at the moment and how you are doing compared to competitors. You also gain deeper insight into your potential customers, also known as your target audience
- Analyse your performance. Start by evaluating your performance over the past year. Dive into the web analytics data to determine what did and did not work, and why.
- Evaluate your competitors. Spend some time looking at your competitors' digital presence. The beauty of digital marketing is that it is easy to see what your competitors are doing because everything is public. Use research tools such as SpyFu to get a free analysis of competitors' strategy.
- Get to know your customers. Facebook Audience Insights is a free Facebook tool you can use to uncover details about your audience size, demographics, behaviour and interests. Google Trends is another free tool to see which topics people are searching for and what the search trends are over a given period.
Map out your online strategy.
Build a clear online strategy based on what you want to achieve and how you want to do it. The GSOT strategy framework stands for goals, strategies, objectives and tactics and will help you create a concrete and pragmatic plan.
- Goals are what you want to achieve overall with your online efforts. It could be, for example, 5% more revenue or 200 sign-ups for an event.
- Strategy is the approach you use to achieve your goals. It is usually determined by the stages of the marketing funnel. The market uses various names for these stages. A well-known one is SEE, THINK, DO, CARE. Each stage focuses on a different purchase intent that a future customer is in.
- Objectives are measurable numbers linked to your goal. If, for example, you want to grow sales by 5% this year, your objective could be to generate 200 leads or reach 400 people.
- Tactics are aligned with your objectives. If you need 200 leads, for example, you can use a landing page with a webinar and social media to entice potential new customers.
By defining a clear online strategy, you can focus your efforts on the areas with the greatest chance of driving business growth.
Define the target audience.
In digital marketing you have the option to run campaigns with very precise targeting. Go beyond traditional demographic targeting and be as specific as possible. Write down who your ideal customer is so that you have a clear picture of them. This ensures that everyone within the company, as well as external partners, understand who they are looking for.
Define your content strategy .
Map out a content plan based on your marketing objectives and your target audience.
Here are five ways to find content inspiration:
- Go back to step one and look for ideas from your competitors and customer analysis.
- Check Answer the Public to see which questions people ask in search engines.
- Search hashtags on Instagram to see what is trending. Instagram is very visual, so it is a great source of inspiring content.
- Look at Google search suggestions. These show what people are searching for that is related to your category.
- Explore Pinterest for inspiration within your market.
Choose the right channels and tactics.
Once you know which content resonates with your audience, you choose the channels that are likely to deliver the best results. Of course, it is hard to determine this exactly in advance, so you will also need to test the results each channel delivers. By adjusting and optimising, you can keep growing.
Consider all the potential digital channels, tools and tactics you could use. Then set priorities based on the online strategy you created in step two. Think about how each channel contributes to achieving your objective and goal.
Set key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks.
Too often, companies start with execution but then struggle with the question of whether they are really achieving results. Every activity you invest in must have a clear KPI, which is your measure of success. Then set benchmarks. The benchmark is what you want to achieve. With email marketing, for example, my KPI could be an email open rate above 25%.