Digital strategy development

Improve your Digital strategy development with our hub page

Use our hub pages as a reference to get up-to-speed on all the main digital marketing techniques. They will help you quickly understand how to make the most of the technique through definitions and recommendations on our member resources and blog articles covering strategy, best practices and the latest statistics.

What is digital strategy development?

Digital strategy development is a crucial process that helps businesses leverage the power of digital technologies to achieve their goals and stay competitive in today's digital age.

At Smart Insights, we are proud to provide Business Members with step-by-step actionable guidance using the RACE Growth System to develop an effective digital strategy to drive business growth, enhance brand visibility, and maximize market share.

If you're looking to learn more, check out our article explaining What is a Digital Strategy, which also explains how to structure a digital strategy.

Learn how to use the RACE Growth system to improve your digital marketing

If you sign up as a Free member of Smart Insights, you can download our popular 90-day RACE planning template which explains how to use the RACE Growth system.

Digital strategy development: How do you get started?

Set Clear Objectives:

The first step in digital strategy development is to define your objectives. What do you aim to achieve through your digital initiatives? Whether it's increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving customer engagement, or expanding your online reach, clearly articulating your objectives will serve as a guiding force throughout the process. Find out how to define SMART marketing objectives.

Understand Your Target Audience:

To create a successful digital strategy, it's essential to understand your target audience. Conduct thorough market research to gain insights into your customers' demographics, behaviors, preferences, and pain points. This understanding will help you tailor your digital efforts to effectively engage and resonate with your target audience. Find out how and why you should use cross-funnel personas.

Conduct a Competitive Analysis:

Analyze your competitors' digital presence to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. Assess their website, social media profiles, content, and online marketing tactics. This analysis will help you identify opportunities for differentiation and gain a competitive edge. See out SWOT analysis template examples.

Develop a Customer Journey Map:

Visualize the entire customer journey, from the initial point of contact to post-purchase engagement. Identify touchpoints where your customers interact with your brand online, such as your website, social media platforms, email campaigns, and customer service channels. This map will allow you to optimize each touchpoint and deliver a seamless and personalized user experience. Find out how to create a customer journey map with RACE.

Choose the Right Digital Channels:

Select the digital channels that align with your objectives and target audience. We have resources to support digital channel development across search engine optimization (SEO), social media platforms, content marketing, email marketing, digital experience, and campaign planning. Within your digital strategy, each channel will serve a different purpose, choosing the right mix will help you maximize your reach and engagement.

Monitor and Measure Key Metrics:

Regularly monitor and measure the performance of your digital strategy using key performance indicators (KPIs). Track metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, engagement levels, social media reach, and customer feedback. This data will provide insights into the effectiveness of your strategy and help you make informed decisions for continuous improvement.

Check out our blogs to read up on popular topics such as 'what is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?', 'what is always on marketing?', and 'what is your digital marketing maturity?'.

Adapt and Evolve:

Digital landscapes are dynamic and constantly evolving. Stay updated with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in the digital realm. Continuously evaluate the performance of your strategy, identify areas for improvement, and adapt accordingly. Embrace innovation and be willing to experiment with new ideas to stay ahead of the competition.

Keep reading for our recommended resources on digital strategy development.

Digital strategy development quick guide

Digital strategy development success factors

Our Quick Guide to Marketing Strategy includes resources for all elements of marketing and digital marketing planning and strategy.

Our Learning Paths are integrated with downloadable templates to help you audit your performance, set forecasts and create action plans. Each Learning Path includes different types of example templates in Excel, Powerpoint and Word from our resource library to help you create your action plans as you work through the Learning Path.

Our Digital Tranformation Learning Path for Business Professional members shows how to manage the change to provide the right platform for success.

Learn more about the premium membership options for different types of business.

Digital strategy development definition

Digital strategy can be broken down into these 3 areas which show how online marketing can help grow the profitability of a business:

Recommended member resources for Digital strategy development

Ebooks on Digital marketing strategy

Online training on Digital marketing strategy

Digital marketing e-learning course

Marketing templates on Digital marketing strategy

Related statistics

Tools & Software

Key techniques for Digital strategy development

These are the related techniques which we recommend as important for managing Digital strategy development effectively. View these hub pages giving details on best practices, statistics and examples for these techniques:

View all blog articles on Digital strategy development

Explore this Toolkit

The Digital Marketing Strategy And Planning toolkit contains: