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How to Conduct a Digital Marketing Strategy Session

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In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Over the years we have worked with companies of all shapes and sizes all with vastly different marketing budgets. One thing seems to remain fairly constant among them all, a lack of planning time! A while back I read 7 Habits for Highly Effective People and one of the big takeaways was yearly goal setting. This exercise allows you to focus and head in a particular direction, although it doesn’t mean you must always achieve the goal. That’s why I felt the Eisenhower quote was so appropriate here, as we all need to take the time to do the planning, but the plan may go out the window quick.

Questions to Ask About Your Digital Strategy

First, start by identifying your business goals. Who are you, what do you believe in, and what would you like to offer you customers? Second, define your audience. Although some might argue this should be step 1, we’ll assume you’re already in business to fill a need of some kind. Never the less, ask yourself why your customers are in need of your services. What are their pain points and how can you alleviate them? Third, where are these customers and how do they like to be messaged? Fourth, what message delivery vehicles make the most sense in order to effectively target this audience? Fifth, does your website convey the pain point solutions and is it free of road blocks for your audience to achieve their ultimate goal? And finally, how will you plan to track success? Are you collecting the right data points and have a means to distribute them?

How to Conduct a Digital Marketing Strategy Session

So now that you have all the questions, you’ll need to answer them. This is where many companies fall flat. We recommend carving out a full week to delve into all of this as a collaborative team. A week of lost productivity is worth 10-times that in marketing effectiveness. Reserve a room with comfy chairs, stock it full of coffee and snacks, and make sure lunch is on order. Your team should be laser focused on answering the questions above and coming out with a cohesive plan of action.

Still sound like a lot? That’s ok, because it is a lot. This is why many companies don’t take the time to conduct these sessions. However the ones that do will be far more successful and while the plans may get thrown out, the planning will have been indispensable!

Want some help conducting your own digital strategy planning session? Contact us and then make sure the snacks are ordered!!

Everyone has a plan, until

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Everyone has heard the old Mike Tyson quote “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. It’s a good quote and is quite true, but I’m starting to hear it more and more in the context of strategy and I have to strongly disagree. If you are devising a strategy, digital, business or otherwise, that cannot stand a ‘punch’ then it really isn’t the right strategy. A sound strategy is a fluid one and not one that is stringent to the letter of the law. Below are some examples of strategy adjustments that we often prepare clients for when that punch happens.

Audience Personas

Back in my college days my roommate got a job at American Eagle and he remarked that at his orientation they showed him an image of some dude wearing AE clothes with captions saying; Male, 18-34, SUV-owner, and avid outdoorsman. But what happens when AE produces a line that is no longer ‘hip’ to that audience? This is punch #1. Focus on what you do/make best and adjust audiences as you go. You may have the same audience for decades, or you may find a new audience pops up and vanishes just as quickly. Be on the lookout in Google Analytics for Demographics & Interests to see if perhaps a new audience group is emerging OR an old one is falling behind.

Tactical Reversal

“Hansel is so hot right now.” Insert any tactic for Hansel and you have an ever changing digital environment. What I recommend today may not be relevant 6-months from now. This is punch #2. Monitor your Channel Groupings closely each week and each month and dig into each one to see what is driving the change. You may even discover issues with how Google is categorizing your channels. An example of this was that Google was categorizing Weebly and Blogspot referrals as ‘Social’ for one of our clients, inflating Social visits and engagement. Keeping a close eye at the Channel Grouping level helps you adjust to where the puck is going OR allows you to tweak a tactic to be better targeted.

Your digital strategy plan is a fluid document that will change over time. Your goals and product/service offering should stay consistent (with the obvious understanding that you may adjust the latter for business reasons), but how your visitors engage with your brand will most certainly need to be adjusted. So when those punches come, don’t drop everything and start swinging. Instead anticipate these areas may change and perhaps include your action plan for what to do when they inevitably pivot in multiple directions!