We’re going to talk about a digital strategy to designate the strategy of a company or a brand in the field of marketing and communication through digital channels. Like any marketing strategy, it must include objectives, one (or more) positioning(s), a resulting marketing mix and performance indicators.
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Strategic objectives
In terms of digital marketing, the main goal of the digital strategy is to achieve measurable objectives in a given time. These objectives must be in line with the strategic objectives of the company, and not centered on performance indicators specific to the web.
The importance of defining relevant objectives in your digital strategy.
Examples of strategic objectives
- Achieve 30% of company sales online within two years.
- Achieve 25 MEUR online turnover by 2022.
- To be the brand with the strongest digital visibility in its field in 2022.
Examples of web indicators
- Be first in natural referencing on the 10 flagship queries of the profession within 1 year.
- Have 50,000 Facebook fans in 2022.
The achievement of objectives must have a direct impact on the brand and/or the company. Indicators can be defined as means correlated to the achievement of strategic objectives. However, the assumptions underlying this correlation will not necessarily be verified and will therefore have to be readjusted over time, unlike the strategic objectives, which must be stable, sustainable and structuring. That’s why digital strategy consulting is important before actually starting anything.
Case study: the traffic / C.A. correlation
To understand the difference between strategic objective and web indicator, let’s take the example of a company that wants to achieve 30% of its turnover online within two years. It currently sells aluminum profiles through traditional channels. Its forecast turnover (target) is 100 MEUR in 2022. It must therefore achieve 30 MEUR via the web. This objective will have a direct impact on the company: it expects to save commercial and logistical costs through this (automated processing of quotes, transmission to the ERP and easy extension of its catchment area).
Currently, it makes 1MEUR on a market niche on online sales. The store’s conversion rate is 3.5%. The traffic is 600 visitors per day. The web manager could therefore make a rule of three and say that to reach 30 MEUR, it is necessary to generate 18,000 visitors per day. He could therefore set a target of 18,000 visitors a day and make a monthly traffic monitoring table on these bases.
However, this hypothesis, true for a business of 1 MEUR, is unlikely to be verified later:
- The conversion rate will vary by market segment.
- The competition, less strong in niches, will undoubtedly react on large volumes (where it will already be present).
- It is not known to what extent the increase in sales must be achieved by increasing the number of customers (therefore visitors) or by increasing the average basket (the same customers who buy other products that were not available before online).
- It is possible that being on an existing activity, traditional customers can be directed to the online sales site, with conversion rates much higher than the average.
By defining a pseudo-correlated traffic objective to the online store’s turnover, the focus is on an indicator that is not necessarily relevant, and which can harm the achievement of the strategic objective: a campaign to convert existing customers would have probably a much better ROI than a race for traffic via advertising.
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