Flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants as a digital strategy?

When it comes to digital strategy, many businesses often don’t understand what is involved or they don’t take the time to properly plan the implementation of their digital presence.

The role of a digital strategy is to define which online activities will further the goals of the organisation most effectively and forms just one component of the overall marketing.

When creating a digital strategy or deciding whether you need to have one, there are some areas that need to be considered:

Is your lack of digital strategy affecting you online?

Many business owners believe that a digital strategy is just another job that they don’t have enough time or resources to commit to. However the truth is that not having a digital strategy often becomes the number one cause of failed online marketing initiatives.

I have found that if a business doesn’t have a strategy in place it’s unlikely that they would have thought about how they plan to track and measure the impact of the strategies, leaving them unsure of the ROI of the campaign. Answering key questions such as: How many leads were generated? or How many Sales resulted from the leads generated by the campaign.

Missing elements that are included in high-level planning of digital strategies can corrode the positive results on your return on investments.

Decide Your Destination…

The next key point is to decide what direction your company wants to go when initially making a digital strategy, remembering that the business and your customers will always be the fundamental first step. It is back to the fundamentals of “Start with the end in mind”. By adding an element of forward planning you can then establish what outcome you hope to achieve with your investment.

Plan the immediate and long term goals and objectives then implement your campaign making sure that you follow through and follow up.

Map Out Your Checkpoints

Checkpoints in digital strategy are the short term goals that lead to the bigger goals and achievements. Checking your actual results against your set checkpoints allows you to remove guestimates and assumptions from your overall plan. This will also allow you to be fluid if your campaign is not delivering the results that you are looking then you can “tweak “ your strategy.

This will improve the data-driven decision capabilities by having tangible results that can be used as a benchmark when setting the businesses next checkpoints.

Don’t get distracted with new and shiny things!

New social media platforms or apps will always keep popping up in the digital space; stay focused on what resonates with your business. Make sure to keep focus on the platforms that can have the right amount of time and resources put into.

Yes digital strategies change and yes sometimes business need to add to the action plans and check points, but there is only so much more that can be added before you start wearing thin on time and effectiveness.

Remember; focus on doing a few things well instead of trying to do everything half-baked.

Are you ready for digital strategy?

There are many resources available in the marketplace such as this Digital Marketing Strategy Workshop that will provide businesses with a holistic look at their environment, providing them with market research and identifying a strategic direction.

A digital strategy action plan will be a tailored set of prioritised digital strategies for your business including recommendations for website structure & optimisation, and digital marketing activities such as social media, online advertising and email.



Phillip Parisis works with both large and small businesses, to improve online user experience through psychological triggers, design principles and traffic sources in order to generate profitable leads and increase Google rankings.

Phillip has over 10 years’ experience in strategising, creating and developing web solutions, lead funnels and optimizing conversions for ASX200 listed companies, large and small online retailers and small businesses.  Phillip’s background also includes lecturing in web design principles and digital marketing strategy, as well as workplace experience from both client side and agency perspective.