Communicators for whom the topic of “digital strategy” is fresh on the to-do list in 2022 often don’t know where to start. What should be considered and in what order? What is really important and what is more downstream? Here you will find the essential considerations to get started professionally.
Connect with Stefanie Soehnchen on LinkedIn.
Status quo overview
Before you get started in concrete terms, take some time to accurately assess the status quo. Knowing where you stand will make it easier to determine where you want to go – and what you need to get there.
As part of this first step, answer the following questions:
- Is there a baseline measurement of social channels (status quo recording of average values of KPIs for the last 6-12 months)?
- Who is defined as the company competitor?
- Are there existing business or communication goals / KPIs?
- Which communication target groups are defined? Do personas already exist?
- What internal resources currently exist? How is the team structured? What should it look like in the future?
- Are there already elements for social media content in the corporate design?
- How much budget do I have?
Only when you have a clear picture and have found the appropriate answers can you build a solid digital strategy on this.
Defining goals for the digital strategy
If there are corporate goals and perhaps communication goals beyond that, it is imperative to put them in the context of digital communication goals.
Unfortunately, however, in many cases it remains the case that there are at best superficial goals that are more like a mission than a quantified objective.
If there are no corporate or communication goals, define some yourself for digital communication based on baseline measurement – preferably using the SMART method, but if necessary, coarser goals are also sufficient for the beginning.
Only if you and your team work toward goals can you manage efficiently and measure success.
Target groups – and where to find them
After it is clear what you want to achieve on behalf of the company, you should determine who you are actually talking to.
If there are already target groups from communications, product development, sales or market research, for example, see to what extent you can use them or need to modify them.
If there are none, define the most appropriate ones for digital communications. That’s a good start. Then, if you want to go one step further, create relevant personas for these target groups. For this, you can use the free persona template we created, for example.
Once you’re done with that, take a look at which channels these target groups are particularly strongly represented and active on. Prioritize these channels in your digital ecosystem.
Content definition
Now that you know who you want to talk to, where and why, the next step is to define the topics.
The point here is not simply to proclaim corporate messages, but to design the communication thematically so that the content is always relevant to your target groups.
The crucial question is: Why should someone give me his/her attention? What do I offer in return?
Processes
At this point, you know more or less exactly what you want to achieve for your company with digital communications – and already how you can do it.
But to do that, you need resilient processes.
Define a fixed team that is responsible for communication on the web. Also consider colleagues from other departments.
Often, other stakeholders also have an interest in digital visibility. This gives you the opportunity to spread content production over several shoulders.
- Introduce a monthly editorial conference where everyone presents their own topics to the team and commits to a publication timeframe.
- Have an editorial plan that everyone can see and access.
- Introduce a monthly reporting system in which you outline where and how you have made progress towards the goals you have set. Discuss these findings as a team and derive actions from them.
Work out and implement these points conscientiously, and you will be successful on the road to digital communications.
Of course, you can also take a more “shirt-sleeved” approach and leave out individual points. However, this has the disadvantage that you will not be able to manage the process professionally and will therefore most likely not use resources optimally. This leaves important potential lying idle – and that benefits no one.
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