What it is, why it matters, and the components that make it work for growing businesses.
Most businesses have a website, a social media account, and an email list. What most businesses do not have is a digital strategy — the system that connects all of these into a coherent pipeline that attracts clients, converts them, and keeps them coming back.
Digital strategy is not a platform. It is not a campaign. It is the decisions you make about how your business attracts and serves clients digitally — and the structure that makes those decisions repeatable.
Without it, businesses operate with uncoordinated activity. A good month here, a slow month there. Spending on tools that do not connect. Content that does not convert. The right strategy removes the randomness.
A digital strategy covers the full picture of how a client finds you, engages with you, and becomes an advocate. The components below are not independent — they work as a system. Changing one affects the others, which is why a coordinated approach always outperforms a piecemeal one.
We use our 10-step methodology, details on this page, so as to consider the business from all aspects as we come up with a digital strategy. At the outset we tend to heavily weight how customers buy and their needs as that is what tends to drive growth.
We work through each component in three stages — preparation, a structured working session, and follow-up to make sure decisions are implemented. The output is not a report. It is a functioning system with clear actions.
Each client has a specific focus depending on the business priorities and challenges. But they all have a common approach based on understanding the customer and how they buy.
We look at data such as cost per customer, sales conversion rates, customer traffic source, % repeat customers, % that give review. This provides a picture of the business. If the business is at an early stage then we focus more on leads and prospects.
Review your website, your advertising and customer communication and your digital tools. We also look at how you stand out to your ideal client. Your competitors are also included at this stage.
Review any other information you would like to share, for example results from a customer survey or ad campaigns. We also set this into the context of your market and competition. We usually also run an SEO analysis to see what it is telling us about your market and main competitor.
We set a date for meeting where we focus on the 10 steps that we have gone through. At this stage there are few surprises as we like to involve you in the preparation stage. During this meeting we will go through the business and findings, the focus is to sanity check our findings and suggestions. It is to also focus on the actions you are taking and how they are working as well as changes to be made. We tend to find the blind spots during this session. Our focus is holistic in nature to see where the opportunity lies. We have all the ground work done at this stage and present it and discuss it with you in this session.
Discover and clarify your challenges, ideas and objectives as we go through our structure on the day.
Compile input from the team which can include sales, marketing and customer service.
We suggest a structure for how you can work with Digital for growth in your business. This is your business design.
We send you our findings and document the discussions and decisions made in the meeting. We also tie up any loose ends that we discover or need further clarification.
Finalise a structure and Business Design for using Digital for business growth. This can include an action plan so marketing attracts ideal clients.
A follow up session to clarify and discuss any thoughts and questions you may have to take the next step.
A revived Digital Strategy and game plan that is your business design that guides implementation together with a plan.
The point where most digital strategies fail is implementation. The Business Design schematic below shows how a functioning digital strategy looks in practice — from the moment a client hears about you to the moment they refer you. Every component of a digital strategy maps to a stage in this flow.
This is what a Business Design project produces: a version of this schematic tailored specifically to your business, with the tools and content in place at each stage.
Digital strategy looks different depending on where your business is and what you need most. We offer several ways to work together depending on scope and budget.
Know what to say and why clients should choose you. The foundation for any digital strategy. Start here if your message is unclear.
Build the system that makes your strategy real. Maps your full client pipeline and identifies where to focus.
A full 3–4 month engagement with a dedicated team. For businesses ready to transform their digital operation.
An 8-week 1-to-1 programme focused on your business growth. For founders and managers who want to build capability as they grow.
