Digital Strategy is a foreign concept to most people, but is becoming increasingly important for all businesses – including (and especially) the small fish. If you own a business you probably already have some form of digital strategy, although might not realise that’s what it is.

Digital Strategy is simply identifying the goals of the digital presence of your company, and initiating a plan to achieve those goals. It can be a complicated endeavour that requires pivoting and refinement, and that’s where engaging an agency can be useful.

IYBI manages digital strategy for a number of clients, and having refined our own process throughout the years, we’ve identified some key areas that can be applied as a digital strategy to any business.

Improving your search engine ranking is an ongoing and ever evolving process. While dirty tricks come and go, one factor (thankfully) remains consistent, and that is having regularly updated, original content.

The original declaration from Bill Gates in 1996 that “Content is King” couldn’t be more true today, and there are simply no shortcuts. We’ve assisted clients in determining keywords and blog topics for their site, and then executed these with engaging copy and a tone of voice specifically tailored to their brand.

Consumer awareness and engagement is then boosted through activation of these articles through social media. It’s increasingly common to believe that Facebook can replace a website. However we strongly encourage (with evidence to prove) that Facebook should be a leverage for your site and not a closed loop – in fact it’s most successful when the engaging, original content from your site is shared through social media.

This does 2 things: Firstly it drives your Facebook fans to your site (where the conversions happen), and secondly it increases your authenticity to Google, improving your ranking in search results. Activation is more than just positing a link too – it requires a strategic tagline, hashtags, and timing to ensure maximum reach.

The difficult thing about digital strategy is it’s not an immediate, tangible result. Like a plant a digital strategy needs to be nurtured and cared for, and often results are seen 6 months or more down the track. We put together a weekly, fortnightly or monthly report to help you track this progress. These are tangible records that can monitor your progress, and we’ll show it to you in a simple, easy to understand way.

We’re constantly evaluating what we’re doing and looking for ways to improve it. We think you should be too – and if you’d rather spend your time and resources on doing what you do best, then chat to us about formulating a digital strategy for your site.

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