In today’s fast-moving digital world, most businesses have recognised the importance of a strong online presence.
Navigating our modern business environment is challenging. More than ever, businesses of all sizes recognise they need professional guidance. A digital strategist can help to increase ROI and achieve sustainable growth.
Let’s look at 15 compelling reasons your business can benefit from the services of a digital strategist.
15 Reasons Your Business Needs A Digital Strategist
1. Better Brand Visibility
A brand is so much more than a logo. Most businesses that contact a digital marketing agency often have a logo and the beginnings of a brand.
Having a brand is great, but how do you promote a brand? It is the job of a digital strategist to get your brand noticed. This is done by leveraging SEO, social media and content marketing in your favour.
Digital marketing is time-consuming when you want to reach a wider audience and attract customers. Many business owners hand this task over to a specialist so they can concentrate on their core business.
2. Better Online Reputation
A main concern of any business operating online is negative feedback. How do you deal with this issue?
A digital strategist can help monitor your business’s online reputation and take proactive action to deal with any negative comments. A professional approach is often better than a knee-jerk reaction.
3. Optimise Webiste Perfomance
Poor website is one of the top reasons businesses initially contact a digital strategist.
How can they help? Analytics play a huge role at the initial stage.
The first step is to learn more about your website’s speed, mobility and user experience. Once this has been established, steps can be taken to enhance performance. This can quickly turn your business fortunes around and improve engagement and conversions.
4. Decision Making
You probably make many decisions daily about how to drive your business forward. The question is – how are you managing digital data?
Digital analytics are as important as other business analytics. Digital strategists use key performance indicators (KPIs in the industry) to analyse your audience’s behaviour.
Insights gained from digital analysis are often as important as information found in your profit and loss accounts. It provides a window on how you can allocate resources more effectively.
5. Social Media Marketing
Never underestimate the power of social media marketing! But, there is a problem – it is time-consuming.
To get the most out of social media requires a strategy. You can only implement a strategy after understanding your target audience’s preferences. For instance, what platforms does your audience use?
Posting on Facebook may be a waste of time if your audience prefers Instagram. Digital strategists can help you understand how your audience interacts with social media and what platforms are right for them.
6. Competitive Advantage
With the right digital strategy, you can stay ahead of the competition. Business moves fast these days. A competitive edge has never been more important.
The online world is crowded. To succeed, you need to stand out.
7. Better Lead Generation
All leads are worth their weight in gold. The problem is generating leads in the first place. Next, you need to make the most of them.
Are you making the most of your leads? A good digital lead strategy includes email and content marketing. Paid advertising is another avenue worth exploring.
The more leads you attract, the more visitors you can convert to customers,
8. Improved Customer Experience
A good digital strategist helps you to improve the “usability” of your website.
In a perfect world, the experience of using a website should be seamless. This makes it easy for visitors to find information and make a buying decision.
An easy-to-use website is a great way of increasing loyalty and gaining repeat business.
9. Value For Money Marketing
All businesses look at digital marketing from a financial perspective. It is true – businesses set aside budgets for different projects.
A good digital strategist helps you allocate your marketing budget effectively. When you focus on the right strategies and channels, you maximise the return of your marketing efforts.
Finding out what channels work best for your business isn’t easy for a digital marketing novice.
10. Future Proof Your Business
Having an insight into the digital world is crucial. Today our digital world moves so quickly, that keeping up is challenging.
Knowing what trends and technologies to target are two aspects. What digital technologies are right for your business?
Is this something you want to decide on without input from a specialist? It is like changing the boiler in your home – you wouldn’t do so without consulting a professional. After all, you want that boiler to last more than a year.
The same goes for online digital strategies and technologies. You want to invest in something that works for more than five minutes. A digital strategist can help you future-proof your business.
11. Crisis Management
Digital crisis management?
This probably sounds like an alien concept, but it is not. It is one of the most ignored topics in digital marketing.
For instance, how do you handle negative reviews?
Negative reviews are only one problem when operating a digital business. To this list, you should add social media backlashes and data breaches.
A digital crisis quickly escalates. It is best to be prepared and have a clear idea of how to deal with the problem. When you don’t, it can bring down your business overnight.
12. Email Marketing
Email marketing – is it still relevant?
Limiting your digital marketing strategy to social media can pose a huge risk. Never underestimate the importance of email marketing!
A focused email campaign and regular newsletters, help to increase click-throughs to your website that lead to more conversions.
Tailor your content to your audience and you are onto a winner.
13. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Organic traffic is important but don’t underestimate the importance of PPC – Pay Per Click.
When you first launch your business, PPC is a valuable tool. A digital strategist will help you to find the best keyword and right ad copy for your campaign.
Continuous campaign monitoring is also part of the digital strategist’s contribution.
14. Reporting and Analytics
Reporting is one of the most challenging aspects of digital strategy.
Any business report is difficult to understand, but digital reports push the boundaries.
However, regular reports help you understand your audience, trends and visitors’ decision-making process. Why are they buying or navigating away from your sales pages?
Mastering reporting can help drive your business forward and give you a loyal following.
15. Cybersecurity
Never put digital security on the back burner.
It is not only sales and financial platforms that should pay attention to cybersecurity. It is just as relevant when operating a site for lead generation.
Maybe you are in the construction industry and use your contact form to generate leads. If so, the personal data prospective customers provide must be kept safe. More than anything, visitors must feel you protect their data
Summing It Up
Unless you have the time to spend hours on digital strategy, the best way to unlock the potential of your website is to hire a digital strategist. Doing so means you can focus on directing and managing other important aspects of your business.