Last week we talked about your role as CEO of You Limited and the steps you need to take to set a vision. This week we will focus on your digital strategy. First of all, do you have one? Secondly, what’s the ultimate goal for your digital presence – is it brand awareness, an avenue for sales, or a hobby? Why are the answers to these important?
In the times we’re in it’s near impossible to run a successful business without having some form of digital presence. But the key to getting the best out of anything is to understand why you have it. As the CEO here are a few things to help you shape your thoughts.
- What do you want to get out of online engagement? It’s crowded and noisy out there – No matter the digital platform you choose for customer engagement, there’s already quite a lot of noise going on there. Imagine your product is a tree in a very full forest. How will you stand out? Will there be exclusively online offers? Will you build a community to discuss issues related to your industry so you’re not just selling all the time? Will you focus on subscriber numbers over engagement – remember likes don’t necessarily automatically equal money… How personally involved will you be? What can you do yourself and what’s best outsourced?
- Where are they? – Do you know who you’re engaging and how best to reach them? There’s no point getting a Telegram account if all your customers (existing/potential) are on Instagram or Facebook. Do you have a database (outside of your phone) of all your customers and their preferred engagement channel? If you don’t know for sure, the good thing is they’re all free to set up. Why not share some posts across different platforms and see where you get the most results?
- How do you get your money with ease – If you’re selling items, are you leveraging digital platforms that will make it easy for your customers to order and buy from you online without having to call you first? There are so many available now to help you close a deal online before your customer gets distracted by something else. Can someone quickly access a list of your products/services including the prices and pay without calling you first?
- What do you have – Imagine closing a deal online and then finding out you don’t have the item(s) ordered in stock. Can you set up a system to track your inventory so you don’t end up disappointing customers and looking like a fraud? And if you can’t fulfil an order do you have a structure to refund your customer?
No doubt you have to go digital, but understanding your Whys and the Hows will go a long way to making sure your digital journey is successful.
