2013 and it’s a brand new shiny new year. A great opportunity has arrived at your feet, so pause and take a look at how your digital offering has evolved over the last 12 months and what opportunities are ahead for your business 2013.
As a famous proverb says, “To see where you are going you must first look where you have come from”. How much time was spent by yourself or your marketing team last year actively planning the progression of your site rather than reacting to existing issues and begging your web design team for change?
Ask yourself this, did your digital strategy have defined leadership or did it take shape because of events and incidents?
Have you or your team pulled together, taken stock on the events of last year and designed a development strategy for 2013? How are you going to measure your success?
Being reactive isn’t a bad thing, it does have its place and given the new technology and each opportunity that emerges from it, if you market quick enough you can win your audience.
So ask yourself, are you strategic or reactive?
Strategic thinking reaps the rewards
Your website tells your audience (and potential audience) everything there is to know about you and your business, so keep it updated and fresh.
The majority of digital companies tend to be reactive as opposed to strategic. Usually a CMS (Content Management System) is implemented on the site to manage content, however when a new social platform is launched and the competition launch their own redesign, you are left with no other choice but to initiate your redesign project.
The moral of the story here is, don’t allow 2013 to continue this bad habit. Keep ahead of the competition and make a “snagging list” for your site, keep on top of it and allow yourself time to pull together your strategic plan. Give yourself a break from reacting for a change!
Do you have the staff/designers in place to not only keep your site ticking over and beating the competition in terms of content and design but to plan strategically for advancements?
Web at warp speed
Digital marketers may argue that the web moves too fast for any real strategic planning and that there is little point in thinking strategically or planning your site road map. The pessimistic view is that all you can do is react to circumstances and hope for the best.
However, at Jungle we prefer the optimistic approach to business and believe in accepting that the web does make phenomenal changes at a rapid speed and that this is all the more reason to put your strategic thinking cap on and stay ahead of the competition!
We often ask our clients to think about the following so we know how best to help them achieve their goals and meet business objectives.
Reactive isn’t the bad guy
Not every new digital innovation will benefit your business, so how do you distinguish the good from the bad?
This is where your digital strategy comes into force as you will need a set criteria against which to judge what can benefit and grow your business.
Before you launch into 2013, make sure you have the strategic thinking in place. Don’t spend 2013 repeating last year and mindlessly reacting to your circumstances.
