When looking at digital strategy, sometimes a shift in focus is needed. Instead of trying to make a change to digital, often businesses need to rather look at what they need to do to succeed in a digital world.
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This is something I face with my clients on a day-to-day basis and one of the ways to tackle this is to look at how they can mature in the digital space.
Like any growth path, you need to start at the beginning and gradually progress through the various stages until you reach a point of maturity. Every digital journey is different. And some clients progress faster than others. As a digital strategist, my role is to help clients move through this process until they eventually reach that point.
What does maturing in the digital space mean?
When a client reaches maturity in the digital world all that really means is that they have grown so much as a business that digital has become entrenched and an integral part of everyday life. Each growth path will have various milestones, all allowing the client to grow to new points of maturity.
Three important milestones
There are three key milestones that if achieved can help clients mature in the digital world:
1. Taking social media in-house
The first milestone in achieving digital maturity is when your business gets to a point where they want to take on social media management in-house. As a digital agency this might sound scary as it means your client may no longer need you, but what it really means is that you have done such a good job at making that client comfortable and up to speed with what’s happening in the digital world that they are confident enough to branch out on their own.
2. Shifting to a tactical approach
Once your client feels that they are confident enough to handle their social and digital activity themselves, it doesn’t mean the agency is no longer needed. Any agency worth their salt will still add tremendous value in the strategy space. The agency’s role then shifts from implementation to developing big ideas and tactics.
3. The next big thing
As a digital strategist one needs to be thinking at least two to three steps ahead, and analyzing what future developments, technologies, trends and changes could mean for your client. This way the client can still rely on you to lead the strategy and help them mature even further. The world of digital is constantly evolving and changing so there is no luxury of reaching a point of maturity and staying stagnant.
You need to constantly be looking ahead and evaluating where the next big shift might come from. You then need to regroup, realign and rethink, everything, again, in order to stay in the ever-changing game!
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