Digital communication: how to develop an effective strategy?

La digital communication represents a major area of development to increase the reputation and visibility of a company on the Internet. It is imperative to develop a well-thought-out strategy in order to carry out your actions and to measure their effects. Discover what are the key steps to implement your digital communication strategy.

What is a digital communication strategy?

Deploy a strategy of digital communication consists in planning and implementing measures aimed at optimizing its communication actions on digital tools. It mobilizes a certain number of channels — website, social networks, social networks, referencing or emailing — in order to meet the objectives of reputation, traffic, loyalty or conversion of a company.

Why deploy a digital communication strategy?

Develop a strategy for digital communication makes it possible to set clear objectives and a coherent method to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of its actions. It is part of the company's global strategy and meets fundamental challenges:

• Generate more traffic and win new prospects to make more sales;
• Get closer to your target in order to follow the evolution of their expectations and needs;
• Develop the visibility and reputation of the company;
• Improving the customer experience and building loyalty.
  
  

The different digital communication channels

Depending on its objectives, the company generally uses various tools accessible via smartphones, tablets and PCs to develop its digital communication :

• Social networks;
• Natural referencing or SEO for Search Engine Optimization;
• Paid referencing or SEA for Search Engine Advertising;
• Organic reach or SMO for Social Media Optimization;
• Paid reach or SMA for Social Media Advertising;
• e-mailing;
• Websites and blogs.
  
  

Digital signage, an innovative medium for digital communication

Digital signage refers as much to digital screens, ultra-attractive and impacting communication media, as to a new distribution channel in its own right. The digital signage in business or in the space of a store is a powerful tool to maximize its marketing campaigns digital communication, with its strong immersive power. Always adapted, contextualized and personalized, the content is intended to be tailor-made according to its objectives. The Cenareo solution allows you to broadcast a wide variety of multimedia content, videos, photos or social media feeds to increase the virality of all your communication actions tenfold. With its platform dedicated to content management for digital signage, easily manage your campaigns and give a new dimension to your digital communication.

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How to develop a digital strategy? 7 steps to follow

Today, businesses cannot do without a solid action plan to develop their reputation on the web. A strategy of digital communication effective will have a significant impact on the company's image, but will also participate in its evolution. Discover the 7 steps to follow to deploy a digital strategy with a high ROI.

1. Audit of the company and its environment

Conducting a diagnosis of the business environment is the starting point of any digital strategy. It is useful in order to understand the context of your sector of activity and requires reflection on two levels:

• An internal evaluation: study of its presence on the Internet, the measures taken and their repercussions, the image and e-reputation of the company;
• An external assessment: a study of the competition to compare its own positioning thanks to a benchmark of the methods used by these companies and a watch on best practices.

The more precisely you identify the situation in which the company is located, its strengths and weaknesses, the easier it is to detect opportunities and to establish a relevant and effective digital strategy.

2. Target definition and study

Understanding, knowing and representing your audience is an essential step in order to adapt your communication to better address them:

• Who is she?
• What are its characteristics?
• Her needs and motivations?
• What supports does it use?
• What channels does it use?

All these questions contribute to orienting your marketing strategy, in order to prioritize the targets to be reached, on the appropriate media and at the right time.

3. Setting goals

The objectives guide the action plan to be established and contribute to uniting employees around a concrete joint project. They concern both reputation, traffic, leads generated and converted customers. It remains essential to establish coherent and adapted objectives to optimize your chances of deploying a strategy of digital communication effective. For this, the SMART method is useful in order to set up objectives:

• Specific;
• measurable;
• Achievable;
• Realistic;
• Temporally defined.

4. Choice of communication channels

There are three categories of communication channels that can be involved in a strategy of digital communication :

• Paid media (paid media LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.);
• Owned media (media owned by the company such as its website, blog or various social networks);
• Earned media (comments and customer reviews on forums and social networks, which cannot be controlled).

We oppose the Outbound Marketing strategy, which involves TV, press, radio, and the purchase of advertising space and sponsored links, to the Inbound Marketing strategy, which relies on blog articles, white papers, podcasts or even video content broadcast on spaces owned by the company itself. The Outbound Marketing strategy promises very quick results, but is very expensive while the Inbound Marketing strategy requires fewer resources. On the other hand, it produces results that take longer to arrive, but are sustainable over time.

It is the target study that makes it possible to make this selection and to determine the most relevant channels to mobilize. But to guarantee sufficient visibility, varying your channels is an interesting option to reinforce the power of your speech, in particular thanks to cross-channel. Adopting a cross-channel communication strategy consists in delivering a uniform message, but adapted to the different channels used. All these levers work in synergy and benefit the company's digital strategy, to increase its chances of reaching its core target.

5. Allocation of a budget

Multiple more or less expensive means can be mobilized in order to succeed in a campaign of digital communication. In particular, SEO makes it possible to work on the referencing of your website to gain visibility, improve your brand image and carry the voice of your company. Blogging or emailing are other Inbound Marketing solutions, a method that consists in attracting customers through high added value content. These solutions require a certain amount of investment, but prove to be very profitable in the long term. However, their cost is much more moderate than outbound marketing tools, such as buying advertising space for example. The important thing is to ensure at this stage that you benefit from the resources necessary to achieve your goals, by determining a budget to be allocated to the resources to be mobilized.

6. Development of a content strategy

The choice of its communication channels is accompanied by a reflection on the most appropriate content for each of them. By developing an adapted and detailed communication plan for each channel or medium, it is possible to organize all of its content production as well as their distribution. Once again, the choice of the form and the supports of its content must be made in light of the needs, expectations and habits of its target audience. The idea is to create content that is relevant to her, that remains consistent with the image and positioning of the company. To stand out, the key words remain quality, personalization and creativity. As part of an inbound marketing strategy, several types of content can help promote products and services, but also to highlight its values:

• Editorial content: blog articles or white papers, to position yourself as an expert in the field;
• Audio/video content: podcasts, videos, tutorials, tutorials, webinars or customer testimonials, to support your brand image and interact with your target audience;
• Graphic content: photos or infographics, to express your creativity and convey an easily understandable message.

7. Performance analysis

Thanks to KPI, it is possible to measure the impact of your actions by campaign and by channel once your strategy is launched. These key indicators provide valuable information, in particular to assess whether results have been achieved or are in the process of being achieved, or to identify opportunities for improvement. They highlight the profitability of its actions to know where to allocate its resources effectively and optimize its strategy of digital communication as you go. Key Performance Indicators are numerous; in general, there are:

• The conversion rate;
• The traffic generated;
• Click-through rate;
• The SEO ranking;
• The duration of the visit;
• Cost per lead;
• The commitment generated;
• The evolution of sales.

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The Cenareo solution, internal communication software or external dedicated to content management for digital signage is the ally of a digital communication efficient and innovative cross-channel. Transform your Screen park into a new high-performance channel at the service of a tailor-made strategy with a high ROI, which offers a new and total digital experience.