As an entrepreneur, you know that a compelling digital strategy is crucial for any startup, but it is especially important for tech startups. These companies face unique challenges that require a tailored approach to their business strategy. If you don’t have a digital strategy, your startup will struggle to attract, convert and keep customers. In this blog post, the first in a 11-post series, I’ll explain the key elements of a digital strategy for tech startups.

Long are the days where having a digital strategy was just as simple as designing a static website showcasing products and a contact form. This brochure-type of website is now obsolete. In current times, websites are User Experiences with Marketing and Sales Systems that lead the user through a funnel that adapts to the step where the users are in their journey

In this era of digital-only remote companies, a digital strategy is a synonym of the overall business strategy, and that implies that brands, and especially Tech Startups need to plan very well in order to build a sustainable business.

Why a Digital Strategy is crucial for Tech Startups?

When a Tech Startup is beginning its operations or entering a new market, their key priorities are: 1) Building Brand Awareness 2) Generate Interest in their Products 3) Generate Conversions and Sales; and 4) Create Customer Engagement and Loyalty

Easier said than done! Have you ever feel that your Marketing Tactics are isolated and random? Do you feel that you are doing Marketing for the sake of it, with no ultimate purpose? Does your CFO see Marketing as an expense and not as an investment?

A digital strategy is the map that guides the business and Marketing decisions that will drive sales and sustainability in a company. Without this Map, you could end up wasting your budget in Marketing activities that may only provide you with vanity metrics, or even nothing.

What are the main components in a Digital Strategy for Tech Startups?

Based on my experience developing successful Digital Strategies for Brands, Tech Startups and Entrepreneurs in the last 15 years, I have developed a 10-point guideline. They follow a sequence and are built on top of the previous one:

1) Brand Strategy

Every business starts with an idea, a bright idea that will need a name to be transmitted to your audience and investors. That is your Brand!

Your Brand Strategy is the foundational stone in the whole Digital Strategy, as it conveys the core purpose of your business. Through introspective research or interview with the founders, at this step, we will define the purpose, vision, mission and values for the Brand. These exercise will allow us to understand the essence of the business and craft any upcoming messaging through the power of storytelling. This is the moment where we dig into the Founder’s story and journey from conception to the start of the company.

The story of the Brand is what makes it unique and genuine. Remember, there could be similar products in the market, but the Brand Purpose, Story and Founders could be the key differentiators to captivate your audience.

At this stage, we will also define a preliminary version of the customer persona(s), which are the ideal clients / users of the product, Some aspects we need to define are the ature of their problems, challenges, concerns, and insecurities. We, then will craft the potential solutions, and how our strenghts and weaknesses play a key role to establish a competitive advantage that is aligned with our ultimate vision.

As you can see, the Brand Strategy is crucial to develop the next phases of the overall Digital Strategy, and also for the execution of the Brand Identity, User Experience and Content Creation.

2) Competitive Strategy

The second step is to take a look at the market, in terms of key players like direct and indirect competitors, regulators, influencers, substitute products, barriers of entry, opportunities, threats, and other aspects that will lead to understand the supply, demand and the interest in our offers.

Furthermore, we need to identify and prioritize the key companies that we want to follow in order to be up to date with their new features, their strenghts, and ther digital presence. We will also identify the main subject matter experts in the industry, such as influencers, academics, and role models, with the purpose to build relationships or get inspiration for ideas and content.

In addition, we will define the scope of our business. Are we targetting global customers, or perhaps focusing in Spanish Speaking Latin America, or a sole country like Canada?

Finally, from the consumer side, we have to research on the trending topics, conversation threads, key words, questions, and any other indicators of interest in topics and products related to our niche, so we not only validate demand, but also find opportunities to explore subniches and offer variants

Understanding the market, competitors and consumers will allow Startups to find their right Brand Positioning with a compelling Product / Market fit

3) Audience Strategy

On this third step, we go deeper into the target market. It is not only the ideal user of the product, but also, who are the ideal buyers. In other words, in current customer journeys, sometimes, one individual is in charge of the research, other makes the purchase decision, another purchases, and even a fourth one is the end user. It is crucial to identify them all with detailed demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics.

Remember that parents may make the purchase decision for a kids’ product, or the CFO may make the decision for a Software Acquisition, that the Technology team suggested based on their research. A kid or teenage will use other media and platforms than their parents, so we need to understand this decision lifecycle.

Besides the basic information for each Persona, we need to dig deeper into their own challenges at each step of the funnel, and we need to understand them very well in order to provide the solutions. The person that is researching may have concerns about the product features, whereas, the person that is ready to pay, may have concerns about methods of payment or warranties.

It is also important to know where they are, what social networks they use, what type of media the consume, at what time do they consume content, what keywords do they search for, what questions do they ask, who do they trust, among other topics.

It is important to prioritize the personas in order to allocate the right marketing budget to target them. In some cases, a persona could not be worth it to be targeted if the cost / benefit is not positive.

4) UX Strategy

The way potential customers connect with the brand is through user experiences. A UX could be a website, but also an app, an email, a physical showcase, and even a brand mention in the news, or on third-party premises.

On this fourth step, we need to audit the current digital presence of the Brand, including all user touchpoints, like website, blogs, social media profiles, direct emails, directories, search engines, apps, podcasts, etc

Do you know where your brand is located? Yes, it could be on your website or Twitter profile. However, your brand is also mentioned in different places online, sometimes without you noticing it.

The UX Strategy will define where do we want our Brand to be. In most cases, it starts with the design of the Website. At this point, we are talking about simple wireframes to visualize if you need a one-page website, or a Five-page website with a Menu. The wireframe shows the preliminary components what will be part of the Layout.

Depending on the needs, a Blog could be useful, or a Digital Store, or a full Funnel supporting the Marketing and Sales Systems with a series of Landing Pages, Bumps, and Upsell offers. In some cases the main call to action might be as simple as booking a call, or we can implement a lead acquisition form connected to mailing list.

We will also determine the social media profiles we need to create and focus, not only for the brand but for the key executives in the startup

This UX Strategy will be crucial later in the execution phase of Web Development and Social Media Profiles Setup.

5) Content Strategy

On this fifth step, we focus on Inbound Marketing, the pull strategy of generating Branded long-form content based on the type of message and story we want to convey in our communications, intersected with the interest of the consumer, in other words, our Audience.

We will define what type of media we want to use and where do we want to publish it: Will we write text for Blog Posts? Do we want to produce a Podcast? An ebook? A newsletter? What about educational videos for Youtube? Or a Talk Show?

We will choose the right platforms depending on the media and the audience; the frequency, the tools and the staff we need to create the content. Is our audience consuming audio material more than video? Do our products need to be shown visually? Do consumers need a lot of information during their research, or a simple 15sec video is enough to catch interest?

On this step we also create a content calendar with topics and contributors based on keyword and market research in order to optimize them for search engines. A calendar will show the frequency of Blog Posts, Podcasts or Video uploads.

Finally, we will define the analytics to measure our results, for example the traffic in our blog, audio downloads, video views, and especially, their connection to clicks and sales.

6) Social Media Strategy

Although this step could be connected to the previous one, it could be treated as standalone, for example at startups that do not want to create long form content, and will focus only in short-form content in social media.

In this sixth step, we define what are the right social media channels to post information, the type of media, the frequency and the source of content creation we need to connect with our audience.

As an entrepreneur, you know that sometimes there is no time and resources to do everything. Depending on your audience, the focus might be on one or two social networks, for example Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

A Social Media Calendar is crucial to organize the posts, and to design a balanced editorial material with multiple purposes, like entertaining, educating, inspiring or selling to your audience. Other ways to clasify content is according to the business goals of Awareness, Interest, Engagement or Conversion.

Finally, some additional topics to cover at this stage are content repurposing, automation and analytics.

7) Advertising Strategy

On this seventh stage, we focus on Outbound Marketing, the push strategy to show our advertisements to potential customers with the intention to generate awareness, interest or conversion depending on the phase of the customer journey that they are

The strategy will define what message to communicate, what type of media, the platforms, the frequency, the budget, the testing and the analytics

Examples of platforms could be Google Ads, Instagram Ads or Twitter Ads, but also Ads in particular websites, publicity and Native advertising. A crucial aspect at this stage is the A / B testing and the Analytics to measure the performance.

8) Digital Sales Strategy

On this eight step, we dig a little deeper in what we defined at the UX Strategy, and design a user experience that allows visitors to follow a path to convert into a customer, or at least a follower.

This is where we define with more detail the Marketing and Sales Funnel, with all their components like landing pages, lead magnets, email sequences, booking links, payment gateways, webinars. The user must have a frictionless experience from the beginning to the end of their buyer’s journey.

9) Collaborative Strategy

On this ninth step, we identify collaborations that we need to engage in order to amplify our message. We could identify potential influencers and Brand Ambassadors that could use our content or create their own content to influence their following.

Other tactics at this stage are digital PR, building a relationship with the Media, managing invitations to podcasts, considering partnerships with businesses that target a similar audience, starting an affiliates program, generating backlinks, managing mentions, asking for testimonials and reviews, getting referrals, asking for shares, among others.

10) Customer Engagement Strategy

On this tenth step, we define how to nurture the relationship with our followers and, especially, with our customers. As a business owner you know that sometimes the focus is on acquiring new leads and sales, however, the current base of customers could be a source of additional income through cross-sells and up-sells.

Furthermore, happy customers could become Brand Fans and act like Brand Ambassadors, referring new customers, sometimes with a financial incentive, or providing testimonials.

At this stage we design a communication plan to customers and followers. What type of communication and message we will use? A newsletter? A direct message from staff? How often should we upsell/cross-sell?

Finally, we need to define the metrics to measure loyalty, attrition or Lifetime value, in order to organize our goals and track progress

Conclusion

These are the 10-steps of a Digital Strategy, according to my experience. I am planning to write an article to go deeper into each step. Remember, all these steps are part of the Planning Phase. The next phase is the execution, where all these strategies are implemented with the help of Technology and Marketing Professionals.