A quick guide to creating a strategic plan
It's always the same with me. I am a digital contract strategist (currently Vice President of Strategic Services for TVGla) and I am constantly asked:"What is a strategist? Or even more hateful:"So you sit around and think things over?" I'm here to clear this up a little bit.
Strategy is a combination of science and art, facts and intuitions, the ability to connect the dots between what appears to be a bit of disseminated information. In short, we think about things, but we do it with a purpose, supported by scientific bases and knowledge while relating massive amounts of information.
So let's take a step back. The strategy can be divided into three main components: objectives, goals, and value. The real strategic value lies at the intersection of these components.
Objectives
Identify your goals or objectives. Want to sell more products? Change the perception of your brand? Defeat an enemy on the battlefield? Strategists don't care what their goal is, they care about having a goal. Clearly identifying your objectives - why you are advertising/attracting/attacking in the first place - is essential to generate any kind of strategy.
Goals can be further divided according to the needs of your business. Usually, in digital strategy we will use:
Business Objectives - What drives profits?
Marketing Objectives - What are you trying to say about your brand/product/service?
Tactical objectives - What do you really want consumers to do? (Click on "Like", buy one more unit per week, set it up for a specific night, etc.)
Once you have clearly defined your goals and objectives, a strategist can help you determine the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that translate directly into a way to measure whether your efforts are actually achieving or driving you toward your goals. The objectives will also help shape the channels used, the type of content recommended, and an infinite number of other nuances that will affect your advertising.
Target audience (targets)
Now that you know what you want to achieve, it's time to determine who you want these goals to act on. Who are you aiming at? Who do you want to buy your product?
Everyone is not an answer.
Identifying an objective helps to obtain recommendations for reaching those specific people. Normally, we work with primary, secondary and even tertiary objectives.
Primary target - the main group you want your product or service to be purchased.
Secondary target - this is often an extension of your primary target, it could be a different demographic group that receives less value from your product or service.
Tertiary objective - it is the public that values your product or service, but it will be a difficult sale, so they will give a low ROI (return on investment).
Once the objectives have been identified, strategists can create states of need (which are the needs of each objective). States of need are created from a mixture of research, focus groups, and past client behavior. With states of necessity, we can align and promote the fair value of the good or service with the right group.
Selecting objectives also helps refine the overall strategy, from the channel to the type of objectives, as well as everything else.
Value
If you want a consumer to do something, you must ultimately deliver value in some way. Value is displayed in two main forms: utility and entertainment.
Utility is something that improves or makes life easier for consumers. It can be educational, useful or very useful. It can be a way to save money or time. It responds to a very real need in their lives.
Entertainment is something more intangible, but it refers to making someone laugh, surprise them, scare them, or even make them cry. This provokes an emotional response.
The best value to offer consumers is a little of both. Not all brands are able to take advantage of this because of the nature of their product. You will notice that brands like Coca-Cola manage to keep the focus on entertainment (Destapa la felicidad) rather than utility (discounts on the product).
Connecting the dots
So where does all this lead? The strategy takes all these variables and asks the question:
How do we get X (objective) from Y (some group)?
Example: How can we get parents to try a new disposable diaper?
The answer is linked to the connection between brand value and user needs and behaviors to find the vision that will shape your campaign and articulate your value for those consumers.
Example (continued): We identify a need among parents (be respectful of the environment) and associate it with product values (reusable, save money) and apply it to the right channel (in this case, mobile phones and social networks).
The end result will determine the needs, the values to focus on, and how and where to engage with the consumer around the conversation.
And that's how we think things.
