Is a Digital Strategy Consultant Better for My Business?
Who would make a great business partner? A digital strategy consultant. That is especially true if you want growth, profits, and returns.
A digital strategy consultant can help you define, execute, and measure online marketing plans. In particular, they
- Develop a holistic digital marketing strategy
- Customize online marketing plans to fit your needs and objectives
- Develop and maintain relationships with external partners
- Provide ongoing support to ensure continuous growth
- Perform tactics on time, within budget, and with a focus on ROI
There’s a lot to learn about how digital strategy consultants matter in your business below. Let’s go!
Are you looking for a full-service digital marketing agency? See the DAP difference below!
1. Develop a Holistic Digital Marketing Strategy
Consultants look at the big picture to help you make sound business decisions. They:
- Assess which techniques will best drive growth in customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty
- Create a customized online marketing plan addressing many business aspects, such as technology
- Combine different online marketing tactics
A consultant’s work goes beyond keyword research and website audits. They also use other tools to study business objectives to target and improvements to work on. One model is SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Say you are a tech startup designing a healthcare app for people with diabetes. A consultant’s analysis may look like this:
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
Opportunities |
Threats |
---|---|---|---|
- Expertise in technology and app development - Specialized focus on diabetes healthcare |
- Limited resources and funding for development and marketing - Need to navigate complex healthcare regulations and compliance requirements |
- Potential partnerships with healthcare providers and insurers - Expansion into other chronic diseases beyond diabetes |
- Limited patient and provider adoption due to concerns around data privacy and security - Shifting patient preferences for in-person vs. virtual healthcare solutions |
A consultant may then recommend the following based on the data above:
- Build relationships with insurers and healthcare providers to encourage app adoption.
- Optimize the app to focus on personalized healthcare. Then produce content highlighting benefits. For example, you can create a comparison table with other apps in the market.
- Ensure healthcare regulation compliance by knowing offline and online marketing rules.
- Use focus groups to improve market research.
- Identify customer persona and branding and use them consistently in digital marketing campaigns.
2. Customize Online Marketing Plans To Fit Your Needs and Objectives
What makes Coca-Cola different from Pepsi? Differentiation in many elements, such as:
- Messaging
- Market positioning
- Branding
- Audiences (including market segments)
- Product portfolio
For instance, Coca-Cola seems to have more beverage options than Pepsi. But Pepsi has a stronger presence in the snack market, with products such as Fritos and Doritos.
A digital strategy consultant learns what works best for you by getting answers to these questions:
- Who is your target audience? What market segments are there, and can you create a niche?
- Which tactics should be used for online presence, visibility, and engagement?
- What content drives leads and conversions?
- What metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) should we focus on? How do we measure them?
- How can we leverage existing technologies or platforms to better our digital marketing efforts?
- What can ensure continuous growth and scalability within an online presence?
- How often should you review and revise your marketing plans?
- Who are your competitors, and how can you beat them?
- What is your unique selling proposition (USP), and how do we highlight it in our messaging?
3. Develop and Maintain Relationships With External Partners
Digital strategy consultants do not exist in a bubble. They thrive working with external partners, such as digital agencies and technology vendors. They also network with influencers, industry organizations, or other stakeholders.
All these relationships add financial and operational value to your business. These include:
- Lower costs on services and resources
- A deeper understanding of customer needs and trends in the industry
- Knowledge of best practices through regular meetings with peers or more experienced consultants
- Ease of access to quality partners for various digital marketing tasks
- Better online perception of your credibility and expertise
Further, collaborating lets you scale your services and resources as needed. For example, you can outsource the work to take advantage of product demand.
Networking helps you stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends. These may refer to tools, practices, regulations, and ideas. This way, you can develop more original but effective digital strategies for your clients.
4. Provide Ongoing Support to Ensure Continuous Growth
The success of any digital marketing strategy depends on ongoing support. With it, you can:
- Easily adapt to changing digital marketing trends (e.g., artificial intelligence)
- Maintain your momentum through regular optimization
- Identify opportunities for growth and expansion
- Manage risks and challenges, such as market unpredictability and economic downtrends
Support also comes in different forms. A digital strategy consultant usually:
- Reviews and adjusts your strategies depending on your objectives and marketing performance
- Advises you on how to use specific platforms or technologies more effectively
- Brainstorms strategies to grow customer engagement and increase brand equity
- Helps analyze campaigns and reports back with real-time feedback
- Creates and implements a plan for customer acquisition strategies
- Evaluates company objectives, goals, and milestones regularly
5. Perform Tactics on Time, within Budget, and with Focus on ROI
Time, money, and resources are — and will always be — limited, whether you are Amazon or a mom-and-pop shop.
Consultants help you achieve results within an agreed-upon budget and timeline. They use their knowledge and experience to identify high-yielding tactics.
They do this by
- Setting clear goals and expectations
- Creating and adjusting roadmaps
- Using project management tools to organize and track timelines, budgets, and deliverables
- Allocating resources based on priorities
- Communicating with the team to ensure everyone knows the project status and expectations
- Making tweaks on or overhauling marketing campaigns to the best possible results
Summing Up
Is a digital strategy consultant better for your business? Yes, even if you have a digital marketing firm or a solid entrepreneurial background.
They look at your business as a whole and identify growth opportunities. They create strategies to achieve success and help you stay agile and adaptive. Digital Partners Authority (DAP) balances creativity and data to tailor your business solution. Contact us today to learn more about our approach to digital strategy consulting.
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