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How Strategy shapes your Online Presence

September 28th, 2009

Remember when you graduated from school and had to decide what to do with your life? Before even thinking about  making decisions and taking actions, you were drawing a game plan, a strategy that defined your next steps.

First things come first

In business, strategy is a multidimensional concept that defines all the critical activities of your company, providing it with a sense of direction, purpose and unity. As you did several years ago, it is important that before (re)launching your online presence – everything you plan to do online with your brand – you clearly define your web strategy. When you define  measurable goals (what you expect from your efforts), actions (what you will actually do to reach those goals) and delegates (who you entrust specific tasks) and align them with your business goals, you will exponentially increase your chances of launching a successful, effective online presence.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu

It’s amazing how many companies around the world still start developing their online presence without having a web strategy in place, which explains part of their poor online performance later. Don’t let this happen to you!

Start by understanding the various dimensions of the strategy concept and enter the strategic mindset of a ship captain. Remember, your company is your ship and the web your new ocean. There are eight dimensions you need to address to define the right web strategy for your company:

1. Strategy as a means of establishing your brand’s on- and offline purpose in terms of its long term objectives, action programs and resource allocation priorities.
2. Strategy as a definition of the (current and projected) competitive domain of your brand on- and offline.
3. Strategy as a coherent, unifying, and integrative pattern of decisions that shapes your company’s present and future.
4. Strategy as a response to external opportunities and threats, and internal strengths and weaknesses your brand has, in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in this new  highly interactive and social business environment.
5. Strategy as a definition of the economic and noneconomic contribution your brand plans to make to its stakeholders, employees, clients and partners.
6. Strategy as a way to define the main managerial tasks needed with corporate, business, and functional perspectives to make it all happen.
7. Strategy as a way to stretch your company, challenge your brand to achieve demanding goals.
8. Strategy as a means to assess and develop the true core competencies of your organization and empower them online.

Grab a paper and start  (re)defining your web strategy! You will be amazed, if you address all previous dimensions, by a whole new world of opportunities that will unfold for your business.

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