3 easy steps to a killer digital strategy every time
This week’s guest column comes from Tobias Josefsson, Customer Success and Product Owner here at Sportality. With a rich history of over 20 years in close proximity to different sports leagues and clubs, Tobias has seen what it takes to build a successful digital strategy - home territory for us here at Sportality working to help our customers thrive online. This article is by no means a tell-all masterclass to success in the digital space, but read on as Tobias shares some learnings for how you might want to start.
It all starts with the game and the sport itself. As it should really. Fans come to watch their team play because they have an interest in the sport and, at the end of the day, it’s this interest and engagement that matters most to the success of a team, club, league or sport. At Sportality, this realisation affects every decision we make, as we strive to increase the number of fans in the stands.
And this is where a digital strategy is so important. It’s the bedrock of everything you do. It sets both the short and long-term vision, and when done right illustrates the activities that you need to be doing to help you achieve your ambitions. Whatever they might be. Ultimately, your goal should be to create a deep relationship between each club and its fans. Sound easier said than done? Well there are some simple steps to start you off that might make all the difference!
1. The best thing you can do, is get started!
I’ve played a lot of chess, and what I’ve learned over the years is that having a strategy really matters. This might sound obvious, and perhaps it should be. But perhaps most interestingly, the quality of the strategy often doesn’t matter as much as you think.
No, a strategy can evolve over time, as your thinking does, and maintaining such an active document helps to put you in the right mindset to keep your eyes on the prize and meet your outcome. So what are you waiting for?
Even a patchy strategy is better than not having one at all!
“Today, I’m here to remind you that it’s best to start out small... So start simple. And focus on the specific tasks or activites you can do to... achieve your goals”
2. Start simple and build out bigger!
So you’ve got the message. To do something is better than doing nothing. But most us are often put off by the unspoken pressure of being creative, innovative and groundbreaking in our strategy from day one. But today, I’m here to remind you that it’s best to start out small.
Mankind didn’t build a rocket and reach the moon on day one. And no one’s expecting you to either. So start simple. And focus on the specific tasks or activities you can do to pick away towards achieving your goals. Perhaps choose one goal or key performance indicator to start with - and then resource from the team and skills around you to work out what you can do first on your journey to achieving it.
3. Never stop learning!
A strategy gives you a goal. An end-point. Confirmation of what it is you’re trying to achieve. But the hard work doesn’t stop there. A strategy should evolve over time, as your business does. Because what might have applied when you wrote your first draft, might not two years later.
Make sure you invest the time in learning from what turned out good and what didn’t work so well. As long as you learn something along the way, no mis-step is a failure. Instead, its an opportunity to apply some new knowledge to the situation.
Then you just need to adjust your strategy or goals accordingly.
Pro tip: Consider using analytics as a tool for keeping track of your performance and progress. If it’s a web page you’re building, Google Analytics is a good start to understanding your visitor numbers and their behaviour once they’re on your site. All this insight helps you get to know your visitors better - giving you advanced warnings when visiting patterns change.
But that’s just the start. Once you’ve got to grips with the tasks and activities that are going to make up your strategy, its all about how you execute them. Yes, communication really does matter. But there are a lot of people out there communicating different messages, on different channels and in different ways. So how do you engage your fans and communicate your league in amongst all that noise? Come back in two weeks time for part two of this blog, where I’ll be answering that very question!