Today, companies are facing a constantly evolving landscape, where digital strategy and digital marketing have great relevance. However, these two concepts are often misunderstood. In this article we explain the differences in a simple way.
Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity.
Andy Stanley
Table of Contents:
Before diving into the differences between the two definitions, it is important to understand what a strategy is.
Strategy definition
In a nutshell, a strategy is a comprehensive plan of action that guides a company's decisions and actions to achieve its business objectives..
It is a long-term approach involving resource allocation, decision making and adaptation to changes in the business environment.
Having clarified this, let's move on to the concepts.
Digital strategy for companies
An enterprise-wide digital strategy involves the integration of digital technology into almost every aspect of the business. This goes beyond marketing and promotioncovering areas such as digital transformation, customer experience and internal collaboration.
Some examples:
- The implementation of enterprise management systems in the cloud.
- Optimization of internal processes using specialized software.
- Improved communication and collaboration among employees through online tools.
You can see more in this article on digital transformation of HubSpot.
Digital marketing strategy for companies
Digital marketing strategy is specifically focused on the promotion and marketing of products or services. using digital tools. The main objective is to reach the target audience effectively and generate conversions (sales).
In addition, it is important to understand that digital marketing is a tactic within an overall marketing plan that the company must have consolidated.
Some examples of digital marketing strategy:
- Increase sales by 15% through ecommerce.
- Use social networks as a customer service channel.
- To make loyalty campaigns by email.
- Promote a business using WhatsApp.
To know more about digital marketing strategy, you can get this HubSpot guide in English.
Differences and overlapping concepts
Overlapping concepts and lack of clarity in definitions are the main reasons why digital strategy and digital marketing are often confused.
The main difference lies in the scope and focus of each.. While digital strategy encompasses all areas of the company and focuses on integrating digital technology into all aspects of the business, digital marketing focuses specifically on promotion and marketing using digital tools.
It is important to note that a digital strategy can include a digital marketing strategy as part of its comprehensive approach.
Here is a very interesting video on the subject:
How to make the most of both strategies
To make the most of both strategies, it is important to align both with the company's business objectives.. This involves understanding the company's needs and resources, identifying the target audience and selecting the right tactics and digital tools to achieve the desired results.
A mistake that is often made is to set up an ecommerce to sell products, without having a way to integrate the stock control to the ecommerce. If the company has several warehouses, this simple failure can lead to money loss (and also customer complaints) due to errors in inventory management.
Following this line, another recurring mistake is not having the tools to provide the necessary metrics. Therefore, it is difficult to correctly measure business performance.
I prefer to use the term "digital optimization"The company probably has several digitized but not integrated tools and processes.
Conclusion
The two concepts are distinct, but they are interrelated in the business world. One encompasses the entire company (digital strategy) while the other targets a specific aspect of the business (digital marketing).
The growth of your company needs both, but as we mentioned at the beginning, complexity requires simplicity.