Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Now that you know what strategic thinking is, consider the benefits:
- With strategic thinking, you become proactive rather than reactive. You take the initiative and look actively for possible ways to improve. You don’t just wait around hoping that something turns up, or that someone else will force you to change.
- Strategic thinking can also give you a better sense of direction. When you see, or indeed create, opportunity to achieve a change, this spurs you to move towards it.
- Better operational efficiency is another benefit. You begin to notice opportunities for better ways of organizing or doing work. Seizing them tends to lead to efficiencies and savings in time and resources.
- Did you know that strategic thinking can help to increase market share and profitability? This is because deliberately applying future thinking to building vision contributes directly to this.
- You can make your business more durable. Each of the benefits already mentioned creates a foundation for durability.
- Efficient strategic thinkers tend to notice windfall opportunities and take advantage of them. When something fails, they don’t throw their hands up in despair. No, they notice some new opportunity or idea that arises from the failure. They don’t think in terms of solving problems. They think in terms of seeking solutions. This creates a more positive mindset.
Benefits in action
Intrinsically, strategic thinking feeds and enhances a company's vision to achieve its goals. Here’s an example of how it can be applied to creating vision in the first place.
A group of radiography superintendents in a hospital specializing in the treatment of cancer had heavy workloads treating patients themselves. They reported being unable to find time to supervise their team members. Each of six superintendents reported treating ten patients per day on average. When asked how many patients each of their five or six team colleagues were treating each day, they did not have that information.
Someone suggested they give one of their own patients to each member of their team. This meant that they would have five or six fewer patients each day. And this, in turn, would leave them time to ensure their colleagues had their support and direct help at extra busy times. The new strategy increased productivity, and also improved working relationships and enabled better supervision.
Back to TopClark Boyd
Clark Boyd is CEO and founder of marketing simulations company Novela. He is also a digital strategy consultant, author, and trainer. Over the last 12 years, he has devised and implemented international marketing strategies for brands including American Express, Adidas, and General Motors.
Today, Clark works with business schools at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Columbia University to design and deliver their executive-education courses on data analytics and digital marketing.
Clark is a certified Google trainer and runs Google workshops across Europe and the Middle East. This year, he has delivered keynote speeches at leadership events in Latin America, Europe, and the US. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Slideshare. He writes regularly on Medium and you can subscribe to his email newsletter, hi, tech.
Bill Phillips
Bill is an international facilitator, trainer, and team coach. He has successfully coached CEOs, board members, directors, executive teams, and team leaders in public and private companies, NGOs, and UN organizations in 15 countries across four continents. He is also the creator of Future-basing®, a highly potent process for building strategy, vision, and cooperation.
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
- Critically analyse target audiences and objectives to recommend digital channels
- Synthesise information to develop an action plan and digital marketing strategy
- Evaluate the process of planning and formulating a digital strategy
