Digital strategy, digital marketing strategy, and digital transformation strategy are separate things that often overlap with each other. They are often confused for being the same.
An organization’s digital strategy encompasses all of the areas where technology creates opportunities. If you are a retail store, your digital strategy might include digital marketing, your website, self-service checkout, digital communications, data mining, personalized offers, mobile applications, loyalty programs, and more.
The key difference between a digital strategy and a digital transformation strategy is that with a digital transformation strategy, the organization intends to fundamentally change to take advantage of opportunities technology makes possible. A home services company that currently dispatches by phone, tracks all sales with paper tickets, and manages inventory on paper might put together a digital transformation strategy to implement iPads in the field, printers in the vans, realtime digital inventory management, and online tracking systems. Where digital strategy is an evolution in an existing digital/technology strategy, the digital transformation strategy is fundamental to the organization’s existing business processes.
