Posted by Sam Sargent on 26.10.2009

Expert Interview – Andrew McFarlane – Digital Strategy

Our quarterly theme at the moment is “Expertise” so to tick of one of my goals for the quarter I sat down with Andrew McFarlane, our Digital Strategist, to learn a bit about his job and his area of expertise.

First of all, what does ‘digital strategy’ mean?

It’s a very loose term that gets thrown around quite a lot but in terms of what we do here at Bluewire it’s a channel clients can use to meet business & marketing objectives online. It’s all about coming up with the roadmap for a project and can encompass many things.

Internet or Digital Strategy falls under Step 2 (the green section) of our methodology diagram. It is the discovery and planning phase that happens before anything is actually built. It is all about defining the blueprint for the project.

Bluewire Media Methodology

Why should companies embrace a digital strategy? What are the advantages?

It allows thorough researching & planning to happen before moving into the digital space. Digital is becoming more & more part of our daily lives and so companies would be silly not to take advantage of the massive market that exists and look at having a digital strategy.

What do people commonly get wrong?

The planning phase is vital. All bad digital strategies can be tied back to poor planning.
Another common mistake is engaging the wrong audience online.

How should clients approach a digital strategy? What can they bring to the table to make your job easier?

The best clients are open minded and willing to take on suggestions however they have the best understanding of how their business works so just articulating what the business is about is a good start.

They should have knowledge of their organisation and what their core business objectives are.
They should know who their audience is.
Where/what they want to achieve out of taking the business online.

We can then come up with the strategy to achieve these goals.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved?

Andrew comes from a Business/I.T background. He has been working in digital for 8 years dealing with a range of projects and companies from small business to large international corporations. He has worked on projects ranging from websites, email marketing, social media to digital strategy & execution.

Do you have any good resources that you can share?

Because digital is a constantly changing field, you really have to keep on top of your game to stay relevant. Good resources Andrew uses include knowledge expert blogs, TechChrunch, Brand Republic, Marketing Week, B&T