The problem with traditional digital strategy
Most agencies deliver "digital strategy" as a 60-slide deck with market charts, buyer personas and "strategic pillars". The client reads it, nods, and then doesn't know where to start. A strategy that doesn't produce an action within the first week isn't a strategy, it's a presentation.
The framework we've developed over 4 years of client work produces something different: an operational roadmap with clear priorities, measurable KPIs, assigned responsibilities and allocated budget. Something you can use the day after delivery.
Week 1: audit and data gathering
Before even talking about strategy, you need data. Many businesses start their "digital strategy" without a clear picture of what's already happening. The first week is entirely dedicated to auditing four areas:
- Analytics audit: traffic by channel, conversion rate, exit pages, purchase funnel, mobile vs desktop users. Tools: GA4, Search Console.
- Advertising audit: account structure, real ROAS (not platform-reported), CPL by channel, paid traffic quality. Tools: Meta Business Manager, Google Ads.
- Technical SEO audit: Core Web Vitals, crawl errors, URL structure, keyword cannibalisation, backlink profile. Tools: Screaming Frog, Ahrefs.
- Competitor audit: positioning in key markets, keyword gaps, main funnel structure of direct competitors.
Week 1 output: an audit document with a score for each area (1-10) and the top 3 priority problems per area.
Week 2: identifying levers and estimating ROI
With the audit data in hand, week 2 is dedicated to turning problems into quantified opportunities. For every problem identified, we build a potential-ROI estimate based on sector benchmarks and the client's historical data.
For every potential intervention, we assign two scores from 1 to 5: Impact (how much revenue/efficiency it generates if executed well) and Simplicity (how quickly and with how few resources it can be implemented). Priority = Impact × Simplicity. The highest-scoring interventions go to the top of the roadmap.
This avoids the classic mistake of putting complex, expensive interventions on the roadmap before harvesting the "low-hanging fruit" — the ones you can implement in a week that generate immediate results funding the next interventions.
Week 3: building the operational roadmap
The roadmap is organised across three time horizons:
- Quick wins (0-30 days): high-impact, low-complexity interventions. Typically 3-5 concrete actions with an owner, deadline and specific KPI. Example: activate the abandoned-cart flow on Klaviyo (2 days), optimise mobile checkout by removing mandatory registration (3 days), restructure Google Ads campaigns into a single Performance Max campaign (1 week).
- Medium term (30-90 days): interventions that need more planning but have structural impact. Typically 2-3 projects with weekly milestones.
- Long term (90-180 days): strategic initiatives — new channels, new markets, technology infrastructure.
What the delivered operational roadmap includes
The final document isn't a presentation, it's an operational file. For every intervention, it includes: a description of the specific action (not "optimise SEO" but "produce 2 pillar articles targeting keywords X and Y with commercial search intent"), an internal owner or external partner, a timeline with start and end dates, a measurable success KPI, the required budget (if applicable), and dependencies on other interventions.
The most common mistake after the roadmap
40% of the roadmaps we build don't get executed on schedule. Not because they're wrong, but because there's nobody doing the weekly follow-up. A digital roadmap needs an internal "owner" who oversees progress, unblocks bottlenecks and adjusts priorities as the data changes. Without this role, even the best roadmap stays a document.
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In 3 weeks we deliver an operational plan based on your real data — not generic industry best practices.
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