I recently pitched a new client on a digital strategy engagement. During the pitch, I talked a lot about strategy and the improvements I’d suggest they make to their digital ecosystem. This conversation started with a question that I love when clients (or potential clients) ask.

What’s your approach to digital strategy?

When conversations start with this question (or a similar one) they are helpful because they allow me to learn a lot about an organization/brand and how receptive they are to change, but also because it shines a light the core tenets of a team’s strategy (or lack thereof). Yes, all strategy is unique, but at the same time, there should be some core tenets that each unique strategy stems from. For me, one of those core tenets is a transactional mindset.

This is an easy mindset to have if you’re main business is commerce, but I believe to be successful this mindset needs to be applied to all digital ecosystems and organizations. Think about it, there is always a transaction in play. Do you want a user to click on something? Signup for something? Donate? Join? The list of possible transactions can go on and on.

I value my time and I’m sure you do too.

We’ve all heard people say, “I don’t have time for that” or complain about how long they spend doing something that they feel should have taken them less time. People are busy in both the physical and digital worlds. Multitasking is real and something that cannot be ignored. This means when we ask users to consume something in or spend time on our digital ecosystems, we’re really asking them to give up some of their time and spend it with us, on our digital properties.

Another age-old saying that I take to heart is, “My time’s valuable.” I’ll take it a step farther and say undivided attention and time is even more valuable. Thinking about user’s time as a valuable entity is important when thinking about digital ecosystems, flow, and strategy. If we truly take this to heart when it comes to digital strategy it means that we need to think about users time with a transactional mindset, so we need to make sure that not only is the content easy to find, navigate, and read, but that we’re also making sure the content has clear goals, next steps, and really helps explain the value of the organization/brand.

Success

Another important aspect of a transaction mindset is that it allows concrete goals to be set and success to be truly measured. This also means that over time a strategy for unique content, sections of the site, and additional platforms can emerge. Part of this success is thinking about content and user flows. Is the content successful if a user views it or is there an action they should take?

Thinking about content with a transactional mindset is something most content creators already do. It helps them think about what is added, how they organize the content and more. This is important because it gives purpose to the content. Digital ecosystems are no different. There should be a purpose and a reason around the content that is added.

There are so many channels to consume information that for an organization/brand to ask users to consume content with them, they need to provide some value back to the user. Think about why you are willing to pay for the subscriptions that you have and how you determine if you are going to keep those subscriptions. For me, it comes down to the value am I getting (or not getting). Digital ecosystems are no different, to keep users coming back there has to be a clear value. Do your users know the real value you offer?