From a marketing perspective this can be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing? Brands have numerous, and very intimate, ways to reach out to their target audience of choice. They can advertise to hyper-targeted groups on Facebook; they can focus on SEO or PPC; post photos on Instagram; they can tweet, pin, like, comment, share, optimize, you name it. The curse? It’s easier than ever to chase the going trend of the day because it’s “cool” rather than because you’ve developed a clear and focused reason for doing so.

Often lost on us today is the need to write a deliberate and goal-oriented plan for playing in the digital space. What are the business goals you hope to achieve? Subsequently, what are the intended goals you expect users to be able to acheive — and are those actually goals your users share with you? It’s one thing to say “I want to increase the size of my email marketing database by 15% in three months” it’s another to determine the value in the email communications you’re going to push out, and making sure you’re providing meaningful content to your users. Simply sending emails isn’t an admirable goal because you have a list of email addresses. Instead, consider the perspective of the recipient, and craft messages that matter to them.

When adding new channels to your digital plan, ask yourself the following questions:

1. How will this help me acheive the goals I have for my business?
2. How will it help users better engage with me or my brand?
3. What value am I providing to those users?

And finally, play to win. Once you’ve commited to using a particular channel, make sure that in doing so you’ve developed a clear engagement plan that ensures your success. Define clear and measurable goals that provide metrics for success and accountability — rather than simply treading water.