Before I open a browser, before I check page speeds or meta descriptions or social media accounts, I ask every business the same question: what do you actually need digital to do for you?
It sounds obvious. It isn't. The answer almost always reveals a gap between what the business is asking for and what it actually needs.
Instagram followers are not clients
One business told me they needed more Instagram followers. When I asked why, the answer eventually came down to: they wanted more clients for their corporate training programmes.
Instagram followers and corporate training clients are not the same thing. The route from one to the other was unclear at best and nonexistent at worst. The HR directors who commission corporate training aren't scrolling Instagram looking for providers. They're searching Google, asking colleagues for recommendations and reviewing LinkedIn profiles.
What this business actually needed was a better enquiry process on their website, some targeted LinkedIn activity aimed at HR departments and two or three strong case studies showing measurable outcomes from past training programmes. Instagram was a distraction from the work that would have made a difference.
"Improve our SEO" isn't a goal
Another business said they needed to "improve their SEO." When I looked at the website, the problem wasn't technical. It was that the site didn't explain what the business did. The homepage was vague. The service pages were thin. A potential customer couldn't have told you what they actually offered after reading the whole site.
Fixing the content would improve the SEO as a byproduct. The primary issue wasn't search engine optimisation. It was communication. The business needed to articulate what it did, for whom and why someone should choose them. Once that content existed, Google would index it naturally.
The app that wasn't needed yet
A third business wanted to build a mobile app. They'd seen competitors with apps and assumed they needed one too. When I asked what the app would do that the website couldn't, the answer was vague. "It would be more convenient."
What they actually needed was a well-structured, mobile-friendly website with good search visibility. The app was a solution to a problem they didn't have. Their website didn't work properly on phones, so building a separate app to fix the mobile experience would have been an expensive workaround for a website problem.
Tools follow goals, not the other way round
Digital is a set of tools. Websites, social media, email marketing, CRM, analytics. Each one does something specific. None of them has inherent value. The value comes from connecting the right tool to the right business need.
"We should be on TikTok" is not a strategy. "We need to reach 18-25 year old customers and TikTok is where they spend their time" is the beginning of one. The first leads to wasted effort. The second leads to a plan.
If someone asks me what they should do on social media, my first question is always: who are your customers and how do they find you now? The answer to that determines which tools matter and which ones are distractions.
Start with what the business needs. Then pick the tools. Not the other way round.
This article is part of a series based on findings from 55 digital audits. Read the full case study for the complete picture, or get in touch if you'd like an honest look at where your business stands.