Example Strategy Document

This template is flexible – don’t be constrained by it – delete and shift stuff around as you see fit.
Both the content and the order are suggestions only!

The headings are shown in blue, with some example content in grey italic. Notes are in red

1.0 Executive Summary

Our museum is recognized throughout the region as a valuable resource for local historians. The
website gives us invaluable insights and opportunities to engage with these enthusiasts, enriching
knowledge and lives as it does so.

Remember that this summary section is as far as many people will get – make it short, punchy and
memorable!

1.1 The coming year

Over the coming year we are going to…

Here, give a precise statement of the main activities you’ll be undertaking in the coming year. Hook
this closely with your organizational strategy – and, if you know you have things like budget cuts or
changes in the way the organization works – reference them here

You can use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) to help structure your
ideas.

2.0 The current environment

Provide an overview of your current operating environment.

You can use the information you gathered earlier (see Chapter 1: Evaluating what you have now) as a
quick way of populating this section. Include things like number of visits, main goals of visitors to the
site, the successes you’re seeing and so on.

> This document is CC licensed [BY-NC-SA].

> ...it is a resource to accompany my book Managing and Growing a Cultural Heritage Web Presence
> Find out more about the book at www.heritageweb.co.uk or contact me direct at @m1ke_ellis
 2.1 SWOT

Both SWOT and PESTLE analyses can be used if they work in your environment – if not, just adapt this
section accordingly, or remove it altogether..

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

- A highly motivated web team, with a diverse - Inadequate funding

range of skills
- Little understanding of the power of social
- Strong technology, and a burgeoning online media across the organization
audience

- Support for, and awareness of, the

importance of the web

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

- E-Commerce - Changing funding model

- Online marketing - Poor pay for web specialists within the

organization

2.2 PESTLE

POLITICAL ECONOMIC

- Continuing interest in ways of providing - Changing funding models as a result of

Open Data shifting priorities

- Electronic standards - Strong brand

SOCIAL TECHNOLOGICAL

> This document is CC licensed [BY-NC-SA].

> ...it is a resource to accompany my book Managing and Growing a Cultural Heritage Web Presence
> Find out more about the book at www.heritageweb.co.uk or contact me direct at @m1ke_ellis
- Increasing use of mobile devices: potential to - Ever-increasing access to, and speed of,
engage with a wider audience broadband web access

- We are a “trusted voice” in an environment - “Digital Natives”, familiar with the tools of
where there is “too much online content” online

LEGAL ENVIRONMENTAL

- Increasing number of Freedom Of - Improving internal processes so that less

Information requests paper is required to deliver content

- Data Protection Act issues with our - Re-purposing

membership database

3.0 Strategic Plan

The strategic plan section of the document is the place where you lay out - in some detail what you
plan to do over the coming year.

It is useful to begin this with a vision or mission statement, that is, one or two short sentences which
clearly articulate exactly what it is you are intending to do:

We will focus our attention this year on delivering e-commerce and personalization, building on the
successes of the previous years and beginning to generate positive revenue by year end.

Tie your vision closely in to any organizational vision which you know already exists. This will help
your stakeholders understand how the web fits into a wider picture.

3.1 Operational Plan

Outline the actual activities you are going to undertake in as much detail as you can, and include
dates wherever possible:

During the 2010–11 financial year, we will look to increase and broaden our online audience to
20,000 visits per annum (an increase of 50%), by focusing on the following activities:

 ensuring our core URL (www.oursiteurl.com) is included on all printed and marketing
material, including new business cards, email signatures, posters and flyers; we will look to

> This document is CC licensed [BY-NC-SA].

> ...it is a resource to accompany my book Managing and Growing a Cultural Heritage Web Presence
> Find out more about the book at www.heritageweb.co.uk or contact me direct at @m1ke_ellis
 track incoming traffic from these URLs where possible, using a trailing alias such as
www.oursite.url/flyercampaign
 buying a short-run ad campaign in the local newspaper during March
 giving five free lunchtime sessions in the local library where we demonstrate the new
features of the website to local people, and encourage them to write their own reviews
 actively encouraging mentions of our Twitter account by tweeting interesting content
at least three times a week
 building and growing a Facebook page for our library, asking the question, ‘What did
you last read that made you cry?’ and encouraging users to add their suggestions for a
‘Cryworthy Top 10’poster for display over the summer holidays.

Within your operational plan, you will probably also want to consider some of the “business as
usual” activity: archiving of old content, updating of social media sites and “process” – ie. the way
that content moves around the organization and who is responsible for it.

4.0 Risks

Towards the end of your document, you should include a section where you outline the incoming
areas of risk. Use something like the following table to articulate these:

Risk Detail Likelihood Impact Mitigation

Web content is not We have an on-going
seen as an issue with some teams
organizational in the organization
priority who are producing rich
content but not passing
this on to the editorial
team to put on the
website. As a
consequence, our
visitors are missing out
on some valuable detail
about our newest
collections items.
Medium High Work with the Collections
team to demonstrate how
easy our new CMS is to
work with; website editor
will set up some
workshops during the first
quarter (Q1) and provide
on-going support to the
Collections department
during Q2–4.

> This document is CC licensed [BY-NC-SA].

> ...it is a resource to accompany my book Managing and Growing a Cultural Heritage Web Presence
> Find out more about the book at www.heritageweb.co.uk or contact me direct at @m1ke_ellis
You may have other words or phrases used in your organization that are used to describe risk and
mitigation of those risks – in which case use these rather than the format above.

Include your risk diary if you’ve kept one.

5.0 Financial Summary

Include things like the following – or link to the information if it is easier to hold this elsewhere (for
instance a budget spreadsheet or intranet):

 the operating budget and costs for the website, including things like CMS licences,
hosting costs, maintenance and domain names
 any income, for example, from sponsors and/or e-commerce.
 any project budgets (i.e. discreet redesign or development projects which have
budgets allocated to them)
 salary costs (include ‘on-costs’ – the costs of employing that person outside of their
salary – if this is how your organization does this elsewhere).

6.0 Resource Summary

Include the names and roles of people who work on the site. Include not only FTE but also people
who provide content as part of their day job. Mark this clearly.

> This document is CC licensed [BY-NC-SA].

> ...it is a resource to accompany my book Managing and Growing a Cultural Heritage Web Presence
> Find out more about the book at www.heritageweb.co.uk or contact me direct at @m1ke_ellis