This past spring my wife and I planted our very first garden together. Neither of us is what you might consider, “good at gardening” or “knowledgeable about plants.” But there’s only one way to learn, right? So we dove in, hands and knees first, and started planting.

As the season progressed we watched, fascinated and hopeful, as our plants grew and spread and sprouted and blossomed. We made our share of mistakes*, but we did our best to adapt our approach.

The whole project got me thinking, how do we build healthy digital ecosystems that support business growth? Can we identify parallels with the natural world that might help us become more effective marketers?

And so, I hereby present to you the 5 Steps to a Healthy Digital Ecosystem:

 Step 1: Set a Goal

Let’s say you work for a small but growing service provider. Revenues are climbing, the team is expanding, life is good. But maybe this growth has also brought new challenges. Perhaps you’ve won some bigger clients and you would really like to go deeper with these blue chippers. Sell them more, strengthen the partnership, become a trusted consulting partner.

You’ve planted the seeds. Now it’s time to maximize the yield. Sounds like a worthy goal to me.

 Step 2: Assess Your Assets

Before we dive headlong into new digital strategies it’s important to take stock. When was the last time you conducted a thorough audit of your content marketing or SEO? This might be the time. Make a list of any active campaigns and ask yourself, how are these initiatives supporting our goal?

Some questions our growing firm may want to ask themselves include:

• Are we connected with our client contacts on LinkedIn? How often do we interact with them?
• Do we follow their company page? Subscribe to their blog? Share their content?
• Do we email them regular progress reports? What kind of feedback do we get?

In the case of my gardening experiment our assets consisted of directions to the nearest garden center and a credit card. Hopefully, you are already in a stronger position with your digital marketing.

 Step 3: Strategize Primary Solutions

Your assessments in the previous step should reveal some areas of opportunity. Are there initiatives that you can accelerate or amplify? What strengths can you build on? Are there any clear gaps in your approach?

If you aren’t comfortable identifying these opportunities, then finding a strategic partner might be your best bet. One way or another, use all of your available resources to select a primary strategic solution.

Our case study company has decided that building a personalized digital dashboard for their most valuable clients is the approach that will best serve their goals. Doing so will allow them to streamline communication, anticipate issues before they arise and generally reinforce the importance of the relationship to both companies. Also, delivering an outstanding experience to their current contacts within the client organization should open the door to new business. People talk.

The primary strategy in our garden was building an almost-rabbit-proof fence. Point being, feed and protect the plants that bear the most fruit (or peppers, or cucumbers).

 Step 4: Enhance and Supplement

The entire basis of the web is connection, right? The best digital strategies find ways to leverage connections to drive results in creative ways. Find the connections your competitors haven’t.

Our aim here is to use secondary strategies to improve the likelihood of success of the primary solution. Planning a new website? Build your outreach plan first and bake it into the bones of the site. Let email support web. Web support application. Application support push notifications. Push notifications support calls to action. You get the idea.

The example company has decided to build a series of case studies around their new client dashboards. They will use the case studies in a content funnel to drive new leads within their blue chip accounts.

Symbiosis is everywhere. Just ask the spider mites who made a home on our pepper plants. Make good and interesting connections between your various efforts and be ready to…

 Step 5: Analyze. Report. Repeat.

The beauty of digital anything lies in its nearly limitless ability to iterate on itself. Understand from the beginning that you don’t have all the answers, and be ready to find new insights along the way. Experiment, test, and analyze and iterate. Find the metrics that have meaning to your business and focus on them relentlessly.

The dashboard was a hit with the client, and the campaign to drive awareness to the case studies led to several new opportunities for our case study company.

My wife and I will have to wait until next spring to take another crack at becoming master gardeners. Fortunately for all of us, cultivating a healthy digital ecosystem is a year round task.

*No, marigolds will not keep rabbits away from your kale.