Integration of digital technology into all areas of a business
We live in a digital world. As increasingly tech-savvy individuals, the majority of us actively seek out the most digital experience we can find – think online banking versus heading to the local bank to make a payment.
As a business, you need to embrace this digital change and adapt to the new market reality.
Digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technology into all areas of your business and marketing. In the current environment, some of the most important digital technologies for businesses to consider are automation, artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, the Internet of Things, and augmented or virtual reality. Utilising these technologies can generate, store or process data and leads to increased automation, increased efficiency, and reduced costs.
Further, it helps to drive innovation and enables teams to scale systems and grow their business more effectively. When it comes to commercial potential, a digital approach means that your business has the chance to reach a global audience as well as to scale fast, to meet the huge demand.
By going digital, you can take greater advantage of advances in technology and add them to your offering, to improve the user experience. This, in turn, means that your business is far more likely to be future-proofed compared with a business that is not digital-enabled.
Digital First Approach
People are bad at adopting new working practices. Once we find an approach that works, we tend to stick with it, even if circumstances change. That is understandable because it would be inefficient to second guess every decision we ever make.
However, following the same old approaches only makes sense as long as circumstances remain the same, and since the arrival of digital, that is not the case. The world is changing, and our working practices need to adapt.
It is important to note that digital-first do not suggest replacing traditional channels with digital ones; instead, the philosophy behind digital-first seeks to redress a bias towards conventional channels and behaviour. This ensures that digital transformation results in a shift in organisational thinking away from favouring traditional marketing channels to prioritising digital media.
It’s also a cultural transformation that requires the continuous challenge of the status quo, experimentation, agility in ways of working, a growth mindset and gaining comfort with failure and iterative development.
Senior management announcing one day that your company needs to be digital-first will not get the job done. In fact, it is likely just to cause chaos, because nobody will have a clue of what digital by default will mean for their role.
People cannot see how their working practices are out of date; otherwise, they would have changed them already. People do not intentionally work inefficiently! That means they are going to need help working out how digital should be changing their role.
Unfortunately, this help cannot come from senior management. Not only does the executive not fully understand the ramifications of digital themselves, but they also don’t understand enough about their employee’s jobs to be able to help them adapt.
The 5-Step Approach
With Adstar Digital, your digital transformation is implemented through a digital strategy – a strategy that’s reinforced by innovative technologies, methodologies and practices. There are five basic steps to starting a digital transformation project:
- Current situation analysis – undertake a review and assessment of the current state of digital in your marketing activities, focusing on the customer experience across the main digital channels. Review the activities of your competitors, other players in your sector, and other digital marketing leaders across a range of sectors.
- Create the vision – create a vision for digital and why it is critical to becoming ‘digital first’.
- Build the business case – focus on the value of digital to your business and how it will create benefits for both the short and long-term. Identify your key performance indicators, and put measures in place that will help you to keep momentum when the going gets tough.
- Develop your digital marketing strategy – identify the key strategic strands of your new digital marketing strategy, and drill down to the tactical campaigns.
- Continuous review and improvement – embed a process of continuous improvement with a ‘test and fail fast’ mentality. Embarking on new digital marketing techniques is critical to stay digital-first.
Accelerate Your Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation is no longer something that will happen in the future. Your customers have already placed digital at the centres of their lives.
Businesses that don’t adapt to this new digital world will be left behind.
To successfully lead a Digital Transformation, leaders will need a combination of technical knowledge, the strategic tools to plan for the possibilities of the future and a best practice on executing and embedded into the organisational culture. With us by your side, you can expect step-by-step guidance throughout your digital transformation. Whether you need a simple website or a bespoke transactional platform, whatever your needs, we can make it happen.