What is digitalization? We live in times when everything is becoming digital. Or has the potential to become digitalized. But how does this apply to running a successful business? Amid the explosion of different technologies, most businesses try to keep up with the latest tech. But why is it so important, especially now? The reason is simple: businesses need to be where their customers are. In this case, we use the Internet. To reach as many potential customers as possible and achieve growth, companies must enhance their digital maturity.
In fact, many businesses can confuse digitalization with simple presence on social media platforms. Some people think that actively posting on Facebook, and sharing images on Instagram are enough to be considered digitally mature. Which is far from the case.
Transforming a company from traditional status to a digitally mature business means making significant and continuous improvements within and outside of the office. In this article, we discuss the ways that businesses can choose to build an up-to-date strategy, to work with their teams and customers for the best results. Read the article and assess the current situation of your company or start-up: Do you and your team have a fully digital approach to the day-to-day operations and is your marketing strategy compatible with the ongoing digital challenges and opportunities?
What is Digitalization?
Digitalization is all about communications and data. It includes the way your business talks to its customers, runs its daily activities, and stores and transfers the data, using digital channels or platforms. These activities transform even the type of business or a certain product. Let’s take the example of a multi-billion dollar industry – the casinos.
The first casino opened in the 17th century, which made this business quite old and traditional. In 1995, the first online casinos started operating, amid the rise of the Internet, even though physical locations for casinos are important and attractive as tourist destinations. So, what happened is that the type of business has been changed. Recently, after the growing demand for cryptocurrencies, some online casinos adopted new changes, and businesses like Ignition bitcoin casino started offering crypto gambling. This is an example of how a business can stay tuned with digital transformations and bring new customers, new revenue, and values to the company.
Digitalization is a multi-layer process that goes through different stages, from internal communication to external relations.
Marketing Strategy and Values
If you want to transform your company into a digitized business, your marketing strategy is a great place to start. Increased use of online methods for consuming information, content and doing business necessitates a more mature approach to digital marketing. It’s important to understand what business priorities are, in terms of building marketing communications with shareholders, partners, and customers.
Implementing the marketing strategy effectively means moving towards the company vision. There are questions to answer in your strategy: Does your business want to be open for any kind of communication? Do you want to be transparent? Do you plan to be active on social media like Nike and Coca-Cola, or would you prefer being a passive social media user, like Apple? And these are the brands that are operating in different fields, and have different strategies but all are super powerful.
Internal Communication
This is not an easy task. Sometimes employees are used to working in traditional ways, and it’s hard for them to adapt to new circumstances. Educate your employees!
Many things are coming from the c-suite and their decisions. You can start with small changes. For example, the idea of an electronic signature or even adopting an IP based voice (VoIP) solution which combines traditional phone service, but has digital advantages. At first glance, this may be considered insignificant steps. But you will see how effective your daily operations become, reducing the amount of paperwork and the cost of traditional POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines.
Another challenging part is dealing with old business techniques and methods after adopting changes. Any digitally mature company must be flexible in importing the new tools and meanwhile, synchronizing those with the “legacy” tools and techniques.
Find Your Customers
A good business knows how to collect and analyze data about its current and potential customers. If your company is on the same page with potential clients, then you are on track.
Maybe you are operating for people living in a country without fast internet speeds, or maybe the target demographics of your business are young people who spend a lot of time on social media platforms. It’s important to still work with people who prefer traditional business operations, but don’t step back: a responsible company serves its customers and can also educate them on opening new digital doors and advantages.
Business digitization is not a simple change, but a process. It requires patience, strategy, and of course, investment. As long as the technology changes, businesses will face new challenges. Only those who can put time and effort will succeed as digitally mature companies.
