Today, if a business doesn't have a good quality, branded website, you assume something is wrong. It's suspicious,<\/em> not quaint. Your online presence is part of your authenticity, it is inconceivable to imagine a Fortune 500 or FTSE100 company without at least one website. In the same vein, in five years' time, we may consider companies without a digital strategy, or an integrated marketing strategy to be in the same time warp.<\/p>\n Before starting on a new journey, it's essential to gain some evidence. It's unlikely you'd plan a holiday without first checking weather reports, currency details, travel times, and hotel reviews. Yet in business, we frequently start on a project without evidence.<\/p>\n To ensure your digital transformation journey works, start with an audit to identify the 'where are you now?' question. This gives you benchmark information that can be used at a later stage. Within this I typically would review:<\/p>\n Trying to work out where to get started? We recommend the 'digital strategy success factors' module in our Digital Transformation Learning Path to kick-start your planning. This strategic training module contains examples and templates designed to support you in building your digital transformation strategy. By the end of the module you'll be able to:<\/p>\n Find out more about this module plus our whole suite of digital transformation resources including planning templates, case studies, reports, and our popular Digital Transformation Playbook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Digital strategy success factors<\/strong><\/p> Part of the Digital marketing strategy and planning Toolkit<\/p> Learn how to define a structure and scope for your omnichannel marketing strategy<\/p>Learn More<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n When auditing your digital marketing strategy, don't forget to ask yourself, what do your customers want? Customers often find the path to the new product offer way before organizations do. Taking holidays as an example, consumers can spend hours, days and weeks to identify their ideal holiday (how long did it take you to plan your holiday this year?).<\/p>\n Yet, how many destinations, hotels, and attractions still produce masses of brochures? TripAdvisor conducts in-depth research<\/a> each year and its latest report noted that<\/p>\n \u201cWhen researching places to stay on TripAdvisor, 80 percent of respondents read at least six to 12 reviews before making their decision, and they\u2019re most interested in recent reviews that will give them the freshest feedback.<\/em><\/p>\n M<\/i>ore than half of respondents (53%) will not book a hotel that does not have reviews.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yet at the same time, many hotels and restaurants ignore the reviews and worst still, some argue with the customer! If you're in the hospitality sector, and if you ignore reviews online and\u00a0your\u00a0bookings are down, there is a reason. Is it time to ditch the brochures and focus on the reviews?<\/p>\n Keeping track of a constantly evolving marketing strategy can be tough if you're not tracking your omnichannel marketing channels and platforms in a consistent way. That's why digital transformation is so important for businesses of all shapes and sizes to manage their customers' experiences of their companies.<\/p>\n Our RACE Framework<\/a> helps digital transformation leaders plan, manage, and optimize their marketing strategies across the customer lifecycle of reach, act, convert, and engage.<\/p>\n Once the audit stage is completed, it's useful to understand what does your organization want to achieve? Are there specific objectives? Is there a future milestone that's driving practice within the business? Or has your business started to notice that it's being left behind?<\/p>\n To move to the next step, use a model or roadmap. I'd recommend the 5S marketing goals<\/a> as a tool to develop business objectives. This is because many objectives focus on the numbers, which is essential, but it leaves out other factors. The 5Ss which was originally designed as a website review tool (and still works for this purpose) is an easy-to-use \u2018objective generator\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth working on the objectives with a team so you get some early buy-in.<\/p>\n Looking to take the next step to digital transformation? Our dedicated marketing strategy solutions support Business Professional Members and their teams manage the key aspects of digital transformation for their businesses.<\/p>\n For example, our 'setting the vision for digital transformation' advanced module in our Digital Transformation Learning Path provides strategic marketing training and tools needed to create a vision statement for digital transformation in your business, explaining the benefits of digital transformation to your colleagues or clients and persuading them why investment and change is needed.<\/p>\n Set vision for digital transformation<\/strong><\/p> Part of the Managing digital marketing transformation Toolkit<\/p> Learn how to explain the future opportunities of digital marketing to your colleagues or your clients in a compelling way<\/p>Learn More<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n Even so, it's important to understand that the process doesn't happen overnight, it can take some time. Dell is a good example of a company that's constantly adapted to customer and market needs, from 1996 when Dell.com launched, generating $1 million in sales per day just six months after the site went live, to 1999 when they blazed a trail and took technical support online, when others said it couldn\u2019t be done. Dell shares its story and we\u2019ve included it previously <\/a>as a great example of how a company has managed its transformation.<\/p>\n In an article from Cap Gemini, they highlighted Starbucks who adapted their business to embrace digital, after a series of disappointing results. From free WiFi to adding mobile payments, they have created a difference in today\u2019s ever-crowded coffee shop market.<\/p>\n The New York Times is probably the best-known news publisher in the USA. Founded in 1851 it\u2019s recently embarked on a program of digital transformation, forced due to a changing macro environment and competitors who have moved ahead. And with the advent of new, younger competitors, like the Huffington Post who started less than ten years ago, and have eclipsed the readership of the NYT.<\/p>\n In the past the idea of a start-up gaining more web visitors than the best known political paper was unthinkable. Yet the Huffington Post has a higher web rank both in the US and globally.<\/p>\n The UK government<\/a> and indeed the US<\/a> government is embarking on programs of digital transformation. This seems to be driven by customer need (I want to pay bills online, so send me an email with a link) and cost-saving, reducing the amount of paper issued, documents printed and postage every year.<\/p>\n The UK government\u2019s vision is \u2018Digital by Default\u2019. I've used this transformation dashboard<\/a> on several training courses as it sums up the vision succinctly. There is a supporting paragraph for anyone needing more detail and one of the reasons it will work is that they\u2019ve started to classify where each department is on its roadmap.<\/p>\n As would be expected within major institutions such as government services, the steps to digital transformation start with discovery<\/em>, what are the users\u2019 needs, and will it work? Stage two is alpha<\/em> where the objective is to build a working prototype to be used by stakeholders to gain a greater understanding of a service.<\/p>\n What\u2019s interesting is that this stage is time-bound to take no more than eight weeks. I wonder if that always happens? Stage three is beta<\/em>, where the service is tested and improved until it reaches stage four, live<\/em>.<\/p>\n Our 'define digital value proposition' module, in the Digital Transformation Learning Path, is packed with strategic marketing tools and templates for Business Professional Members to review the strength of their digital value proposition and benchmark digital value propositions and brand propositions.<\/p>\n Define Digital Value Proposition\u200b<\/strong><\/p> Part of the Digital marketing strategy and planning Toolkit<\/p> Learn how to craft a powerful Digital Value Proposition (DVP) and how this differs from a brand proposition<\/p>Learn More<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n In the USA, President Obama launched his digital strategy with the question \u201cI want us to ask ourselves every day, how are we using technology to make a real difference in people\u2019s lives?\u201d This evolved into their vision \u201cInformation and services anywhere, anytime, on any device\".<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this transformation dashboard is no longer published, but in 2019, the Government digital service shared this useful 7 Lenses Maturity matrix<\/a> which we recommend for reviewing the capacity of a business to transform and to identify what the barriers are. It combines both vision and implementation, as a sort of roadmap.<\/p>\n In all these examples, there are three common factors which you need to adopt to get started with your digital transformation. This is the first step in your digital roadmap.<\/p>\n You need support<\/a> from the highest level to transform your business and adopt digital tools, techniques, and technology. If you don\u2019t get buy-in from the C-suite, it\u2019s difficult to achieve. Identify your champion or advocate early and ensure they're in a position to get things done.<\/p>\n In the past companies had \u2018mission statements' that were so long, they were printed onto the back of business cards as an aide-memoire! Today your vision<\/a> has to be clear, memorable, and succinct.<\/p>\nStep 1. Gain evidence before you get started with digital transformation<\/h3>\n
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![\"Digital](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/themes\/smartinsights\/images\/smart\/guides\/covers\/63620.svg\")
Your customers' omnichannel experiences<\/h4>\n
![\"Omnichannel](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Omnichannel-financial-services-marketing-700x348.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nStep 2. Create clear objectives about where the business is going<\/h3>\n
![\"Set](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/themes\/smartinsights\/images\/smart\/guides\/covers\/64358.svg\")
Examples of transformation timescales<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s needed for digital transformation to work?<\/h3>\n
![\"GOV\"](\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/GOV-550x424.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDigital transformation roadmap<\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nStep 3. Defining the process to launch the digital transformation strategy<\/h3>\n
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A high-level advocate<\/h4>\n
A clear vision<\/h4>\n
A digital team<\/h4>\n