Yet, digital transformation doesn\u2019t occur overnight. There are a series of steps to go through to get there and the critical factor is the staff. Imagine a world where your Digital Working Party, Digital Group, or Digital Collective is in place, they\u2019ve had several meetings and agreed on an action plan! What\u2019s next? Let's take look at options and examples of how you structure your digital team. Also, crucially, what does this mean in terms of your marketing funnel?<\/p>\n
We've got marketing tools and templates to support you in building a strong digital strategy, and structuring your marketing team to get the most out of digital. Smart Insights members are making use of our integrated marketing framework, the RACE Framework, to optimize their marketing funnels.<\/p>\n
Free digital marketing plan template<\/strong><\/p>\n Our popular marketing planning template is structured across the Smart Insights RACE Framework. Join Smart Insights as a Free Member to download our digital marketing plan template today<\/p>\n Access the Free digital marketing plan template<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/span><\/p>\n Where does the responsibility for managing digital teams lie? It\u2019s an interesting question and one I\u2019ve had to answer several times. The answer?<\/p>\n It depends.<\/p>\n Nigel Fenwick author of the Forrester State of Digital Business report, which polled 1,591 senior business leaders in the UK and US, revealed major disconnects between the marketing and technology sides of businesses, with responses signaling a \u201cdigital strategy execution crisis\u201d. He recommends CMOs and CIOs working together to ensure businesses don\u2019t adopt a bolt-on strategy. I'd agree that this is essential if not, it can go wrong:<\/p>\n It started so well. We all agreed our tasks, a timescale and at the very next meeting, the head of sales said they couldn\u2019t do their tasks because they were busy with sales! I could have screamed!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n You may have experienced this and it\u2019s all about getting the team in place before embarking on digital transformation.\u00a0Jason Mogus, Michael Silberman, and Christopher Roy defined\u00a04 types of digital business structures<\/a>\u00a0that are useful for considering the type of Centre of Excellence structure that could work best for you. You will see they are presented as an evolution.<\/p>\n The informal model is where most businesses start or started. One lone voice spreading the digital word in the building. You would think this is rare today, 25 years after the launch of the web, but we meet members who at least feel it is this way.<\/p>\n The centralized model tended to follow next as there was a knee-jerk reaction to \u2018do digital\u2019 and often separate departments were formed. The challenge with this model and I\u2019ve seen this first hand, is that other departments adopt a \u2018nothing to do with us\u2019 approach. It also means digital is siloed in one area.<\/p>\n Independent was the third model and this is common in mid-sized organizations where they do not have the luxury of larger teams. Again, this works relatively well, the challenge here is the lack of overall control and coordination.<\/p>\n Hybrid is the nirvana where there\u2019s one team in overall control: delivering training; providing support; and strategic guidance. In the field, there are individual digital experts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2013, in their manifesto \u201cThe evolution of social business\u201d<\/a>, Charlene Li and Brian Solis identified key methods of organization of social business which ranged from decentralized to holistic. The multiple hub and spoke is effectively where Mogus, Silberman, and Roy stopped. In Li and Solis\u2019s version, the nirvana is a holistic model. This looks very much like the future, rather than the present.<\/p>\n In the\u00a0Smart Insights Guide to Managing Digital Transformation<\/a>, Dave Chaffey, Sophia Ahrel and James Carson look at different ways of managing digital transformation. They also identify that the holistic version seems difficult to achieve. They look at the concept of centralization, commonly termed \u2018Centres of Excellence\u2019.<\/p>\n Whilst the concept works well with international organizations, it also translates easily for large and mid-sized enterprises, where staff may be in the same country (or same office).<\/p>\n This concept recommends a center of excellence, where key skills that may not be needed in each department daily, are pooled. In the same way, companies have one HR team, but there may be one specialist in recruitment techniques.<\/p>\n The other advantage of this approach is that a central team may provide training, manage websites, brand development of social spaces, and support other computer-mediated environments whereas country managers create content, maintain the social media networks and organize local implementation.<\/p>\n If you're looking to transform your company through digital strategy and planning, you need a clear vision, and objectives to track your progress. This is where Smart Insights can help, since, as well as expert guides and resources, Business Pro Membersip includes your very own success manager in the team, who will guide you to meet your goals.<\/span><\/p>\n To find out more about digital opportunities for your business, why not book a free 1-2-1 consultation call to kick off these discussions and discover how your business can benefit from digital transformation? Book your free 1-2-1 consultation to develop your new strategy with the RACE Framework<\/p>Book consultation<\/a><\/div> The Guide also looks at the T-shaped marketer, understanding a wide range of disciplines but with deep skills in one specific area. In my view, the ideal business scenario comprises a center of excellence and individuals throughout the business with digital expertise, which may be T-shaped, depending on the business needs.<\/p>\n For examples of job descriptions and digital roles, see the Guide to Managing Digital Transformation<\/a> and our digital marketing Job Description Templates<\/a> and Role Definitions.<\/p>\n It can be overwhelming knowing where and how to start and to avoid this situation, it\u2019s essential to focus on one specific project to start. In 2014, George Westerman, Didier Bonnet and Andrew McAfee<\/a>, a team at MIT interviewed 157 executives in 50 companies to\u00a0identify digital opportunities. They discovered three key areas that benefit from digital intervention:<\/p>\n Respond faster to customer queries by moving customer services to a social platform.<\/p>\n The interim steps include mapping out the social media tools to be used by the group: start by observing competitors; listening to conversations; formulating best practices \u2013 with external advice and preparing a timed plan to take this forward. The advantages are that in the past there may have been many customers making telephone calls about one subject and moving to digital means sharing that response online\u00a0so that it can be spread amongst many customers.<\/p>\n A great example of this is UCAS, this is the UK\u2019s university admission service. In the past, they had hundreds of people taking phone calls, often the same call, from many students. Today, they\u2019ve got a great Facebook page<\/a> and promote online events, such as this Q&A session.<\/p>\n Save product development time and costs by gathering new product ideas via social media.<\/p>\n The interim steps are similar to above: observing competitors; listening to conversations; formulating best practices and preparing a timed plan to take this forward.<\/p>\n Many companies have used social media for product development, especially food and drink brands including Walker\u2019s Crisps, Cadbury\u2019s Chocolate, and Vitamin Water.<\/p>\n Where is product or service development needed in your business? Can a new idea make your business disruptive and provide a greater, stronger, online value proposition?<\/p>\n Sharing documents with clients in the cloud so they can access anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been working on a new website and the web team, iWeb<\/a>, used Trello<\/a>, a cloud-based project management system, for the entire process. Once signed off, every step was added to the \u2018to do\u2019 section. As milestones were approaching, individual tasks were placed on cards, and the project manager appointed team members to do the work and set deadlines.<\/p>\n Everyone in the team \u2013 and there were people in several different locations involved, received regular updates and reminders when tasks were due. Every item needed for the project; artwork, images, content, was all uploaded into this central system \u2013 this stopped the issue, which I\u2019ve seen many times, where people haven\u2019t received the items or can\u2019t find them, as they were all in the central area.<\/p>\n Other cloud project management systems include Basecamp <\/a>which is used by Smart Insights. The key factor with these cloud-based systems is that clients have total access to every step of the process and can see all the questions being asked. There is more transparency and greater understanding when there are issues.<\/p>\n
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n Creating and managing digital teams<\/h3>\n
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![\"Sign](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/si_blog_banner.png\")
<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/p>\n1. The Informal Digital Transformation Model<\/h4>\n
![\"Digital](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Governance_Models_Informal-550x450.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n2. The Centralised Model<\/h4>\n
![\"Governance_Models_Centralized\"](\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Governance_Models_Centralized-550x450.png\")
<\/p>\n3. The Independent Model<\/h4>\n
![\"Governance_Models_Independent\"](\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Governance_Models_Independent-550x450.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n4. The Hybrid Model<\/h4>\n
![\"Governance_Models_Hybrid\"](\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Governance_Models_Hybrid-550x450.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe evolution of digital transformation<\/h4>\n
![\"evolution](\"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5a-evolution-of-dig-business-550x159.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDigital marketing excellence<\/h5>\n
![\"central](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5a-central-hybrid-local-600x351.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDigital marketing strategy and planning<\/h5>\n
Need a winning marketing strategy?<\/h3>
![\"Grow](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Build-x2.png\")
<\/div><\/span><\/p>\nT-shaped marketing skills<\/h5>\n
Selecting the project<\/h3>\n
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For your business, this could include:<\/h3>\n
Operation processes and Customer experience<\/h4>\n
![\"ucas](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5d-ucas.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDigital transformation business model<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/p>\nCustomer experience<\/h4>\n
![\"Omnichannel](\"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/RACE-icon-1.png\"){kind=icon}
<\/a><\/p>\n