The digital marketplace is where many businesses truly started to profit. Digital transformation is not an option but is necessary for small and medium-sized companies.
Your company, of course, must be included. Here are 5 steps to make your digital transformation:
Digital Transformation: 5 Steps To Get Started
The digital market is closer to your company than you think. Here’s how to make that switch to online:
People
Customers are the main motivation of any business. After all, a company lives to meet the needs of a certain group, offer consumption desires and even fulfill dreams — of a vacation trip or a wedding party, for example. With digital transformation, this would not be different. But, its internal public and stakeholders will be fundamental pillars in this change.
Regardless of company occupation, people are at the heart of digital transformation. They will be the ones who will make this change possible and who, of course, will consume your product or service online. Therefore, they are the most important factor at that moment.
One of the big steps in digital transformation is the user experience and the humanization of technology. Whether with chatbots or with the purchase on your e-commerce, the whole process must be done in a fluid, easy, fast and, of course, human way. So, there’s nothing like people from the company to point out what’s working and not working in your online sales process.
Operational Processes
Watch the process when you make an online purchase. As said, everything needs to flow quickly and easily. Otherwise, the customer will likely give up on the transaction. The entire chain, from product research to checkout, must run smoothly during your digital transformation.
Another important aspect is investing in technological tools to optimize hitherto manual functions, such as checkout, issuing invoices and even customer service, which can be done primarily by a chatbot. In addition to speed, this digitalization makes the work much more dynamic.
Digital transformation implies analyzing the impacts of new technology before putting it into practice. This helps mitigate unwanted side effects, accelerate the company’s adaptation to the online market, and help it innovate more easily.
Data
All digital information is data: customer records, product inventory and online interactions are crucial to this digital transformation. Therefore, a fundamental factor in this aspect is to offer security to your client.
For anyone working in commerce, an e-commerce platform is key to digital transformation. It offers the opportunity to view your entire business more easily and much more secure payment methods for the customer. Finally, it still makes your business much more professional. After all, as much as it has existed for a long time as a physical store, it will have an amateur impression, in the customer’s view, if your sales are made only via WhatsApp or Instagram.
The data generated by your current and potential customers will be very useful in your digital transformation. Through remarketing and retargeting, the product your visitor viewed may appear in emails or ads from Google partner sites. Also, your website will be able to offer products that are similar in style, which can lead to higher sales. Finally, data also point to behaviors. You discover how to relate and what to offer to each potential client.
Innovation
Innovation is the ability to respond quickly to new market demands. Digital transformation, for example, is a type of innovation, but your company must continue. Using new tools and technologies is essential to facilitate the business process. This includes digital marketing strategies, the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data collection and even open banking, depending on the type of company. The important thing is that your company always remains relevant.
Trial And Error
Some companies are afraid of making mistakes. After all, depending on the gravity, it can be fatal for the business. But innovation is also reinvention—the ability not just to bring in but be something new. The digital medium brings much more potential for this reinvention, allowing the company to make mistakes and recover.
Digital marketing plans are structured already, knowing that mistakes are about to come. Calm down: this does not mean that the strategies are not well thought out, but that the collected data will serve as a basis for eventual changes and, of course, successes. Digital tools allow you to explore new audiences, approaches and techniques to deliver your product to the user who needs it.
Value
Something very important in digital transformation is the opportunity that a company has to deliver value like an international giant. Even with a considerably smaller investment (a multinational company has a larger budget for marketing strategies), a small company can publicize its product, show authority and establish itself as a reference in a certain segment.
Digital transformation is also about relationships. Show the potential customer how your business can solve his problem – even a problem he didn’t know existed.
Also Read: How Digital Transformation Plays Out In Application Delivery