Digital transformation is more than just a buzzword. Serai Schueller highlights four, key need-to-know aspects for B2B marketers
With so much hype around technology, what is digital transformation really about? In truth, it’s about change.
More than technology itself, digital transformation is about the changes technology brings. It’s about solving old problems with digital solutions. It’s about adopting change, not for the sake of it, but to create efficiencies, make room for more strategic and innovative work, and to improve ‘experiences’ for everyone involved – employees, partners, and customers alike.
And despite the complexity of it all, more and more organizations are doing it. Based on 32 interviews and 506 online surveys with marketers, we discovered during research for our 2018 Connectivity Report that 80% of organizations have completed or are currently undergoing a digital transformation.
But, here’s the thing about digital transformation: It impacts an entire organization. Here are four key aspects and areas to consider when planning or reviewing your own progress for digital transformation.
1. Create internal advocacy
What separates a successful digital transformation from the rest?
For starters, you are better positioned for success if you work to establish a corporate culture of open-mindedness and change. Digital transformation requires organization-wide adoption of the changes that technology brings.
And, for most organizations, this doesn’t happen on its own. Whatever the degree of digital change, you need to help people navigate it.
Consider appointing a change advocate, or internal project manager to educate stakeholders on the benefits to them, facilitate training, and communicate goals and an ongoing roadmap. Ensuring everyone understands the greater strategic vision and how they’ll get there helps guarantee a smooth and successful digital transformation.
2. Marketing automation (MA) – connecting your tools is crucial
Our survey showed that from centralized collaboration to seamless user experiences and saved time, the benefits of MA are proven.
But above all, respondents ranked the ability to share data across systems as the top benefit. And, this makes sense. If you can eliminate duplicate efforts and ensure that the entire organization can access and act on information from a single source of truth, you are better off.
From automation technology to digital asset management solutions, creative software, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, the options are endless. But, you also know that while these tools are powerful on their own, they’re even more powerful when they work together. After all, by connecting your tools you are building your martech stack – the very engine that powers your day-to-day efforts.
If you haven’t started connecting your digital tools now is the time. Think about the marketing tools you rely on, and then collaborate with other functions to understand their go-to tools, pain-points, and needs. More often than not, there are ways your tools can improve collaboration and breakdown workflow and information silos across your entire organization.
3. Customer experience is under more pressure than ever to get it right
Thanks to advancements in customer experience technology, you can now unlock insights about your audiences that tell you everything from customer preferences to digital behavior and content consumption patterns.
With so much information at your disposal, delivering personalized, relevant experiences to your audiences is more achievable than ever. In fact, your customers have come to expect it.
Technology, and the adoption of it throughout your organization, is critical to achieve this.
Without marketing automation and an efficient way to manage your digital assets, it’s challenging to reach audiences at scale. And, without access to analytics and audience data, it’s difficult to understand your customers’ journey, create accurate personas, and develop a content marketing strategy that helps you deliver the right content to the right people at the right time.
4. Marketing needs a seat at the table
Although tech plays a crucial role in digital transformation, a successful transformation involves input from the entire organization.
And while over a quarter of organizations still rely entirely on their IT department to make technology-investment decisions, our 2018 martech survey results indicate this isn’t always the case. Many organizations are adopting a more progressive approach by looking to marketing teams (40%) or a combination of teams (13.5%) to make decisions about digital investments.
Involving other teams within the organization, particularly marketing, is essential.
After all, you need a say in the technology strategy and tools that power your marketing efforts. If your organization still leans entirely on IT for these decisions, make your voice heard. Find ways to snag a seat at the decision-makers’ table, so your priorities and needs are taken into consideration. Without your strategic involvement, user adoption, data and content cohesion, and your bottom line will suffer.
