What is Digital Transformation and what can hamper it?
This new infographic summaries a new report from Infomentum exploring barriers and steps to digital transformation.
It starts with a definition of digital transformation, which although by Brian Solis, isn't as dynamic as you might expect. It also doesn't get to the main success factors which, for me, are people, process and tools in that order. Here's the definition James Carson and I cooked up in our Digital transformation toolkit:
"Digital Transformation: A staged programme of business improvements to People, Process and Tools tools used for integrated digital marketing to maximize the potential business contribution of digital technology and media".
The infographic goes on to explore the barriers and how to overcome them but keeping them straightforward for a CEO. Possibly too simple, but the second part of the infographic does highlight the success factors and reason for change.
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An interview with Ann Holman discussing approaches for encouraging change
The Managing Digital Marketing 2015 research from Smart Insights showed that many businesses are planning a programme to manage digital transformation.
Around a third of businesses are planning a transformation programme, with another third of businesses already underway with their programme. So, what can companies who are about to embark on Digital Transformation learn from those who have already started?
In my interview with Ann Holman, Strategic Digital Director helps answer this question, since she works with companies on their digital transformation. She set-up Our Think Lab to focus on R&D around digital and social media, providing consultancy on digital transformation. The interview discusses the importance the barriers and levers to change and suggests why larger organisations needs to act more like a start-up and…
A review of digital change management – examining ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’methods
"Like so many other revolutions, digital marketing has taken hold from the bottom up. Here, we find digital natives steeped in digital culture and practice — twenty- and thirty-somethings who came of age on the social web."
Jake Sorofman, The Rise of the Digital CMO
We often think of Senior Management as being the drivers of change within a business. After all, it is they who have they experience to see when change is necessary, and them who have the power to enact the change itself. However, as the quote above suggests, this is somewhat of a fallacy in the current climate – digital change has bubbled like a kind of ‘groundswell’, often meeting executives who are almost unaware.
Bottom Up Change is Commonplace
There are few better practical illustrations of change coming from the bottom than the growth of…
Fewer than half of businesses are responding to Digital Disruption by Digital Transformation
Business leaders today know that Digital technology is disruptive, the question is, how do they respond it as part of 'Digital Transformation' - as shown in the stages of our infographic.
Pwc's 6th annual Digital IQ survey reveals that:
'having a strong Digital IQ, the by product of leveraging these five interlocking behaviours, were 2.2 times more likely to be top-performers in revenue growth, profitability, and innovation.'
Their findings show that many larger businesses still trying to overcome challenges and 70% of those who are successfully driving Digital Transformation, are ensuring that their Chief Information Officer and Marketing Managers/Directors are working closely together to engage in 'digital discussions'.
How many businesses are concerned about the Digital Disconnect?
The findings show that 75% are ill-prepared to respond and adapt to technologies, and 69% can not keep up with the speed of technology, even though…
3 actions to kickstart Digital Transformation
Take a deep breath, you’ve managed to get the senior team to commit to a digital project and your digital transformation journey has started. The next stage requires a sprint! A big leap forward to catch up with or leapfrog the competitors. Here are three actions you can take now:
1. Benchmark against the competitors
2. Listen to your customers
3. Build a team
1. Benchmark your business against the competitors
Benchmarking will identify the biggest gaps and generate a priority action list. There are many tools available to enable you to benchmark your digital marketing capabilities as part of strategy development.
Strategic Benchmarking Tool
One of my favourites is this strategic benchmarking tool. It doesn’t require a lot of effort, so it’s painless, although the questions are thought-provoking. You could ask several team members to complete and then compare results. Simply select your answer from a drop down box…
Digital change management and getting buy-in for digital marketing transformation
One of the key aspects of evolving a traditional company into a digital company is getting buy-in. One of the challenges is that digital simply isn’t understood. Some Chief Executives think digital is tactical, it refers to activities like sending out newsletters, improving Facebook page or online catalogue. As a result, digital is often delegated to the most junior person in the building who is perceived to have a great understanding of the business functionality of tools like Facebook.
The exec team are missing the bigger picture. What’s worse is that less reputable agencies have constructed myths that it’s complicated and difficult and explain that only ‘masters of the art’ are able to access analytics, manage Instagram or increase Twitter followers.
The path towards digital transformation is littered with disaster. There have been many Twitter…
A case study of how Ford have embraced digital and social media
The digital landscape for the majority of sectors has witnessed a meteoric rise in the number brands. These brands come in all sizes and shapes – On one side you have the traditional brands making the steady transition to the world of digital and on the other, the start-up brand, out there to cause disruption to the sector and to offer that something a little different. And they all have the same objective - vying for our attention.
In with the old
The transformation traditional organisations are learning to wrestle with is the fact that moving to a digital future, traditional brands should not still try to control media content that impacts the brand and its perception, rather the brand should instead focus on becoming more transparent and seek to build engagement, credibility and collaboration with its user base.
A case study of…
What’s New in Marketing? July 2014 roundup
How to achieve Digital Transformation in businesses has been a hot topic through 2014 and this month we have focused our advice on this.
To help get focus and review current use of digital we created this roadmap so you can summarise where you are now and where you need to be in future. It’s taken from our new Digital Transformation guide for Expert members.
Strategy and planning
Our strategy and planning posts also focus on transformation:
What is Digital Transformation? - Annmarie Hanlon introduces the concept and gives examples in this post.
Digital to account for 75% of all marketing spend in 5 years - the need to manage transformation is shown in this post by Dan Bosomworth of new research from Accenture.
Insourcing vs outsourcing for digital marketing - James Carson asks “Which digital marketing activities you should keep inhouse or…
Get in the game - don’t get stuck on the sideline
More than a third (35%) of senior marketing professionals believe that digital marketing will account for more than 50% of marketing spend by 2019, according to a new report from Accenture. 37% feel it’ll account for 75% or more of all budget.
Accenture’s research is based on survey responses of nearly 600 executives in 11 countries conducted between November 2013 and January 2014.
My immediate question when I saw this headline for the report is what is "digital investment"? Is this just online advertising rather than actual marketing? We have to guard from a lazy “TV 2.0” mindset towards digital where we move ad spend, literally online. Thankfully the report is more broadly focussed on using digital to orientate around a consumer - so all's good!
What's behind the positivity about the future of digital? With the Accenture…
A Review of CTRL ALT Delete by Mitch Joel
As we work from day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month it’s easy to miss the extent of the changes that digital media and technology have made to our businesses and careers.
I will be discussing how to manage these changes, both at a business level and a personal level in our upcoming webinar on July 10th with Mitch Joel, the author of CTRL ALT Delete and Six Pixels of Separation, who is President of Twist Image - one of the largest independent Digital Marketing agencies in North America, but sold to WPP earlier this year.
It's a free webcast and if you register now you can watch live or playback.
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