Using capability maturity models to audit your digital maturity and set targets to improve digital marketing effectiveness
We've been adding to our visual tools to help all members assess how well their businesses are adapting to using digital media and technology and to set targets to improve their results from digital marketing.
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3 different types of benchmarking
We have collected these visuals together in a single download so that you can easily review them and print the most relevant for you. We've designed them So members can use them for different scales of business and roles. There are more than 10 templates which cover:
Digital marketing for small and medium businesses using our RACE framework
Digital transformation for larger businesses
Digital channel marketing activities including SEO, Social media, email and content marketing
You can see one example, which I designed for reviewing digital marketing effectiveness with senior leaders in small and medium…
Use our digital marketing maturity models to assess new opportunities for upskilling and digital transformation
Ever since I’ve been involved in working with businesses to improve their digital marketing, I’ve seen huge variations in digital capabilities. That's why at Smart Insights we have always championed using digital marketing maturity models as a simple technique to assess your digital marketing effectiveness. Today, Smart Insights Members have a wealth of free and premium digital marketing auditing resources and training solutions for digital upskilling, which I will cover in more depth in this article.
If you're new to the concept of reviewing or assessing digital marketing maturity, you might ask why it's considered necessary. The value in reviewing digital maturity is that it can quickly give you a ‘line in the sand’ benchmark for your organization's digital marketing activities to improve upon. In today's digital landscape, comparing your digital maturity to similar competitors is an…
An introduction and examples of using a planned approach to business digitalization with examples
In this article, you will learn what should be included in a digital strategy for a business and how to set goals and structure it. We will also explain the difference between a digital marketing strategy and cover some examples of digital strategy.
What is digital strategy?
A digital strategy defines an organization’s priority initiatives for future investment in digital technology to make a business more competitive by digitalization of its processes and review of its business model. It has a broad scope, covering how digital technology can support business goals across the business.
Technology analyst Gartner (2023) highlights this in their definition of digitalization where they emphasize a focus on improving business model rather than process. However, for me, digital strategy should consider both digitalization of both business processes and business model innovation.
Although ‘digital strategy’ usually focuses on…
Manufacturers are rapidly adapting their marketing strategies in the age of digital disruption. How do your digital marketing capabilities compare?
In this article, I will be reviewing the state of digital transformation in the manufacturing sector. I will give practical digital marketing recommendations for manufacturing companies at different stages of digital maturity. Plus, I'll be revisiting our popular 2021 digital marketing maturity benchmarking report to help you assess the effectiveness of your manufacturing marketing.
The manufacturing industry, including the marketing of manufacturing products, has typically been slow in its approach to digital transformation over the last 20 years. There are many reasons for this. McKinsey highlights 'external market factors, combined with fragmented and complex industry dynamics and an overall aversion to risk' in construction as barriers to change in this vital area.
However, the digital disruption caused…
As digital transformation continues to shape the new relationship between healthcare providers and their customers, upskill your pharma marketing team with the key digital skills and tools to improve performance
The question of the key digital skills and tools in the pharma industry is an ongoing challenge. Pharma marketing generalists plan and optimize marketing strategies, campaigns and product launches, requiring a T-shaped digital skillset and continuous professional development to oversee all marketing activity. Pharma digital specialists manage day-to-day optimization of key digital channels, the new front-line of customer engagement. Investment in tools and training for these staff is crucial for your company's growth. Of course, the breakdown of these channels will depend on your pharma company's positioning and target markets, which we will visit further on in the article.
Why invest in digital marketing for pharma?
Improved distribution of, and accessibility to, pharmaceutical data and information is accelerating customer-centric disruption…
Introduction
Technological changes are one of the leading advocators to shape customer value. They are characterized by a process of social technological variations, rooted in different disciplines e.g., economics, sociology, and psychology.
It implies that the competitive advantage is increasingly shaped by the management of the polysemic nature of the customer value. This crossroads of understanding drives how shoppers use various channels (offline, online, and mobile) across temporal stages (pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase.
In this holistic playfield, we are attempting to simplify this discipline by seizing a definite space of instruments of measurement.
As such, “digital factory” can be simplified by structuring meta-themes, articulating a “software of the mind” for digital practitioners. This is an expression coined by a Dutch Management Professor Geert Hofstedewish, designed in the context of culture, to provide a guide for humans on how to think and behave.
Metathemes are researched and practitioner theoretical factors assembled and organized vertically and horizontally…
[Editor's note: We now have more recent guidance for frameworks for digital maturity evaluation]
Chart of the Day: BCG's pathway to digital marketing maturity model
You probably know of Boston Consulting Group for their classic market prioritization matrix which we feature in our essential marketing models guide.
Well, they still continue as a consulting group and naturally work on digital transformation projects for which they share strategies via their blog. The latest, which I thought sharing is a simple assessment of digital marketing maturity based on organizational structure.
Most suited for larger organizations it shows the typical pattern from an ad hoc approach to digital marketing across a business characterised by innovation, but also inefficiency and wastage due to overlap or inexperience. To control digital marketing activities a centralized approach is then recommended, but as I have seen in many cases this then results…
How does the digital maturity of your business compare?
Although digital marketing cannot be called new with the advent of the web now over 25 years old, this new research from Adobe shows that relatively few companies have mastered digital marketing. Only 19% of North American organizations and 7% of European organizations rate their digital maturity as “Advanced” when reviewing processes, data integration and technical skills.
Digital maturity definitions from the research shown in the figure are.
Advanced: Data mostly integrated, best practices generally followed, automation common, strong technical skills
Focused: Data and processes somewhat integrated, automation common, solid and expanding technical skills
Emergent: Basic data integration, some automation, growing technical capacity
Nonexistent: Limited data in silos, no automation, low technical capacity
This pattern of a low-level of maturity is similar to that we…
