Does going digital feel like jumping off a building with an umbrella as a parachute?
Many of the corporate and family-owned businesses we speak to see technology is a complex and intractable beast. Not surprising, considering how much technical jargon is constantly being thrown around on the web.
Digital strategy is in fact pretty easy to understand. If we were to break it down, it is just like any other century-old business strategy. In essence, it is about growing your revenue, customers and brand. Except, it involves using modern technology.
In this article, we talk about 4 easy steps you can take to boost your business' digital presence:
1. Mobile & Tablet Ready
It's not rocket science. More and more people are surfing the net on their mobile phones. Just look around you when you're walking the streets. You see people staring at screens as they walk.
Before paying for Google adwords, SEO optimisation and other fancy buzzwords that people are pitching, make your websites pretty on mobile phones or tablets. In technical speak, make your website mobile responsive. You'll see an immediate boost in quality traffic.
2. Use Google Analytics
Don't simply 'rebrand' or 'revamp'. Install Google analytics onto your websites. It is free and it allows you to use statistics to back any marketing or digital decision you make.
Analytics tells you where your visitors come from. Whether they are surfing on their mobile phone or website. Whether they are coming in through your Facebook page or that feature you got on South China Morning Post.
This tells you which social media channels you should be putting your energy in. Using Google Analytics will help you become an effective marketer. You'll know where to invest your hard earned money to get the most bang-for-your-marketing buck.
It also tells you how visitors are using your page. Which pages are they most attracted to and the order in which your pages are being browsed. This gives you hints as to how you should be improving your website.
3. Generate Content Internally
Before spending large amounts on external marketing, leverage your own employees. Create an internal culture that generates content.
The best way to increase the popularity of your website is to generate useful content on the web. What better way to do that than getting your staff and customers involved in talking about how awesome your product is. Have them blog, instagram and take photographs. They are your best brand advocates. What's more, being a company that is out-of-the-box and truly present in today's digital age will make people want to work at your firm.
4. Work Iteratively in Small Teams
Many successful tech companies in Silicon Valley have found a winning formula of forming small team to tackle big problems. It is the way the iPhone, Google, Facebook and tons of other successful products were made.
Just because you're a large business doesn't mean you can't work in small teams. Bring together your brightest minds and get them cracking at the toughest business problems you have. Your executives will love you for it because you're putting them in a situation where they can hone the full extent of their creativity and execution prowess. Plus, you're making them feel special. It'll be a lot more effective than having departments of 'experts' going at it.