Digital technology is not only an option for those in the tech sector. The opportunities and benefits presented by digital technology for business crosses all age groups and spans all industries. Digital transformation is accessible and viable for all businesses as it simply means improving processes, engaging talented employees across the company and driving new, profitable business models.
According to a study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, 91% of employees want transformation as they believe digital technologies have the potential to “fundamentally transform the way people in their organisation work” but:
Only 43% are satisfied with their organisation’s current reaction to digital trends
The study highlights that businesses have varying challenges in adopting digital technology which include lack of strategy, too many priorities, security concerns and insufficient tech skills or understanding from management.
Adopting digital technology into your business will rely on a clear and focussed strategy, strong leadership and a shift in company culture and mind-sets in order to see real change. Here are 5 easy ways you can begin integrating digital technology into your business practices to encourage transformation and help accelerate growth.
Embrace digital technology in your business with these 5 easy steps:
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation technologies can help a business streamline, automate and measure its marketing activities and workflows. Marketing automation software provides a centralised database for all marketing data, a space for creating, managing and automating marketing processes and, finally, a way to test measure and optimise marketing and its impact on revenue. By defining a clear process supported by digital technology, your business could manage and improve lead generation and nurturing, segmentation, customer retention, up- and cross-selling, and return on investment.
Project Management
Improving how projects are managed within the business can help reduce wasted time, effort and costs. A project management tool provides an easy way for teams to work collaboratively, share and store files and folders and keep a clear overview of the overall progression of a project or task. By having a centralised space for organising and working on a project, you can increase team productivity and efficiency, ensure deadlines are met and reduce time spent looking for lost documents or wasted on progress meetings.
Customer Relationship Management
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an approach to managing an organisation’s potential and existing customers. The CRM system makes the most of business data to enable the company to improve customer relationships with a focus on retention. Adopting CRM software could therefore improve how you attract and retain customers, manage sales leads and coordinate communication activities in order to drive business growth. Discover more about how SMEs can use CRM systems.
The Cloud
Rather than relying on traditional local servers or personal computers to organise data, the cloud allows users to store and access data and files securely online. Using the cloud offers numerous benefits to businesses including greater flexibility, unlimited capacity, reduced costs and regular back-ups. By making the move to the cloud, you could reduce IT operating and support costs, increase employee productivity by enabling staff to access files remotely and in real-time, and minimise your carbon footprint by saving on energy costs. Learn more about using the cloud to cut business costs.
Schedule your marketing activity
Online scheduling platforms could help you effectively co-ordinate and manage your social media, blogging and content marketing activity. Social media scheduling platforms, for example, can help you to enhance your brand online by ensuring that you are always active and sharing high quality content. You could start by scheduling in a number of engaging blogs to be posted on your website and related social media to promote your content, service and offers. Using a social media scheduling platform can, therefore, help you promote your brand, offer regular, valuable content to your customers and allow you to get on with other important business whilst your marketing activities take care of themselves.