Digital business strategies are key to your business
Digital business strategies ensure that businesses keep up with the industry yet some people still doubt its efficacy. When considering the benefits of implementing a digital business strategy, it’s important to look at all aspects.
Despite these definitions, some questions still remain.
- What do you achieve by implementing digital business strategies?
- How can you increase your market share using an advanced digital strategy?
This article provides detailed information on how increasing your company’s use of technology can positively impact everything from customer experience to lead generation rates.
The 8 Benefits of Implementing Digital Business Strategies:
- Real-Time Transactions Can Be Achieved With Digital Business Strategies
- Accelerated Product Development
- Creating & Discovering New Sales Channels
- Better Management Decisions Through Artificial Intelligence
- Easy Acquisition Of The Right Talent & Highly Skilled Workforce
- Increased Market Share
- Better Customer Interaction Through Web & Mobile Channels
- Higher Revenues For Your Business
1. Real-Time Transactions Can Be Achieved With Digital Business Strategies
Digital technology and digital strategy make the 24/7 concept a reality. This cutting-edge technology has made data analysis & storage easier and more accessible to businesses. Making purchases and using services can be achieved easily and conveniently online with just a few clicks.
Mobile phones transactions has become a popular trend because of the convenience. Nearly 40% of companies have confirmed that they are enabling real-time transactions according to the report of Economist Intelligence Unit in 2015. With new digital technologies such as Blockchain, transaction speed can be enhanced dramatically.
Implementing this digital strategy greatly improves customer experience as a 3-day long transaction can be accomplished instantly with the real-time data processing capability of Blockchain technology. Costs are minimized, and so are chances of fraud. The opportunity to reach more people with reduced costs and faster turnaround time is a reality.
IoT (Internet of Things), Artificial Intelligence, and automation allow business data to be analyzed immediately. They create a substantial difference in your marketing strategy and can process data far more efficiently than before. 25% of the world’s business firms actually make use of the powerful technologies in providing point-and-click analytics with conversational user interfaces.
In the near future for 20% of firms, Artificial Intelligence will be the process through which real-time directions for handlers are given out, according to Forrester Predictions 2018 Report.
Actionable Steps:
- Step 1. Evaluate repetitive tasks
List all the administrative tasks that are being repeated on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Track down the time spent by every employee in the business organization on these administrative tasks.
- Step 2. Assess opportunities to gather data
Evaluate opportunities where Artificial Intelligence can bring in data that is impossible to gather with only human intervention. Assess whether preliminary data is available and evaluate whether it is structured or unstructured. Moreover, assess what story lines can be formed with the data available.
- Step 3. Explore AI capabilities and advanced solutions
Explore Artificial Intelligence capabilities such as marketing automation through various AI tools. You can also use customer relationship management software with an integrated AI capability.
2. Accelerated Product Development
25% of business executives noted the great impact of digital transformation in accelerating product development, according to a report published by Economist Intelligence Unit in 2015. With large volumes of data being stored in the cloud, this can be a primary source of further improvements on products and services the organization is offering.
Such data is advantageous in analytics and decision-making processes. The more data the business has, the better placed it is to capitalize on it and create stepping stones towards product excellence.
Business Intelligence tools can process vast amounts of data and insights in an instant. They allow the whole business to act in response to changes in supply and demand in a shorter period of time compared to firms without the capability of gaining these insights immediately.
Product reviews through online feedback and competitor analysis, along with accurate market segmentation provide a deeper understanding of the product. Thus, they encourage revisions to suit their customers’ best interests.
In order for Artificial Intelligence as well as Business Intelligence to function efficiently, an operational digital business strategy is required. Implementing digital strategies speeds up product improvement, capturing a large market share, and eliciting a positive customer response.
Practical Tip:
Design “employee experience”
In order for your employees to get familiarised faster with AI and BI, start using tools such as “user research”, “why journey maps”, and “persona development”. Firstly, start with the employee experience research and creation of an employee persona. Gather background information, goals and motivations. Secondly, define steps to adopt to AI or BI, map them and the identify flaws.
3. Creating & Discovering New Sales Channels
The digital world is so vast that infinite possibilities are promised to both information providers and receivers with digital technology. It is definitely a very advantageous place to connect with people, places and things. It is certainly the best venue for building networks and discovering new ones. Taking advantage of the wide space and mobile connections is an opportunity not to be missed for any organization.
33% of global firms have intensively accelerated their progression in creating new sales channels, according to a report published by Economist Intelligence Unit in 2015. Thanks to digital technology, a common customer experience exists which has connected various enterprises around the world.
Devices are not limited to personal computers, but also extended to affordable mobile phones. This means that most of the global population is now a prospect for business and sales.
The benefits of social media marketing can be incorporated in the company’s digital platform. With hundreds of millions of users on Facebook alone, the social media channel for your trade has become established, improving the reach of your business.
Practical Tip:
Launch Facebook Store
Create your fully-integrated Facebook Store and start selling from within apps. Launch an ad campaign targeting your potential customers and support it with the new content. It will increase awareness and help you turn visitors into buyers. Additionally, you will be able to offer discounts and promos, encourage social sharing and optimise layout of your store.
4. Better Management Decisions Through Artificial Intelligence
There are many useful functions that Artificial Intelligence brings to the corporate world. It can analyze data as well as providing quick, instant responses to customers, and even automate administrative tasks. Artificial Intelligence may threaten parts of the human workforce, but it makes the managerial and business processes easier and faster. It can provide larger amounts of accurate information that are necessary to improve decision-making for all levels of managers.
With most supervisors spending the majority of their time in control-based tasks and ensuring administrative coordination, Artificial Intelligence can greatly support them in this aspect by automating activities. More than 90% percent of managers would allow AI to monitor and report certain transactions and information for them, according to Accenture’s Intelligent Automation Report in 2016.
As long as large storage of data within the system is accessible at all times, decision- making can be more comprehensive and critically strategized. In fact, AI could support the management with simulations, data search, discovery and recovery tasks. It could also assist in assessing possible consequences of certain actions and strategies.
A survey included in Accenture’s report shows that 78% of managers say they would trust the judgment of Artificial Intelligence. It shortens the amount of time spent by managers on control-based tasks and allows them to focus more on their judgment work. AI is also a trustworthy adviser that is available around the clock.
5. Easy Acquisition Of The Right Talent & Highly Skilled Workforce
Technology has not only provided a fast-paced workplace and efficient operating systems, but also supplied insights on potential employees through improved digital vision. For companies that have prospered within the digital world, 71% have attracted new workers and skills through digital innovation, according to MIT Sloan Management Review & Deloitte University Press in 2016.
Job-matching sites such as LinkedIn and Monster allow the change and expansion of the individual’s perspectives when looking for a job and when looking for employees.
Not only are customers drawn into the business, but so are talents that suit the company’s needs for its workforce. Employment and hiring may have become unconventional because of this technological breakthrough, but they are also faster and better.
These digital talent platforms deliver transparency and efficiency within the labor market. Surveys reveal how working from home is increasingly possible with flexible hours. Technology creates opportunities for stay-at-home mothers and students to work for even just a few hours in a week. This allows firms to fully maximize the skills of the population and positively contribute to the economy.
The problem of job disparity is less likely to happen because of online analytical screening procedures, thus assuring the acquisition of desired skillful workers for the company. Another benefit of digital business strategy to be considered is how it helps its employees to match suitable jobs easily.
Thus, it enhances their individual work productivity and increases satisfaction. According to a report by Altimeter Group in 2016, 37% of digitally innovated companies perceive increase in their employee morale as an indirect benefit to their company.
6. Increased Market Share
According to the report of Altimeter Group in 2016, the biggest benefit of digital transformation, as perceived by more than 40% of executives, is the increased market share it can deliver to the business’ products and services in the long run. Advertising companies are investing more in mobile platforms as businesses continue to innovate on their customer relationships and eventually grow their brands.
From investing in digital transformation, advertising experts have observed a sustained return on investment because of the increased efficiency in delivering customer needs and ensuring satisfaction.
The market has become fast, convenient and simple which is what customers want. For example, certain markets such as communications, automotive and finance have strong shares in category searches over the web, as well as website traffic. This is possibly due to the increased use of digital devices around the globe.
According to independent studies on advertisements by Zenith, it was revealed how a number of elements correlate with brand growth. These include financial performance, media activity, digital activity, and owned and earned content performance, all of which of course require digital transformation. With dominance, or just a boost in market share as a goal, developing digital business strategies effectively contributes to the successful attainment of the goal.
7. Better Customer Interaction Through Web & Mobile Channels
Simplicity and real-time services are what customers love about businesses undergoing digital transformation. The countless possibilities for improving customer relationships through the accessible channels of web and mobile are one of the many benefits cited by 32% of global executives after witnessing effects of digitalization, in a report published by Altimeter Group in 2016.
This technological advancement has its main goal set on improving customer experience, which was made possible through shifting focus onto customer needs, analyzing data from all customer interactions, and using the results to make meaningful changes.
It was found that data-driven businesses and organizations are 21 times more likely to acquire customers, six times more likely to retain them, and 19 times more likely to be profitable, according to McKinsey Global Institute. Digitalization also makes assisting customers easier.
Even before a customer makes a complaint about a product, they are prompted to do so independently and instantly in the system. Having a hands-on services workforce to respond to these concerns allow customers to make appointments which suit them best, thus enhancing customer satisfaction.
Artificial intelligence, automation, applications, machine learning and user interface let customers effortlessly receive what they demand. They also connect businesses and customers more easily. Undeniably, companies adapting to the digital environment are more likely to dominate the market as they offer personalization, immediacy and accessibility.
8. Higher Revenues For Your Business
With all the aforementioned benefits, chances are limitless for a business to profit more when investing in digitalization. Indeed, with efficient workers and systems, better decision-making and judgment, improved products and channels, and interactive relationships with customers, the entire business is transformed.
Ask an executive and they will likely agree that there is a direct correlation between effective digital business strategies and an increase in business revenues. This particular observation was ranked fifth in terms of benefits that executives deem evident after seeing the effect of this technological change. Customer bases can be readily found with digital means, and these bases can be converted into revenues.
There may be some industries that have fewer digital strengths compared to retail, for instance marketing and media businesses. However, it is likely that these industries will sooner or later be influenced by digital business and will witness greater and faster growth in revenues in the future.
Digital Business Strategies & What It Means For Your Business
Digital transformation requires a well-organized and active digital business strategy for firms to fully reap the benefits and take advantage of advances in the market. It is both taking advantage of an opportunity and ensuring survival as companies increasingly invest in digital technology and digital strategy.
It is essential to see what technology can do for you, for your company’s workforce and operations and critically, for your customers. To understand more and be able to develop better digital business strategies, it is necessary for you to get background knowledge. Enrolling in prestigious and competent business schools such as IMD will be of great help.
With IMD, learning digital and strategic management has been made more learner-friendly and effective. The courses foster relationships between business people from around the world, enabling students of various nationalities to interact with different business cultures through classroom discussions and personal conversations.
Discover more about the best digital strategy through attentive teaching approaches at IMD.
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