In early 2020, the world was blindsided by the deadliest pandemic in a century. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the human race in more ways than we can count. However, if there’s a single silver lining in the volatile storm cloud, it’s that thanks to digital business technologies, society found a way to function, despite global lockdowns. 

Pre-COVID, 87 percent of business leaders agreed that digitization was a priority. However, only 15 percent of companies said they were digitally savvy. Moreover, 67 percent said that if they didn’t change their focus to digital by 2020, they would fail to remain competitive. They were right, but perhaps not for the reasons they thought. 

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that future-proofing should have happened in the past. Within six months of the start of the pandemic, digitally mature companies’ valuations soared by 23 percent. The least digitally mature companies saw their valuations rise by just 7 percent. 

As consumers are conducting more online business, so are companies. The crisis accelerated digital transformation adoption by three years. Today, organizations are three times more likely to say that at least 80 percent of their interactions with customers are digital. 

While adopting a digital transformation falls under the purview of IT departments, the main goals of digitizing an organization are to improve the customer experience and increase sales or growth. That’s why it’s becoming increasingly crucial for CMOs and CIOs to collaborate during a digital transformation.

What do digital transformation and digital maturity mean?

According to MIT Sloan Management Review, digital transformation is about adapting to digital market trends. Digital maturity, on the other hand, is a gradual process that provides the tools to help businesses navigate the future. Or, to put it more simply, or perhaps too simply, digital transformation is reactive while digital maturity is proactive.

That’s not to say that digital transformation is short-sighted. CRMs, for example, streamline the sales funnel and enhance the process for both buyers and sellers. And because most CRMs are usually cloud-based and require little to no enterprise-level hardware, agility and resilience are built-in. Still, using a CRM doesn’t make a company digitally mature.

For example, a company’s marketing department might use Hubspot as its CRM while the sales department uses Salesforce. One could argue that they are both necessary parts of a digital transformation, but they may impede essential collaboration without an integration plan. 

The Harvard Business Review breaks digital transformation down into four areas, which all boil down into one, a top-down non-siloed culture where CMOs collaborate with CIOs to drive the corporate-wide goals of increased revenues, improved sales figures, and a better customer experience. 

• Technology – The latest and greatest marketing technologies are only worth the money you spend on them if your organization’s culture has the technological drive and expertise to integrate it with existing systems. In other words, a CMO might covet all the bells and whistles of the newest CRM or customer interface, but without the infrastructure to support it, it’s useless

• Data – CMOs might not carry the official title of data scientists, but one might argue that they were the original corporate data analysts. A CMO wants to learn everything they can about their customers, competitors, and trends, and for that, they need data 

In 2020, the world generated 64 zettabytes of data. As much as half of that is “dark data” or data that will never be used. There may be a point in the future where machine learning and artificial intelligence will separate useful from wasteful data. Still, for now, data collection and interpretation need to be guided by human expertise.

• Processes – Siloed organizations have some of the biggest challenges when managing processes. Aligning siloes is critical in achieving digital transformation

• The ability to enact organizational change – Everyone needs to be on board for a digital transformation. All decisions should come from the top down, and those spearheading the transformation should be able to bridge the gap between technical expertise and user expectations

Digital maturity is holistic. Deloitte describes five dimensions that indicate digital maturity:

• Customer experience – is your company communicating with customers on their preferred channels? Are customers happy with their user experiences?
• Strategy – Using technology to increase the competitive advantage and create a business strategy
• Technology – Managing data in a way that benefits both the customer and the company
• Operations – Enhancing business effectiveness, delivery, and efficiency through digital technologies
• Organization and culture – Developing a top-down organizational culture with the talent and support needed to achieve digital maturity. This should include ongoing reskilling and coaching

In most cases, digital maturity is organization-wide. In some cases, however, the term can be applied to individual silos within an organization. For example, a marketing department that meets Deloitte’s criteria might qualify as digitally mature. 

A recent survey by Valoir found that most companies are well on their way to digital maturity. On a scale of one to 10, the average company gave itself a seven. 

Why marketing should be the key driver of a digital transformation

All too often, organizations turn to their CIO to manage their digital transformation. While that does seem logical, it represents old thinking. Sure, CIOs have the technical know-how to explain what will and won’t work with the existing architecture. And, of course, they are ultimately the people responsible for the logistical side of the transformation. 

However, asking a CIO to make all the digital transformation decisions is like asking a mechanic to make all of the car purchasing decisions for you. Odds are, the mechanic will find you a good car, but will the car suit your needs? Does it have the seating and cargo capacity you need? Will it drive far enough on a single tank of gas or electrical charge? Do you like the looks, the color, and the car’s features?

Ideally, your mechanic should be involved in the buying process, but since you’re the primary user, it’s up to you to specify the parameters you need. It’s the same with a digital transformation. A company’s marketing department should collaborate and even lead every step along the way. 

More specifically, though, the Valoir survey found that companies who scored themselves eight or higher on the digital transformation scale showed twice the revenue growth of those who scored three or below.

As the survey showed, you can’t fuel growth without mastering digital transformation. But where does a marketing department start?

Digital tools for marketing that fuel growth

The Valoir survey further went on to say that for marketing and sales, digital adoption included:

• Data-driven customer segmentation.
• Guided selling.
• Real-time customer understanding.
• Predictive analytics (AI).
• Performance measurement.
• An integrated multichannel approach.

As you likely know, there are three stages in marketing: Traditional marketing, lead generation, and demand generation. Let’s also add a fourth, revenue marketing. Revenue marketing is predictable, scalable, and repeatable. Revenue marketing bridges the gap between sales and marketing by using revenue as a marketing and sales metric instead of leads. 

The fourth stage may mean a complete culture change. Instead of leads, the focus is on obtaining quality leads with high conversion rates. A revenue focus may not de-silo an organization, but it will put the two departments that are most directly tied to growth on the same team. 

The most crucial digital marketing (MarTech) tools

Customer Data Platforms (CDP)

Gaining insight into customer behavior has always been a critical component in a marketing strategy. However, before digital tools like Customer Data Platforms, there were a limited number of datasets and analyzing them was time-consuming. 

CDPs let you create personalized and engaging customer marketing campaigns with a single tool. A CDP provides a single view of a customer across multiple channels and devices – The data is available company-wide, from marketing to sales to operations to finance to IT.

It may sound like we’ve just described a CRM, but a CDP is not a CRM. A CRM is a customer database that (should) contains records of all interactions between a customer and your company. CRMs are customer-facing, while CDPs are non-customer-facing. 

CRM records require manual entry, while CDP data is all gathered automatically. A CDP lets CMOs gain an insight into individual and overall customer behavior, thereby providing the tools for high-level marketing and business decisions. 

Anatomy of a sample CRM record

• Record started by customer or salesperson
• Questions asked and answers given
• Purchase made
• Shipping and tracking information
• Satisfaction rating

Anatomy of a sample CDP record

• Initial contact campaign (how they found you)
• Clicked on website or landing page
• Product viewed
• Product added to cart
• Order completed

Sales intelligence tools

Sales intelligence tools are data-driven software designed to aid in intelligent lead collection. Sales intelligence tools let companies identify and prioritize quality leads, the 10 percent that is responsible for 70 percent of a company’s revenue.

A sales intelligence tool assigns a current value to potential customers, and as the customer makes purchases, it assigns them a lifetime value. 

Account-based marketing (ABM)

Traditional marketing strategies have a buckshot approach. If they fire off enough emails, pay-per-click ads, and one-to-ones, the hope is that they’ll land a client. On the other hand, account-based marketing involves using data to determine an ideal customer profile and then directly marketing to key decision-makers in B2B accounts.

According to HubSpot statistics, 70 percent of your competition uses ABMs. Fifty-seven percent of organizations that use ABMs target under 1,000 accounts. Eighty-seven percent of marketers feel that their ABM is the most valuable marketing activity. In addition, those companies that use ABMs report a six percent increase in revenue.

Produce the content your customers want

Use SEO tools and Google Analytics to write blog posts and email blasts. See what your customers have been searching for and focus on high-ranking keywords in all your marketing correspondence. Remember that with blog posts, the idea is to produce exciting and relevant content that will represent your company as a thought leader in the industry. 

Cookies

If you aren’t yet familiar with cookies when a potential customer visits your website, their computer stores activity in a tiny file. Then, as long as they agree to share cookies, you can track all the sites they’ve visited between the time the lead last cleared their cookies and when they visit your site.

There is a backlash toward cookies, and there may be a time when governments begin banning their use. Still, until then, they offer valuable insights into customer behavior and personalizing a marketing campaign. 

If you’re ready to stop the buckshot approach to marketing and fuel your company’s growth through digital transformation, contact us!