Beyond typical below-the-line advertising, improving digital maturity is an opportunity for marketers to contribute more directly to revenue growth.

Where metrics and KPIs are more easily tracked than, let’s say, investment in trade publications, brochures or billboards, and agility should be more than just a buzzword. As such, many industry professionals recognise the importance of going digital and improving the fluency of their company. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them see this process as complex and tedious.

Here are a few principles marketing executives can apply to lead their company on the path of digital maturity and convert their newfound fluency to revenue growth?

1) Data is a digital currency

While “more is less” is an effective guiding principle in many areas, this does not apply as widely to data gathering and building intelligence. In the early stages of digital maturity, many marketing teams don’t know what they don’t know and the initial learning curve can be steep – although very rewarding, very quickly. Data is ultimately going to be the currency used in your decision-making process; from what works, to what doesn’t, hopefully kicking preconceived ideas to the curb and generating new and actionable insights.

2) Define clear KPIs for your business and your teams

Data is the starting point on the path towards empowering teams with the tools it needs but, far too often, analysis paralysis will cripple their ability to take action. Setting actionable goals, breaking them down into achievable steps, and agreeing on short term objectives – in the light of the long-term ones – will be far more effective than analysing data at length in the hope of ever obtaining one right answer. Set KPIs early for your business and teams, try new things, fail often, fail early and fail forward (hopefully this last sentence won’t give you buzz word cringe). As long as your process is supported by data (with a sprinkle of creative thinking), this will seldom be a waste of time.

3) Automate everything that can be

Manually performing tasks can in some cases be seen as the only way to reach perfection. I would argue that perfection is often overrated in the business world (an entirely different post for a different day), and automation will get you 80% “there” most of the time. If, as suggested above, you are practising the art of failing often and failing early, you may find that automation can further give you the flexibility, the agility, and the insight you need at a fraction of the cost – that is financial, time and overall resources cost.

4) Find yourself a digital partner

An experienced marketing agency will help you optimise your resources to maximise ROI on every point above, and beyond. Whether to help direct resources in building an intelligence warehouse where the rewards will be felt the fastest, to set revolving goals and KPIs with your teams, or to deploy the right level of automation to enable your staff to focus on the stuff that matters… re-inventing the wheel is rarely a sound approach in a world where resources are finite. An experienced digital marketing partner will help you understand where you sit, where you need to take action and when to outsource to maximise your digital impact.

Get in touch with us if you’d like to have a chat and explore how this model can be applied to your business.

 

Sinead Barrett

<strong>Event Marketing Strategist</strong> Sinead’s career has focused on B2B and emerging markets, and walking into the events industry has been a strike of luck! Her curious nature, passion for meeting new people and creating value for her clients feed her enthusiasm for the job. She'll talk your ear off about Harry Potter if you let her, can be a bit of a nerd (sudoku is her game!) and always enjoys a nice whiskey - in case you need her to stop talking about Harry Potter.