Digitization and Why It’s So Incredibly Important

The ascent

The rapid ascent of digital marketing has made things decidedly more complex in a relatively short timeframe. The world is going mobile. Smartphones, tablets, apps, Bluetooth – it’s positively staggering how quickly technology is evolving. Some of you are probably even reading this from your smartphone or tablet! The mobile revolution is certainly happening for consumers so businesses need to keep pace or risk getting left behind by their competitors.

The curve

In a recent McKinsey quarterly article entitled “Strategic principles for competing in the digital age” Martin Hirt and Paul Willmot have stated that digitization is rewriting the rules of competition, with incumbent companies most at risk of being left behind.

The following graphic created by McKinsey quarterly shows very clearly how the position of an industry on this curve depends on the degree to which companies and customers within it have embraced digitization. In industries where digital disruption began early, those that lagged behind have already disappeared. For industries where digitization is less pervasive, there is still time for incumbent companies to adapt and survive.

Source: McKinsey Quarterly | May 2014

Don’t lag behind a minute longer

ONE OF THE BIGGEST ways to ensure your company really gets going digitally speaking is to implement a website using a responsive design. A website built to be responsive will appear and function differently depending on the digital device a visitor is using to access the Internet. For example, visitors using a smartphone to access your domain will have an experience that’s specifically designed for the device they’re using, which means no pinching, zooming or misclicking on the smaller screen! And the call to action will be much different as well.

Step off the status quo

These days, everybody and their uncle has a website. But just because everybody has one, doesn’t mean they have a good one. Like the poor content pandemic, bad websites have taken the Internet by storm.

Poorly constructed and managed websites are a problem because they can derail your whole digital marketing strategy. All of your digital marketing efforts are geared toward getting customers to do something and the majority of the time, that something takes place on your website. Your website needs to be a well-oiled machine that can handle and support the full weight of your overall marketing strategy by effectively becoming the central hub of your digital presence.

Whatever you do, don’t try to do this yourself. Although creating a website is easier than it was 10 years ago, don’t be confused; it’s still a very technical process, even if you’re using a platform like WordPress. If somebody mistakenly manages to convince you that the DIY route is the way to go, be warned that it’s going to be messy. The overall importance of having a really good site, well optimized, socially shared, easily found, with great content is never, ever, a good idea unless you have all the necessary skills to do it. I’ve been doing this exclusively for 14 years and I assure you that I’m still learning every single day.

You should entrust your digital marketing to professionals who will know exactly what to do to ensure that you will have a fully integrated, portable and scaleable solution to take you all the way down the path to digitization.