A digital growth strategy is a company’s approach to using technology to grow the brand. Digital growth strategy focuses on using technology to improve business performance, whether that means creating new products or reimagining current processes.
It specifies the direction an organization will take to create new competitive advantages with technology, as well as the tactics it will use to achieve these changes. This usually includes changes to business models, as new technology makes it possible for innovative companies to provide services that weren’t previously possible.
Benefits of digital strategy
1. Diversifies your business offerings
New technology helps companies create new business offerings that can drive entire new streams of revenue. This is why it’s important for businesses to select a digitally-aware internal leader who will create a digital strategy team to investigate both current business pain points and threats, as well as new emerging technologies.
2. Meets evolving customer expectations
Customer expectations move as quickly as new technology emerges. COVID-19 radical impacted the needs of customers in the past three years. Having a digital strategy will help you identify these new customer expectations early in their development, and build a plan to tackle them head-on with next-gen experiences.
3. Protects your business from threats
Similar to the diversification of business offerings and meeting evolving customer expectations is the idea of implementing a digital strategy to protect your organization from culture shifts and digital threats – and maybe the most important of all benefits on this list.
Here, companies research and build a digital strategy to evolve with technology – think Blockbuster failing to innovate to video streaming the way Netflix has. Investing in new digital strategies empowers companies to identify these threats coming from afar – and prepare for them accordingly.
Elements of digital strategy
1. Market Research
Market research, also known as “marketing research,” is the process of determining the viability of a new service or product through research conducted directly with potential customers. Market research allows a company to discover the target market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their interest in the product or service.
Certainly you can make sound judgment calls based on your experience in the industry and your existing customers. However, keep in mind that market research offers benefits beyond those strategies. There are two things to consider:
- Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. It’s very possible that your immediate resources are, in many ways, equal to those of your competition’s immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge.
- Your customers don’t represent the attitudes of an entire market. They represent the attitudes of the part of the market that is already drawn to your brand.
The market research services market is growing rapidly, which signifies a strong interest in market research as we enter 2024. The market is expected to grow from roughly $75 billion in 2021 to $90.79 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 5%.
Types of market research
While there are a number of market research tools you can use, there are really only two types of market research data:
Primary: Primary data is first-hand information you gather yourself, or with the help of a market research firm. You control it.
Secondary: Secondary data is pre-existing public information, such as the data shared in magazines and newspapers, government or industry reports. You can analyze the data in new ways, but the information is available to a large number of people.
Steps for conducting Market Research
1. Define the Problem
Having a well-defined subject of research will help researchers when they ask questions. These questions should be directed to solve problems and must be adapted to the project. Make sure the questions are written clearly and that the respondents understand them. Researchers can conduct a test with a small group to know if the questions are going to know whether the asked questions are understandable and if they will be enough to gain insightful results.
2. Define the Sample
To carry out market research, researchers need a representative sample that can be collected using one of the many sampling techniques. A representative sample is a small number of people that reflect, as accurately as possible, a larger group.
An organization cannot waste their resources in collecting information from the wrong population. It is important that the population represents characteristics that matter to the researchers and that they need to investigate, are in the chosen sample.
Take into account that marketers will always be prone to fall into a bias in the sample because there will always be people who do not answer the survey because they are busy, or answer it incompletely, so researchers may not obtain the required data.
Regarding the size of the sample, the larger it is, the more likely it is to be representative of the population. A larger representative sample gives the researcher greater certainty that the people included are the ones they need, and they can possibly reduce bias. Therefore, if they want to avoid inaccuracy in our surveys, they should have representative and balanced samples.
Practically all the surveys that are considered in a serious way, are based on a scientific sampling, based on statistical and probability theories.
3. Carry out data collection
First, a data collection instrument should be developed. The fact that they do not answer a survey, or answer it incompletely will cause errors in research. The correct collection of data will prevent this.
4. Analyze the results
Each of the points of the market research process is linked to one another. If all the above is executed well, but there is no accurate analysis of the results, then the decisions made consequently will not be appropriate. In-depth analysis conducted without leaving loose ends will be effective in gaining solutions. Data analysis will be captured in a report, which should also be written clearly so that effective decisions can be made on that basis.
Analyzing and interpreting the results is to look for a wider meaning to the obtained data. All the previous phases have been developed to arrive at this moment.
5. Make the Research Report
When presenting the results, researchers should focus on: what do they want to achieve using this research report and while answering this question they should not assume that the structure of the survey is the best way to do the analysis. One of the big mistakes that many researchers make is that they present the reports in the same order of their questions and do not see the potential of storytelling.
2. Brand Strategy
A brand strategy is a framework that determines how businesses present themselves to customers and stand out among competitors. Your business’s brand is more than just its name, logo, fonts, and colors. Think of your brand as the sum of your business’s look and feel, personality, philosophy, values, and customer experiences.
Elements of brand strategy
1. Brand story
Your brand story is the narrative you use to communicate essential moments in your business’s origin story, core beliefs and values, and the purpose of your business.
Brand stories further spark connection between your business and customer base. By sharing why you exist, what you stand for, and what inspired you to get started and keep going, you create an open environment where people can get to know your business on a deeper level.
2. Brand voice
The words and phrases a brand uses to communicate with current or new customers across different marketing channels and on its website is called brand voice.
A brand’s voice informs the type of brand messaging a business uses. It often plays the biggest role in forming connections with a customer base by fusing a brand’s personality with its core values.
A strong brand voice might remind you of your sarcastic best friend, kind teacher, or reassuring doctor. It sets the tone for the relationship that a customer will build with a brand over time and shows them what they can expect from it. A brand that doesn’t carve out a personality-filled voice risks losing that connection or sending a different message than it truly wants to.
3. Brand design
How your business shows up visually—from color palette to fonts to photography style—on your products, website, and marketing platforms is called brand design, and it’s often the first and quickest way a potential customer within your target market can understand what you’re all about.
A lack of design can leave your brand without a visual identity, which prospective customers will pick up on. Designing the visual components of your brand—from product labels to packaging inserts to your homepage—gives it a stronger position in the market, can improve customer experience, creates a strong visual identity, and can help differentiate you from your competitors.
What goes into a successful brand strategy?
The main goal of a successful branding strategy is to let the world know that your brand exists, what purpose it has, and what defines it. A branding strategy is a fluid, long-term strategy that often requires being revisited over time based on its success (or lack thereof).
The success of a brand development strategy is not always easy to measure. Branding strategies often involve intangible, not-easily-quantified elements and–when planning this kind of strategy–it is important to decide from the onset how success will be measured.
Every organization will approach how to measure success differently, but all will generally include the same elements in their strategies. Answering the following questions can be the first step in drafting a successful brand strategy:
- What are your brand’s objectives and how do you communicate them? – What problems will your brand solve and how will it benefit its intended customers?
- How do you identify your ideal customers? – who will benefit from the brand? How do these customers feel and how would they like to feel?
- How do you identify your competitors? – who is already giving your potential customers what they want and how?
- How do you engage potential customers?– What personality and tone of voice will your brand have to achieve its goals?
Also Read: BRAND BIBLE: COMPLETE GUIDE FOR BUSINESS START-UPS IN 2024
3. Staff Training
Training of employees takes place after orientation takes place. Training is the process of enhancing the skills, capabilities and knowledge of employees for doing a particular job. Training process moulds the thinking of employees and leads to quality performance of employees. It is continuous and never ending in nature.
Types of staff training
1. Technical Training
You might have employees who are perfect in whatever job roles they have, be it accounting, content writing, SEO, or more. But you must have heard that no knowledge goes unused, and there is always room for improvement and learning. Tech is constantly upgrading and changing, and as a company, you must invest in your employees to acquire relevant skills and boost their knowledge.
2. Customer Service Training
Employees who work in customer service are coached to enhance customer support and happiness. A solid customer service training program includes improving interpersonal communication, product knowledge, dispute resolution, crisis management, and other skills.
3. Leadership Development
Leadership development training is vital to any organization’s growth and success. It can help develop the skills and competencies of individuals, teams, and the organization. In addition, leadership development training can be tailored to address specific needs, such as developing a team-oriented culture, growing communication skills, fostering creativity and innovation, or helping to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
4. Safety Training
Safety training is not only necessary in an organization but also for a person’s personal use. Make sure employees understand the safety procedures and protocols relevant to their job. Teach employees how to use safety equipment properly. Employees should know who is responsible for safety at the workplace and who to turn to during safety emergencies and provide regular safety reminders.
The training encompasses customer safety, employee safety, digital and information safety, and workplace safety. Safety training includes the training complied with by the law and what the organizations offer.
5. Sales Training
Employee sales training should be ongoing to ensure that your sales team is up to date with the most effective methods and strategies for sales. Training should cover customer service, sales techniques, managing customer relationships, upselling and cross-selling, and sales goals. Employees need to understand that sales are a process that requires ongoing training and practice to succeed.
6. Culture Training
Employee culture training is designed to help employees better understand the organization’s culture and values. It often includes corporate ethics, equality and diversity, communication and teamwork, customer service, and problem-solving. It can also have specific policies and procedures related to the organization’s culture. In addition, employee culture training is often used to promote a positive workplace atmosphere and ensure that employees are productive and engaged.
Benefits of staff training
- Improve productivity: The productivity and quality of the product can be improved in an organization by employing trained staff instead of untrained staff. The performance of the staff in any field can be I proved with proper training. The output of a business can experience qualitative as well as quantitative boost just by improving the skills of its staff through training program.
- Regularity in processes: A staff training program can enable the employees to use standardized methods of working available to them at their workplace. It will also increase the level of their performance more than their expectations.
- Lesser control: Well trained staff needs lesser supervision as they become more responsible for their duties. Though the need of supervision cannot be eliminated after training but the need of constant supervision can be reduced to a considerable level.
- Systematic use of skills: After attending a formal training program staff members can easily reach the required level of performance without wasting time on observing other or learning things through trial and error methods.
- Keeping record of skills: It can be difficult for a company to find out entirely new skills for any project. By providing training to its staff the company can have the record of their skills so that it can use them accordingly, whenever required. Moreover, it is beneficial for the company to select some of the employees from its existing staff and train them rather than employing new skilled employees.
- Higher moral level: After getting formal training the level of moral of the employees also increase as now they can support the activities of the organization more efficiently and can be more loyal and cooperative to the organization. A formal training can also reduce the level of complaints, dissatisfaction and absence of the employees.
Also Read: Top 10 AI Recruiting Software for Streamlined Hiring in 2024
Conclusion
Digital strategy has been explained deep and well research for you to understand. This article explains everything you ought to know about digital strategy. If you have more questions, let us know in the comments section below. We’ll be happy to answer them all!
Also Read: Digital marketing: Ultimate Guide In 2024
