Many businesses miss the point when it comes to making their businesses digital first. Is your business one of them?
First let’s get the fog out of the way: digital first goes way beyond putting out content in electronic format and sharing a few social posts. It goes way beyond bridging the gap between physical transactions and digital payments with tactics like pay-online-pickup-in-store.
The thing is your consumers are looking for much more than a platform based, transaction-fueled experience when they take out their phones or laptops to do business with you.
With your customers coming at your business from all sorts of directions, you can rest assured they are looking for a digital experience that takes into account the entire customer journey and all touch points at which they interact with your business.
And until you adopt this mindset when trying to adopt a digital first approach for your business, you risk leaving a lot of money on the table.
And if you didn’t believe this before, you better start thinking again now as we settle into the new normal that is the post-pandemic world we live in.
Welcome to the New Normal: 77% of Consumers Will Stick with Digital Channels Moving Forward
When the pandemic hit and everyone went indoors, every aspect of our lives changed, including the way we do business.
According to a McKinsey report, 77% of consumers will keep using digital channels to do business going forward.
What does that mean for your business?
It means that your business digital strategy will have to encompass the entirety of the buyer’s journey in order to deliver value in new and unexpected ways.
Having a digital first business in 2021 would mean going beyond thinking of static digital storefronts and a few social channels to really think about how to create a memorable customer experience online.
And the time to start is now rather than later. Falling behind would mean missing out on the abundance of profit to be made by catering to an increasing demand for online transactions.
Reasons Why You Need a Digital First Business Strategy
Consumers Are Actively Seeking Out Brands They Support
Unlike in the past when businesses had to put out newspaper ads or set up billboards to gain a customer’s attention, today customers are using their phones to actively seek out brands and businesses that they support in order to interact with them and do business.
This means that your customer holds a tremendous amount of power over the business interaction, and unless you wise up to this fact and start positioning yourself by putting your best digital foot forward, you will be missing out.
An easy way to start would be to ensure that your digital presence fulfills 3 basic things needs:
- Satisfaction — Does your digital presence (and offers) thrill your customers?
- Loyalty — Does your digital presence make your customers feel like you care and that they matter?
- Advocacy — Does your digital presence make your customers feel like part of something bigger? Does it make them feel like part of the business? Does it emphasize the idea that your business is an important part of their happiness?
Digital Brands Offer a Better Customer Experience
In today’s social media age, customers consider rapid response to their request as a crucial aspect of their customer experience.
The businesses with the best digital strategies are able to respond within minutes to any queries from their customers. Others that don’t cut it because of a lackluster digital strategy end with bad reviews and lost customers.
Better More Targeted Campaigns
With the data and segmentation that is possible with digital strategies and platforms, establishing a digital first strategy for your business opens up possibilities that are simply not available with traditional marketing tactics.
Think about it: before, a marketing campaign entailed sending pretty much the same stuff to a highly differentiated set of people. But today, you can segment your audience and send out different pieces of content about your business to different groups.
Conclusion
Setting up your business to be digital first is probably the most important business decision you are going to make this year. And because of that, you’ve got to do it right. At Eternity we specialize in giving businesses the online presence they deserve in order to help them get the results they deserve. If you would like to find out more about setting up a digital first strategy the right way, reach out today and tell us about your business. We would love to hear from you.
