Digitalization: Why You Should Digitalize Your Business and How to Succeed

Nowadays, the world has been shaped by technology, as does business. Statista claims that 59.5 percent of the global population is active internet users. That is how digitalization is no more a buzz term. Almost every aspect of our life goes through digitalization: government, healthcare, business, etc.

Business digitalization causes changes in the way how companies work and communicate with their customers. It transforms products and services and accelerates all processes, and helps your business grow more smoothly. The first example that may come up to mind is brick-and-mortar stores that transformed into online eCommerce shops. For many store owners, this is a real breakthrough.

Also, since the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for remote work and obtaining information and goods from anywhere has increased. Covid-19 has forced businesses and organizations to accelerate their digitization. There is no need to ignore today’s realities. It is worth considering digitization for your business to keep pace with society’s progress and current demands. Moreover, there are many benefits of a business going online. 

Keep on reading if you are wondering what benefits will you get if your business goes online.

Benefits of Digitalization

You need to understand that digitalization is not a trend but a necessity dictated by modern realities. There are many reasons to go digital, but we want to highlight the top 9 benefits of online business:

• Save time and money

  Consolidating your documents and data into digital format can reduce your operational costs. With information technology, your data will be processed more accurately, and the risk of error due to human factors will be eliminated. Based on this, it will save your time and the time of your employees. And could be used to process complicated operations that technologies can’t make. Avoiding paperwork will also have a positive impact on your company in terms of eco-awareness. 

• Better customer experience

  By offering online payments, streamlining order processing via the website, or giving the opportunity of online scheduling, you can reach a better customer experience. Your customers will appreciate what you save their time and offer convenience. In addition, by automating specific business processes, you will reduce the order processing time and, as a result, increase the number of orders. According to statistics, the average cost of digital processing payments, including direct and labor costs, is 57% less than non-digital payments. 

• Innovations

  Increased innovation gives lots of possibilities when it comes to business online presence. With this, you can unlock many creative tools that will improve your business in a better way. You can develop different innovative solutions or expand your product line, whatever comes up to your mind.

• Improved productivity and efficiency

  Many digital tools can help you with streamlining your processes. For example, a tool like Mailshake will help you engage prospects via email and make automatic email distribution to your customer base. Technologies not only help speed up various procedures but also make them more accurate and verified. And as you know, in business, time is money.

• No geolocation limits

  One of the benefits of doing business online is the disappearance of geolocation limits. By digitizing your business, you can capture customers in your country or all over the world. As a result, your services get a global reach, which will positively affect the development and promotion of your company.

• Increasing profits

  After digitalization, many companies gather better efficiency and profitability. SAP Center for Business Insights and Oxford Economic confirms this with statistics: 80% of organizations that completed digital transformation reports increased profits.

• Agility

  Your company can increase agility by digitalization. Innovative technologies may allow improving speed-to-market and applying different strategies. Yet, digitalization gives you the ability to provide faster innovations and adaptation to volatile market conditions.

• Brand building

  By building an online business presence, you unlock the possibilities of digital marketing tools that can help you establish your branding. With an online presence, it will be possible to establish your brand identity and become recognizable. 

• Expanding the target audience

  Having a website or mobile app can give you even more benefits of doing business online. With this, you can reach mobile users and people all around the world. Yet you can get the ability to promote your business with different digital marketing tools that can help you announce your business to a broad audience.

Now you know what digitalization is and why it is needed. But that is not all you need to know about the topic. Are you still wondering if your business needs a website? Read on.

What is Digitalizing Business Process?

There are many types of businesses, and digitization has its nuances for each of them. Because of this, it is difficult to single out a definition of digitization that is suitable for all types of services. In general, this term means the implementation of digital technologies in every area of the business. As a result, there are striking changes in how the company operates and provides customer experience. 

Building business online requires organizations to abandon the established state of affairs and the usual course of business processes. This process means experimenting a lot and building new strategies, which may cause failures. At first, abandoning known business processes may seem like madness, but this madness is dictated by the realities where technology is essential.

Remember that your customers are already using modern technologies daily. That’s why a company that doesn’t develop in the era of analog seems to them outdated. On the other hand, many examples of large companies have successfully digitized and made significant profits. Among them are companies such as Uber, IKEA, Nike, Airbnb, etc. So, it’s time to step forward, right?

Why digitalize your business?

Before you start digitizing your business, you first need to set a goal, or at least just see for yourself new opportunities to move forward. Jay Ferro, CIO of Quikrete, said: “The “why” of your organization’s digital transformation might be around improving customer experience, reducing friction, increasing productivity, or elevating profitability, for example. Or, if it’s an aspirational statement, it might revolve around becoming the absolute best to do business with, utilizing enabling digital technologies that were unavailable years ago.”

Building your business online, your company can work faster and more efficiently so you can wipe your competitors’ eyes. The latest technologies supported with modern software provide unlimited access to business applications. Yet, it will speed up the processes and reduce any possible errors. All this will lead to the fact that your business will work more efficiently and will receive much more profit and customer loyalty.

It also optimizes your sources: you could automate daily routine tasks and increase the productivity of employees. Use the same sources but in a more effective way. Technology can do this better and faster. Instead, your employees can shift focus to tasks that technology alone cannot accomplish. It can improve the work environment and customer service. And as a result of all this, the profit of your business rises.

There are three types of digitalization:

1. Process transformation

   In this type of digitization, companies are implementing technologies such as robotic process automation to optimize back-office processes, such as accounting or documentation. New technologies offer a wide range of tools that can help improve the quality of services, reduce the time spent on specific operations, and lower cash expenditures in the back office. 

   An example would be Domino’s Pizza. They completely reimagined the food ordering process by creating an app for food ordering. In addition, this company allowed its customers to order pizza from any device. As a result, it has increased the demand for their products and won a great deal of customer loyalty. Also, this move helped them to overtake competitors.

2. Business model transformation

   So, the process transformation focuses on finite business processes. A business model transformation is more about how the business delivers its value to the customers. Companies use different tools of digitalization for breathing new life into their existing business model. An example is how Uber reinvented the taxi industry. It is an excellent example of car-sharing.  Yet, they made an app with which people can order a car from anywhere, anytime.

   With business model digital transformation, companies open new growth opportunities. Transforming of business model opens up new growth areas and boosts your business.

3. Domain transformation

   New technologies change products and services, blur geolocation limits, and give lots of opportunities. But with all of these benefits of starting a business online, you can also get new competitors. Unfortunately, because of this, many companies are don’t appreciate it. However, this type of digitalization offers the best opportunities to skyrocket your business.

   A good example is maybe Netflix. They started as a DVD rental company. Then, after a few years, they created a streaming service. Today Netflix has about 100 million customers around the world. So they are good competition for television.

   This type of digitalization requires re-defining business processes and boundaries.

This article will take a closer look at the first and second types of business digitization. After we find out what types of digitalization exist, it is time to go deeper into this topic. Finally, if you are still not sure that you need to digitalize your small business or medium-sized business, let’s look at what is online presence.

What is Online Presence 

A business online presence is all about information that people can find via online searches. It includes social media, websites, any online publications, and so on. In addition, you can have owned and earned an online presence. The first type is about everything you can control. It can be content you create for your business, your social media accounts, etc.

Earned online presence is about what people say about you. It includes video reviews, tweets, comments, and so on. It is an essential part of an overall business online presence. In the early stage of company development, it can be significantly crucial. How many times have you not purchased the item because of bad reviews? 

Not monitoring your business’s online presence can be risky. 

Why should you consider building an online presence?

Online presence for a business is essential because it is a way to interact with your potential customers. With a well-built online presence, new customers can find you because you’ll get the marketing benefits of online business. In addition, social media channels are essential for the promotion and further customers enticement.

The better your online presence is, the more likely customers will trust you and buy your products and services. Yet, there are more reasons for building an online presence:

1. Availability

   People often search businesses and products online before making a purchase. By building an online presence, you will be visible to new potential clients. Yet, your services and products will be available regardless of the situation in the world. As an argument, we can give statistics: 41.3% of businesses reported temporarily closed because of COVID-19. If you are accessible via your website or app, you won’t need to complete your trade. 

2. Marketing and branding

   Customer reviews can serve you as free advertising for your business. Yet, the online presence will unlock the marketing benefits of online business. So you will be able to make yourself known to potential clients from all over the world. For example, with target advertisement, you will be able to concentrate your efforts on precisely the audience to whom you want to offer your services. In addition, targeted advertising allows you to sort your audience by demographic, so your energy isn’t wasted.

   However, technologies and online presence themselves can give you lots of tools to build great branding. For example, with a website or app, you’ll be able to establish your visual identity so people will be familiar with you. 

3. Credibility

   Having a solid online presence is the first step on the way to making people take you seriously. Nowadays, people don’t trust the company if it is impossible to find any information about it. So if you have a new startup, think of its small business web presence. Then, your potential clients may look for you online. 

4. A better understanding of your audience

   With an online presence, you will be able to communicate with your customers. You will be able to gather feedback and answer some questions that your clients may have. Besides, you can see who is your potential customer and what they want. For example, there is a poll function in different social media channels. You can use it to find out what your customers need. 

5. Increased sales

   People may find you online, become interested in your services, and contact you to know more about your products. What will they do?  If you have a website or well-developed social media channels, people will easily find all your business information.

As you see, an online presence for a business is an essential tool for getting new clients and better understanding your existing audience. So now you understand what digitalization is and why it is vital to have an online business presence. But online presence is not only about running social media. 

Why Do Businesses Need a Website or App?

Both the website and the mobile app have their distinct advantages. Although technology is moving forward, these things are not interchangeable. So, perhaps you shouldn’t choose between the two. Instead, it’s better to think about combining the advantages of a website and an app.

Both the website and the app are components of a business online presence. These tools will help you build strong branding, reach new customers, and develop closer relationships with your customers. There are, of course, differences in them. For example, a website can be cheaper and can be used on all devices.

But, on the other hand, the app is better if your users mainly use a smartphone, or for example, you need access to particular functions of the phone. For example, if you need a camera for AR as Lowes did. They have made an app called Lowe’s Vision, with which customers can walk around the store with a smartphone and see routes by which they can easily find needed products. The app for your business can also attract new customers through app stores and provide an opportunity to build an excellent user experience.

But still, if you want to, by all means, choose only one thing, we have a solution that may help you decide. Below, we have collected the benefits of websites and applications separately.

Benefits of a website for business

The website can offer you many benefits for your business. Many of these advantages are growing from year to year, just like the Internet itself.

• Credibility

  According to statistics, 84% believe a business with a website is more credible than one that only has a social media page. Yet, your website can be an excellent place to show your expertise, certifications, or awards. 

• New leads

  If you have a website, you can attract new clients through Google. So here come the marketing benefits of online business: you can use some SEO tools to be visible on Google. With this, your website can attract new leads.

• Showcase your products

  A website is an excellent place to show high-quality photos of your products. Yet, you can provide people with the ability to see some of your work cases if you are selling services. Also, website design can help create a vibe. 

  If the design evokes emotions in people, your website will be memorable, and perhaps you will find new regular customers. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, then with the help of the design, you can convey the atmosphere that the buyer might feel when entering it.

• Social proof

  It can be perfect for a small business web presence. As a rule, such a business does not have a large circle of clients. But with the website and the reviews on it, things can change for the better. You can let your customers leave reviews on your website, which will establish social proof. Many people look at reviews before purchasing a product or service. According to statistics, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020 - up from 81% in 2019.

  Also, by seeing the reviews, you will understand what people think about your business and what can be improved or changed to get even more profit.

• Visibility

  According to Statista, there are 4.66 billion active users as of January 2021. And this number grows. With a website, you will be visible to all of these people. Yet, the site may be available on different devices so that you can reach mobile users. 

Benefits of a mobile app for business

By building a mobile app for your business, you can empower your marketing strategy and get closer to your customers.

1. Brand awareness

   With a well-crafted app design, you can reinforce your branding and make it recognizable. Add exciting features to your app to be associated with your brand, and the user visits the application as often as possible. For example, Louis Vuitton made an adventure-based game to celebrate its 200th anniversary. This is an excellent move to get more attention from a younger audience and increase brand awareness.

2. Customer engagement

   You can schedule push notifications that will draw the user’s attention to logging into your application. Thus, you can notify your customers about any news and changes. You can also set a reminder about reviews every time a person purchases your application.

3. Improved customer service

   Good mobile app development will be possible to provide your clients with excellent customer service features. For example, you can give in-app messages and calls to respond to customers’ inquiries quickly. 

4. Data collection

   Apps allow gathering more data. It can be information about location, behavioral data, what questions are most often searched for in the faq section, and how users usually stay on different pages in the app. All this will allow you to know your audience better. Then you can use the data to improve your marketing strategy.

The above points may apply to both the site and the app. For example, a website can also increase brand awareness and help collect detailed information about your customers. The choice between website or app depends on the context. If you are well known and want to be even closer to your customers, then the application is better. But in general, it is advisable to start from the site. Unless you need to use specific phone functions (gyroscope, vibration, all sorts of gestures) and you do not need to contact the user constantly.

The mobile app, like the website, is part of digitization. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, but these tools will make you more visible in today’s digitalized world. You can create only a website for your business or only an application, or you can do both. 

What to Remember Before You Digitize Your Business

So you’ve decided to start your business online. What should you focus on when you are going to create a digitalization strategy for your business?

• Go with the trends

  In our volatile digitalized world, it is vital to stay up-to-date with the latest developments. It applies to both marketing and customer needs. So try to give customers what they might need tomorrow immediately.

• Think in terms of innovation

  Stay competitive with the latest innovations and apply them to grow your online business.

• Don’t underestimate the data

  The latest technologies and analytics allow you to collect a massive amount of information about users. The main thing is to understand how to use it. The one who owns the information owns the world.

• Adapt to the new needs of customers

  If you ignore your customers, they will ignore you too. So you need to carefully study the information about their needs and move in that direction.

We’ve found out what you need to keep in mind when thinking of digitizing your business. Of course, the next step is digitalization itself.

Tips to Digitalize Your Business

The first thing you need to do when deciding to start running your business online is to set a goal. By placing your destination at the start, you determine the trajectory for the further development of your business.

Then, you need to build a strategy to follow. Business digitization means applying and integrating digital tools into your business operations. Next, you need to determine where you can swap current operations for optimized online options.

If you understand that to digitize your business, you need to reconsider the composition of your team, then when hiring, pay attention to people who have experience working with technology. In addition, employees must be well versed in innovation and how different programs and technologies work.

Let’s see how to build an online presence for your local business:

1. Digital marketing strategy

   Today, if you want your online business to grow, you need to build an excellent online presence. The digital marketing strategy will help you well with this. You can start email marketing for a start to increase customer engagement. Yet, you can run social media with the use of content marketing strategies to reach more customers. 

2. Focus on customers needs

   Make sure your digital tools are as user-friendly and validated as possible, so customers want to continue using them as often as possible. Focus on the user experience. Think about what exactly they would like to see and what they would like and could use.

3. Improve SEO

   Search engine optimization (SEO) is a great tool to make your website more visible and drive traffic there. With good SEO, you can contribute more sales and interactions with your brand. There are several possible techniques to improve the SEO of your website. Among these methods, you can choose one or several suitable for yourself. An SEO specialist can help you with this or buy such a service from a marketing agency.

4. Analyze your results

   Once you start applying your strategy to digitize your startup or product, track its results. If you are using SEO, you can track your search engine results using Google. Note that some marketing strategies work for the long term, so it can be challenging to gauge the results right away. Some things are hard to measure, like brand awareness. But complicated doesn’t mean impossible. Tracking the results is very important, so you will understand whether you are moving in the right direction or is it still worth changing your strategy to a more effective one.

5. Implement CRM

   This tool can help you to organize and manage customers’ information and streamline marketing operations. Implemented CRM will provide a better customer experience, collect a better database, and develop different marketing strategies. 

You can read more about CRM for your business in our previous article.

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6. Make an app for your business

   Whether you have a  brick-and-mortar store or are into a tech-centered startup, a mobile app for your online business is a helpful tool to promote brand loyalty and improve customer experience. It works even better if you have both website and an app. With the app, your customers will make orders or schedule services from anywhere because people always have a smartphone at hand. Yet, with installing your app, customers will often see your logo on the screen of their smartphone, which may increase brand awareness. 

7. Run social media

   Earlier, we also talked about this, but it is worth repeating. Social networks play a significant role in the modern world. Through them, you can share the news with your customers and broadcast the central values ​​of your brand. You can also attract new customers to your business through social media or even use them to attract new interested employees. Thus, running social media will help you to build your small business web presence.

8. Be competitive

   Pay attention to your competitors and how they have digitized their startups and built an online business presence. Analyze their strategy and find out what works well and what can be done differently. By learning from the mistakes of others, you can achieve better results. In addition, watching competitors can give you ideas for new content for your website or app. It can also provide a picture of improving your services and whether it is worth adding something.

9. Create a website

   Besides social media and apps, people usually search for websites to learn more about your product or service. You can’t indeed start your business online without this tool. On your website, you can show your brand’s philosophy through colors, fonts, and images. There you can address your customers’ pain points through texts and calls to action (CTAs) and offer a solution to their problems.

According to statistics, 93% of consumers used the internet to find a local business last year, with 34% searching every day. Business digitalization may look complex, but it is worth doing. We have already discussed the different aspects of this all, as well as the benefits. Now is the time to find out what specific challenges may await you along the way.

Challenges

The path to success in digitalizing business involves abandoning the business style and stereotype of thinking that has developed over the years. To successfully start your online business, you need to thoroughly understand and prepare for the challenges of digital transformation ahead. The modification affects not only companies but also their employees. Therefore, the digital transformation of any business must be carried out with the utmost care and attention.

Let’s see what challenges you may face while digitalizing your business:

• Poor strategy

  Business digitization is a complex process. Without a well-planned strategy, it’s easy to go wrong. Ask yourself: “What are my business goals and priorities?”

  Also, this process requires leadership skills and an excellent ability to organize operations. Finally, it is vital to give your employees a clear definition of digital transformation. Failure to understand why the changes are needed will affect their effectiveness.

• Lack of organizational management

  This point echoes the previous one. Ineffective work processes and outdated organizational structures may affect your business digitalization in the wrong way. Remember 2020, when many companies tried to move quickly to remote work. Not all organizations have coped with this. 

  Review your work processes and communication with staff in general. If necessary, it may be required to conduct training to educate employees in new operating procedures.

• Budget concerns

  Another problem that arises when you don’t have a clear strategy is setting or maintaining a budget. Limiting your budget for building successful digital transformation processes can also alter your plans and reduce your success rate. Digitalization requires a significant amount of capital, which can lead to lower profits initially, but ultimately it will be worth it. Lack of budget clarity affects decision-making and backs off when it comes to financing digital transformation.

• Ineffective data management

  Digital transformation does not make sense if the existing data is not used correctly. Because digitized businesses have a lot of unstructured data, they cannot purposefully use it for a specific purpose. 

  It is essential not only to collect data correctly but also to structure and analyze it. In this way, you will understand the interests of your audience and its problems. With this information, you will propose new solutions for your audience or even predict which particular product or service will be successful among your customers.

• Customers value the human touch

  Of course, you can provide your customers with a chatbot to solve issues. It can be efficient and time-saving, but people still value the human touch more. A recent study claims that 75 percent of customers would instead solve support issues by speaking with a live agent than using another method.

  Yet, don’t forget about personalization. You can make it with CTAs, emails, personalized suggestions, and recommendations on your website or app.

• Security
  According to SoftServe statistics, 55% of companies said security was the number-one challenge they face when implementing digital enablement technologies. Therefore, introduce security controls across internal cloud environments. Furthermore, in terms of developing a site or app, security should also be put first in terms of importance.

The challenges described above are difficult to overcome, but that doesn’t mean impossible. The main thing is to build a good strategy and know your goal. Significant investments in business digitization must be made with deliberation. Thus, they will benefit not only the business and your employees but also your customers. 

Conclusion

The conclusion may be that if you are not online, you almost do not exist in the modern world. But this is not a reason to give up. Digitalization provides a ton of growth opportunities that will change your business for the better. It is a complex process that requires strategy and investment. It is also worth recalling that this is not just introducing technology into everyday work processes. It is also about changing the way of managing people. It will be challenging to carry out high-quality digitalization if you do not have a reliable team to help you.

Technology will continue to improve, market demands will grow, and companies will adapt to the environment and its characteristics. However, the pandemic has allowed companies to demonstrate that they can change. 

Our team has excellent experience in working with different startups and businesses. We can help you create a great website or app. Sometimes you just need to trust the professionals in their field.