4 Common Digital Transformation Questions Answered

Analog is dying and digital is the way of the future. The use of digital technology to modify or create new business cultures, prices, or customer experiences in response to changing market needs is known as digital transformation. Essentially, it is all about reimagining businesses in the digital age to take advantage of emerging opportunities and enhance your competitive advantage.

We consulted with a digital transformation expert to answers four of the most asked questions.

1. How do you assess an organization's need for digital transformation, and how do you locate the areas to prioritize first?

Always start by taking a broad view of the organization so that you can tell where it stands and where you are headed. You should analyze the organization's SWOT to get an all-around view of the business before determining what is important to it.

Here are the issues to check in your SWOT analysis.

• Strengths: Identify what the business excels in that puts it apart from the competition, such as a large customer base, technology, strong brand or a robust balance sheet.
• Weaknesses: These are areas that the business needs to improve to enhance its competitiveness—for example, a poor brand or a high turnover rate.
• Opportunities: These are external factors that give the business a competitive advantage, such as a huge demand, low tariffs, or access to raw materials.
• Threats: These are external factors that may harm your business. For example, rising materials costs or strict legislation.

2. What three key steps do you take to create a communication strategy for digital transformation?

Understand audiences

Who are you talking to? What is their persona? What do they want when looking for products like the ones you are selling? Knowing and understanding your audience enables you to craft your communications to meet their needs and connect with them. It is the first step in influencing their decisions.

Involve your audiences in your communications (market research)

When crafting your communications, make your audience and shareholders a part of the process. Research the best modes of communication, tone, wording, and decision-making process. Get feedback from your market before the next set of communications.

Deploy different messaging in multiple markets and measure/index results

One message cannot fit into all the market segments that you are serving. You should craft messages that are specific to the needs of each segment to make an impact on their decision-making.

3. Do smaller brands experience more problems during digital transformation?

Unfortunately, smaller brands find it more difficult to transform than established brands. They have to work their way up through various hierarchies and create plans that fit into the overall plan as they climb up. Besides, such issues as shoestring budgets or lack of robust structure and expertise may also pull them back.

Such organizations may need a coach and a professional assistant to walk them through the digital transformation process. Besides, they have to combine different kinds of communications, such as shareholder and customer channels, to deliver a unified message in all cases.

4. What are the best practices to follow when undergoing a digital transformation?

Start by identifying the reason that is pushing the organization to transform digitally. It could be an opportunity or a threat that has the potential to wipe out the competitive advantage. Then, bring all stakeholders to the table to discuss and understand the matter, as well as be on the same page about the implementation of the project.

When you have all agreed on the need for transformation, plan all the steps to implement the project. Complete the process by acting on the plans. It is crucial that you stick to the plan when implementing your digital transformation so that you get results that are consistent with what you initially agreed on.

Conclusion

Digital transformation is a process that requires careful business analysis and planning. Consider hiring a MetaExpert to answer your digital transformation questions and help you through the process. What are the opportunities and threats pushing you to start a digital transformation?