Time to get serious about your online business

The digital world grows more important, and more confusing, with each passing year. The alphabet soup of acronyms keeps getting thicker and murkier—SEM, ASO, CPI, CPA, CTR, RTB, AR, DMP, SMM, SMO, UX, OTT…

Scarier still, these are mainly business, not technology, terms. Which leads me to add another acronym to this list – FOMO anyone?

But what you really care about is growing your business, not figuring out the jargon.  So, how do you get serious about business growth using digital practices and platforms?

It’s important to recognise that this is a journey – for yourself, your team and your company culture.  And as with any new journey, you need to combine a bit of preparation with some decisive action.

In the first episode of our video series, Indiginus Talks, we bring you some do’s and don’ts when it comes to getting serious about growth via digital.

How does my business get serious about digital?

Indiginus Talks with 3 Do’s and 3 Don’ts for your business
(Transcriptions from the Video)

So, how do you move beyond your basic company website and get serious about growing your business using digital?

The fact is that the digital landscape is vast and always evolving and really confusing. And every agency and vendor and tool provider and software service provider out there is positioning themselves as the greatest thing since the internet browser came along.

So how do you cut through all of that noise? We bring you some dos and dont’s.

First, we’re going to talk about the dont’s.

So here are three don’ts when it comes to thinking seriously about your digital journey–

Firstly, don’t just go out and start a marketing campaign or hire a marketing agency or a web developer. If you are not clear about your goals and strategies in digital then that is the easiest way to waste your money. You’ll end up giving generic instructions like I want more customers or I want a better website and in the end, it’s just going to be a waste of your time.

Secondly, don’t try to figure it out all by yourself. Assuming that your current team has limited digital experience, you will only be limiting your vision and shortchanging your efforts if you don’t bring in the inputs of someone who has been exposed to the digital world a lot more than your current team might have been.

Thirdly, don’t be paralysed by the thought that you need to know the digital space deeply in order to move forward. The fact is that digital platforms are impacting so many areas of business right now that even digital experts know only a fraction of what there is to know. You are much better of focussing on a goal that is important to your business and then getting going by applying digital to that part of your business.

Now we’re going to talk about some do’s when it comes to getting serious about implementing digital for your business–

Firstly, get educated. There are some basic principles in the digital world, not just technologies and platforms but also business practices and implications for the internal culture that are important for you and your senior team to get up to speed on.

There are a number of sources of this information. As an example, the well-known VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has a  number of videos on it’s website on a large number of digital topics. Similarly, the Indiginus blog has a number of articles that are focused specifically on a non-technical business audience. Use these resources to get up the speed.

Secondly, figure out what is the high priority area of your business where you want digital practices to have an impact. As we have talked about, digital can impact pretty much any area of your business, but only you can figure out what the high priority areas are. Get started on those and use that as a way to experiment and learn and move forward.

Thirdly, in parallel with the pilot project that we just spoke about you also want to create a holistic digital strategy. You don’t want a series of piecemeal projects without a cohesive whole that they fit into. And the best way to create this strategy is to use a combination of your team’s own deep business experience in the space that you’re in along with the inputs of someone who can bring in the experience and knowledge from the digital world. This could either be a senior new hire for your business or a digital business consultant.

Summarising the key takeaways

The important things to do are listed in the table, for you to apply in your business or to mentor a junior recruit who is new to the world of digital.

Do subscribe to the Indiginus Talks for the monthly digital wisdom coming your way on YouTube and till the cows come home, you should be reading the Indiginus blog too.