The current digital landscape is not without its challenges.

There are more than enough hurdles to overcome, from increasingly fierce competition to changing audience trends and expectations. No matter your niche or field, you most likely know this well – especially if you’re reading this article. It’s increasingly vital that your link building efforts or paid marketing campaigns succeed, and it may already feel like you need more.

In response, more and more businesses turn to some form of digital transformation. This process may not be the panacea some claim it is, but it does come with many advantages. To illustrate this, let us explore the top reasons you need a digital transformation to help ensure long-term success.

What is a digital transformation?

Before we do, let us briefly explain precisely what the term means. The concept is rather broad, and in turn, the term has indeed become a bit of a vague buzzword. Therefore, demystifying it should be the best place to start.

One of the most famous definitions of digital transformation comes from SalesForce. They say it is a “reimagining of business in the digital age”, leveraging digital technologies in pursuit of new or better business processes, culture, and customer experiences. IBM agrees, defining digital transformation as a “customer-driven, digital-first approach to all aspects of a business”, from business processes to customer experiences.

 

Where the two agree, but many simpler definitions don’t, is on the transformation’s customizability. That’s a crucial distinction to make for a few different reasons.

What a digital transformation is not

Mainly, and most importantly, these definitions should highlight how use-specific such an endeavour should be. A digital transformation can take many forms, but there are just as many things it is not:

• First, it’s not absolute. Businesses should employ digital technologies strategically based on their needs and processes. In turn, no two transformations should be identical, following the same blueprint.
• Second, it’s not immediate. Adopting such technologies should be incremental, not overnight, to avoid disruptions to existing processes.
• And third, it is not the goal itself. The goal of a digital transformation is not just to digitise for its own sake but to mindfully evolve and improve one’s business.

The top 4 reasons you need a digital transformation

With all that said, here are the four top reasons why you should consider such an endeavour. These should also outline use cases for it, hopefully inspiring you and informing your course.

#1 Better customer communications – and a better customer experience

First, as both definitions stressed, digital transformations can drastically improve customer communications. In turn, this presents new options for improving customer experience with customer feedback, as customer feedback can be useful in an array of ways in this regard.

This benefit can manifest through an array of technologies, from chatbots to omnichannel loyalty programs and more. Self-help portals, review platforms, surveys, and more digital assets can make collecting customer feedback easier and more frictionless than ever. For some examples, consider the following:

• Pinpointing and improving aspects of the customer journey that displease customers, from the first touchpoint to post-purchase support
• Demonstrating a willingness to engage with customers, which in turn increases the likelihood of conversion
• Providing more touchpoints along the customer journey, improving customer retention rates through loyalty and emotional investment

At the same time, customer feedback also serves as an excellent source of customer insights. This can also benefit experience personalisation, a worthy goal in itself.

#2 Higher personalisation

For that matter, personalisation is vital among the reasons you need a digital transformation in the digital age. Customers value personalised experiences, from businesses simply using their name in an email to delivering relevant content to them. Even personalisation the customer doesn’t see, like using support inquiry records to provide better customer support, can be demonstrably beneficial.

In this regard, too, digital technologies can evolve what Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions thrive on. Customer insights, a holistic view of the customer’s journey, and communications records can inform personalisation like never before. Consider re-marketing and retargeting, follow-up timing, loyalty program refinements, and more as fundamental applications of this principle. As LinkedIn argues, customer retention is invaluable in the digital age – and personalisation kindles it best.

 

#3 Operational efficiency; less time waste, more productivity, and reduced costs

If digital transformation focuses so strongly on improving business operations, it should stand to reason that operational efficiency is among its key benefits. Indeed, digital transformation statistics place it first, with “meeting changing customer expectations” in second place.

Operational efficiency might best be broken down into three main components; time efficiency, productivity, and costs. On their own, improvements to any of the three would be sufficient reasons you need a digital transformation. Fortunately, such an endeavour covers all three at once:

• Less time wasted. Digital technologies thrive on automation and data consolidation, both excellent principal assets. Through them, businesses can reduce time wasted on strenuous or lengthy manual tasks, reducing associated productivity or revenue losses.
• More productivity. In turn, digital technologies directly increase productivity – as the statistics above find. Businesses can significantly improve their productivity with more organised processes, fewer distractions, and less time wasted.
• Reduced costs. Finally, such technologies effectively reduce costs. Beyond reducing the cost of human error, technology can minimise workforce demands. In addition, marketing and sales refinements also increase performance, increasing cost-efficiency.

4 Future-proofing

And finally, as Deloitte rightly argues, digital transformation future-proofs your business. It’s not a short-term process with short-term goals and gains, but one that looks ahead. Therefore, it’s often about proactively preparing for change rather than reactively adapting to the fact.

 

Some examples of future-proofing include:

• Adopting emerging technologies early for better future performance, such as AI and blockchain
• Bracing for market disruptions, such as the pandemic’s strain on consumers and supply chains
• Focusing on the increasingly conscious customer, offering tailored experiences today for more loyalty tomorrow

Naturally, these are only examples. How exactly such efforts can best future-proof your business primarily depends on your own business and which technologies you adopt. Tailoring a digital transformation to your needs is imperative – and that’s why we started with that mantra in mind.

In summary

To conclude, there are ample reasons you need a digital transformation. As the digital landscape becomes more competitive and demanding, customers evolve. They expect more and more seamless communication and more personalised experiences as businesses strive to meet these expectations and improve operational efficiency. Digital transformation explicitly seeks to meet all these goals and comes with an array of technologies. Still, digital transformations are not absolute or identical across businesses. There’s a “wave” of emerging technologies, as SalesForce puts it, and one can’t navigate it indiscriminately. Instead, a digital transformation needs to be strategic, incremental, and focused to best achieve its goals.