5 steps to kick-starting your digital transformation strategy

With successful digital transformation in the marketing department, you get happy customers, a boost in sales and a strengthened position in the market. But how do you get started? We'll show you five steps you need to go through to kick-start your digital transformation strategy.

Digital transformation is a process that requires you to throw your current marketing activities and workflows into the air and hit them out onto new trajectories. The goal is to realize the immense potential of digitalization for streamlining your workflows, keeping up with competitors and ultimately creating positive bottom-line results.

Related article: "5 benefits of digital transformation in your marketing"

But digital transformation isn't something that happens overnight. It is a lengthy process that, on the surface, can seem fluffy and unintelligible. So, where to start? What considerations should you make along the way? And how do you ensure you get the help you need to succeed?

Let's get to it…

Five steps to kick-start your digital transformation strategy in the marketing department that will help you in transforming your business to meet your consumers' buying behavior. 

Step 1: Uncover your needs

The first thing you need to do is identify your needs for digital transformation. Analyze your current situation and answer the following questions clearly:

• Where in your marketing activities have you already devised digital processes
• Where do you need to make an effort?
• What IT systems do you use to produce and manage your marketing material
• How do you save your files? Are they digital and reusable?
• Do you have digital 3D models of your products? Or do you need to make new drawings from scratch?
• What competencies do you have in-house? And where do you need external assistance?
  
  

See our portfolios filled with industry specific examples of 3D visualizations, film, images and product configurators:

Furniture Portfolio, Industry Portfolio, Kitchen & Bath Portfolio, Home Improvement Portfolio and Prefabricated Houses Portfolio.

Step 2: Develop the strategy

If you're completely inexperienced in digital transformation, we recommend that before putting all your eggs in one overwhelming basket, you choose a first focus area, develop and execute your plan, and use the experience to evaluate and learn from mistakes.

Here is our advice:

• Choose a focus area: Should you start by giving your website a facelift? Do you want to explore the possibilities of product configuration or VR (virtual reality)? Choose one area you want to work on.
• Develop the strategy: What is the goal? What do you aim to achieve? And what metrics do you intend to use to measure your success? Use both qualitative and quantitative metrics that convince the management team that digital transformation is the way to go.
• Create an action plan that forms the foundation of the project: Let's say you want to start out by converting your traditional photos into 3D images. What will be the natural next step after that? And then? Digital transformation is not just a quick fix.
• Be specific: Who does what and when? Your plan should be as specific and practical as possible.

Step 3: Execute the strategy

Now it's time to launch your first project. You can either do this on your own or you can choose a professional CGI agency to guide you through the process and advise you before, during and after.

We're ready to help you, just as we've helped more than 500 companies to grow their businesses with digital solutions.

Step 4: Evaluate and optimize

The first project has been completed. So far so good. What went well? And what didn't?

Evaluate. Optimize. Learn from your experiences.

Prepare yourself for the fact that digital transformation will put your entire business - your strategy, your collaborations, and your operations - to the test. But as you begin to see the results of your work, you'll be glad you made the investment. And what's more, as you continuously expand your knowledge of the field, you will become well equipped to face the technological changes of the future.

Step 5: Seize the opportunities

Once you've become friends with digital transformation, you'll discover a great many synergy benefits, some obvious and some more unexpected, but ultimately all will have a hugely positive collective impact on your marketing department's activities.

For example, if you start by converting your production of product images from traditional photography to CGI, you can reuse the digital files and transform them into other formats tailored to your various marketing channels. It ensures a coherent, streamlined shopping experience across your marketing mix.

Want to know more about how to boost your digital transformation marketing efforts?