Is your business digitally up to date? If your answer is no, or, more likely ‘what exactly does digitally up to date mean?’, you’re already behind. It’s time to rummage through that drawer marked ‘Technological Things That Seem Too Hard So We’ve Just Ignored Them’ and change the way you do business. Luckily for you, there are four simple things you can implement right now that will transform your business digitally – making life easier for you and your employees and, most importantly, making you more competitive.
4 Tips to Digitally Transform Your Business
Digital Transformation Tip #1: Get Your Team Engaged With Social Selling
Getting your team engaged with social selling isn’t about adding one more thing to their daily task list. It’s certainly not forcing employees to ‘like and share’ all company posts on their personal social media accounts. When it comes to your employee advocacy for your brand, it takes more finesse— but it’s important.
A study by the Marketing Advisory Network shows that brand messaging reaches 561% further when shared by employees compared to just being shared by the company.
Employee advocacy for your brand on social media starts with educating your team on how to use social media effectively, which could involve training and further education. Of course, you’ll also have to be prioritizing your team’s professional development and giving them reasons why they love working for your company and being involved in your company culture. If your team is excited to work at your company then that’s a very, very good thing for you AND your bottom line.
This leads us to social selling.
Social selling isn’t the same thing as social media marketing or social media advertising. It’s not sales pitches, nor paid marketing. Social selling is a lead generation system that will boost your social media marketing efforts, replace cold calling, and can even reduce your advertising spend.
Social selling is all about developing a connection with prospects and engaging with potential leads. It’s a modern form of relationship-building.
Hot take: 78% of businesses that use social selling OUTSELL those that don’t.
For example, LinkedIn is a powerful professional social media platform. We also consider LinkedIn an always-on cocktail party. It’s where you and your team can build social influence and then engage in social selling efforts. Remember this isn’t about sleazy sales pitches, it’s about building relationships, establishing rapport, and bringing your business’s solution to the people who can benefit from it.
Digital Transformation Tip #2: Take A Load Off Your Plate With Content Management Systems
Does it feel like you are posting content to social media all day every day, often just squeezing it in before you head out the door? Sharing posts that support your social media marketing strategy is time-consuming. It can end up being the last thing on your mind when you’ve got a million things to do. But it needn’t doesn’t need to be.
There are Content Management Systems, CMS platforms, that allow you to schedule your social content ahead of time. Ahhh. No more last-minute posting of that blog article to LinkedIn. No more forgetting to send out that newsletter to your mailing list and missing the deadline for a promotion you’re offering. Make a content marketing plan, figure out the best time to schedule (there are tools for that too!) and BADA BING – your handy CMS will send off that blog article, LinkedIn post, or email for you at the designated time. With tools like HubSpot, WordPress, and Mailchimp, you can schedule your content days, weeks, or months in advance.
Pro tip: Remember, don’t set and forget your social content.
Sending a beautifully worded post to the world is one thing. But it’s all for naught if you’re not reading the comments and getting involved in the conversation.
Simplify your social media marketing strategy a CMS platform. Don’t know where to start? Don’t even HAVE a social media marketing strategy? You need some help from Little Bird Marketing. But more about that later.
Digital Transformation Tip #3: Get Clarity by Streamlining Communication Channels
On average, how often do you get a ping from an employee that doesn’t have a document they need to complete the project they’re already supposed to be working on? If you’re not already using the latest in communications tools, this is all too possible AND probable. Thankfully, there are tools for that too!
On average, how often do you get a ping from an employee that doesn’t have a document they need to complete the project they’re already supposed to be working on? If you’re not already using the latest in communications tools, this is all too possible AND probable. Thankfully, there are tools for that too!
We know this is what your mini-celebration looks like.
With the likes of Google Suite, Zoom, Trello, Dropbox and Slack, you can interact in real-time with team members to share a document, keep a list of handy files for future reference, or instant message the answers to questions as they pop up. These communications tools take the running-around-like-a-chicken-with-it’s-head-cut-off out of sharing information with your team. Nice.
Digital Transformation Tip #4: Change the Game with Project Management Systems
Take communications one (giant) step further with project management systems like Trello and Monday.com. These digital systems allow you and your team to access projects, files, data, and deadlines while tapping into conversations from anywhere. No more hard-cover binders left on the bus.
Say goodbye to ‘the dog ate my homework excuse.
Sayonara to the ‘just let me find the right document’ shuffle.
Project Management Systems like Trello allow you to:
- Assign projects to appropriate team members
- Set deadlines and those all-important reminders
- Share documents and information for quick access
- Upload content for projects and share links to outside sources like Google Docs, Zoom meeting links, and more
- Keep remote workers tuned in to the projects they’re working on, from anywhere
These four tips will digitally transform your business – and your life. That’s not hyperbole. With these tools, you’ll save time, streamline workflow, increase productivity, and lighten your bag once you’ve ditched that old-school planner.
Super-Charge Your Marketing With Digital Transformation
Digital transformation of your business means super-charging your marketing efforts, broadening your reach, enhancing your brand’s profile and authority, and increasing sales.
What are you waiting for? If you haven’t incorporated even one of the tools we’ve mentioned into your business, it’s time to jump online and get started. We create and execute marketing plans that are strategic, organized, accountable, and repeatable.
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