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Small Business Webinar Series
How to get your business to thrive in the digital economy
© State of Queensland, 2013.
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Contents
SMALL BUSINESS WEBINAR SERIES ............................................................ 1
How to get your business to thrive ...................................................................... 1
in the digital economy ......................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
Learning objectives ............................................................................................. 1
SECTION 1 – ...................................................................................................... 2
What is a digital strategy? ................................................................................... 2
How a digital strategy aligns with a business plan? ........................................ 3
What makes up a digital strategy? .................................................................. 3
SECTION 2 – DIVING DEEPER ......................................................................... 7
Cloud Computing ................................................................................................ 7
Benefits and weaknesses of going cloud ........................................................ 7
Where does it work best? ............................................................................... 9
Online Selling ...................................................................................................... 9
Benefits and weaknesses ............................................................................. 10
Where does it work best? ............................................................................. 11
Case studies - Prowler Proof ........................................................................ 12
Digital marketing ............................................................................................... 12
Digital vs traditional ....................................................................................... 13
Push-pull marketing ...................................................................................... 14
Knowing where to invest your money for your digital marketing ................... 15
B2B VS B2C Online Marketing ..................................................................... 15
Search Engine Optimisation .............................................................................. 16
Search Engine Marketing .................................................................................. 17
Google analytics ................................................................................................ 17
Email marketing ................................................................................................ 17
Tips on email marketing ................................................................................ 17
Email Marketing Automation ......................................................................... 18
Data security ..................................................................................................... 19
Social networks ................................................................................................. 20
SSL security for Internet transactions ............................................................... 21
BYOD ................................................................................................................ 21
Creating efficiencies in the business ................................................................. 22
Cloud based accounting .................................................................................... 23
Cloud based Point of Sale ................................................................................. 24
Case Study - Ben Johnson, The End ............................................................ 25
Combining two or more cloud applications ................................................... 25
Mobile Payment Infrastructure .......................................................................... 26
Implementing an ERP system ........................................................................... 27
Things to consider when implementing an ERP............................................ 28
Case Study - Vehicle Components ............................................................... 28
Business Analytics and Data Visualisations ...................................................... 29
Case study .................................................................................................... 29
Mobile solutions ................................................................................................ 30
Mobile app development and enterprise app development ........................... 31
Case study - Caroma .................................................................................... 32
Enterprise internal apps .................................................................................... 32
Case study - Aaron Shiner, Elliot Shiner Real Estate ................................... 33
SECTION 3 – DIGITAL AUDIT ......................................................................... 34
What is a digital audit? ...................................................................................... 34
Understanding and using the framework ...................................................... 34
Auditing your business .................................................................................. 34
Small Business Digital Audit Tool ...................................................................... 35
How to survive and progress to the next level .............................................. 37
The future .......................................................................................................... 40
GLOSSARY OF TERMS .................................................................................. 41
APPENDIX 1 – RESOURCES .......................................................................... 43
Digital strategy – Intermediate
Page 1
Introduction
Welcome to the Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the
Commonwealth Games – Small Business Webinar Series.
Our aim is to help you gain valuable knowledge and skills related to business to assist
you in creating a better business; or growing your existing business.
Learning objectives
The desired learning objectives are for you to:
recognise the importance of a digital strategy
consolidate your digital strategy and online activities to improve your businesses
efficiency
identify new ways to attract and better service customers
showcase new digital solutions to incorporate in your business
share case studies of businesses which have undergone digital transformation.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
Page 2
Section 1 –
What is a digital strategy?
A digital strategy is an extension of your current business plan. It should, over time,
adapt and change with the market and emerging technology, the same way your
business plan does.
It provides direction on how to maximise the business benefits of digital initiatives in
line with your business’ vision, goals and opportunities. Your digital strategy will:
provide a more cost effective approach to running your business
make your business more efficient
increase revenue
increase the reach of your brand
provide data-driven decision-making and customer intelligence
make your business more agile and adaptable to changes in your business
environment
provide your customers with a seamless shopping experience through your
commitment to customer-centric thinking.
When considering your digital strategy, always remember it is more than a digital marketing strategy or a social media strategy. Recently, Deloitte published the results of their Connected Small Businesses survey.
The results of this National survey show:
16% of small businesses are making the most of the web with high digital
engagement
25% of small businesses have medium digital engagement
24% of small businesses have low digital engagement
35% of small businesses have very low digital engagement and do not use the
internet at all. (Deloitte: Connected Small Businesses: How Australian small businesses are growing in the digital economy: 2013)
Small businesses which make full use of the internet have more in their digital
strategies than creating a website and linking an email account.
Deloitte’s research shows small businesses with higher digital engagement have better
business outcomes than those with lower engagement with an average of a 20%
increase to annual revenue.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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How a digital strategy aligns with a business plan?
A digital strategy should be able to interact with the business plan at every point and
should align with your mission, goals and values. The diagram below shows how a
digital strategy should and may fit into a business plan.
What makes up a digital strategy?
A digital strategy is made up of eight core areas being, online presence, digital
marketing, customer interaction, supplier interaction, mobility, online security,
technology and efficiency and business strategy.
Online presence
In general, online presence is your business’ public facing website, social media
profiles (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc), corporate advertising profiles (listings in
sites like Yellow Pages Online, TrueLocal etc), and any other digital asset that can be
found by a client, supplier or potential customer.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Online presence includes the requirement to produce fresh and new content,
undertake a well organised search engine strategy, and culminates in the delivery of
online ordering and fulfilment solutions.
Digital marketing
Some of the tools used in digital marketing include websites, micro-sites, mobile apps
and social media platforms. These may include online banner ads, search engine
marketing, Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, blogs, guest blogs, newsletters, email
marketing, mobile banner ads, e-Books etc.
Digital marketing offers an opportunity for you to market your business 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. This helps to ensure potential customers can easily find information on
your products or services, no matter what time of the day they are looking.
Customer interaction
Every customer interaction is an opportunity to sell—not just your product or service—
but yourself.
Successful customer interaction is built on providing access to your business through
whatever means — mobile device, web access, traditional phone call, access through
social, etc. The interaction also requires minimal effort on behalf of the customer to find
the information, service or product they are looking for.
At the end of the interaction, your customer’s experience with your business is actually
what you are selling which is why how you interact with the customer is more important
than what you sell.
Supplier interaction
Being active in the digital economy provides access to establishing potential supplier
relationships in the global and national markets. Your business will be using digital
tools to find new, more cost effective suppliers; ordering through websites; no hassle
automatic re-ordering with suppliers through your accounting software; and linking
payments to purchase orders to automatically pay clients.
Through your feedback functionality linked to your CRM and website your business will
also be collecting business intelligence to collaborate with suppliers to develop new
customer-centric products and services
Mobility
A report undertaken by CCIQ reported 75% of Queensland businesses do not have a
mobile version of their website, yet 11 million Australian consumers connect to their
digital world using a Smartphone. Integrating mobile based solutions into your
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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business includes making the most of mobile commerce; mobile websites and mobile
applications.
Minimally, your business should consider implementing a mobile version of your
website to ensure your website is a responsive site that scales up or down to suit a
mobile phone or tablet screen.
Online security
Practising online security is particularly important for small businesses as it is your
virtual assets - the data and information being stored on computers and fileservers –
which are generally the most valuable and often irreplaceable.
The higher your business’ digital engagement, the greater the importance of having
effective online security practices, particularly if you are providing an e-commerce
solution for your customers.
It is vital to your business’ reputation to have security measures in place to keep your
customer’s personal information secure, no matter how big or small your database.
When it comes to online security, whether it is customer information; or backing up
data, always remember the data and information produced in your business is what
helps create value in your business – protect it!
Technology and efficiency
In many ways technology, software and associated tools help create business
efficiencies, whether through automating processes, or empowering staff to be more
efficient in their day-to-day roles.
By enhancing processes through technology and building your team’s capacity, your
business will respond rapidly to the changing behaviours of your customer base and
build further profitable relationships with your team; suppliers and customers. Digital
enablement is doing what you do already, but using digital tools, thereby increasing
efficiency, reducing costs and reducing time to deployment. Some technology
efficiencies to focus on are cloud computing; Software-as-a-Service solution; mobility
and data usage.
Business strategy
As a small business owner you are aware of the opportunities digital and technology
implementation will bring to your business, and a precise strategy will define areas of
business growth.
This includes researching the digital opportunities which exist in your specific business
sector and reworking your business plan to ensure each strategic element is linked
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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with digital solutions where viable. This may include capex (capital expenditure) or
opex (operational expenditure) purchases to enhance your business’ bottom line.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Section 2 – Diving deeper
This section will delve into some of the more progressive opportunities which exist for
small businesses already on their digital enablement journey. This section will provide
you information about some commonly used digital industry terms and how you can
apply these ideas to your business.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a general term for anything involving the delivery of hosted
services over the internet. These services may include:
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) – is when your business outsources the
equipment you need to support your operations. This may include storage,
hardware, servers and network components. The service provider, such as
Amazon or Google, provides the backbone and is responsible for housing,
running and maintaining this infrastructure which your business ‘rents’.
Software as a service (SaaS) – is software distribution through applications
which are hosted by a service provider that your business accesses via
subscription over the Internet. This includes two software delivery models –
hosted application management where the service provider hosts commercially
available software and software on demand where the provider gives
customers network-based access to a specifically created application.
You may have already heard about SaaS subscription based products such as
Dropbox, Google Drive, SalesForce, or accounting software like Sassu, FreshBooks or
Xero. However, cloud computing can extend beyond the simple provision of SaaS
solutions for your business. Cloud computing may provide you the option to increase
the mobility of your teams by moving all your staff to virtual machines or computers.
This means, rather than connecting to a local server physically situated in the office
you will connect to a virtual server, holding all your business’ core software (Microsoft
Office etc.) which can be used in real time and accessed from anywhere.
Benefits and weaknesses of going cloud
Benefits
One of the core benefits of moving to a cloud environment is the ability to have your
data secured in a 99% safe environment, with numerous levels of redundancy, security
and backup.
As Nigel Heyn, founder of DivestIT (a Queensland based cloud infrastructure and
solutions provider) notes; ‘as the customer you will receive millions of dollars worth of
security, backups, hardware, and support all for a set monthly fee, per staff member’.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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This is one of the major benefits of moving your business to a cloud environment – the
ability to scale up or scale down usage and associated fees based on how much work
you have and the number of staff requiring access. Similarly, using the cloud
environment will reduce your capital expenditure on hardware and associated
infrastructure and servers.
Beyond the benefits of easier administration and automatic software updates and
patch management, your business and team will benefit from global accessibility.
Your team and other invitees will have the ability to access information anywhere,
anytime. All your team member needs is the appropriate permissions and an Internet
connection to access all their files immediately - and with all your team accessing the
same software versions this will provide great compatibility and collaboration as well.
Remember, you won’t have to worry about working on the right version anymore!
Weaknesses
Moving to a cloud solution may not be the answer for all businesses. Like all business
solutions there are some downsides to cloud computing.
For example, by moving to a cloud environment you do lose direct control over your
business’ IT solutions such as having no input into how your servers or updates are
managed. If you are lucky enough to have IT staff, their role will change significantly, to
managing user issues and independent issues on individual computers or devices.
Another issue you may face with some service providers is that their data centres are
not located in Australia. Storing data offshore raises a raft of security and trust issues as
in these circumstances data may move across multiple foreign jurisdictions, each with its
own set of rules. This is a key point to remember when developing you data security
strategy and “data sovereignty” will become more important as privacy regulations
change. When moving to cloud based solutions, it is important you choose a provider
that handles your data correctly and meets the requirements of your business risk
mitigation strategy.
Your cloud solution requires a ‘live’ internet connection to work – cloud does not work if
you do not have a working internet connection. This is another factor to note when
sourcing a cloud provider and also when developing your business risk and continuity
planning. It is also important to note here, depending on your settings, data may be
cached to your computer - meaning you may be able access files offline as required
(i.e. Dropbox). This type of system is “partly cloudy”, so you have access to your files
at all times, regardless of your broadband connection.
Finally, be aware the term ‘cloud’ has become a marketing buzz word, and therefore it
is critical you dig deep to ensure the cloud solution you are accessing is the cloud
solution you require!
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Where does it work best?
If your business is dependent on technology for transactions, then moving to a cloud
solution should become a serious consideration. If your business and team members
require access to information and data anywhere, anytime – then your business is a
candidate for moving to a cloud based environment. Similarly, businesses which
operate across multiple locations or with team members around the country/globe are
also prime candidates.
Many financial service businesses, and ones operating in the mining or engineering
sectors, have already moved to cloud based environments.
Online Selling
Online transactions provide your business with the ability to sell goods and services via
a website or web-based resource. This is commonly referred to as e-commerce.
Traditionally, e-commerce transactions involve your customer – user – logging into
your website and adding items to a shopping cart.
In today’s digital economy, mobile selling is becoming the norm, with more consumers
making transactions using their mobile phone. This version of online selling is known
as m-commerce and requires that your interface be mobile ready.
An analysis conducted by Mobify Cloud of 200 million shoppers globally in 2012 has
shown over 24% of Australians are making purchases through m-commerce. Mobify is
a platform used to make websites work on any mobile device. In Australia, 16%
purchased online using their Smartphone and 8% using their tablet. The Mobify Cloud
analysis also shows 47% of Australians use Mobify m-commerce powered websites.
As an example of m-commerce, Michael Gillespie, Domino’s Pizza Online Marketing
Director, has stated 50% of their sales are now online, with 40% of these online sales
derived from mobile devices.
Another consideration for online selling is using Facebook as an e-commerce platform,
widely known as Facebook Commerce or F-commerce.
Using Facebook applications, developers can embed sales software into the Facebook
platform, providing your customers with the option to shop while hanging out on
Facebook. The benefit of tapping into the social ability of the platform, particularly for
B2C based businesses like fashion e-tailers, is that a customer can share what they’re
thinking of buying with their Facebook ‘friends’ before completing the transaction.
If you already have an e-commerce presence and want make it work better for your
business, consider:
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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1. Incorporating a m-commerce framework, enabling customers to buy via their
smartphones or tablets, especially now that Google search will penalise sites
that are not mobile friendly.
2. Look into your ability to dynamically change advertising or feature products on
your webpage, based on your customers’ purchase history - often referred to as
dynamic on-page marketing. One example of this is Amazon.com. Amazon
looks at a person’s previous purchases and pages visited in order to come up
with lots of very targeted and personalised recommendations. These
recommendations are presented most everywhere the customer goes on the
website and they’re based on and triggered by the customer’s behaviour.
3. Ensure where possible your CRM or e-commerce platform can collate and
collect customer data– make use of what you already have. Consider putting in
place automated emails at predetermined times post purchase, to encourage
and engage your customer to come back and shop with you again. Also
consider occasional short follow-up surveys about the customers experience,
what worked and didn’t work – possibly sweetening their participation with a
weekly or monthly draw/lottery.
Benefits and weaknesses
Not every business needs to sell online. Before you consider opening up this sales
channel, you need to ensure your business model and the intended channel can be
developed efficiently. As a starting point you should develop a detailed marketing
strategy for how you are going to promote this digital channel, and a detailed sales
structure for how you plan to take orders, fulfil orders, and handle returns.
Some advantages of integrating online sales into your business include:
Trade 24/7 - Establishing an e-commerce store enables your customers to
purchase easily from you whenever they want, even when your shop doors are
closed.
Trade across geographic boarders – your customers are not just around the
corner anymore – they could be sitting at the Edinburgh Festival; dancing in
Cuba or by the pool in Fiji. Your ‘store’ is available from anywhere and your
ability to manage your store is equally as mobile.
Add or remove products based on time zones or countries. This provides you
with the ability to really target your markets and to increase your customers’
experience when shopping with you, by being able to source products specific
to their needs. This also includes the ability to price products differently for
different markets and countries and account for differing import/export
restrictions.
More convenient sales channel for some people and in many cases opening
your business up to a new customer market. Repeat visitors who make
purchases every time is the ‘Holy Grail’ you are seeking. To achieve this,
remember to plan and implement the best marketing strategies available to you
for your online store.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Very cost effective channel when done correctly - even down to the
automation of good record keeping that records every online activity your
customers engage in through your store. This can be used to improve customer
interactions as well as analyse your store’s growth.
Centralise your ordering - In some business-to-business (B2B) based
environments, the ripple effect of centralising ordering through an e-commerce
store alleviates the need for your sales team to take customer orders, giving
them more time to focus on increasing market share. This also makes it easier
to use analytics for enhanced business intelligence regarding your sales and
supply chain.
Selling niche products to highly specific markets – your customer base will
find you, no matter how small your target market may be.
Some disadvantages may include:
Shipping costs and the time it takes to arrive at the customer’s door may
preclude your business from selling certain products or finalising sales. Ensure
you choose products for your online store that can be easily delivered and
where shipping does not cost more than the actual product.
You are adding another sales channel to your business to manage and one
which may have increased complexities with respect to logistics and customer
returns etc.
An online store requires your business to have multiple lines of contact for your
customers and potential customers. There is also an expectation for you to
respond quickly to all customer requests – potentially outside of Australian
‘business hours’. To provide the best customer experience possible,
expectation management is a necessity.
The lack of a tangible product to touch, feel or experience may prevent some of
your potential customers from purchasing online. If you choose to sell a product
that falls into the ‘must experience before purchase’ category – clothes or
furniture for example – ensure you provide comprehensive descriptions and
even a demonstration video.
Doubts, fears and lack of trust in your business or brand are normal human
reactions when you are completely unknown to a potential customer. A
customer has to experience some level of trust in your business before handing
over their credit card details.
As with any other sales channel, establishing, maintaining and growing an
online store requires resourcing and marketing. It may also require you to step
outside the box, keep learning and to try new, unexplored business ideas.
Where does it work best?
Businesses in the non-perishable market, such as clothing retailers, electronic
suppliers or equipment wholesale, will benefit most from online selling. Without the
appropriate logistics, products such as fresh food and vegetables may not have the
same level of success in the online sales environments.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Always remember, you can tailor your e-commerce store to sell physical products as
well as services, such as booking and paying for treatments if you have a
complementary therapy business; or customers may book and pay for professional
services like financial advisors; real estate agents or web developers.
Businesses which offer smart, online products and services are seen to value their
customers’ time, and make purchasing an efficient and less time consuming affair. This
will win loyalty.
Think about how your sales channels could be enhanced using online ordering.
Placing the ordering of your products and services in your customers’ hands will
provide your customers and clients with the additional options of personalising their
order to their needs and providing feedback about their online buying experience with
your business.
Also take into account how an online order tracking and feedback system provides
your customers with all-day order followup, further enhancing their purchasing
experience.
Think broadly about your business and how an online selling solution could be a viable
option for you.
Case studies - Prowler Proof
A good example of how a Queensland based business emphasised the importance of
online selling is Prowler Proof. Prowler Proof is a manufacturer of security doors and
windows.
All Prowler Proof customers undertake all transactions via their proprietary software,
enabling them to make the order at any time of the day or night. As a result of moving
to this channel, Prowler Proof customers no longer need to call or fax orders through.
Everything is managed via the online ordering system. The end result for the company
is their sales staff moved from being order takers to being proactive sales people
looking for more clients and resellers.
Digital marketing
Digital marketing uses digital media to market your brand, product, service or
company. Despite there being a plethora of activities under the digital marketing
banner, one thing remains the same – it relies on the Internet for success.
At the centre of your digital marketing strategy or campaign, is your website. Other
tools may include micro-sites, mobile apps and social media platforms. Within these
tools you may utilise online banner ads, search engine marketing, Facebook ads,
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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LinkedIn ads, blogs, guest blogs, newsletters, email marketing, mobile banner ads, e-
Books etc.
Digital is the fastest growing area of marketing, customer retention and engagement.
Digital channels and engagement through digital channels is not only expected by your
customers as a means to experience and connect with your product or brand, it often is
at the core of your customers’ engagement with your business. Customer expectation
has increased to such a level, that when considering your digital marketing, remember:
it is no longer acceptable for you to wait for your customers to visit your website
or online presence
businesses must actively communicate to be successful
positive engagement snowballs, arrogance creates complacency.
Digital vs traditional
Your current and potential customers are communicative and inquisitive and the use of
digital marketing channels provides your customers the opportunity to interact with
your business on both of these levels. Through a simple mouse click, your business or
product or service is more tangible and your customer has increased their ability to
experience your brand. The ability to directly experience or interact with your business
is not so easily achieved through traditional marketing strategies and tactics.
One of the greatest benefits of using digital marketing is that you engage and develop
individual relationships with your customers. Unlike any other broadcast medium,
digital channels allow direct and personalised two-way interaction with your customers.
Digital marketing offers opportunities traditional methods cannot easily match:
cost efficient
customised and personalised
should always provide returns
can be reactive as well as proactive.
Well-conceived digital strategies and campaigns will place your business in the
forefront of your customers’ minds, leading to lasting adoption and advocacy. From the
perspective of your customers, digital allows the marketing and ultimately your overall
engagement strategy, to change from a traditional monologue to a digital dialogue.
Remember also that your digital marketing strategy becomes a part of your overall
marketing strategy, not a separate activity. This means that it should be integrated into
your overall marketing framework, effectively allowing you reach more customers.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Push-pull marketing
The internet provides consumers with more choice, more influence and more power. It
also provides you, as a business, new ways of selling, new products and services to
sell, expansion of your current market reach as well as new markets in which to sell.
Digital marketing can be broadly classified into two main categories: Pull and Push.
Both push and pull marketing strategies work well to achieve specific goals.
Pull digital marketing is when your potential customers are actively looking for
information on a product through the internet, usually via search engines or by web
feed. Websites, blogs and streaming media (audio and video) are all examples of pull
digital marketing, where users navigate their own way to your website.
The main point is your customers and potential customers ‘pull’ out the information
according to their interests and requirements, and use a specific link (URL) to view
content. Pull marketing largely involves your business being highly visible online, so
your customers can actively seek you out, because they believe your business can
fulfil their needs.
In push digital marketing strategies, your target audience is more diffused, and unlike
pull marketing are not as defined by your actions. In other words, it involves the active
engagement of a target market through display advertising on relevant websites, email
marketing news blogs etc. The main point is that this method of targeting your
customers is without the consent of those receiving the email, text message or web
feed. You, yourself may have encountered push digital marketing - which is often
referred to as spam.
Push digital marketing strategies focus primarily on brand promotion (‘pushing’
information out), with relatively short term goals and generally involve specific events
or time-based campaigns. For example, your company is offering customers a 40%
discount on products or services as part of your ‘end of financial year clearance’. When
focusing on short term plans to boost your business or build goodwill you would
implement a push strategy. Such strategies are useful when you:
1. are offering new services or products
2. want to create online awareness and familiarity of your product or service
3. need to actively engage with your customers
4. need a persuasive approach to entice customers.
Push and pull digital marketing strategies should be used in tandem to be successful –
a point many businesses fail to do.
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Knowing where to invest your money for your digital marketing
Digital marketing offers an opportunity to market your business 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week in markets you wouldn’t traditionally reach. It also allows you to target and
promote your business to a specific audience particularly suited to your products or
services.
Your digital marketing strategy should be, in most instances, customer centric. It is
ideal to be able to mimic the behaviour of your target audience, remembering you can
run multiple campaigns targeting specific market segments.
In digital marketing everything can be measured. The fact it is a highly quantifiable
environment is one of its key strengths. For your business, you can measure customer
behaviours, through to actions and action paths, and finally to results.
All this information and data leads to knowing and understanding your customers’ and
potential customers’ online habits. In a digital environment it is vital to the success of
your business to know where, when and why your customers and potential customers
are online and how their online presence and search habits relate to your product or
service.
Smart data collection can assist your business in being right there when your customer
needs you. The idea of using ‘big data’ (data sets with sizes beyond the ability of
commonly used software tools to capture and manage) is not new, but it is more
important to your digital strategy than ever before, as it allows your business to get in
front of your connected customers via many devices and media.
Being such a measurable environment, your return on investment (ROI) is easy to
track through web analytics tools such as Google Analytics. These tools provide the
ability to track where your money is best spent from following a click on an online
advert through to the purchase of your product or service. However, remember your
ROI from your digital strategy is not all about driving through to online directly. For
example, you may email a personalised gift voucher to your customer, which can be
used online or in store when your customer is ready to use it. The ROI might never
happen online, it might just start there.
B2B VS B2C Online Marketing
Understanding where and who your customer is, is critical to all marketing – traditional
and digital. From an online marketing perspective, knowing and understanding how a
potential client finds your website requires your attention.
B2C online marketing strategies are typically more social-based and emphasise
building communities around a brand or product. For example, in B2C campaigns you
would more likely use social media sites such as Pinterest (image sharing), Tumblr
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(blogging), Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, along with highly targeted Google
Adwords programs. This component of your B2C marketing would be integrated into a
highly detailed series of email based or CRM activations, promoting your products and
services directly to your customers.
Such a campaign would be focused on a strong call to action, encouraging your
customer to ‘buy now’ and prompting the customer to use your e-commerce store. You
may also be using on-page dynamic marketing solutions. This is when advertising on
your website changes in real-time during the checkout process to promote similar
products based on the customer’s past purchases.
B2B online marketing typically refers to providing your potential customers with
reasons to choose your business over your competitors. Your strategy would also
include encouraging your customers to subscribe to your database. This could be
achieved through collecting email addresses via a competition on one of your social
channels or introducing a ‘freemium’ model where your customer is required to submit
an email address to unlock premium content on your website. Whichever approach you
choose, this provides you more data and greater opportunity to target market on an
ongoing basis.
You could also utilise Google Adwords extensively, encouraging customers to visit
your website. You may also use LinkedIn, YouTube advertising, and Twitter focusing
on building your business profile as the business of choice in your industry sector.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the natural ranking where your website sits in
major search engine (i.e. Google) results pages as a result of a user search. Search
engines score your website in a variety of areas, giving it an overall rank against other
sites that appear for the same search term.
Key areas which may affect your search ranking include:
Fresh content – having a strategy in place where you website is constantly
updated with new, fresh, and relevant content is a good strategy to improve
rankings.
Domain age – the older the domain the more success it has.
Incoming links – the more sites that link to your website, the better. The
important point to remember here is that success is based on links from
reputable, relevant sites.
Site map – providing a site map, and clear internal linking structure (i.e. links to
other pages on your website) is a positive.
Keywords – rich, search friendly keywords like “forklift sales Townsville” used
throughout the site, or in domain names i.e. www.domainname.com/forklift-
sales-townsville
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Duplicated content – is a negative and will push you down in rankings.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the ability for your website to achieve higher listings
in search engines through paying a variable amount for specific search terms. Typically
this form of marketing is known as a Pay per Click (PPC) or Pay per View (PPV). It is
advertising where you –the website owner - pay a nominal amount per click or view of
your online ad.
Search engine marketing is a great solution for businesses which want to ensure they
are the number one listing every time someone searches a specific key word or
phrase. As the website owner, you are able to set limits on your advertising spend - a
fixed amount each month/week/day – and are 100% in control of your budget.
Google analytics
Google Analytics is a piece of code that can be used in websites, mobile applications
etc. to capture the behaviour of a user or customer. It can be used to track what a
customer is clicking on in your website, when they first land at your website, whether
they come back, how long they stayed on a particular page, what site they went to
afterwards and more.
Google Analytics can also be used in conjunction with services like Google Adwords
(SEM program), allowing you to track the number of users who have seen one of your
Google Ads, clicked on it, then gone through to the website and made a purchase. This
provides you the opportunity to view the ROI you are achieving through your Google
Adwords campaigns.
Email marketing
Email marketing is the process of sending out marketing information via email to
people who have opted in and agreed to receive promotional emails from you and your
business. Anti-spam laws in Australia make it essential for businesses to ensure they
follow correct processes in sending and distributing emails to people who have opted
in.
Tips on email marketing
Make it easy to subscribe. Provide your customers an easy, short sign-up
form on your homepage, blog, Facebook page, and wherever else your
customers are already active.
Tell subscribers what to expect. It is important to tell your customers what to
expect from your emails and when to expect them – i.e. what content you plan
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to email and whether it is daily deals, weekly tips or a monthly sales e-
newsletter.
Send a welcome email. It’s always smart to remind people why they’re on your
list and maybe even send incentives to new subscribers to encourage brand
loyalty.
Make it easy to read and digest. Like you, your subscribers are busy people
who receive a lot of email, so consider breaking up your content into short
paragraphs and include subheadings and images to make it easier to scan.
Send people content they want. Segmentation allows you to target certain
subscribers without assigning them to groups. You can segment by activity,
email clients, e-commerce data, and more. Sending relevant content will keep
your readers engaged and wanting to share your information.
Keep a publishing calendar. Regular email marketing is a commitment. Make
time to plan, write, design, and send your email content regularly so you don’t
end up in the spam folder.
Think about mobile. If a campaign doesn’t show up on mobile devices, it’s not
going to perform very well. Everything you send should be mobile-friendly.
Know your spam rules. Read up on the legislation – Spam Act 2003. Put
simply, you’re allowed to send bulk email only to people who specifically asked
to be on your marketing mailing list. Include an obvious unsubscribe link in
every email.
Make it shareable. Send content people want to share, and make it easy for
them to do so, such as including a link to your social sites. When your
customers’ friends start sharing and subscribing, you’ll know it’s working.
Only send email if you have something to say. Content is king and planning
content leads to successfully achieving your business goals. Email is simply a
way to publish content—the content itself has to come first. Before starting a
campaign, make sure it’s a sustainable commitment that will help you achieve
your business goals. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your subscribers’ time and
your own time.
Email Marketing Automation
One of the more progressive trends in the email marketing sector is the concept of
email marketing automation also known as email re-marketing. Marketing automation
is the ability to set up a series of pre-defined emails that are automatically sent to a
prospect when they opt-in to a specific campaign.
One of the benefits of this is that you are able to automate part of the sales process by
encouraging a customer to receive information at pre-specified times and intervals over
the course of a campaign. Based on how your customer responds or what they click on
in the email, may change the course of actions available to your customer and the
information they receive.
Some major brands operating in this space include Marketo, InfusionSoft, and Eloqua.
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Source: Dell Cloud Business Applications (http://www.dellcloudapplications.com/solutions/marketing-automation)
Data security
Data security is an area which many small business owners pay little attention to. Data
security simply refers to ensuring your computer data cannot be read or compromised.
It is an important component of your day to day business, but quite possibly one of the
last things you think about.
External threats by hackers can be assisted through networks which are not properly
secured. Your staff may unknowingly open your business up to all forms of cybercrime,
simply by clicking on links within spam emails, failing to regularly change their
passwords or giving out personal or sensitive business information.
Such actions by your staff may enable malicious software to be installed on your
computer system that could corrupt your data and provide hackers unintended access
to your network. As a consequence your data security may be compromised with
sensitive customer data leaked including data such as full names, addresses,
passwords and credit card information. The damage this could cost your business both
in reputation and financially and is potentially irreparable.
Small businesses are in general, easier targets than bigger businesses for hackers and
scammers, simply due to their limited use of security software and lack of security
policies. Without appropriate policies and procedures, your business computers may
become infected with viruses and other malware if you download illegitimate software,
you are the victim of an online scam, or you visit a malicious and untrustworthy
website.
And it’s not only hackers that could derail your productivity. Thieves could break in and
steal equipment or staff could remove data inadvertently or deliberately using portable
media. Some tips to improve your data security practices include:
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encouraging staff to frequently change their passwords (at least once a month)
and to choose a combination of letters, numbers and symbols
training staff in sensitive document management e.g. do not store sensitive
documents on USB or external drives
disabling accounts when an employee leaves
shredding sensitive documents that are no longer needed
determining who can access certain types of information
encouraging staff to log off their computers when leaving their desk.
Think carefully about where you store data, how secure is it, who has access to it and
what devices are allowed to connect to your business computer network. Prevention is
always better than cure so don't wait for a security breach to occur before you review
or update your IT systems.
Some ways to strengthen your data security systems include:
using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or other secure connections for all e-
commerce transactions
encrypting all confidential data
reviewing security logs – particularly for alerts to failed login attempts
creating individual user accounts for all staff with access to your network
updating your operating system and application software, particularly anti-virus
software
performing regular network scans
ensuring remote access is for a limited number of staff
installing passwords on sensitive data/files
backing-up your data regularly
developing clear policies for staff using your computer network.
Social networks
Recently, LinkedIn's security was breached. You may have even been a recipient of
the email asking you to check and change your LinkedIn account details. This breach
led to millions of passwords being stolen by hackers and highlighted the importance of
safeguarding data on social networks. It also gave an insight into how much
information users of social networking channels share online.
According to a PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) report on social networking, not only
do businesses have to be aware of hackers infecting networks or stealing intellectual
property, staff may also be sharing confidential company details (sometimes
unintentionally) which can spread instantly online, causing great reputational damage
to your business.
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This isn’t about preventing or stopping your staff from using social networks such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, it is more about mitigating the risks involved. You
could reduce your risks associated with social networking by:
developing and implementing a social media policy for your staff and for your
business’ social pages
educating your team on social media risks
improving your internet security to include anti-virus and verification software
which prevents phishing and blocks spam
installing data loss prevention (DLP) software to scan outbound information
limiting access to social networking sites via your business computers and
mobile devices.
SSL security for Internet transactions
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol developed to securely transfer documents
via the internet. By convention, websites which contain this secure transmission
process have a URL starting with https:// rather than http://.
An SSL is typically used in e-commerce transactions when a credit card number and
associated details require transferring from a website to the merchant. In order to take
and receive payments online you need to have a SSL certificate which is generally
acquired for your business through your web developer and internet host.
BYOD
BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is becoming more and more wide spread and
accepted. It is a term used to describe the process of staff bringing their own mobile
computing device to their workplace for use and connectivity.
BYOD comes with many advantages along with numerous disadvantages. One of the
key benefits is the shift of hardware capital cost from the business to staff members.
According to a Good.com study, 50% of employees are happy and prepared to
purchase and supply their own equipment.
This leads to another benefit – worker satisfaction. Your employees have their own
laptops, tablets and smartphones for a reason; those are the devices they prefer to
use, so much so they have invested their own money in buying them. Encouraging
staff to bring their own highly regarded devices to work rather than supplying one
through the company is often regarded as adding to your team’s positive work
experience. In addition to this, their devices are generally more cutting edge, so your
business benefits from the latest features and capabilities inherent to the device.
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According to a study by CISCO, the average BYOD employee would spend about
$965 per annum buying hardware, and an additional $734 on their data and voice
plans.
It’s not all positive however; before implementing a BYOD strategy it is critical that you
develop a BYOD policy to uphold the integrity of your business data.
Implementing BYOD should be the same as any other new technology – controlled
deployment. Company owned infrastructure comes with an acceptable use policy and
is protected by company-issued security that is managed and updated. While it is more
challenging to enforce policy on how your staff members can and cannot use their own
mobile device, it is vital you formalise BYOD policies.
A clearly defined policy for BYOD in a business will cover:
rules and expectations from the business
minimum security requirements or company sanctioned security tools as a
condition for allowing personal devices to connect to company data and
networks
your business’ rights with respect to monitoring, accessing and reviewing all the
data stored on, processed or used by the particular device
the employee’s obligations with respect to keeping the device and passwords
secure
what happens to the data in the event the employee is terminated or leaves the
business
what the process will be around backing up data.
Your BYOD policy will also need to be enforceable at a device level and provide
protection for your business’ intellectual property should the device be lost or stolen.
Keep in mind the handheld mobile device market is evolving rapidly with new versions
and manufacturers, so your BYOD policy should be adaptable.
Above all, the willingness of your team to use their personal devices within the rules
you establish will indicate the success of your BYOD program.
Creating efficiencies in the business
Computers and technology provide your business the ability to process data faster;
retrieve information more easily and even downsize your business through the
complete automation of suitable tasks.
For example, how many of you remember a world before EFTPOS - using the
‘muscle–building’ credit card racking machine or calling through to ‘BankCard’ to gain
clearance codes. We were still doing this in the early 90s, and yet today such
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transactions take mere seconds. Cards are swiped or tapped using a small card reader
and payment is made. Orders are processed much faster, making it possible for your
staff to service more customers in the same amount of time.
Technology also makes it easy to keep information up to date. Instead of being stuck in
a filing compactor trying to remember how one of your former staff filed information,
through your CRM or client database you are able to update your customers’ details
with a few clicks of the mouse.
Different types of technology can help your business maximise efficiency and
productivity, decrease expenses and increase profitability. But before rushing out to
purchase the latest ‘whatever’, consider how your business operates and determine
which technologies will benefit your business to save time and increase your bottom
line.
In short, digital enablement - that is doing what you do already but using digital tools to
do it - increases efficiency, reduces costs and reduces time to deployment.
Cloud based accounting
Cloud accounting software is hosted on remote servers and provided to your business
as a SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution which you, as the user, pay a monthly
access fee to use.
One of the core benefits of moving to a cloud-based environment is the ability to
access your financial information anywhere, anytime. Creating an invoice via your
smartphone while waiting for a plane becomes a reality.
A number of key businesses operate in this space within Australia including, MYOB,
AccountRight Live, Xero, FreshBooks and Saasu.
Some of the reasons you may consider moving to a cloud-based accounting
environment include:
Ease of access – work on your financial files anywhere, anytime. Many
solutions offer a dedicated mobile application enabling you to view financial
reports on demand.
Data security – being in a cloud environment, all data is backed-up frequently
on an external server, which mitigates concerns about financial data being lost
through an office disaster.
Monthly cost – you can spread the financial burden over the entire calendar
year.
Automated bank feeds – most cloud software applications provide live bank
feed enabling you to download transactions directly into your accounting
system with receipts and payments automatically matched, saving you time and
effort when undertaking the reconciliation process.
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Suggested invoice matching – when a client pays your invoice the value is
automatically matched to a payment for you to simply approve.
Another key benefit of moving to a cloud-based accounting environment is the ability to
build on what is provided. This means your developers may write custom add-on
software to automatically connect and interface with your accounting software.
An example of this is an employee of a trades-based business can create and send an
invoice for a job while still on the job site, rather than waiting until returning to the office
to get the admin staff to raise the invoice.
Additionally using technology like Commonwealth Bank’s Pi and Leo (these are
adapters for iPhone/Android smartphones which convert them to a portable EFTPOS
machine), your staff can not only invoice but can take the payment from the customer’s
credit card on the spot, saving admin time and back office processes.
Similarly, if your business is using an online payment gateway, most likely it will
automatically connect to the cloud product reconciling the transaction, adding the
customer and issuing a receipt.
Cloud based Point of Sale
Cloud accounting isn’t limited to a full service accounting product, solutions like Vend,
ClickPos, and Kounta are all cloud based point-of-sale (POS) solutions, many of which
replace a standard POS machine with an iPad.
One of the core benefits in considering cloud based POS, is the ability to log in
remotely and see real time turnover and transactions in your store. The ability to adjust
product prices remotely and the immediacy of information are critical for businesses
wanting to be active in the digital economy.
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Case Study - Ben Johnson, The End
The End is a small bar in West End, Brisbane. Rather than using a traditional point of
sale system, the team decided to make use of a cloud-based iPad solution.
The core advantage of the solution is it enables the Directors of the business to check
in on the sales and performance of the store remotely from their iPhone or iPad. The
Directors are able to log in, view which team members and products are the high
performers and adjust prices instantly based on real time sales trends and information.
This, coupled with being able to access up-to-the-minute information wherever they
are, whenever they want, has enabled the Directors to have greater awareness of how
their business is performing, as well as giving them the ability to change the product
mix based on trends occurring at a specific point and time.
Combining two or more cloud applications
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) make the job of connecting two or more
cloud applications relatively straight forward. For example, if you want to run a report
using your pipeline data, linking it to actual sales data to provide field sales
representatives with up-to-the-minute information on how their clients are tracking,
then connecting your CRM to your cloud accounting product is for you.
Similarly, if you bill by the hour, using tools such as Harvest for job tracking,
automatically connecting job times into your accounting software and invoicing the
client on closure of that job, is another example of the application of APIs.
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An example of how APIs can be used to link two or more products together can be
seen at: http://www.xero.com/add-ons/
Mobile Payment Infrastructure
The Commonwealth Bank recently introduced Pi – an innovative merchant terminal,
integrated into an open platform. Pi is designed to enhance face-to-face customer
interaction at point of sale, while offering secure payments.
The product is built using an Android (mobile phone software) based platform. This
provides a developer the capability to extend the software, expanding the service
offering for the client – for example, the ability to integrate the mobile payment solution
into a cloud based accounting software package.
Similar services exist, such as PayPal’s Here solution - a small dongle which plugs into
an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet via the headphone jack. This enables
you to quickly swipe a customer’s credit card to accept payment.
This form of mobile payment solution is building in usage. According to a recent report
by BI Intelligence, Square - one of the United States’ major mobile payment solutions -
recorded an increase in transactions from $2 billion in 2011, to $10 billion in 2012.
http://au.businessinsider.com/bii-report-the-state-of-the-mobile-payments-race-2013-5
One of the key benefits is the ability for mobile teams to take payments while they are
with a client instead of calling the office, having an invoice created, and calling in the
client’s credit card details. This level of efficiency has the potential to save numerous
hours per employee per week/month/year - time which could be re-directed to visiting
more customers and promoting your business.
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Implementing an ERP system
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems integrate the internal and external
management of information across an entire organisation. Such a system generally
brings together accounting software, manufacturing processes, sales and service and
customer relationship management products into one specific, fully integrated platform.
Generally an ERP is of greatest use to small/medium sized businesses through to
large companies. Businesses with 20 plus staff should be considering the move to an
ERP system.
Some well-known ERPs include: SAP BusinessOne, SysPro, PeopleSoft, and
Microsoft Dynamics.
The advantages of moving your business to an ERP includes:
Integrated information – the driving force of an ERP is to control accuracy as
well as redundancy of data and data entry by rolling often disconnected,
business unit specific data into the one platform. Moving to an ERP may reduce
operational costs by coordinating various departments. ERPs may reduce the
information silo effect that often occurs in medium to large businesses.
Support of day-to-day management activities – the ability to streamline
business critical processes and workflows between departments.
Detailed cross-business reporting – with all data in one platform, accessing
cross-business data is simple.
Easy data access – most ERPs are designed with the ability to extend the
functionality such as integrating proprietary products or creating new products
linking directly with the ERP.
High-level security – through data integrity and security, ERPs enhance your
data restrictions allowing you to keep customer data and company data secure.
An ERP can play a pivotal role in growing your business. However, choosing the right
ERP and ensuring the correct implementation should be your key focus.
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Things to consider when implementing an ERP
Selecting the right ERP for your business or industry profile is critical. Selecting the
wrong ERP can be incredibly costly both time wise and financially.
When sourcing an ERP, some factors to consider include:
ease of use or navigation – ensuring that staff at varying technical levels can
adopt and use the software successfully
ability to link to e-commerce websites and external interfaces
ability to talk to other systems both off-the-shelf and proprietary including
accounting, CRM, and website CMS products
security levels and user permissions
process and workflow controls and measures
stock control and auto-reordering
efficiency at the front-line sales staff for entering or dispatching an order
local support and training by qualified suppliers
on-going costs and maintenance updates
a clear understanding of the business benefits and outcomes that are required.
Case Study - Vehicle Components
Vehicle Components are Australia’s leading manufacturer of off-road, heavy duty
suspension and tow hitches for caravans and camper trailers. With over 30 years’
experience, and an outstanding commitment to innovation and product development,
they have enjoyed great success during their time in business.
The company is currently implementing an ERP into their business. Mathew
Claringbold, the General Manager, was responsible for finding and implementing an
ERP solution. Mathew’s tips include:
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Ensure your internal processes are clearly defined and can be supported by the
ERP.
Get management buy-in to the benefits of moving to an ERP integrated model.
Exaggerate your implementation timeline as something will always go astray.
Keep the momentum moving forward with actions and deadlines.
Assume nothing – ask questions.
Show your staff a brief introduction to ensure they understand the business
benefits of moving to this type of environment.
Ensure you get a test environment as close to your real one as possible and
ensure the testers actually test it without assumptions.
Don’t get sold a dream of the perfect system understand you can’t have
everything.
Address any staff concerns quickly, communicate progress and positives –
create a buzz around it so you don’t get overwhelmed with change resistance.
Keep departmental screens the same and avoid excessively modifying the
system, especially early on.
Don’t settle for any solution – do you research, ask plenty of questions of the
suppliers to ensure the right fit is achieved.
Business Analytics and Data Visualisations
Flowing on from the concept of Big Data, currently a buzz word in the economic and
digital sectors, business analytics aims to turn business critical data into visual models
to enable all staff and management to have live information at their fingertips to help
make decisions.
Case study
Brisbane company, Divest IT are one of Australia’s premier cloud services providers.
The firm utilises live data to show how their business is performing at any point in time.
At the end of each service call, the customer is prompted to answer some basic
questions about the level of service they received. This data is linked to that specific
job from the time it is initiated through to closure. It is also linked to the number of jobs
that may have come through to the business on any given day.
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This data is displayed on large television screens in the sales and service team offices
for all staff to see how the business is performing on that specific day.
One of the key outcomes of this style of analysis and visual reporting is the team’s
ability to easily view how, as a business, they are progressing against their KPIs and
working towards a common business goal.
Mobile solutions
The concept of telecommuting is becoming more and more the norm in businesses
globally. Employees are using laptop computers rather than fixed PCs, and relying on
smartphones and tablets to connect with customers, colleagues, and their business
critical systems.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), 1.19 billion workers, or almost
34.9% of the workforce worldwide, will be using mobile technology this year.
In 2012, 350 million PCs were sold, with 1.6 billion in use around the world. In the
same period, 1.7 billion mobile phones were sold, with 3.2 billion mobile users globally.
In 2013 well over 200 million tablet devices will be sold.
One of the core advantages of this shift to mobile solutions is the ability to access
quality internet wherever, whenever enabling your business to continue outside the
four walls of the office. Additionally it provides your staff out on the road the ability to
be constantly connected back to your business’s office or central location.
Mobility solutions include:
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taking mobile payments using tools like PayPal Here, and CommBank’s Pi and
Leo
cloud-based solutions, specifically using an iPad as a point of sale system
cloud-based accounting solutions enabling you to invoice, undertake payroll,
access account information remotely.
Additionally, they can include:
mobile application (app) development
enterprise application development or deployment
mobile websites.
Mobile app development and enterprise app development
Mobile app development is when application software is created to run on a
smartphone or tablet – typically a more contemporary device such as an iPhone, iPad,
Android phone or tablet, Windows phone, Blackberry etc.
The apps are built natively which means it has been built using the default coding
language for the device. For example, for iPhone the development platform is
Objective C.
Mobile applications can be used for a variety of functions, including:
1. Supplementing your service or product
This is when you develop apps to increase your customer’s user experience
with your business. A simple example of this is your bank providing an app
which allows you to check your account balances wherever and whenever you
want. Supplementary apps provide services attached to your business which
are quicker and more convenient for your customers. Think about how your
business could be improved with a free app which subsequently creates a more
satisfied customer base.
2. Internal Use – Apps for your team
Apps don't necessarily have to be about increasing your business through your
customer base. Apps can also be used to assist your staff to perform their job
more quickly, track and backup information more efficiently or communicate
more easily. This will assist in decreasing your expenditure and increasing your
team’s efficiencies.
3. Apps designed as part of your e-commerce model
Apps do not have to simply be supplementary to your business, they can form a
component of your e-commerce strategy. Apps developed in line with your
business strategy, which you have the resources to design and program
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effectively and efficiently, could provide an unlikely extra source of revenue and
also assist in creating a more diverse and resilient business structure. This may
be as easy as having an app to streamline access to your website.
Case study - Caroma
Caroma are one of Australia’s leading manufacturing companies for bathroom and
sanitary ware products.
The company has created a mobile app for plumbers to assist them in finding
information and installation data for each of the Caroma products, quickly and easily.
The product acts as a pocket guide, helping plumbers to correctly fit their products,
along with other critical information about their overall business.
Enterprise internal apps
Apps don’t necessarily need to be distributed through an application store, such as
Google Play or iTunes.
Apps can be installed on specific devices rather than distributed via the major app
stores, meaning they are available to a sales team of six people or a management
team of nine or a global sales team of 82 people. This provides you with the
opportunity to create applications specifically for your business, which encompass your
particular needs.
For example, if you owned a busy, B2B or B2C installations company with field sales
staff who move from appointment to appointment, creating quotes and estimates for
your clients, you might use a traditional paper-based business process, hand writing
the quote, then taking it back to the office and manually inputting it into an accounting
program or spreadsheet to calculate the cost.
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A mobile solution would be to create a custom application that your sales team could
use via their iPad/tablet while they are out in the field, capturing client information,
taking all the measurements, photos and other notes, and generating a quote on the
spot.
This scenario could then be leveraged if your accounting software was cloud-based.
When your customer accepted the quote, it could be transferred from the app to your
accounting software and then invoiced directly to your customer for payment.
Scenarios like this show where both cost and time efficiencies can be gained from staff
no longer undertaking tasks such as manual data-entry, or the internal paper trail from
job quoted, through to job invoiced, processed and produced.
Case study - Aaron Shiner, Elliot Shiner Real Estate
Aaron Shiner has been named, one of Australia’s brightest young real estate agents
winning awards including, number 1 exclusive listing agent in Australia and number 1
selling agent in Australia (for the First National real estate group) and many others.
Aaron has created, over time, a high-end iPad driven platform allowing him to capture
customer and new listing information, quickly and simply.
His custom made iPad app, enables him to walk through a new seller’s property and
take notes on the number of bedrooms or bathrooms and take photos of each. He can
then quickly match the vendor’s property information, such 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms –
against people who have been to one of his ‘Open House’ events where he collected
information about the specific type of property they were seeking.
It enables Aaron to quickly and easily send a message out to these pre-qualified
buyers advising them of the new listing.
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Section 3 – Digital audit
The Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth
Games has created the framework for a Small Business Digital Readiness audit tool.
What is a digital audit?
A digital audit enables a small business owner to understand where in their business
they are digitally deficient. It provides a roadmap to progress from being a digital
novice, through to a digitally advanced business. It further gives you a clearer
understanding of where your business is currently positioned on the beginner to
advanced continuum.
In this section, we will examine each component of your digital strategy from Online
Presence through to Business Strategy, and explain what each section looks like from
the perspective of your business having reached the consolidating level and are
wanting to progress to a digitally advanced business.
Understanding and using the framework
When undertaking a digital transformation, there are three levels or stages a business
goes through, Surviving, Consolidating and Leading.
Surviving refers to businesses with little or no digital innovation. This applies to
businesses currently using only basic and broad digital channels such as a brochure
website which isn’t updated regularly, and is unable to accept orders via email.
Consolidating refers to businesses with moderate digital innovation. These
businesses would have a website which is actively used as an e-commerce platform
and accept orders via their website. They may be using various pieces of software
internally to simplify their processes, or they may be using some cloud-based services
for remote workers.
Leading refers to businesses which are at the top of their game from a digital
perspective, constantly striving to better their digital position. They offer the full end-to-
end solutions via web and digital platforms, and invest in technology and digital
solutions across every level of the business.
Auditing your business
Following is a digital audit tool that will help you to assess where your business
currently sits from a digital perspective.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Small Business Digital Audit Tool
Area Surviving Characteristics
(Digital Novice) Consolidating Characteristics
(Digitally Active) Leading Characteristics
(Digitally Advanced) My Level
Online presence
I have developed and launched a business website
I can take customer orders
I can process payments online
I have end-to-end online ordering
I have end-to-end delivery/fulfilment
Novice Consolidating Advanced
Digital marketing
I have basic SEO
I have some directory listings
I am on Google Local
I utilise online advertising
I utilise Google Adwords,
I utilise SERP
I utilise search marketing
I have a Facebook business page
I utilise content marketing
I have integrated online/offline marketing and promotion activities
I use social media to market products and keep my clients updated.(Twitter)
Novice
Consolidating
Advanced
Customer interaction
I have email management
I have basic social media management
I have FAQs
I can receive customer reviews
I have a CRM
I am aware of privacy issues
I utilise spam
I have integrated feedback management
I have moved to web self-service and support
I have real-time chat available for customers
I use social media for interacting with my customers and addressing issues with my product/service
I have CRM integration
I base my decision-making on customer interactions
I use customer intelligence
Novice
Consolidating
Advanced
Supplier interaction
I find; place orders with and pay suppliers online
I have integrated online ordering and stock control with my suppliers’ online systems
I share customer intelligence and interactions with key suppliers
I utilise ERP
Novice Consolidating Advanced
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Area Surviving Characteristics
(Digital Novice) Consolidating Characteristics
(Digitally Active) Leading Characteristics
(Digitally Advanced) My Level
Mobility
Optimising online services for mobile devices and supporting mobile customers
I am interacting with mobile customers
I am using mobile devices in my business
My staff are able to telecommute
Location-aware and device-aware marketing, mobile apps and mobile product delivery
Novice Consolidating
Advanced
Online security
Optimising online services for mobile devices and supporting mobile customers
Online disaster recovery, business-wide policies and security processes
Multiple redundant systems, security certificates and digital signatures
Novice Consolidating
Advanced
Technology and efficiency
Tracking and managing online interactions, basic web analytics
Cloud computing, SaaS subscription, tracking KPIs
Scalable online business models, integrated systems and customer intelligence
Novice Consolidating
Advanced
Business strategy
Awareness of the need for digital strategy and likely impacts
Critical digital capabilities are built into business plan and marketing plan
Business plan and marketing plan are primarily focused on digital business
Novice Consolidating Advanced
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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How to survive and progress to the next level
Taking the next step can be daunting; the amount of information available for small
businesses can often be overwhelming and confusing.
Below is a brief overview of each of the digital audit components. The focus of this
overview is on the Consolidating level and what steps you can take to move up to a
digitally advanced business.
Online Presence
At a consolidating level, your business would be taking orders online and selling via
your e-commerce store. You may also collect customer feedback or have a self-service
FAQs section on your website where your customers are able to resolve their
questions about your business without contacting your staff. You may have an
advanced search engine strategy in place helping your website to rank as highly as
possible. The website would also have significant ‘call to actions’, enabling customers
or potential customers to quickly and easily sign-up for more information.
To progress to an advanced level consider:
End-to-end online ordering – Your customers will have the option of ordering
online without contacting your sales team at any point in the transaction. The
order will automatically sync with your accounting software and internal
management software and the product will progress to the production line or
shipment stage within moments of the order being placed.
Online support -You will have a live-chat support service where customers are
able to make enquiries with your team via an online chat solution.
End-to-end delivery or fulfilment - Your clients will be able track their product
purchase in real-time, via your website.
Digital Marketing
At a consolidating level your business is heavily focused on search engine marketing
and search engine optimisation. More than likely you have an advanced Google
Adword strategy in place and are focused on developing fresh, keyword rich content to
publish to your website. You may also have a detailed email marketing program which
you use to keep in contact with customers and people who have registered via your
website.
To progress to an advanced level consider:
Content strategy – You will have embarked on an intense and well planned
content strategy for your website to evolve it to the next level.
Integration of offline and online activities – You will have seamless
integration of your offline and online marketing communications. This provides
your customer with a similar brand experience both online and offline.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Marketing automation – you would be using a tool such as Marketo or
Infusionsoft to automate your marketing tactics and nurture leads which are
then provided to your sales staff.
Customer Interaction
At a consolidating level you would be capturing customer data at the end of every
purchase and interaction, and analysing this data internally. You have a web-based
self-service tool enabling customers to debug issues, and you would be using online
chat and social media channels as a means to engage clients directly to answer
queries and questions.
To progress to an advanced level, consider:
Customer Relationship Management tool – you will have a dedicated CRM
tool (ie. Saleforce, Highrise HQ etc) implemented and being used as a central
component of your sales strategy and customer interaction strategy.
Customer intelligence - is being used throughout the business in real-time via
interactive dashboards, and is captured in real-time through interconnected
software.
Supplier Interaction
At a consolidating level you will be automatically re-ordering goods and services from
suppliers when your stock drops to set levels, largely driven by your ERP system and
accounting software. You will be collecting and providing customer feedback and
intelligence to suppliers to help improve their product mix. You will link payments to
purchase orders in your accounting software to automatically pay your supplier when
the goods arrive or on the statement due date.
To progress to an advanced level, consider:
Investigating moving to an ERP – ERPs can help simplify complex business
processes and systemise your business workflows.
Use digital devices to do stock takes – you will use digital tools to undertake
stocktakes to minimise errors and gain cost and time efficiencies.
Mobility
At a consolidating level you have a mobile compatible website and your customers
would have a similar experience on your mobile website as on your main website. You
would be looking at ways of making inroads into moving your business into the mobile
environment. You would have a BYOD policy available for staff wanting to bring and
use their own devices.
To progress to an advanced level, consider:
Location aware/device aware marketing – through providing marketing which
is specific to the location of your customer.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Creation of bespoke mobile application solutions – Creating custom tools
that assist your staff undertake their job more efficiently.
Mobile website – Ensure your mobile website is constantly tested across new
devices and platforms for best use and optimisation.
Online Security
At a consolidating level you are considering steps to ensure data recovery during a
disaster, and solutions to ensure data is regularly backed up and your business
information is safe and secure. You would also have policy for staff using and
accessing information and data on your network and similar processes in place for
BYOD by your staff. All security processes would be documented and be understood
by staff/contractors.
To progress to an advanced level, consider:
Multiple redundant off-site backups – Your data will be housed in data-
centres with multiple off-site backups between centres, ensuring data is 99%
secure. Each data store would be encrypted.
Standalone environments – Your data will be housed in independently
tenanted environments rather than multi-tenanted environments.
Data loss insurance – You will have data-loss insurance and be protected in
the event your information is lost or stolen.
Technology and Efficiency
At a consolidating level, you would be investigating the use of cloud based services
and solutions, along with opportunities to use cloud software solutions (software-as-a-
service) rather than buying and installing heavy, clunky products. You would have a
strong focus on mobility solutions, and creating numerous business efficiencies
through the use of mobile-based products. You would be considering the benefits that
customised mobile applications could have on the daily operation of your business.
You would also be using data within your business to make and shape decisions.
To progress to an advanced level, consider:
Creating a scalable online business model – Your online operation will be
scalable, linked with investment and increases in sales etc. The online offering
will be largely non-reliant on staffing particularly in a rapid growth scenario.
System integration – Your business will have integrated software packages
and solutions enabling quick comparison of data across the business.
Strong focus on customer intelligence – Customer intelligence will be
tracked and captured in your CRM or marketing solution to enable the business
to quickly and efficiently segment data into core customer groups and profiles.
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Business Strategy
Businesses at a consolidating level will have undergone significant reworking of your
business plan to ensure each strategic element has been linked with digital solutions
where possible. You would be focusing on your marketing plan and strategy, seeking
opportunities to incorporate digital channels and technology into the marketing and
promotion of your business.
To progress to an advanced level, consider:
Shift to digital – You will be focused on making digital the core of your
business. Your business plan and marketing strategy will leverage off digital
tools to enable efficiency and innovation gains across the business. Your
marketing strategy will have a significant focus on digital solutions and tactics.
The future
Australian businesses who continue to make the most of their current business model,
invest in new capabilities and future business models will thrive as our economy
becomes ever more digital.
It is critical for you to become a business leader who is prepared to consistently disrupt
and innovate and ensure that your customers and clients are central to every
component of your business. Your customers and clients will reward you for investing
in line with their needs and expectations and punish those who believe it’s enough to
rest on how you’ve always done business.
Preparing your business for storm season
Page 41
Glossary of terms
App Mobile application – software designed to run on a mobile
phone or mobile computing device. Apps are designed to
serve one purpose, not many.
Blog A website used as an online journal, or commentary piece, on
which an individual or group of users publish opinions,
information, etc. on a regular basis
BYOD Bring Your Own Device – refers to employees using their own
digital devices in the workplace
CCIQ Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland
CRM Customer Relationship Management – software to record
customer details, interactions and leads
Crowdsourcing Making use of an online community to fulfil a task traditionally
performed by an employee
Digital assets Include y your website, e-commerce solution, mobile
applications, business data, computing resources, databases
and more
E-commerce Commerce conducted electronically (as on the internet)
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning - management of many
business resources from a central point/application/portal
FAQ Frequently asked question
IaaS Infrastructure-as-a-Service – also known as “cloud computing”
– running your computer systems off-site but accessible from
any internet connection.
KPI Key performance indicator - measurement of real (often
against predicted) performance
M-commerce Commerce conducted via mobile devices (smartphones and
tablets)
Digital strategy – Intermediate
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Online banner ads A form of advertising on the web achieved by embedding an
advertisement into a web page
PaaS Platform-as-a-Service – a way to rent computing capacity
online
Pull marketing A pull strategy involves motivating customers to seek out your
brand in an active process - the premise is that customers are
more likely to read it if they’ve gone looking for it.
Push marketing A push strategy involves taking the product directly to the
customer via whatever means(for example mass, email or junk
mail marketing) ensuring the customer is aware of your brand
at the point of purchase.
ROI Return on investment – determining how long it takes to make
your initial investment back in projected savings
SaaS Software-as-a-Service – also known as “on demand” or
subscription-based software (a cloud service)
SERP search engine results page – a page of results displayed when
you search online (e.g. on Google)
Social media Internet based tools used for communicating and sharing
information among people. The means of interactions among
people in which they create, share, and exchange information
and ideas in virtual communities and networks.
SSL certificate Secure Sockets Layer certificate - a cryptographic protocol
used to secure your online communications and activities.
Digital strategy - Intermediate
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Appendix 1 – Resources
Business Queensland:
http://www.business.qld.gov.au/business/running/marketing/online-
marketing/using-facebook-to-market-your-business
https://www.facebook.com/businessqldgov
https://twitter.com/Businessqldgov
http://www.youtube.com/businessqldgov
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