Insights
“Digital maturity” is a phrase you may hear in conversations about digital marketing strategies and tactics, but what does it really mean? In this article, Br8kthru will analyze and explain digital marketing maturity as a method to continuously improve an organization’s digital marketing activities using the tactics and platforms you already have. By being intentional about your strategy, you can create a lasting impression on buyers with your digital marketing.
Get the Hang of Maturity: The Basics of Digital Maturity
In an ever-evolving, increasingly online world, digital maturity is a key component of understanding your organization’s current state. Simply put, digital maturity measures how well an organization utilizes digital tools to create value or reach business goals.
Beyond just technology, digital maturity involves the various strategies and tactics used both for campaigns and the organization, as well as the business goals the strategies and tactics are being used to achieve.
Based on our experience, digitally mature organizations — or organizations that are aware of their digital maturity and taking steps to advance it — are more likely to experience improved Client experiences, increased operational efficiency, and a stronger competitive advantage. This is because organizations that are aware of their digital maturity are more equipped to make effective and efficient decisions about their strategies and tactics to align with what is realistic for them to accomplish, leading to better results over time.
Measure Digital Maturity: Foundation, Acceleration + Expansion
Measuring digital maturity can be challenging because it exists on a spectrum — the tactics and strategies that work well for an organization depend on the unique circumstances of that organization, and what is seemingly basic for one organization may be advanced for another. Nonetheless, organizations seeking to improve their digital maturity can leverage Br8kthru’s Digital Marketing Maturity Model to gain a better understanding of their current state to improve it.
At Br8kthru, our Digital Marketing Maturity Model acts as a guide for our Clients to best understand their existing digital maturity and their potential for growth over time. We break up digital maturity into three phases: Foundation, Acceleration, and Expansion. Often, we refer to these stages as crawl, walk, and run to demonstrate how intertwined they are and how important it is to get a handle on one stage before moving on to the next.
Foundational Activities Lay the Groundwork
When entering the Foundation phase, organizations are laying the groundwork for future activities. By establishing these basics, your organization will be more prepared to build on this foundation in the future as your strategies and tactics grow more advanced. From setting up core infrastructure, like a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, to creating a website, app, or portal to engage with prospects and Clients, these activities are vital components of a mature digital marketing strategy.
Acceleration Activities Help Achieve Results
The Acceleration phase of Digital Maturity involves moving past foundational activities and into slightly more advanced ones, like SEO, content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing. These activities can help build brand awareness and nurture leads to conversion when approached effectively. Over time, their impact is also compounded, leading to greater results.
Expansion Activities Open New Doors
In the Expansion phase of Digital Marketing Maturity, businesses have attended to their foundational needs, accelerated their efforts, and are ready to integrate more in-depth tactics to reach customers and provide them with more personalized experiences. By incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, account-based marketing, automation, and digital PR, organizations have an opportunity to reach customers where they are while streamlining operations for better outcomes.
Practical Applications: Build a Digitally Mature Strategy
Once you’ve identified what stage of the Digital Marketing Maturity Model you’re in, you can begin to consider your next round of strategy. Allowing your digital marketing maturity to inform your strategy will help ensure you maximize your ROI of your actions. Digital maturity, after all, impacts which tactics will be most successful, given your current state. Not all tactics make sense for all organizations, and some tactics, like those in the acceleration and expansion phases, are better suited for organizations with more advanced marketing teams.
Whether your organization is at the foundational stage or the expansion stage, there are steps that you can take to ensure your strategy is as digitally mature as possible. You can create a flexible, dynamic, and successful strategy through the following steps of reflection and planning.
Regardless of your organization's specific stage of digital maturity, you can build a strategy that suits your needs and situation while being mindful of the reality of your resources and capabilities.
Measurement and Examples of Digital Maturity
Br8kthru’s Digital Marketing Maturity Model has been leveraged to support Clients across industries as they’ve grown and refined their digital marketing strategies.
- An LED lighting + technology solutions company laid the foundation for future success with a high-quality rebrand, leading to a 31% increase in website traffic.
- A Global Fortune 500 Manufacturer created a cohesive strategy to prioritize foundational activities while setting the stage for acceleration and expansion, leading to a 176% increase in page views.
- The risk management arm of a company sought to accelerate its efforts with email marketing, then expanded with automated workflows. The workflows then received a 39% conversion rate.
- A federal credit union accelerated and expanded paid media efforts using seasonality and programmatic ads, resulting in an 11% increase in conversion year-over-year.
- A technology services provider expanded its efforts into chatbots as an always-on sales tool to address any customer inquiries. With unique chatbot scripts and if/then logic, 87.6% of viewers were shown chatbots to answer their questions.
No matter what stage of your digital marketing journey, Br8kthru has supported our Clients through it and beyond. From beginner strategies to the most advanced, our subject matter experts can support you and your team in achieving your desired results using our Digital Marketing Maturity Model.
Digital Marketing Gap Audit as a Digital Maturity Assessment
Br8kthru offers a complimentary Digital Marketing Gap Audit to help analyze and assess your current state and future state opportunities.
First, we’ll collaborate with you and your team to understand your needs and goals. Whether you want to generate demand or nurture leads, having a baseline understanding of your goals will allow us to assess your activities more accurately. Next, our senior-level talent will analyze their areas of expertise, keeping a close eye on strengths and opportunities. As subject matter experts, our team is uniquely equipped to analyze your work and benchmark against industry best practices and potential competitors. Finally, we will present you with our findings, prioritized based on your organization's digital maturity.
A Digital Marketing Gap Audit is an opportunity for you to better understand your current state, both in terms of areas of strength and areas for improvement. Using the findings from the Digital Marketing Gap Audit, you can identify strategies for future action to make improvements to your digital marketing activities. In turn, this will allow you to align your digital marketing to your business goals to create a more cohesive and sustainable path for future growth and development.
Are You Ready to Grow? Get Started with a Digital Marketing Gap Audit
As your business continues to grow, your digital marketing maturity should remain front of mind. Being aware of your maturity will allow you not only to make tactical decisions but also to allow you to align your strategy with business goals for a higher return on investment in your marketing activities.
If you’re uncertain about your organization's current digital maturity, we can help. Br8kthru’s Digital Marketing Gap Audit is an opportunity for you to have our expert team dive into your current activities to gauge your current digital maturity — and share our recommendations to help you continue to grow and advance your strategies. Request your audit today and start your journey to new heights.