3 Compelling Reasons Why You Need A Digital Strategy Now

The world is changing fast. Too fast.

Could you ever have predicted that our lives would change so drastically with the snap of a finger? The Coronavirus pandemic came forth like a thief in the night, robbing our livelihood and stealing our freedom. Suddenly our hopes, dreams, and aspirations swung in a different direction.

This pandemic will forever change our lives. It will change the way we work, learn, travel, the way we interact with one another, and even the way we shop. The pandemic is transforming every consumer’s needs and behavior, putting an extreme focus on Online Shopping.

At the time of this writing, about 60%(250,000 locations) of US stores have closed. A few big-box retailers --Walmart, Target, Kroger, and Costco, are reaping the benefits due to their technology investments and primarily because they carry essential products like food, beverages, and medicines. Secondly, they designed a digital strategy that they were able to efficiently serve their customers through the home delivery and store pick-up service of their E-commerce store.

“A strategy is necessary because the future is unpredictable.”

- Robert Waterman

Technological advances happen so fast, its impact so profound, that it will affect all aspects of our human lives. With the advancements in AI, Blockchain, Voice technology, and Robotics, we may all soon be instantly migrating to a different platform. Facebook may not be the leading social media channel we dwell on. Soon, you can order products via voice or face recognition. Mobile phones may soon be just a thing of the past. It will be replaced by RFID microchips implanted in our body. Some of these technologies are already taking shape. The immense increase in computational power, advanced analytics, and inter-connectivity make our future so unpredictable. So having a well-defined digital strategy in place is crucial to survival. 

Are you ready? Here are essential reasons why you should create a digital strategy NOW.

1. Strategy Gives You Direction

“Without a strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, a strategy is useless.”

- Morris Chang, Business Mogul

What is a strategy? In simple terms, a strategy is an action plan designed to achieve an objective. It tells you what direction to take and how to get there. 

A digital strategy will aid you to set up a road map, create the specific tactics, and define the action steps to take to achieve your goals. It will help you determine your KPI’s and lay down the milestones to hit.  

Most entrepreneurs attempt to solve their problems with tunnel vision. They’re tactical, not strategic. They practice the “Band-Aid Effect.” When they get cut (an analogy for failure ex. “I’m not making enough money” or “ROI is slow”), their knee jerk reaction is to apply a quick fix --Stick a Band-Aid! Usually, that doesn’t work because it's a temporary solution. When you’re used to tactical thinking, more often than not, what you think you need to take your business to the next level is not actually what you need. You must approach issues from a “10 Thousand Feet” above standpoint. It will help you identify the real business problems and help you stay focused on what's important. This gives you clarity. Once this is set, design the action plans and execute the strategy.

Below is a simple framework to help you craft a well-defined action plan for your business. If you’re running an online store, this is an ideal model for you.

To give you a brief backgrounder, in 2006, I represented the Philippines in an event in Taipei organized by APEC. It was an ASEAN competition entitled “Best Practices on E-commerce.” I designed a framework named “The Four Pillars of E-commerce.” This was modeled by the other ASEAN countries and used it to build their first E-commerce platform. This blueprint was used as a guide to help you break-down the different parts of an E-commerce ecosystem so you can accurately define the different items or activities you need to implement for each pillar. This gives you clarity and helps you optimize your design. See illustration below:

•  Domain

Your Domain can be your website (online store, a market place), a physical location(physical store), or even a person (personal brand). This is a place where your products or services reside.

• Marketing

This is where significant efforts must be spent. This pillar includes your email/ social media/ influencer/ messenger marketing, SEO, voice technologies, sales/marketing funnels, etc.

• Payment

According to a survey conducted by The Nerve, a data insights company, in Feb 2019, Cash(51.3%) is still the primary mode of payment for Filipino online shoppers. This pillar includes Cash, credit/debit card payments, digital wallets, bank transfers, crypto payments, etc.

• Logistics

Among all the pillars, Logistics is still the weakest. The Philippines lags behind other ASEAN countries in the areas of infrastructure and logistics competence.

For the pillars to work together, you need to build Trust. And the foundation to efficiently execute your strategies to provide a cohesive Customer Experience(CX).

In each pillar, enumerate everything(tasks, activities, resources, tools needed, tactics, etc.) you need to do/prepare to create your plan. Depending on which pillar, answer the questions like, Domain — Which platform should my website reside? What tools/software do I need to improve my page speed performance?  Marketing— What social media channel should I use for marketing, given my limited budget? How do I do marketing automation? Compose appropriate questions for the other pillars.

List and answer as many questions as you can for each pillar, categorize/segment, then organize. Be creative.

Note: If you’re not an online store, you don’t need logistics or payment. You can eliminate these pillars and work on whatever applies to your business. Don’t forget to fill out the Customer Experience(CX) section. This framework is useful for almost any type of online business.

2. The Battle For Consumer Attention

"New research tells us that this article has about 8 seconds to grab your attention!"

That’s right! 8 seconds! That’s the length of the average human attention span, according to a study done by Microsoft Canada in 2013. Earlier research conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information(NCBI) of the National Library of Medicine, Maryland, USA, found that the average human attention span in the year 2000 was 12 seconds. It has dropped by 4 seconds since 2000. The study found that our memories are worse than that of a Goldfish. The average Goldfish can hold focus for almost 9 seconds.

We lost about one-third(33.3%) of our attention span in the last 15 years. That’s alarming! How do we now attract the attention of our customers?

The marketing landscape has evolved over the years. Consumers want to be appreciated. They want to be heard. They want you, the seller, to engage with them and provide them with what they need. They want an undivided attention. They expect everything to be cheaper, better, faster. They want it personalized. 

As a business owner, how do you currently serve them? What new strategies will you use to woo or convince them to stay? Remember that your customers are online, so as your competitors. If your competitor is agile and crafts a creative idea to attract attention, they will eat the pie. You have to be prepared with a plan of action designed to counter such a move.

“The Future Belongs to the Fast.”

-Meg Whitman

It will be an ever-changing ecosystem. The technological advances are here to stay. It will be crucial if not paramount to business success. It’s now up to how fast your business can adapt, adjust, and overcome.

3. The Advent Of New Money

During the early hours of March 27, 2017, two Chinese cousins set off to carry out the biggest heist in China. The two traveled to the wealthy coastal city of Hangzhou. Peaceful and home to Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, they executed a string of convenience store robberies targeting the busy downtown areas. Armed with two knives, masks, and an electric bike, the cousins robbed three convenience stores consecutively. 

To their dismay, they learned all cash registers were empty, and the owners had almost no cash to relinquish. They managed to loot a total of 1900 yuan (USD 362.00) from the three stores, not even enough to cover their tickets to and from Hangzhou. As the hapless pair contemplate jail time for their criminal acts, their tragic story triggered the rise of mobile payment adoption and China’s shift toward a cashless society.

The cash registers were empty because Chinese consumers during that time started using their mobile phones as a medium to pay for anything (from buying beers at a convenient store, paying for a bus/taxi fare, buying medicines at a drug store, splitting a restaurant bill, etc.) instead of using cash.

I went to the West Lake, a freshwater lake in Hangzhou sometime in 2012. Cash was still the mode of payment at that time. WeChat Pay was in its nascent stage and was only launched a year after. I remembered paying in cash when I rode the trains, bought fruits from the market, rode the boat at West Lake, and ate noodles on the side streets of Hangzhou. It was indeed a regular trade for a foreign visitor. Today, merchants don’t accept cash anymore. Nobody brings their wallets when they leave home. No cash, no credit/debit cards, are needed to move around. All payments are made using Alibaba’s Ali Pay or Tencent’s WeChat Pay. Ali Pay is usually used for online transactions, while WeChat Pay is used in almost any other transaction. All you need is your mobile phone and a fully charged battery to get by.

The fleeting advancements in payment and the quick shift in consumer behavior made China the most significant mobile payments market in the world with an aggregated transaction volume of 277T yuan (USD 41.5T) in 2018. And the country’s two internet giants, Alibaba and Tencent, control more than 90% of the mobile payments market.

No one can predict what payment technology will eventually flourish, but this will soon be available to us. May it be Tencent, Alibaba, some form of fiat money, or a cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, ZCash, Monero, etc.), standards will be set, and there will be one or two players that will thrive. 

The Takeaway

We live in a time that’s both exciting and scary. The business climate is evolving fast. The systems and tools you’re using now are not always guaranteed to work. Every business is vulnerable to the continually changing customer demands and behaviors. For your business to survive, it is imperative to make it a habit to plan. Even a successful business can falter if there’s no established plan handy when things get out of hand.

“Only a fool learns from his mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” 

--Otto van Bismark

Be proactive. It is wise to learn how to predict a setback and identify an opportunity early on. These issues will prompt you to be prepared and plan ahead.

A great example was what Netflix did for streaming services in a world dominated by cable. For Netflix, this was an opportunity and, unfortunately, a setback for Blockbuster. Blockbuster didn’t take them seriously. They didn’t act fast, and there was no defined plan to counter. Their inaction eventually led to their downfall. Just like the pandemic, disruptors will emerge from nowhere, so you have to be ready. There’s never a more crucial time in history than right now to grow eyes in the back of your head. It pays to keep a watchful eye. 

Do you know what your customers want? How do you plan to serve them? Have you identified the potential risks your business may encounter? Have you prepared for a contingency plan? I'd love to hear from you. Let me know your thoughts and share them in the comments section below.

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About the Author:

JOVEL M. CIPRIANO

Creator at JovelCipriano.com

Jovel’s 20 years of experience in the field of IT and Entrepreneurship is the driving force behind his successes. He is a sought after authority in the fields of Entrepreneurship, E-commerce, Internet Marketing, and Export. This ex-IBMer has earned global recognitions from the WTO, APEC, and the UN. Jovel graduated from the University of the Philippines with a double degree in Computer Science and Tourism. In his spare time, Jovel enjoys adventure sports such as surfing, scuba diving, and mountaineering. He loves traveling, playing guitar, and exploring exotic local cuisines.

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