Why are you so enthusiastic about Digital? PART 1 (of2)

Why are you so enthusiastic about Digital? PART 1 (of2)

Isn't digital just marketing?

Isn't digital dead?

These are the questions I have been asked since the arrival of Digital over 20 years ago. When the wave hit and I chose to start paddling rather than swimming for the shore. 

That choice wasn't a choice at all as I only stayed in the water as swimming offered me the freedom to learn and be myself. But that's another story.

This story is all business.

None of that vulnerable icky stuff will be found in this article. I will save that story for part 2 for those like me who kind of love that stuff. Let's be honest; that's where the good stories lie.

But back to business.

I see digital as a framework. My brain simply works better when I consider complex ideas as frameworks of simplified models.

So this is my digital framework.

A valuable tool to elevate the conversation beyond what we think the problem is to consider what the problem actually might be.

Beyond - "the problem is marketing" - to the problem might be that we just don't know who our customers are and what they need form us and thus we have been selling the wrong product.

The framework enables us to move beyond just the technical challenge to consider the adaptive (or human) challenge.

So consider. 

Digital is the human experience of technology. Customers travel though that experience to access your value and staff use it to communicate your value. Often the experience is not good. Usually, it creates friction and barriers as the customer or staff member have to leap over walls as they take the next step in their journey. Those walls are the result of silos internally or legacy systems and technology that don't play well together.

So I am a marketer - yes!

Is that purely a marketing problem - no! 

But I saw pretty early on that Digital was my chance to elevate the conversation around marketing beyond just the admin, creative, fluffy department. 

Digital enabled the silos to connect. 

We had a common language and an ability to put our siloed language to the side based on a common goal - a value filled, inspiring and easy customer journey.

It enabled marketing to influence and build value as the guide in that human experience.

It enabled me to bring my human skills to the table to influence a shift away from the internal perspective to the external holistic view of the customer as a human being.

How can we transform this human experience? 

And what can I personally do to make it better?

That human experience starts well before marketing gets involved and is around long after we leave the experience.

But what if we stuck around?

And continued to build value at each step in that experience?

Perhaps that's the new marketing?

Perhaps we can carry the banner to create a human experience that is not only efficient but delightful. An experience that creates value rather than frustration.

That's is why I love digital.

That is why I bang on about it.

Let's have a bigger conversation.

And make it about people.

You never know what might come of it. 

At Your Digital Coach, I teach leaders the digital skills they need in their businesses to enable digital transformation. Consider this offer as a DIY approach.

At Partners in digital, I help business transform the human experience in their business to enable growth and innovation. This is more of the 'do it with you' approach.

For both, we use the humanise framework to help leaders discover where their human challenge lies.

Does it mean we are always the people to solve that problem?

No!

If it lies outside our remit, then we build a collaborative ecosystem around the challenge so that we can work towards a solution to the right challenge.

Are you ready for a bigger conversation around your adaptive (human) challenge? 

Let's talk!