Small and medium businesses operating in various fields form the foundation of the global economy. This segment is often called the true “engine” of rapid economic growth, accounting for about 90% of all operating enterprises. Such businesses provide up to 70% of jobs and 50% of GDP in the global market. Complete digitalization of business processes, already used by huge companies and various corporations, is considered a key direction in active development. Keeping pace with the times, new and effective solutions should be implemented, and therefore digital transformation should become an integral part of small business development.
Recent years have been quite difficult for small businesses, which were undoubtedly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. After such devastating events and serious problems, it’s important for small businesses to quickly adapt to rapidly changing conditions. For this reason, many small enterprises are undergoing digital transformation to remain competitive and attract new customers online.
Digital Transformation: Understanding the Concept
First of all, it’s worth understanding what is digital transformation. It’s a complete process involving the active implementation of digital technologies in the business sphere. As a result, companies and firms manage to radically change the initial potential of their services and products offered to consumers.
Often, implementing such transformation is directly related to cultural and operational changes. With their help, it will be much better to adapt to the requirements and requests of the target audience (TA), which regularly change.
Main examples of digital transformation:
- Implementation of digital solutions like mobile applications, development of special e-Commerce platforms.
- Implementation of intelligent sensors to reduce operational costs.
- Abandoning local computer infrastructure in favor of cloud technologies.
Given the pandemic’s consequences, small companies and enterprises must quickly adapt to various changes (for example, sudden supply chain disruptions, changing customer needs, and so on). It’s necessary to learn to keep pace with the times using working digital transformation strategies.
Integrated Approaches
Today, small business marketing requires new solutions and the application of well-thought-out integrated approaches. To quickly adapt and grow after devastating events (for example, after the pandemic), attention should be paid to the following important and useful solutions:
- Strategic web design. This approach is based on collecting real-time information data using multiple sources – internal (directors, owners, line staff) and external (consumer wishes, market changes). As a result, it will be possible to create an ideal internet portal design that will meet modern market needs, business owner expectations, and satisfy TA requests.
- SEO-oriented content. For this, you shouldn’t ignore current text spam scanning algorithms from various search engines. It’s important to create not only engaging content for your consumers but also SEO-optimized content necessary for successful ranking in search engines. This is an excellent solution for small businesses not only to “stay afloat” on the Internet but also to make themselves known to a wide audience.
- User-oriented UX/UI improvements. It’s recommended to familiarize yourself with the main trends aimed at a maximally simple and understandable interface. Today, minimalism in design is called a real trend that every user values. It will also not be superfluous to lean towards personalization, considering individual needs of each client.
Also, don’t ignore the importance of project management in optimizing certain initiatives. As a result, you can count on quality returns in the form of replenishing the TA with new faces, increasing company revenue, and brand awareness.
What is a Complete Digital Transformation Strategy
Digital transformation strategy is a carefully thought-out plan for implementing digital transformation in any company or enterprise. For example, small businesses can actively use both long-term and short-term digitalization, based on specific goals and objectives.
But to create such a plan, several important features and factors should be remembered:
- effective set of tools to support transformation;
- KPIs for further ROI measurement;
- transformation impact on customers and all company employees.
To create a truly successful strategy even for a small business, follow these four main stages:
- Launch digitalization only after aligning it with your small business goals.
- Create quality samples – these are initial strategies that can prove return on financial investment.
- Create a clear plan regarding future implementation of strategic solutions. Various digital transformation tools can be used for this.
- Collect feedback to establish a feedback chain.
An important advantage of such transformation today is called its special flexibility, so changes can be made at any time and at any stage of work.
Tools for Optimizing Work Processes and Monitoring Important Indicators
One of the main mistakes of small business is the lack of proper attention to collecting and analyzing all data and optimizing processes. As a result, company owners face such common problems as decreased overall productivity, unjustified waste of time and own resources. With a gradual increase in the number of customers, service may deteriorate, which is unacceptable for small firms that already suffer from high competition. Therefore, project management tools come to help, allowing to collect analytical data. This will help understand and determine: what needs to be changed, what should be implemented, and what should be abandoned altogether.
Remember that any changes in business should start with customer satisfaction. After all, this is the main key to success, and modern customer expectations are directly related to and conditioned by innovations in digital technologies.
Thus, the active trend of implementing digital technologies by small businesses is gaining more momentum. By using the services of the FNT Management team, small enterprises will be able to navigate the digital segment more confidently, actively implement new technologies that increase their competitiveness in a specific business industry.
