Digital Strategy & E-commerce

• Organizations thrive in the digital area, developing new strategies and business models

Steps to Know at the End

• Analyze the challenges of digital technology
• Use project management tools in a digital environment
• Apply the principles of digital design thinking in strategic decisions
• Understand the legal framework of the digital environment
• Apply Digital Marketing tools and techniques
• Understand the evolution of e-commerce towards u-commerce

Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom

• Data is context
• Information provides meaning
• Knowledge provides insight
• Wisdom carries high value

Intellectual capital

• Value of intangible assets
• Organizational Capital represents aggregated IT systems belonging to the company (distribution networks, values, beliefs, organizational culture, and supply chains.)
• Human Capital: Human resources of a company, both internal (employees) and external (customers and suppliers).

E-commerce and Cart Abandonment Example

• 70% of shopping carts are abandoned on websites
• 50% of abandonments happen on the checkout page and 30% of users leave after seeing the shipping cost
• Market research indicates that customers value transparency in shipping costs
• Offering installment payment options reduces cart abandonment

Innovation

• Formation of new processes, products, and/or solutions.
• Process Innovation involves new or substantially improved methods and equipment or skills for performing the service
• Product Innovation introduces new or significantly improved features
• Open Innovation shares information with organizations outside the company for better ideas to improve faster and better
• Closed Innovation works inside the organization and protects intellectual property from competitors
• Innovation is crucial to improve organizational structure and will affect the efficiency of results

Digital Business Strategy Questions for Organizations

• Does digital technology change the businesses you should be in?
• How could digital technology improve the way you add value to the businesses you are in?
• Could digital technology change your target customer?
• Does digital technology affect the value proposition to your target customer?
• How can digital technology enhance the enterprise capabilities that differentiate you from your competition?

MOSCOW Project Prioritization Method

• Must-have initiatives must not lack in product
• Should-have are essential initiatives but are not vital in your product
• Could-have are initiatives that are nice to have in your product
• Won't-have initiatives that are not the priorities in your product

Understanding Change in Marketing

• Product-centric
• Customer-centric
• Human-centric
• Transition to digital
• Digital Technology

Barriers to adopting new technologies

• Resistance to change
• Legacy Systems
• Costs
• Complexity
• Security and privacy
• Skills gap
• Regulation and compliance
• Cultural mindset
• Uncertainty

Digital Transformation (DTX)

• Organizations adopt emerging technologies to improve daily operations
• Technologies transform operations, create value, and bring different experiences to the different audiences involved
• Four Dimensions of DTX is customer experience, employee experience, process optimization, and product optimization

Digital Business Models

• Frameworks that describe how a company creates, delivers, and captures value Technology to create, deliver and capture value

Digital Business Model characteristics

• Customer experience and engagement
• Scale quickly

Traditional Business Model

• Uses digital tools to support existing processes
• Has one-time transactions
• Is location dependent
• Requires face-to-face reliability

Digital Business Model

• Is born in the digital world
• Platform-based, subscription
• Scales globally
• Operates 24/7, omnichannel

Challenges of a Digital Business Model

• Adaptation
• Competition
• Data privacy
• Customer expectations
• Manual and paper-based processes
• Siloed data and lack of data-driven decision-making
• Disconnected systems and technologies
• High IT costs
• Changing business models or strategies

Business Models

• Transactional model charges pay for the entire product/service
• Shared economy model charges a fee
• Freemium model charges additional premium extras
• Subscription model charges a regular payment
• Advertising model charges small payments
• Affiliation model charges commission on sales
• Pay per View model charges for selected content
• CPM model (Cost per mille) advertisers pay for exposure, on milestone
• CPC (Cost per click) model charges advertisers pay per click
• Database Email model is when partners pay per email sent

Functional Requirements of Project Solution and Designs

• What it does
• Includes business needs, reports, admin tools, and a login system

Non-Functional Requirements of Project Solution and Designs

• How it works
• Implies it must be fast, secure, easy to use, and works everywhere

Project Planning

• Must be achievable, granular, consistent, verifiable, necessary, and stated concisely
• Agile methodology features several smaller deliveries, executed in each iteration with the construction gradually
• Waterfall methodology completes the delivery at the end

Understanding Digital Consumer

• Consumer behavior is an ongoing process
• It is important for businesses Adapting to Digital for cultural and strategic shift that impacts the entire organization which changes consumer behavior, competitiveness and market relevance; and expands reach and market opportunities

Enhanced capabilities due to adapting to digital

• Cost reduction and operational efficiency
• Enhanced analytics and decision-making
• Adaptability to crises and market changes

Evolution of the Digital Consumer

• Pre-Digital Consumer (1960s-90s) had limited information, high loyalty, traditional media, high mass advertising, and linear purchase
• Issue for Pre-Digital Consumer: Limited choices and personalization
• Digital Consumer (2000-2020) displayed less brand loyalty, valued omnichannel experience, desired for interactive features, and were concerned about security
• Issue of Digital Consumer: Information overload
• Future Consumer (2030+) is ethical, subscription-based, values experience over ownership, and requires full tech integration
• Issue of Future Consumer is privacy concern and technology reliance

Marketing Strategies

• If your message isn't clear, people won't pay attention
• If someone visits a brand website, will they understand in 5 seconds what they do?
• Storytelling is key to communication, so simplify your message

Storytelling in Marketing

• Customer= hero
• Company= guide
• Message= oriented

Elements of Storytelling

• Defining the Customer (The Hero)
• Identifying the Problem (The Story Conflict)
• Positioning Brand as the Guide
• Creating a Plan (A Clear Step-by-Step Guide)
• Call to Action (CTA)
• Highlighting the Risk (What's at Stake?)
• Showing Success (The Customer's Transformation) Sales Funnel: tool to understand and managing a potential customer's purchase processes, but potential customers decreases at the end of the funnel

Digital Marketing Sales Funnel Stages

• Awareness stage uses content marketing, social media, paid advertisements, SEO/SEM, and public relations
• Interest stage uses landing pages, e-books, newsletter, free tools, and case studies
• Decision stage: Uses sales pages, free consultation, trust signs, promotions, free trials, demos and email marketing
• Action stage uses payment system, shopping cart, reviews and referrals

Important Tools and Trackers

• Google Analytics is a tool to trace events used to monitor data results, engagement, acquisition, behavior, and e-commerce
• Google Trends allows you to analyze the popularity of search terms on Google
• SEO Search Engine Optimization seeks to improve website relevance and authority, aiming to reach the top positions in organic (non-paid) search results SEM Search Engine Marketing are paid advertising strategies to appear in search engine results. The most used SEM tool is Google Ads, allowing businesses to pay for top placements

Different types of Search Results

• Search Engine Results Page is the page you see on Google after typing a query.
• Featured Snippets- succinct answers to questions asked by users with searches initiated in why, who, how, when
  • Paragraph Featured Snippet- extracting text from a given web page that Google selects to tailor the response to user-typed search terms
  • Number List Featured Snippet- presentation of a list, step by step, to perform a specific task
  • Bullet List Featured Snippet- Google replaces the numbers with bullets
  • Table Featured Snippet: Is the most popular and presents the information in the form of a table
  • Youtube Featured Snippet- preview of a video on YouTube -this type of snippet adds traffic to the website
• Google Ads- placement may differ depending on keyword competition, device type, and query type
• Location Graphic Panel- search terms related to brands and includes contact details, website, and address
• Location Results Pack/Local Pack- paid exposure of a brand including deeper details of contact and location
• Organic Results- directly related to the search terms
• Rich Answers- Google generates instant answers to satisfy general user questions
• Carousels- images

Comparing SEO and SEM

• SEO is free/ requires time and effort while SEM Paid (cost per click or impression)
• SEO has long term results while SEM is immediate
• SEO is continuous and long-lasting while SEM depends on budget
• SEO is below paid ads while SEM is at the top when paid for
• SEO has more trust, but with less initial visibility while SEM has more visibility, but with less long-term trust

Email Marketing

• Tool that allows a company to communicate with current or potential customers via email implemented through communication campaigns.
• Involves sending information in an automated manner which may contain information about products, promotions, or relevant content

Benefits of Email Marketing

• High engagement
• Customer segmentation and personalization
• Cost effective

Challenges of Email Marketing

• Non segmented leads to no results
• General Data Protection Regulation
• Should be part of a broader mkt strategy

Email Marketing Tools Enable functions to

• Segment contact databases to target specific audiences
• Create efficient layouts and designs to enhance engagement
• Automate email sending for improved efficiency
• Track email performance to analyze and optimize results

Types of emails

• Sales
• Announcements
• Newsletters
• Surveys
• Seasonal Campaigns
• Activity reports
• Welcome Emails
• New Product/Service Announcements
• Relationship Building
• Evaluation

Newsletters

• Regular (with useful information, tips, news, updates)
• Promotional (e-commerce-focused, offering discounts, sales, or product offers)

Email Marketing Benefits

• Stay connected
• Build trust
• Boost traffic
• Promote more
• Low cost
• Easy to track

Key Factors for emails

• Timing is crucial to test different times and results, if there is not best time to send emails
• Subject must be personalized and create curiosity
• Content should define an objective, be interesting and useful, include a Call to Action and personal email (being personal.)
• Use a postscript at the end of your newsletter to summarize the message, benefits, and CTAs
• Monitor: open/read rate, click-through rate, number of new subscribers, and number of unsubscribers
• Frequency depends as there is not a one-size-fits-all, quality>quantity
• Design should be Simple, 40% text - 60% images