Driving Digital Transformational Change From a Marketer’s Point of View

Recently, my organization undertook the significant strategic initiative of dramatically upgrading our e-commerce channel. This was a truly holistic transformational change – spanning multiple years, multiple vendors, and impacting every team and every internal system we rely on to do business. The pathway to success was paved with key learning milestones. According to Gartner, (Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2016-2017) marketing leaders continue to drive innovation and investment in the digital e-commerce space. This was certainly the case for our transformation. However, this was a team effort on every conceivable plane.

Lacking a traditional Information Technology background, however, does not have to be prohibitive when leading a significant digital transformation in a marketing role. Below are some key lessons learned from a Marketer’s perspective.

1.      Begin with the end in mind – and the end must be a stellar Customer Experience. Historically, website, e-commerce, and integration-driven web development have been under the leadership of the IT function; however, trends are shifting to marketing leaders driving digital transformation. This is largely due to the critical and highly competitive need to grab customer share. Dramatically upgrading our customer experience was critical to expanding our B2B e-commerce presence. Our base e-commerce platform sorely lacked enhanced user-experience functionality that customers have come to expect in modern B2B online transactions.

As the lines continue to blur between B2B and B2C, adopting functionality and features that have made online shopping a natural preference in consumer’s minds - paired with the more complex buying patterns unique to B2B - should be your strategic bedrock. To accomplish this, begin with an intimate understanding of your current customer base and competitive field:

a.      Adopt a policy of continued business and competitive intelligence analysis. This is a marketing must. Decisions must be based on measurable data and assessment. While the temptation may be to look outward to competition only, do not forget your own data and requirements internally. Fully understand how and when your organization uses data to drive key decisions.

b.      Ask your customers. Always ask - and then ask again – and ALWAYS quantify. Customer input is the key. However, making decisions based on a few customer touch points can be costly in the long run. Understand, assess, and quantify customer needs prior to establishing user experience or system requirements.

c.      Employ your front-line customer care team and sales associates to help interpret what your customers demand from their online B2B buying experience. The front-line is always the most informed. Engage these valuable partners early – and keep them engaged – as they will be key in customer transition once you go live. They know the customers best.

d.      Know your market. Study your competition! And not just the obvious ones. Study emerging competitors as well. Then assess where your value proposition will have the most impact.

Company, customer and competitive analysis takes time but it is a critical first step – both in establishing your future e-commerce vision and in defining your business case for investment. Further, it will provide the bench-marks to prove the efficacy of your new platform.

2.      Build your team and your business case. This was an iterative and consuming process and required cross-functional team development and endorsement. Here’s where you begin to assemble the team that will build the platform for a successful launch and beyond. This is also where you must change the mindset of your organization. If you establish in the mind of the team that this is “just a website” – then the result will be “just a website.” In our case, we reconfigured nearly every aspect of our complex systems. If you work with cross-functional team leaders to understand that nearly every system and platform will be touched through this evolution – then it becomes more collaborative and more complete – and you will deliver a superior product.

Our internal cross-functional leadership team included Marketing, Project Management, Information Technology, ERP Strategists, Business Analysts, Customer Care, Finance, Logistics, and, of course, sales leadership. Once you have your team assembled, you can get to work on the business case - guided by functional requirements, market intelligence and systems ramifications. These will be important as you define the cost parameters, timing, and selection of your vendors.

3.      Select the right vendor partners. In our transformation – there were four partnership pillars:

a.      E-commerce Platform Partner

b.      Integration Partner

c.      UX and Marketing Design Partners

d.      Internal Leadership Team (and outstanding consultants)

Each of these pillars played a critical role. Therefore, select wisely. Plan thoughtfully. Complete a comprehensive RFP and take the time to research each external vendor partner. Check references. Do your homework. Then, define your requirements – and be guided by your partner’s areas of expertise. One of the many lessons learned from this process was the true ingenuity and transformational thinking that our vendors brought to the project. The right partners will make or break the success of the initiative.

4.      Requirements, scope, project timing, and budgets will all change. Lastly, and without fail, this will be something that every organization must plan for and be comfortable with – especially considering a true digital platform transformation. With that in mind, these shifts can be minimized by thoughtful planning and the collective understanding of how success will be defined and measured. No organization wants surprise budget or timeline overruns. Trust between your organization and your partners is key to managing through this eventuality.

The net result of this transformational initiative was the launch of a modern, stable, customer-centric, scalable, and dynamic B2B e-commerce digital platform. From a marketing perspective, this evolution has opened new opportunities to build our brand awareness, channel-focus and drive market-share growth and gain. In other words – a marketer’s dream project. As a marketer, don’t fear transformational change in a digital world. Embrace it and lead through it.