Why Should You Take Your Business in a Digital Direction?
Here is a riddle for you! What do video stores, the phone book, the post office, and camera film all have in common?
They are all things of the past.
As the digital age progresses, brick and mortar establishments as we know them are being replaced by digital media. The world is progressing and just about everything is digitized in some way or another. Video stores have turned into On Demand and Netflix, the post office has been overcome by email, cell phones have replaced phone books, and camera film became nearly extinct when digital cameras hit the shelves.
A Multi-Platform World
According to comScore’s “Mobile Future in Focus 2013”, not only are we switching over to completely digital, we are doing so on multiple platforms. While the desktop remains king for the moment, 1 in 3 minutes spent online is done so beyond the PC. Smartphones and tablets are on the rise. Smartphones have now surpassed 50% market penetration; “late-majority adopters” are now buying their smartphones. Those who don’t make an effort to generate an effective multi-platform strategy will be left behind in the dust. We digital omnivores are hungry, and if your business can’t feed us we will move on to one that can.
Although it may be tough to admit, as you can see when it comes to going digital you can either give in or give up.
Pros and Cons
There are pros and cons to a completely digitized world from a business perspective.
Pros
Cons
1. If you do e-commerce the right way it will be not only a time saver, but a money saver as well.
1. If you aren’t doing e-commerce right, you might as well not do it at all. It will be a waste of time and money.
2. Digital communication is fast paced and easy to maintain and organize.
2. Digital communication between business and consumer can feel impersonal.
3. By making your business searchable and increasing your presence online, you will be able to reach an exponentially larger audience.
3. While your audience may be growing, so is the number of businesses you must compete with for that audience.
What NOT To Do
The number one mistake made by video stores, phone book manufacturers, the post office, themakers of camera film, and all other businesses that used to thrive but have now become virtually extinct was thinking that they were safe in their set ways. They did not adapt with the Digital Revolution.
Moving Forward
To reiterate, as we have seen with establishments from the past that we knew, loved, and trusted, if you aren’t moving forward with the digital age and have no plan of action to move out of the stone age, it is only a matter of time before the data driven world of tomorrow puts you out of business for good.
Comment below with any questions and let us know what you think is the best way to stay relevant in a digital age, and you can click here to learn about our digital marketing process!