In this article, I will share a digital transformation experience during my work at the digital marketing agency, Hostswt. I will explain the importance of CEOs, General Managers, or Business Owners receiving training in Digital Marketing.
Initial Situation
A multinational technology hardware company in Colombia contacted us: They had been financially supporting digital strategies for their distributors for several years without obtaining results. It was a complex case because we had to investigate what had been happening or how those funds were managed previously.
Situation analysis
- We detected a high level of digital ignorance at the Managerial level in this market niche. The day-to-day work consumes all working time, leaving no time to think strategically or for training.
- Internal personnel were poorly qualified for digital activities, or alternatively, more qualified companies lacked clear directives.
- Meetings at the level of Digital Strategies where management or business owners were informed about what would be done, without a counterweight who had the knowledge to debate strategies, define or request other KPIs, for example.
Set Objectives
- Identify the top 15 national Distributors with a digital presence.
- Train General Managers and Business Owners of these Distributors with our Digital Marketing for Managers program.
- Train internal staff with our Digital Marketing for Community Managers program.
- Define KPIs to monitor this program.
- Use the results obtained to demonstrate to Management the importance of looking towards the digital area.
Strategy and results
- Meetings were coordinated where time requirements and commitment to the investment were explained, and from this point, 15 companies were selected.
- A complete digital analysis was performed for each one, and each was given a detailed report of everything they were doing correctly and where they had potential improvements.
- At this point, a Digital Marketing for Managers training program began. They were taught key terms, strategies, the importance of digital planning, sales funnel, definition of KPIs (importance and meaning of each), control of digital investment budgets. Additionally, how to monitor their website’s indexing on the internet, if the SEO was correct, which campaigns were active, and what was the conversion rate of each.
- The training program for Community Managers began, where they were trained to make all modifications to the website or social networks according to the Marketing for Managers training plan.
- The defined KPIs were: website indexing, SEO strategy, Sales funnel, and conversion rate to sales.
- The process with each Distributor lasted approximately 2 months, and indicators were followed for the next 9 months. The result was an increase in the digital sales conversion rate, improved positive customer ratings, and increased website visits. At the sales level, the increase made the competition contact us to develop similar strategies with their distributors. It was a total success, but the pandemic arrived, and we couldn’t start with this second technology multinational.
Conclusion
Nowadays, we consider it important for General Management to have basic knowledge of Digital Marketing. This provides them with support to develop high-level conversations with their digital departments or, if it’s an outsourced department, even more reason. It’s necessary to have a digital route and strategy, where every dollar invested is fully substantiated and management indicators can be defined. To achieve this, Management must be able to have high-level conversations and debate strategies and results, given that they are talking about the company’s future permanence.
