Over the last few months, I have been training a group of small businesses on building digital marketing maturity. These organizations do not have large budgets, sophisticated martech stacks, or in-house digital departments - in many cases, these are ‘one-person marketing teams’. It can be daunting to figure out how to increase digital marketing maturity in such an environment where the day-to-day demands already feel overwhelming. One client mentioned that the thought of building digital maturity is “like driving a car while changing the tires.” So, how can we figure this out?
Many companies (and consultancies) have developed various digital marketing maturity models, primarily for larger organizations. When completed properly, these models help align teams on:
The current state of their digital maturity (where are we today?)
The desired future state for their digital maturity (where are we going?)
The desired phases of building digital maturity (where to, by when?)
These models also illustrate the critical relationship between Enablement (technology, people, processes) and Activation (customer experiences and marketing use cases).
The same approach can be taken by smaller organizations and marketing teams. To start, marketers need to identify their digital priorities – how do your digital marketing activities and capabilities need to mature to support the overall goals and strategy of your organization? From there, marketers need to explore more tactical ways to support these higher-level digital priorities. This can be done by identifying new marketing use cases (e.g., target customers who abandon shopping cart) and identifying changes to digital channels (e.g., redesign lead capture forms). The following provides a sample of different tactical opportunities for small marketing teams based on different digital channels and different levels of maturity.
Finally, teams need to create a digital marketing maturity action plan. This plan should identify the digital priorities and the planned steps to digital maturity. It is critical to include what is required at different stages to support these new experiences and activations (Enablers). When completed properly, the plan should align business objectives, marketing initiatives, and technical requirements. The process itself can also help marketers build support for more digital investment, and establish bridges between different departments – particularly Marketing and IT. While it may still feel like you are driving your car while changing the tires, at least you know where you are going.