Do You Have the Right Digital Marketing Strategy?

AUTHOR

Bruce Coudrey

Some examples of what others have done

People often ask me about how to best utilise digital technology within their business. The best way to guide business owners in answering this question is by providing some examples of what others have done and what has worked for their business.

So, here’s a handful of real-life examples where we successfully merged digital solutions with a pre-existing offline business, sometimes in industries where you may not have even thought anything was possible!

The Dry Cleaner: As a highly successful dry-cleaning company, our client wanted to explore the possibility of incorporating e-commerce into their business. After many discussions we developed an online business model that covered both their traditional dry-cleaning service business, and their wedding dress cleaning and preservation service.

We started the project by developing the organisational strategy and the digital business model, which fed into their digital transformation strategy. To achieve the goals, we used digital technology in the form of an e-commerce website, CRM and email marketing tool to handle the front-end transaction processing and back end order management. Operational functions such as barcoding and order tracking were all built in.

For their wedding dress dry cleaning and preservation service we developed a new brand and launched that as a separate brand specialising in a niche service offering.

As a result of the above, we enabled our client to grow from a local, Brisbane-only dry cleaner to one servicing customers anywhere in Australia. Dry cleaning and e-commerce: who would have thought?

The Rural Motel: Located in rural Australia, this motel is owned by a middle- aged couple who are typical of the many other business owners in Australia: they knew they had to 'get online' but were stuck with the question of 'how to get online?'

Malekso was engaged to assist with their digital transformation. After a few months of work we transformed their accommodation facility from one that was completely offline, to one that had become 'connected' and 'global'. Their new, and first ever, website features an accommodation booking engine with a suite of business process tools built in. As a result, they now have no need to scribble bookings on pieces of paper. Their new property management system handles it all. 

The motel now has a presence on several international booking websites. Their systems are connected so they talk to each other.  And now they’re gearing up for a digital marketing campaign to take them to the next level of growth.

The Trades Company: Wanting to break from the mould and become a business for the 21^st century, this long-established home repairs company decided to embrace digital technology in some innovative ways. After developing their digital transformation strategy, we helped this business streamline their entire back end and customer facing operational processes, helping drive efficiencies and improving the bottom-line profit as a result.

The overall solution included rolling out a new system for sales management, a smart website with a private section for company employees, and email marketing to build customer relationships and manage bookings.

The business is now looking at using drones as part of an effort to not only provide a service unique to their industry, but to reduce workplace injuries by using drones to undertake certain high-risk activities previously done by tradies.

Oh, I should add: the owners are far from computer savvy but have been willing to learn and explore new technology.

The above examples provide an insight into what’s possible and what others have done in order to bring technology into their business. Not only has technology helped them expand, grow and in all cases generate efficiencies, but they have also enabled them to evolve into modern digital businesses that are more profitable than before.

This is important. When the time comes to sell them, these modern, tech savvy businesses will be the ones that stand out from the crowd. They’ll get the most attention from buyers!

Interested in knowing more about digital solutions for business? Give me a call, drop me an email, I am always happy to help.

Interested in selling your business? Talk to Benchmark Business Sales & Valuations today - we have the right knowledge and the right team to help you achieve sales success! 

Written by Peter Spinda, Principal Consultant, Malekso - peter@malekso.com.au 

Peter is the founder and CEO of Malekso – a National consulting business specialising in strategy development and transformation implementation.       

Benchmark Business Sales & Valuations