If these types of questions remain unanswered within your organisation, then it might be worthwhile considering a Digital Effectiveness Assessment....

Why should I consider undertaking a Digital Effectiveness Assessment?

I believe that there are a number of compelling reasons why every company (large, medium or small) should be constantly reviewing and assessing their digital capabilities.

Let’s explore this further by breaking down a number of key statistics from a 2014 e-Business Sensis survey:

Whilst this number shouldn’t surprise; it does serve as a powerful reminder that the vast majority of our prospective customers or consumers are using the internet as their primary method to obtain information about our products and services.

Now this result may have surprised a few people... 45% of the 65 demographic answered that they have used social media over the last 12 months.

What this tells me is that social media adoption has now reached widespread acceptance across all age groups within our population. It is estimated that around 75% of the Australian population is now actively engaging with some form of social media.

The great thing about this communication platform is that it provides a real opportunity for companies to establish a ‘two-way’ dialogue with existing and potential consumers of their products and services.

Not every organisation has the ability to generate online sales through their website, however, there are many businesses that have consciously avoided going down this path due to the complexity and cost linked to integrating websites with payment gateways and internal business software (i.e. CRM or Accounting systems).

The good news is that a lot has changed over the last 5 years to simplify the process of setting up cost effective online capabilities. Many of the responsive website templates (meaning that they work on desktop & mobile devices) offered by companies such as Wordpress, Joomla & Drupal offer a variety of options to integrate with payment gateways (i.e. eWay) or 3rd party payment processors (i.e. Paypal).   

I’m an SME, do I really need a Digital Effectiveness Assessment?

Here is a snapshot of the types of questions that SME’s may ask themselves when they start to assess the overall performance of their digital assets:

• Why is it so hard to upload content or make changes to our website?
• How do I attract more customers/consumers to our website?
• Would a social media campaign work for our business?
• How do I convert increased website activity to actual leads?
• Should I integrate our website with our business software systems (i.e Accounting, CRM)?

The problem is that most SME’s are time poor and don’t have the capacity or specific industry knowledge on where to track down the answers to these types of questions.

Given that many SME’s outsource a number of their digital services & activities, it is very important to ensure that all of the moving parts (linked to a website and business software) are aligned with the overall strategy and direction of the company. For example, a company that specialises in SEO and online marketing may not be in the best position to pick up whether a specific type of lead generating activity could be automated to work with your CRM system.

A Digital Effectiveness Assessment (conducted by an independent party) can help SME’s by providing a 360 degree (internal & external) view of how their digital capabilities are performing. This type of activity can also work to uncover some invaluable insights that can be incorporated into the overall digital strategy. Refer to my blog on ‘Does your business have a digital strategy?’ for more information on this topic.

What is involved in a Digital Effectiveness Assessment?

Every Digital Effectiveness Assessment should should be tailored to target the specific needs and objectives of a company.  I find it useful to try and group specific components into three distinct  categories or ‘lenses’.

I) Internal lens

The purpose of this ‘lens’ is to establish how the organisation perceives/rates the current state of it’s digital capabilities.

At Vivify Labs, we believe that the most effective way to gather this type information is via a facilitated group workshop that includes representation from all of the relevant internal stakeholders. It is important to note that these types of workshops do need to be conducted by a skilled facilitator who has the ability to steer the group away from trying to jump straight into ‘solution mode’ for any problems/challenges that are raised.

Topics that may be covered off in these types of sessions can include; alignment of business strategy, challenges and opportunities, products, internal processes, supply chain, partnerships, customers & any other inputs that the internal team perceives as important.

II) Competitor lens

The purpose of this ‘lens’ is to analyse a company's digital strengths and weaknesses relative to their competitors and potential substitutes.

•  Heuristic evaluation: Evaluation of the usability & user experience of a company’s online assets compared and contrasted to those of its competitors and potential substitutes
• Features/functionality analysis: Evaluation of the features and functionality provided by a company's online assets, compared and contrasted to those of its competitors and potential substitutes

 III) Customer lens

The purpose of this ‘lens’ is to gain an understanding of our customer’s behaviors, needs, goals and perceptions of the company. It is important to gather information that is framed in  the broadest business context as well as from a digital & online perspective.

Examples of relevant evaluation techniques include:

• Web analytics: An analysis of the usage patterns of a company's online assets with the goal of better understanding customer & consumer behavior as well as identifying strengths and weakness of the company's current online offerings

•  Funnel analytics: A specific methodology for web analytics where the company's online assets are modeled as a sales funnel. The goal of the analysis is to provide insight into the overall conversion rate as well as the key weak points of the funnel (the stages in which the largest percentages of users/potential customers drop out)

• Technology assessment: Compilation of an IT/digital assets inventory that includes the associated annual support & maintenance expenditure costs. The goal of this analysis is to review the effectiveness/suitability of existing technologies against potential alternatives

The final take...

In an age that is defined by rapid technology change, any company/organisation that doesn’t understand the strengths and weaknesses of their existing digital capabilities is effectively flying blind. If you find yourself in this situation, can you afford to do nothing about it?