Breathe new life into your business processes through digitalisation! There are plenty of advantages, such as increasing efficiency, saving time and money, and raising your online profile. Discover valuable tips to ease your company’s transition into the digital landscape today.

Technology keeps on advancing, consumer demands are ever-changing, and constant competitiveness certainly isn’t making life any easier for an entrepreneur. We are living in a time where a seamless and sustainable business model is a necessity for an expanded growth.

Digitalisation is undeniably an evolutionary path to a successful business. Think about it — how are you buying anything today compared to 15 years ago? Customers are spending more time online now more than ever. Digitalising your business could not only transform the experience you offer your customers but also help streamline business operations. 

Does that pique your interest? Keep reading to find out more about digitalisation and how to get started! 

What is digitalisation? 

In simple terms, digitalisation is the use of any modern digital technology to help improve your business. This could mean using a customer relationship management (CRM) software to help manage your sales force, changing to a cloud-based platform that stores and organises important documents, transitioning into e-commerce, offering different mobile payment options, and many more. 

The goal of digitalisation is to allow your business to be more productive, efficient and effective. Digitalisation enables you to keep up with the rapidly changing economy by streamlining daily operations, reducing cost, and offering your customers more ways to access your business. 

Now that you’re equipped with the general idea of digitalisation and why it’s worth the investment, let’s have a look at some easy steps to begin digitalising your business.

1. Start planning 

The most vital step to digitalising a business is proper planning. Before you start implementing various tools and software for your operations, it’s important to consider how digitalisation will impact your business and its processes. 

The last thing you want for your business is to incorporate ineffective programs and protocols, triggering a bad response from customers and target audiences.  

Identifying why and what you want to digitalise can help you better connect with partners, vendors, and stakeholders. Consider how each tool interlinks and interacts with one another, and whether they are compatible together.  

The process will be different for each business. That’s why a well-curated plan is an important first step to ensure the digitalisation process meets your specific business needs. 

2. Focus on user experience (UX)

Although most customers today are somewhat tech-savvy, when your business is going through a digital transformation, it’s very important to guide your customers along with you. Getting too wrapped up with innovation can leave your customers feeling confused, losing their trust and business in the process. 

Don’t lose sight of the people that you’re doing this for by explaining the process thoroughly and ease the transition over a period. It’s common sense but not a common practice. Hiring a UX specialist can ensure the transition is made with your customers in mind. 

3.  Improve SEO

SEO or search engine optimisation is a powerful tool that can help improve your business visibility. By optimising your website to achieve higher ranking, you will receive more clicks on your page. This opens more opportunity for website visitors to find products or services that interest them, thus increasing sales. 

There are several ways to boost your website’s SEO, such as faster page loading time, optimising images, keyword research, producing quality content, and backlinking, among others. If you’re not sure how to start, there are digital marketing agencies that can help optimise your website for higher search rankings. 

4. Concentrate on web design

Besides website ranking, another critical element of the overall UX is web design. Imagine going through all the effort of optimising your website for higher ranking, only to have slow sales. If that is the case, your website design could be the main cause. 

Customers will go elsewhere if your website is unintuitive or complicated. Therefore, ensure that your site clearly states what your business does, how it can help visitors, and that the process of signing up, making a purchase, and engaging with your business is easy to do.  

5. Utilise social media 

Social media is one of the easiest ways to get started with digital presence. The best part about creating social media profiles compared to websites is that it is completely free. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube — these social platforms are all yours for the taking. 

Some social media platforms even function as e-commerce platforms. For example, Instagram has a checkout feature that allows users to buy products without ever leaving the app. Even if you don’t have a capable e-commerce site, you can easily generate sales through social media and establish an online brand presence. 

Explore Unifi eCommerce Hub ecosystem for the best solutions to guide you through your digital transformation. 

Pro tip: Unifi Business Club (UBC) members enjoy an array of benefits that can help improve productivity and amplify business visibility in the digital space.