If you don’t exist in the digital landscape, do you exist? And if you exist badly, is it worth existing? Most probably, the answer to both questions is no… That’s the reason for this post: Digital Consultancies. Throughout this article we will explore what a digital consultancy is: what they are, what they are for, what characterises them, how they work and what they offer to their clients. Let’s start at the beginning…
What is Digital Consulting?
We can define a digital consultancy by what it is for its clients: The guide to leading the digital transformation. Given the rapid global digitalisation any business must have a good online presence; not having one is not an option. Adapt or… well, you know. However, the speed at which this transformation continues to take place means that digitalisation is constantly evolving. “Having a good online presence” is said quickly, but the truth is that it becomes an impossible challenge for many companies, which are lost in a sea of concepts, techniques and knowledge that are updated every hour.
A Digital Consultant is an expert in the digital revolution, and therefore, becomes the bridge between the world’s businesses and digital transformation; the way to transition to omnichannel. When a business decides to hire a Digital Consultancy, they are hiring a team of leading professionals and specialists. They will research and execute all those actions that are convenient to ensure that their client has a correct and optimised digital presence.
What are the advantages?
Taking care of your digital presence through a Digital Consultancy means outsourcing the service. This entails a series of advantages, do we see them?
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A new perspective
To outsource this service is to get an outside perspective; fresh, new, objective and neutral eyes and minds. This results in a global view of the business’ digital presence. It gets rid of biases and bias-driven attitudes that often occur when you have been marketing the same product or service for years.
- Expertise and know-how
As is typical of a consultancy, the level of specialisation in a vertical area or sector of the digital ecosystem is very high, in addition to a generic basic training. This gives a lot of flexibility when it comes to nurturing talent and experience, as a consultancy firm itself has specialists in different branches that can be very beneficial for its clients’ businesses.
In addition, their expertise is often comprehensive and highly focused. The mix of their know-how and specialised skills allows them to quickly solve the challenges their clients face (and identify those they don’t even know they have).
- Flexibility
In a company, flexible needs and projects constantly arise, which require expert hands and minds in new disciplines. A consultancy encompasses all the new and cutting-edge areas of expertise that a business may need to take care of its online presence.
- Innovation and the future
The digital component of this type of consultancy makes this service young, innovative and even futuristic. If the digital landscape is constantly reinventing itself, so is digital consultancy.
- A safe bet in the initial stages of digitalisation
Outsourcing to a Digital Consultancy is to take care of your digital presence without wasting time, money and resources in creating a digital department from scratch.
When the degree of digital maturity of a company is low, the digital consultancy will have a strategic and executing role at the same time. Whereas in companies where there is a higher degree of digital maturity, we see the digital consultant taking on a more strategic and consultative role. Supporting the business in much more specific areas, such as loyalty models, web integrations with ERPs, implementation of data visualisation dashboards, optimisation of recruitment channels, etc…
What is the modus operandi of a Digital Consultancy?
When a business decides to outsource to a Digital Consultancy, it immediately starts a process that can be summarised in 7 steps:
- Step 1: Research. Like any puzzle, to start building you need all the pieces, right? In this first step, the objective is to obtain information and data in abundance.
- Step 2: Analysis. Analysis. From all that has been collected, select those pieces of information that reflect threats to be minimised and opportunities to be seized, taking into account the weaknesses and strengths found.
- Step 3: Diagnosis. Those discoveries and findings, which result from the analysis, are captured in a report.
- Step 4: Action Plan. The design of the strategy begins, thinking and devising specific communication actions that pursue previously defined objectives. It also involves estimating resources and results.
- Step 5: Implementation. Everything designed for the strategy that was up in the air is downloaded. Actions are carried out.
- Step 6: Analysis of results. The actions are monitored, following their evolution. We analyse what works and what doesn’t, what we have discovered, what unexpected factors have come into play. This last step reviews all the previous ones. From there, we can tweak the initial strategy to achieve the objectives set.
- Step 7: Iteration and improvement. Once the results have been analysed, efforts are focused on attacking those areas that have given a positive return for the company. Improvement hypotheses are proposed, implemented and analysed again in the next cycle.
In parallel, there are two key characteristics of the modus operandi of a Digital Consultancy, present in each and every one of the phases seen. On the one hand, they are the continuous contact and validation by the client. Obtaining an optimised digital presence is never at the cost of losing control over the decisions that are made. Secondly, this process is cyclical and evolutionary; it is subject to change, adaptation and revision.
What services does it offer?
Digital consultancy is a discipline with no boundaries of action (except that it happens in a digital landscape, that is). With efforts focused on improving the past, optimising the present and predicting the future, some of the services offered by Digital Consultancies are…
- Auditing your business, benchmarking, defining target audiences and studying the current situation of the relevant market and sector.
- Analysis and/or improvement of the SEO of the website and social networks, to achieve traffic and conversions.
- Design of the entire digital strategy, defining KPIs and the Marketing Funnel customised to your needs, taking into account which actions need to be prioritised at each stage.
- Proposals to (re)formulate the UX and UI, taking care of usability, in your digital platforms.
- Automation and implementation of digital processes that streamline the operation of the business.
- Calculate in which channels to invest efforts, as it will be there where the best return will be obtained.
Sometimes, a Digital Consultancy can also include the services of an advertising agency, devising, creating and executing online creative content, as is the case with CRONUTS.DIGITAL. In this way, clients find advice and creativity in the same place.
In a nutshell…
Summarising what a Digital Consultancy consists of is not an easy task. Digital consultancies, by touching different areas of business, are rigour, analysis and interpretation, but also creativity, conversation and trend. This post highlights their main advantages and their modus operandi par excellence, mentioning some of their services.
Finally, it should be noted that the consultancies of today are defined by the aspects described above. However, digital transformation is picking up speed every day; so who knows what they will be like in the future. Trying to foresee what a Digital Consultancy of the future will be like is an even more difficult task. We will keep an eye on the changes and trends… We will keep you informed!
