Why digital shouldn’t be isolated to a single department

Damon Mangos, partner, executive creative director and strategy director at Delete, explains why digital needs to be threaded through everything you do

Why digital shouldn’t be isolated to a single department

The way brands think about digital is more sophisticated than it has ever been. Brands increasingly understand the value a digital strategy can bring to their business and are investing more time and money in developing solutions that will transform their organisation from the top down. However, for this to manifest itself into results that truly affect business performance, it’s important organisations recognise that digital is not the sole responsibility  of a single department. At the same time, organisations also need to understand that collaboration is at the heart of creating a clear strategy.

As businesses have become more technologically advanced, the services a digital team can provide have to be threaded through every aspect of how the organisation operates. This approach can not only transform the way the business conducts itself, it can also demonstrate how well it understands its customers and just how well the business is perceived by its audience.

Digital can help bring together the brand and product with the sales and service teams. This approach helps unite every department and team behind a single common goal and break down silos across the business.

That being said, it’s important to remember that embracing digital is not simply a case of employing an external partner or instructing an internal team to design and build a new website or app. Everything needs to be considered in the context of the wider brand strategy and conducted in a collaborative and strategic manner. If this isn’t the case, it will be difficult to capitalise on the potential value digital can provide. 

When it comes to any digital strategy, the traffic and data that digital solutions can generate can be invaluable in building a richer view of customers and help shape how businesses marketing departments can make transformative decisions. 

The role of the digital team is therefore now starting to be seen much more as a major strategic partner rather than a separate entity, which services a particular need. From our experience, as the digital sector has matured, digital specialists are responding to the growing appetite for digital solutions by demanding more input and delivering better business outcomes. Strategies are increasingly being developed that are both stand-out and aligned to the long-term vision of the business.

Creative ideas are subsequently becoming more inventive and clever too. As a result, they are influencing every aspect of the business in an incredibly positive way. That said, the benefits of the digital team working as a major strategic partner across the business still need to be communicated. Digital teams therefore need to prove that their ideas can positively impact a business and justify why they need to be intrinsically linked to every aspect of the organisation.

If the digital team is isolated from all the divisions it needs to influence, the strategy will inevitably fall flat. Brands that understand the value of working collaboratively with their digital team will be able to implement transformative solutions and establish a competitive edge. 

This article comes courtesy of Delete, the global end-to-end marketing agency.

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