If you have a business website forming part of your digital business or being your main business representation, you might be wondering how to manage it effectively and grow your online presence.
That’s where digital business management comes in. It is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities and resources related to your online business.
As a start-up or new digital entrepreneur, you may be overwhelmed with everything you should be doing for your business and website.
We will therefore cover some of the basics of digital business management for beginners and provide some tips and tools to help you succeed by prioritizing what matters the most.
What to consider for digital business management?
Digital business management will be an important part of your daily business activities as it can help you achieve various goals that are vital to make your business a success, such as:
- Increasing your brand awareness and reputation
- Reaching new customers and markets
- Improving your customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Enhancing your operational efficiency and productivity
- Reducing your costs and risks
- Innovating and creating new value propositions
Most of these points will apply simultaneously to your website. And if your business is purely e-commerce then it is the epicenter for your digital business management.
Fortunately, there are now many tools available that you can utilize to help you achieve your business goals. We will delve into these further in the next section, so read on.
How to start with digital business management?
To start with digital business management, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with your online business and how you will measure your progress.
Most importantly, you must understand your brand and which problems it solves. If you already have a brand name, which is reflected in your domain name for your website, then you need to build on this.
If you haven’t yet created your own business website perhaps because you’re using other platforms such as Amazon or Shopify, then you should carefully plan your website strategy before you buy a domain and build the website.
You also need to understand your target audience, your competitors, your strengths and weaknesses, and your opportunities and threats.
This will help you define your digital strategy and set your objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Some of the steps you can take to start with digital business management are:
- Conduct a SWOT analysis of your online business
- Define your value proposition and unique selling proposition (USP)
- Identify your target market segments and customer personas
- Analyse your competitors and their digital strategies
- Set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals and KPIs
- Choose the best digital channels and platforms for your online business
- Create a content marketing plan and a content calendar
- Implement SEO (search engine optimization) best practices to improve your website ranking and visibility or consult an SEO expert
- Use analytics and SEO tools to monitor and evaluate your website performance and user behavior
- Test and optimize your website design, layout, navigation, usability, and functionality
- Use social media platforms to engage with your audience and promote your content
- Use email and marketing tools to build your email list and send personalized messages to your subscribers
- Use CRM systems and tools (customer relationship management) to manage your customer data and interactions
- Use feedback tools to collect customer reviews and testimonials
- Use automation tools to streamline your workflows and tasks
This is quite a handful, but if you prioritize what you need to focus on first and make an action plan, you will be able to tackle each challenge one step at a time. Make sure to check the tools out that we refer to as the guides will give you an idea of what is available and what might be most suitable for your needs.
As you might have noticed, most of the listed steps are interlinked with your website or web presence, which shows its significance in the digital business world. You can hire a web consultant if it all gets too much for you.
What should you prepare for when dealing with digital business management?
Digital business management can pose some challenges you may face and it’s best to know your enemies and be prepared.
Here are some factors you will need to keep an eye on:
- Keeping up with the fast-changing digital trends and technologies
- Dealing with the increasing competition and customer expectations
- Managing the security and privacy of your website and customer data
- Finding the right balance between quality and quantity of content
- Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your digital activities
- Finding the right talent and skills for your digital team
These challenges will not all arise at the same time but depend on your business growth and development. The above-mentioned steps and tools should support you with being prepared for most of these or managing them when they arise.
You would have to decide which parts of your digital business you want to manage yourself and which you’d rather delegate. Utilize your strengths and don’t waste time on tasks you hate or are not that good at.
If content writing, publishing, and tracking is not your thing, then let a professional digital marketer handle it and focus on what you prefer.
How to deal with the challenges of digital business management?
To overcome the challenges of digital business management, you need to have a growth mindset and a willingness to learn and adapt.
You also need to have a clear communication plan and a collaborative culture within your digital team once you have one. Even the recruitment of staff is a challenge in itself, but having a clear vision of who you want will help tremendously.
As a digital business owner and entrepreneur, your vision determines the shape of the business.
Things you can do to overcome the challenges of digital business management:
- Stay updated on the latest digital trends and technologies by reading tech and business magazines and news blogs, podcasts, newsletters, webinars, etc.
- Conduct regular audits and reviews of your website performance and user feedback.
- Experiment with different digital tools and techniques to find what works best for your online business.
- Use A/B testing and multivariate testing to compare different versions of your website elements and content or get web designers or developers to help.
- Analyse the data from your analytics tools and use it to make informed decisions.
- Calculate the ROI of your digital activities by using metrics such as traffic, conversions, revenue, etc., or get an SEO or marketing consultant to help.
- Hire or outsource qualified professionals who can help you with different aspects of digital business management as mentioned. You will realise how time-consuming such activities are the further your business grows.
By now you should realise that a digital business and a business website are inseparable and that most digital business activities are interlinked with the business’s online presence. So, if you are about to become a digital entrepreneur or you have already started this journey, then the points in this guide should help you with understanding the full scale of digital business management.
And ultimately you are the digital business manager.
