Technology is the base of all things digital. Digital Technology for businesses can range from website and mobile apps to artificial intelligence and fully automated processes. The extent of technology used is dependent on the industry and the size of the business. Consider a small business such as a restaurant or a hotel, all it needs is a website, an app or PWA, an ordering or booking engine and a backend platform to manage inventory or logistics. On the other hand, large businesses such as Amazon or Facebook need their own servers, data centers, AI modules, robots for logistics fulfillment and every other cutting edge technology available today.
In this article, we will discuss technology and digital marketing requirements and checklists for a small or medium business that is planning to go online or is trying to grow its online presence. These requirements, while may remain almost the same, vary a bit by industry or by the size or phase of the business.
For a small business, digital technology starts with a website or mobile app. The website and mobile app are not a stand alone technology asset. They are integrated to multiple other technologies and assets to create a unique experience for the user of the website or app to fulfill a goal set by the business. For example, on a website for a restaurant, the goal is to allow users to order food for delivery or takeout. The process behind completing this goal is supported by multiple other technologies or tools integrated into the website or mobile app. These tools may include an engine to fuel the menu of the restaurant on the menu page, an integration with payments gateway to help users pay online, integration with an online map platform to help users provide address and delivery instructions and finally an integration with a logistics fulfillment platform for delivery of the food ordered by the user.
Then there’s the part of this process which has to deal with post sales – tracking of order, notification systems, chatbots, complaints/queries and customer relationship management, remarketing, review management, and more.
Finally, there are some more online tools and integrations which support or enable all these processes. There are also some technology platforms such as Zapier which help you integrate the other technologies you need to use to fulfill your business goals.
Thus, checklist for technology may include the following and even more:
- Website, mobile app and PWA
- Content Management Systems such as Sitecore, WordPress, Umbraco or more
- Ordering engine booking engine or appointment engine
- Payment gateway (Stripe, RazorPay or Citrus)
- Logistics Fulfillment Platform
- CRM & ORM tools for customer complaints, ticketing and other interactions
- Integration Platforms such as Zapier
- Tag Manager, Analytics Platform, Search Console
- Notification Systems – App/Browser, Call, Email or SMS
We now move from pure technology part of a business to digital marketing and growth. Digital marketing is a mixture of tools and processes which help your business with visibility on various channels, finding new customers and ensuring a smooth life cycle for these customers.
In a way, Digital Marketing is an extension of technology used by businesses to grow online. A major portion of any businesses digital efforts will include these channels – Google, Social (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok and more), Youtube, Affiliate, Influencers and Email/ SMS. Beyond these, there are some platforms which are dedicated to monitoring data streams from website/app or marketing channels.
Thus, to sum up our checklist for digital marketing, we have the following items:
- SEO, content and indexing – Google, Bing and more…
- Google/Bing Search
- Youtube, Programmatic, Native and Display Ads
- Organic Social Media Publishing (Youtube, FB, IG, Tiktok, LinkedIn, Twitter)
- Paid Social Media Ads
- Q&A, Reviews and Ratings (Google, FB, Quora & Reddit)
- Affiliate and Influencer Programs
- Mapping of customer journey and experience on analytics platforms
- Business Listings – Google, Apple, Bing, Yelp, and more
These are the overall high level checklists of must haves for a business planning to grow online.
As we move further through our blog posts, we will uncover nitigrities of these checklists which will detail every aspect of technology and marketing processes and best practises for growing a business online.
These platforms and processes require resources in various domains. A business will need technology experts, project managers, operations managers and marketing experts to run it. A digital agency covers the requirements related to technology and marketing resources for a business. In some cases, agencies may also help you with managing digital projects and revenue streams for your business.
Mindless (www.mindless.in) is a digital martech agency that helps businesses with their technology & marketing requirements. With our comprehensive checklists and detailed processes, we are able to quickly and flawlessly integrate technologies for optimizing resource requirements and automating recursive processes, thus improving efficiency and turn around times.
Over years, we have built digital presence of several businesses, growing them month over month to reach their true potential. Our team ensures that all aspects of digital presence of your businesses are covered. We have curated best practices and guidelines for setting up and optimizing digital assets of businesses in various industries including Restaurants (F&B), Hospitality, Healthcare, Education and more.
Feel free to reach us on ceo@mindless.in for all the digital requirements of your business.