Digital marketing has entirely transformed the business spectrum. Such transitioning business atmospheres call for change leaders who are fearless, curious and experimental in their approach. A successful digital leader will innovate, inspire and strive for growth through collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Making mistakes is an unavoidable part of a growing learning curve, but a successful digital leader is not afraid of learning.
With an ardent belief in open-door communication, they facilitate internal communication, collaboration and understanding between different departments by sharing information, insights and ideas.
An adage goes – curiosity has killed the cat. Yet, in such a dynamic field as Digital Marketing, a curious mind is the one which carves out a path for itself. Fearlessly curious individuals make the most successful leaders.
Transparency and Knowledge to the Triumph
- Being Aware of the Market Trends
To achieve growth and amass profits, business leaders need to have awareness about the continuous changes which is routine in the digital market. Thus, the first criterion for becoming a strong digital leader is the awareness of the market trends.
Digital leaders prioritize investment that enhances the digital capabilities of their unit – from technology infrastructure and open, collaborative partnerships to raising a digital workforce with an emphasis on skills.
- Understanding Market Dynamism
Digital leaders need to understand how technology affects competition and offers new opportunities. Consider your own growth opportunity. Think of ways to reach out to new markets, change your business model, improve your product and customer experience or implement new working model.
According to Prof. Zamor “digital leaders need to understand the shifts (behavioral, economic, social) that new technology drivers are creating: like mobile, social networks, cloud, big data.” Leaders must then, adds Prof. Káganer “translate these key fundamental shifts into business impacts at the industry, organization and individual level.”
- Forging Relationship with Respect
Leadership is all about followers. This extends to digital marketing as well. Leaders are always interested in cultivating people. They take out time both online and offline to find out about their dreams and goals so that you could guide them in the right direction.
Using polite language helps in cultivating relationship positively. One should never let digital mediums of communication stop them from participating in in-person discussions.
- Establishing Integrity and Accountability
American President Dwight.D.Eisenhower once said, “The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity.” A leader will be inspiring only if he can command respect. This comes with being honest in his dealings. An accountable leader knows his role well. He shares the credit with his team but takes the major blame/blow himself. Thus, he becomes a role model for his subordinates. Also, an occasional pat on the back and simultaneous criticism for mistakes will create a sense of responsibility among your subordinates.
- Providing Space for Creativity
Strong digital leaders understand the importance of difference for creativity and innovation. They offer teams to be disruptive in order to create something new. Permitting to challenge old models, thoughts, try out new ideas and learning from mistakes are the key components of this strategy. Tech entrepreneurs and business entrepreneurs have the acumen to identify the operational problems. They are humble and collaborative people who inspire their teams and specialists around them.
Digital companies will benefit if they give their employees the freedom to regularly use sarcasm, humour, and wit to engage in the digital space.
Popular fast food brand Wendy’s has been following this strategy and their employees have been using their creative genius to regularly troll their competitors, most frequently McDonald’s.
- Creating Gainful ROI
Return on Investment is one of the most important criteria for to be evaluated by a digital leader. It is easier to spend money in the digital realm but harder to control and optimize cost. It is important to have a good understanding of the goals of the company, and then plan the investment on digital marketing campaign accordingly to achieve maximum profit.
Surprisingly, some companies do not take digital marketing strategies seriously even today. Underestimating its power could be really detrimental to your business. For instance, if you are running a digital marketing campaign, you need to understand the profit margin in relation to the amount of investment. This is provided by the ROI (Rate of Investment) and is imperative to measure the profit or loss generated on an investment. This is particularly helpful while comparing the profitability of a company or calculating the efficiency of different investments and for making other financial decisions as well. These would give you an insight into how much your marketing effort impacts people’s buying decisions or their opting for a service.
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Contributor Bio – The blog post is presented by Sharda University. Sharda University is one of the largest universities in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) offering 216 varied programmes. Facebook | Twitter
