It is no secret that the marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past 15 years. What was once a straightforward process of advertising to consumers on TV, billboards, and print media is now an intricate web of digital channels with rapidly evolving mediums and trends.

With digital marketing, we now have numerous opportunities to engage with potential and existing customers at different points in their purchase journey in order to make meaningful impressions and drive sales for a brand. But not all organizations make optimal use of this diverse and dynamic platform to drive positive outcomes for their brands.

That’s where digital marketing maturity comes in.

Simply put, digital marketing maturity refers to the capability of a brand to curate and deliver experiences that are data-driven, multi-channel, and evolve continuously. It underlines the capability of an organization to function efficiently in a digital world. Successful brands can anticipate, innovate and adapt to change effectively, which will allow them to be more competitive in the marketplace.

The digital marketing maturity model provides a framework for assessing where your organization is on its journey toward this goal, together with insights into how you can improve if necessary. However, various global brands and consulting firms have formulated their own models to outline what this means in practice and how it can be accomplished.

Our approach to digital marketing maturity aligns with Google’s Digital Maturity Benchmark that was designed in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This strives to assess how your business performs across the five spectrums of digital marketing efficiency and profitability:

• Analytics and Measurement – Evaluate and measure the effectiveness of various consumer engagements applying predictive modeling to address shortcomings.
• Assets and Ads – Create impactful, authentic experiences across various digital touchpoints.
• Audience – Structure and manage data to understand, target and engage with your core audiences across the purchase journey.
• Access – Connect with your desired consumer groups across all ad inventory types and channels, with adequate levels of control.
• Automation – Enhance marketing operations to improve efficiency and further brand growth.

While this represents a sound, comprehensive approach to digital marketing maturity, certain aspects of this can only be accomplished by mature digital brands with an established presence, large consumer base and heavy marketing spending.

Alternatively, Digicated’s approach to digital marketing maturity has been formulated to cater to the requirements of early-stage start-ups and MSMEs specifically. Our 3-A model is designed to help young businesses elevate their brand and create business impact via cross-platform paid and organic digital marketing.

• Assets – Strong digital assets form the bedrock of your brand and directly impact your sales and revenue. They determine how you showcase your brand and the experience you hope to provide your consumers. This focuses on your brand’s core digital assets across the spectrum of UI/UX, measurement, and responsiveness.
• Acquisition – Driving consumer acquisition through paid and organic outreach and campaigns on platforms such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quora. This involves ensuring you have a robust, full-funnel strategy on digital to drive sustainable growth.
• Audience – After you have built a good base of consumers, it is important to regularly keep in touch with them to drive repeat sales and build customer loyalty. Here, success is defined by a holistic consumer retention strategy with tools such as targeted mailers, remarketing, newsletters, and push notifications.

We hope this article has helped demystify the concept of digital marketing maturity and its core tenets. If you’d like to learn more and understand where your brand stands on your digital marketing maturity spectrum, please take our free assessment or connect with us.