Digital Business Imperatives for 2015

Digital business is a hot topic and nearly every week several new reports or white papers on this subject become available from various sources.  It can be challenging to sift through this information overload to discern what's real, relevant and actionable to help guide our business decision-making.   

One of the more authoritative sources of information about this topic is the annual Digital Trends report, a collaboration between Adobe and Econsultancy.  This fourth annual Digital Trends 2015 Report focuses on practices and trends that are, as the authors state, "attainable in the here and now."  Based on a record number of about 6,300 B2B and B2C business professionals around the globe, the report not only provides a prospective view of what's ahead for 2015, but also compares last year's expectations against the realities of what actually occurred during 2014.

One of the most important highlights of the report is the growing emphasis placed on the Customer Experience as a key business priority for many organizations.  Although the authors acknowledge that areas such as data-driven business, personalization, mobile, social and cross-channel marketing are considered as critical for business success, it is the focus on the Customer Experience (CX) that stands out as increasingly crucial for not only competitive differentiation but also for "survival in an unforgiving business world."

As shown in the previous table the customer experience ranks first as a key differentiator among client-side organizations with a growing margin (22% versus 20%) over other opportunities.  The authors point out that realization of an optimal customer experience in a consistent manner across multiple channels remains a challenge for many companies and emphasize the importance of not only "bringing together data sets, technological infrastructures and operations," but also the need for a customer focused culture.

Other key highlights if the report include the growing importance of targeting and personalization as well as content marketing and content optimization as emerging initiatives. At the same time, mobile and social, in spite of falling back some in the rankings, continue to be key digital business priority areas.

 For more in-depth information about the Customer Experience and other key digital business imperatives from the Digital Trends 2015 report, Click Here for a free copy.