Why now is the time to shift to Digital

The current economic climate in the United Arab Emirates is making many business nervous. Oil and gas prices are affecting many industries in the region especially finance, hospitality or automotive and the prospect of the slow growth through 2016 is causing businesses to scale back significantly.

Businesses start to immediately slash the easiest things to save money, usually starting with their marketing budget. That's technically a bad move as it is in such times as these that a company who increases their marketing efforts can actually gain great amounts of market share and develop a strong presence after the slowdown has past. This blog aims to give you a plan for your digital strategy during this uneasy economic time period.

We have seen many clever marketers shift their budgets from traditional media to new media or digital. One of the main reasons for this move is because digital media can be more cost-efficient than traditional media. In addition, there are many other benefits to shifting in this direction, such as:

• Digital media can be measured and tracked so you can optimize performance
• Digital conversations can be tracked and monitored to gauge brand advocacy
• Businesses can automate marketing activities to save costs
• Businesses can create owned media to yield a higher ROI over time
• Managers can easily show proof of the success of their activities and therefore get more budget in the future

Case Study - Commercial Bank of Dubai

An example of a company that has recently undertaken a digital transformation is The Commercial Bank of Dubai. We worked with CBD to transfer their business digitally across all touch points. This included consolidation of digital channels and the setup of technology stacks. We also facilitated the integration of all the brand assets including at kiosks, at branches, with sales and support. It was key that we offered CBD digital brand alignment as well as marketing integration and automation for online and social channels. To view the CBD digital properties, click here.

How do you you feel in the current economic climate? Are you reconsidering some of your marketing strategies in light of being cautious? Let us help to ease your worries.

As an agency, we have seen an increase in demand for digital solutions over the last couple of months. We have shaped our offering in the last 2 years to cater to medium to large enterprises and we have created a team/setup that can handle all digital aspects including strategy, media, marketing, creative and implementation. For companies that work on digital transformation projects, this is of great benefit as it allows us to create a holistic digital strategy across all channels and touchpoints.

Steps to Digital Transformation:

1. Decide to make the change: You have to decide to take the leap to digital fully and commit to the effort.
2. Contact us for a consultation: We will help to give you an understanding of all the things you need to go digital and some advice on the best way to make the transformation. We can help on many levels whether that is helping to build the roadmap to digital or to fully implement the changes.
3. Relax and watch your digital reputation grow.

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