Firms can boost performance by embracing digital say experts
FIRMS of all sizes and operating in all sectors should be embracing digital to not just improve their communications, but to boost their bottom line as well, experts have told a conference in Yorkshire.
Alasdair Wightman, chairman of Leeds-based digital agency AWA, told an audience at the Making Digital Work Harder For Your Business event yesterday that digital communications is both a marketing and a sales channel.
However he said that the “double digit growth of the noughties will soon be gone and acquiring customers online will become harder and more expensive”.
Mr Wightman set up AWA six years ago and it now has 20 staff, a turnover of more than £1m and major clients including Asda, Lakeland, Republic and Red Cats.
He said that “usability” is key for firms’ websites. “It should be part of your marketing budget. A supermarket aisle has more sophistication than any website in terms of where the products are placed because the supermarkets have years of experience.”
The half-day event was hosted by AWA in conjunction with TheBusinessDesk.com, at the Round Foundry Media Centre, Leeds.
The audience heard from Stuart McFarlane, sector manager, digital & new media industries at Yorkshire Forward that latest figures show that 112,000 people are employed in the digital sector in Yorkshire and there are 14,887 companies which contribute £11bn to the region’s economy – 6% of its GDP.
Yorkshire has the fastest-growing digital sector in the UK outside of London, and is recognised as a leading centre of excellence in the digital and new media industries.
The speakers at the seminar included digital evangelist Jonathan MacDonald, managing director of JMA & co-founder of this fluid world who outlined what the future holds and why companies should embrace the change and not fear it.
Mark Saxby, sales and marketing director of Yorkshire-based World Events – which has offices in Hong Kong, the US and Holland and organised more than 300 events for its clients last year – talked about how the firm had saved time and money through using digital technologies.
Simon Bowker, managing director of email service provider eCircle outlined how email marketing is getting more sophisticated, while Adrian Johnson, owner of Leeds-based consumer and online PR agency Umpf, spoke about the point of online PR and social media to firms and said that studies show that last year US marketing directors spent 3.5% of their budgets on social media, but that is expected to rise to 13.7% by 2014.
