The digital maturity level indicates how digitalised your company is – and therefore how future-proof it is. According to a Deutsche Telekom study, more than a third of German SMEs were able to digitalise important processes during the pandemic and thus secure a decisive advantage in the market. In recent years, companies have noticeably pushed ahead with their digital transformation, but have all too often limited themselves to short-term measures without having a strategy in mind.

Every company has its own rules, structures and processes that contribute to its individual goals. However, in order to achieve these and head in the right direction, you also need to know where you are. The digital maturity level helps with this and therefore does not focus on a specific department or unit, but on success as a joint effort. It is therefore important to precisely analyse the interaction between different departments. For example, how does marketing relate to sales? Or sales to product development? In this way, processes and structures can be better understood and concrete conclusions can be drawn from the insights gained in dialogue with internal and external stakeholders.

Your digital maturity level

Determining your own digital maturity level as realistically as possible is no easy task for many SMEs. The maturity levels 0 to 4 provide an initial, rough categorisation at this point:

Maturity level 0

“We have a website with a contact form. At Christmas, we send out a newsletter to our customers.”

Maturity level 1

“We know that we need to reorganise our digital marketing – but we are unsure what is possible and which initial measures would be the smartest.”

Maturity level 2

“We already have tools that make individual tasks or processes easier or take them off our hands. However, we lack a comprehensive view of a digital landscape that is sensibly structured, creates efficient synergies and achieves the best possible effect for our company.

Maturity level 3

We have already taken our first successful steps in the area of digital marketing. PIM (product information management software) and DAM (digital asset management software) have been introduced, and now the tools need to be perfectly customised to our requirements and configured as efficiently as possible.

Maturity level 4

“We want to really get going! The positions of Chief Digital Officer and Chief Marketing Officer have been filled, and they should help us to build a system landscape that is not only maximally competitive, but also future-proof.”

Digital maturity, digitalisation 4.0, digital strategy – whatever you call it: This is an efficient and competitive modernisation of your marketing.

To go to the next level, you should answer the following questions:

• Can you clearly assign your company to one of the digital maturity levels?
• What challenges will be relevant for you in the future? What are your current marketing challenges?
• What characterises your company?
• What options are there for optimising technology and processes?
• Are the marketing and distribution of your products up to date?
• How effective and efficient is your marketing organisation?
• Are you reaching your customers and target groups with your messages?
• Do you have all the data you need to evaluate success and make targeted decisions?
• How dynamic is your business model?

We will be happy to support you in evaluating your digital maturity level and show you what benefits you have at the next level. Interested in a free 30-minute consultation with our digital expert?