Having worked with many hundreds of chemical companies, the SpecialChem teams have established a scale of digital maturity, made out of 4 levels:
- Analog
- Outbound
- Inbound
- Digital First
Curious to identify the category your company belongs to? Nothing easier with our SpecialChem online test. Please pass the test to confirm your actual level. A clear and honest initial assessment is a key step in your digitalization journey.
But what are the criteria used, and what typically characterizes companies in each digital maturity level? Let’s find out together in this article.
Promotional efforts
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Digital Maturity Levels |
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Analog |
Outbound |
Inbound |
Digital First |
|
Rely on trade shows |
They send newsletters, marketing emails Regularly organize webinars |
They typically master outbound marketing techniques They have a clear commitment to be multi- or omni-channel, they know the best channels to use, and how to use them Inbound marketing is a top priority, with a strong focus and significant investments in content creation |
They have a clear and strong omnichannel strategy and master multi-channel retargeting
They own a solid inbound strategy with company-wide content creation, which covers all the stages of their buyer's journey (exploration, screening...), combined with an excellent practice of SEO and SEA to drive qualified traffic to their content |
Website
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Digital Maturity Levels |
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|
Analog |
Outbound |
Inbound |
Digital First |
|
Website is usually a corporate storefront designed with limited or no opportunity for client interactions |
These companies generate leads with their website, but they do not capitalize on SEO and SEA to grow their traffic |
It is clearly designed to generate inbound leads. They extensively use SEO and SEA to drive more traffic |
Offers a great user experience (UX), with dynamic personalization and interaction capabilities
All online events are tracked and feed into the data management platform
The website is designed around the needs of Buyer Personas
They understand very well that their website is only ONE channel to the market |
Content
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Digital Maturity Levels |
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Analog |
Outbound |
Inbound |
Digital First |
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Mainly corporate, to support the website and trade shows initiatives |
They develop content to support their website and outbound initiatives |
Inbound marketing is a top priority, with a strong focus and significant investments in content creation
Despite the investment, content creation faces resource limitations to be fully effective |
They have a solid inbound strategy with company-wide content creation, which covers all the stages of their buyer's journey (exploration, screening...), combined with an excellent practice of SEO and SEA to drive qualified traffic
Content creation is partially outsourced |
Social Media
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Digital Maturity Levels |
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Analog |
Outbound |
Inbound |
Digital First |
|
No presence |
Present on social media, and social management is often under clear responsibility |
Good social media presence and activity, thanks to their content creation and distribution strategy |
Deploy a well-established, integrated social media strategy Social amplification is a common practice of the whole staff |
Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) and Marketing Automation (MA)
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Digital Maturity Levels |
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Analog |
Outbound |
Inbound |
Digital First |
|
CRM has not been implemented or not fully utilized by the sales and marketing teams. Mainly used to store sales reports and customer information |
CRM is implemented and both their sales and marketing teams use it to track activities, but only limited shared processes between sales & marketing
Do not exploit their data with MA |
CRM and MA are implemented and synchronized Several automated processes are in place (lead scoring, nurturing, sample follow-up...) |
Extensive use of MA
MA is fed by data management platforms, not only the CRM
They track the ROI and influence of every sales and marketing process
Can forecast actions with great accuracy |
Lead management
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Digital Maturity Levels |
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|
Analog |
Outbound |
Inbound |
Digital First |
|
Most of their business comes from existing clients, and new sales mostly come from sales prospection |
Lead management is a common struggle for these companies as sales and marketing teams work in silos
They do not score or qualify their leads, which is the main reason for low conversion failures
Frequent frustrations between sales and marketing
They tend to follow up on incoming requests but extract no value from other types of leads |
They have implemented marketing automation to nurture and automatically score their leads with a message
They screen all their leads and have dedicated resources (inside sales) to qualify their MQLs, and dispatch viable opportunities to their sales team
Conversion rates are higher than the previous level, but some of the sales reps are not fully onboard with all the digital processes
They have difficulties tracking KPIs through all their channels |
The lead management is excellent and delivers high conversion rates. They have a dedicated organization to qualify and nurture their leads
They use chatbots and AI to automate part of the conversion
The sales team is fully engaged to follow up on SQLs and does not see conflict with digital channels. Sales and marketing work hand in hand in ONE "revenue team"
Clear rules of lead handover between inside sales and field sales |
In our next articles, once you will know at which level your company is, you will find valuable insights and resources on what you need to do to reach the next level.