What does it take to achieve digital fluency?

Here at Paulsen, our staff has a multitude of job titles and functions.

And every single one of us understands digital tactics and technologies inside and out.

Some of us work with clients. Some focus on strategy. Others plan and buy media. Some create marketing tactics through design, writing, programming and audio/visual production. We have people who keep track of the 2,000+ open jobs in our system, others who handle accounting and still others who tell the rest of us what to do.

But everyone touches digital.

Paulsen was unique when we added a digital department in the late 1990s to help our clients take advantage of new technologies.

For many marketing firms, integrating digital workflow into a broadcast and print production structure was tough. Some decided not to get involved in digital at all, figuring that whole Internet thing probably wouldn’t catch on. Others contract out digital services because they don’t believe in-house capabilities are necessary.

On the other hand, many purely digital shops sprang up. They became known for offering incredibly cool work that wasn’t necessarily grounded in strategy.

Paulsen was on board with digital from the beginning. But several years ago we realized we could no longer separate digital from the rest of what we do.

As a result, we have no digital department. Or, you could say, the whole agency is a digital department that is learning continuously – because digital competency is a moving target.

How did we do it?

  1. Creating a culture around innovation.
    All staff at Paulsen work on teams that investigate new trends and technologies, assess their usefulness for our clients and share their findings with the entire agency. At weekly idea exchanges and digital discovery meetings we learn about emerging digital marketing tactics.
  2. Developing our own digital “certification” process.
    Employees involved in client contact and strategy participate in formal ongoing education on lead generation, inbound marketing and other processes.
  3. With a laser focus on customer experience.
    By prioritizing the experience of your customers, we’re able to make sense of technologies and how they can be applied for our clients’ benefit.

How does this help our clients?

We know that your customers evolve through using technology – their behavior, habits and decision-making processes change.

For example, your customers use mobile more than ever. Their attention spans are shorter. They research purchases more. They still rely on relationships, but their interactions have changed.

What’s also evolved is our understanding of your customers because there’s so much data available. We know where they are and what they’re doing and, increasingly, what their purchasing process looks like.

That’s how we’re able to shape their experience with your brand – not only to make it positive but to make it profitable.

Would you like to know more?

We’d love to discuss how we can help you. Call us at 605-336-1745 or email our president, Sara Steever, at sara.steever@paulsen.agency.