Is WA In Danger Of Being Left Behind By The 4th Industrial Revolution?

The digital world plays a huge part in modern life - so much so that the current digital transformation being experienced all over the world is being called “the 4th industrial revolution”. The speed, breadth and depth of this technology-driven revolution is forcing us to rethink many facets of society. This is especially true when it comes to business and marketing.

Very few of today’s businesses would dispute the importance of digital marketing. WA is no different from the rest of the world in this regard, with the rapid rise of the digital economy completely reshaping the state’s marketing landscape since the start of the new millennium. Indeed, standard contemporary industry terminology like “search engine optimisation”, “pay-per-click” and “organic reach” and roles like “social media manager”, “digital strategist” and “influencer” would leave turn-of-the-century marketers scratching their head in bewilderment.

While it’s clear that digital marketing plays a huge role in the success of many WA-based businesses and organisations, valuable information and data about the sector is surprisingly thin on the ground. This has been an issue for those that want to develop a deeper understanding of how WA’s digital marketing landscape is evolving and gauge how their efforts fit into the bigger picture.

As one of WA’s largest full-service digital agencies, Alyka was keenly aware of this lack of information and the detrimental effect that it was having on local businesses. Following up from its first report in 2016/17, its 2020 State Of Digital Report aims to address this problem by providing useful insights into the role, function and importance of digital marketing to WA-based organisations.

Working with Metrix Consulting to engage 201 of WA’s senior digital marketing leaders from small, medium and large businesses across a wide variety of sectors, the 2020 State Of Digital Report creates one of the most comprehensive pictures of WA’s digital marketing landscape to date.

Some of the key findings of the report include:

• Nearly all businesses are investing in digital marketing of some kind (including 85% of small businesses - a significant increase from 66% in 2016/17).

• More than half of all businesses surveyed (55%) said that they believed digital marketing would increase in importance in the next 5 years.

• Only one in five businesses feel well-prepared to handle future digital marketing challenges.

• Over a quarter of businesses surveyed (27%) spend more than 50% of their marketing budget on digital.

• Significant knowledge gaps are emerging in the areas of attribution modelling, Google reporting technologies and the latest SEO trends.

Broadly speaking, while it appears that more and more WA-based businesses are recognising the paramount importance of digital marketing, significant knowledge gaps also threaten to hinder their ability to keep up with the fast-paced and ever-changing digital world.

If you’d like to find out more about how your digital marketing efforts fit into the WA landscape - and potentially identify some areas that you need to focus on in 2020 to make sure that you keep pace with the rapid rate of change - click here to read the full report.