Why I talk about digital transformation, not just digital marketing

A search or lead-generation project can expose much bigger questions about customers, content, systems and how teams work together.

I’m often asked why I talk about digital transformation rather than digital marketing. It’s because something that looks like a simple digital marketing project often requires fundamental changes to marketing approach, people and mindset before it delivers results.

Take an ordinary project: expanding reach and lead generation through search. What starts as a channel brief can quickly become a much broader set of questions. Not all of them need to be solved at once — in stages, I have to say! — but they all shape the outcome.

1. Understand the demand

How well do we know who we target in this channel, and what they search and prompt for? What is the best advertising approach, what does the competition look like, and what budget actually makes a difference? When can we expect results?

2. Connect content to the next step

Do we have the right content, in formats that work and written in a way that captures this demand? What do we want the person to do after reading it? Is our website set up so search engines and AI systems can understand it?

3. Make the systems and teams work together

Are we integrated with marketing automation and CRM — and how? How do engagement and leads show up in those systems, and what do we do next? Is sales prepared to act?

4. Measure business outcomes

Are we tracking these touchpoints, and can we connect them to business outcomes? Channel activity only tells part of the story. The handovers, follow-up and commercial results matter too.

Research discussed in Harvard Business Review points to a familiar imbalance: companies invest heavily in marketing technology, yet its impact is often modest when the operational side receives more attention than the organisational side.

The implication for me is clear. Adoption cannot stay siloed inside marketing. Bringing the broader business into the work — including sales, the people who own the systems and the teams who use the insights — changes what a digital project can achieve.

That is why I call it transformation. The technology is part of the work. The real change is in how people, processes and commercial priorities come together.