There has been a fundamental shift in how companies approach their marketing. Many organisations are adopting a digital transformation process which is integrating digital technologies to operate more effectively and serve customers better. Investment in continuous innovation can automate key organisational functions and areas enabling businesses to operate more efficiently and create more revenue.
Understanding digital transformation
Advances in digital technology has transformed the world of marketing. Businesses are embracing innovative, faster lines of communication to reach their audiences and increase opportunities.
Digital transformation is key to optimising the customer experience. It begins with understanding your audiences, their needs, and their behaviours at every touchpoint across the customer journey, and understanding where those moments can be improved through digital means.
How are businesses driving digital transformation?
Experience-based technologies
Not only are customers engaging with brands across more channels and media platforms than ever before, but they expect the experiences they have with brands to be unique and consistent, regardless of where and how they are engaging.
There are several small technology companies that can fit your brand’s needs. The big players, Salesforce and Adobe, are two of the largest and most-prominent companies in the space bringing together the full customer experience.
Purchasing the right technology is only the beginning. The challenge comes in implementing, integrating, and configuring your platforms. They need to support your workflows and help create experiences you want to deliver.
The benefits and opportunities are endless. You’ll be able to recognise customers immediately and repeatedly, engage them with higher-quality content, and deliver seamless personal journeys that grow and adapt at an individual level.
Content and experience
An organisation can set the right technology in place, but customer experiences are delivered through creative and high-quality content combining a series of moments to build relationships over time.
To overcome the competitive market space, there are only a few seconds to grab any customer’s attention and interest. Building the best content is key to engaging with tens, hundreds or thousands of customers with personalised, one-to-one experiences and developing long-term customer relationships.
Connecting through commerce
Customers are instantly shopping across a number of channels including phones, computers, and in the store. However, the increase in social and e-commerce technology has enabled customers to go from awareness to purchase in just a matter of clicks. Once your customers on onboard, loyalty must be maintained through retention strategies.
How to transform your digital presence
In a single generation, marketing has totally transformed from direct mail, print ads, and TV advertising to more interactive content like AI-powered programmatic advertising, augmented reality (AR), omni-channel marketing and other brand-new technologies and techniques that didn’t exist years ago.
A digital transformation is a business and operational change that leverages new digital tools to deliver experiences and build relationships in order to address rising demands. To implement a successful digital transformation within a business, it requires the right technology across your marketing channels.
Digital devices – audiences experience brands as they interact with business websites and mobile apps, typically through a combination of connected devices including smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, TVs and gaming devices
Digital platforms – most interactions on these devices are through a browser or apps from major platforms or services, such as Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn
Digital media – different communications channels for reaching and engaging audiences include marketing automation, social media, voice search and AR
Digital technology – the marketing technology that businesses use to create interactive experiences from websites and mobile apps to in-store kiosks and email campaigns
Channels to focus on for your digital transformation
Email marketing automation is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for any business and delivers a better ROI than any other marketing channel. It’s great for community building and engaging with your customers on a one-to-one level helps build long term relationships, generate more leads, and increase sales.
Blogging is a great way to engage across different audiences and can help promote your business using videos, podcasts, interviews etc. Blog posts and online content can be promoted across online campaigns and social media channels to build brand loyalty, increase website traffic and improve lead generation. SEO strategies like keywords, titles, and meta descriptions can help gain brand visibility.
Choosing the right images for blog content article, websites or social media campaigns can really boost customer engagement. Good quality images which are relevant to the content can promote your brand well. Here are some useful tips on choosing imagery for blogs.
Webinars are becoming more popular than traditional face-to-face meetings. Many businesses are increasingly interacting virtually with clients and prospects, forming virtual communities, and enhancing their online presence.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are another great way to connect people together. These channels offer an opportunity to share content and start a conversation with your customers.
Furthermore, social media also enables teams to execute targeted marketing. This can help businesses promote their brand, increase website traffic and generate leads effectively. For example, Facebook paid ads allows marketers to target specific people with different affordable options. Through the data, you can understand user behaviours and create a campaign according to the best performance.
Why digital transformation is more important than ever
The ultimate aim of going digital for most businesses is to improve customer experiences. Businesses that have embraced digital transformation are more comfortable with risk and change, and are keen to abandon old, inefficient processes. They seek out new opportunities to grow and thrive.
An organisation can create digital channels, leverage technology platforms, and produce content within an enhanced, integrated, and tailored process. However, the goal is to set up these operations in a way that allows you to meet customers in their moment of need with relevant and valuable personalised content.
Audience behaviours are constantly changing at an incredible speed and an organisation’s digital transformation must constantly evolve to meet customer needs. You need new sources of data to understand customers better, new cloud-based technologies to create faster personal experiences, and new operating capabilities to deliver these experiences.
We are currently living in a world where technology is a fundamental business strategy which organisations must follow. Transformation can enable better collaboration within and between organisations, with more personalised ways of customer engagement using data insights to help a business grow.