Marketing Transformation is Going Digital, Time to Adapt

If you're looking to reach modern audiences, traditional marketing strategies aren't going to cut it. The time has come to prioritize digital transformation. Even you (yes, you) know you can't put it off any longer. But don't worry, you're among friends here. And we just so happen to know a thing or two about adapting to technological changes. Read on to learn how you can build a full digital marketing strategy.

Digital marketing transformation

As we alluded to, digital marketing transformation is the transition from traditional marketing (print, broadcast, phone and so on) to a primarily digital approach that's based online. Common examples of digital marketing include:

• Content marketing

• Social media marketing

• Search engine marketing

• Email marketing

• Pay-per-click marketing

Why the switch to digital? It's simple: it's where the people are — and will be for some time. Just look at social media. Per Statista, 4.41 billion people are expected to use social media in 2025.

That's just one bit of data highlighting an aspect of digital marketing. But the point is clear: digital marketing transformation can lead to positive results. Through these marketing strategies, you can gain deeper insights into consumer behavior and the effectiveness of your current plans. Additional benefits include:

• A better customer experience, which translates to further authority, trust and respect.

• Data-driven insights, which enable personalization, relevancy, real-time feedback and agility.

• Cross-departmental collaboration.

Many of these benefits can be unlocked via a strong content marketing strategy.

Content marketing strategy with technology

Technology has allowed marketing to become more personalized than ever before. One of the most prevalent examples of this is the rise of content marketing. When developing your own content strategy, be sure to answer the following questions:

• Who is your audience?

• What differentiates you?

• How do you offer solutions to problems?

• What form will your content take?

• Where will you publish?

• How will you manage content creation and publication?

Having those answers will ensure the creation of more engaging, high quality content -- the kind of content that offers valuable information to your audience and your customer base. 

Just be careful not to rush when introducing content marketing during the digital business transformation process. Like the experts at Deloitte caution, business transformation can take place at "dizzying speeds." A business transformation strategy can help guide the changes to your operations. Turn those bold ambitions into actionable steps that'll help create, deliver and capture new value. 

Consider how you’ll need to reallocate resources to achieve your content marketing goals, and whether you need to look into new technologies to get your marketing operations to that next step. 

Customer experience with brand technology

While the need for content marketing is driven by personalization, it’s just one piece of the bigger picture: the customer experience. 

The customer experience encompasses every interaction consumers have with your organization. To ensure your digital strategy is cohesive and meaningful, you’ll need to look across your marketing processes. According to PWC, this is achieved through a CX platform, including five key components:

• Speed

• Convenience

• Consistency

• Friendliness

• Personalization

Each of these elements is important on their own, but together, they help make the customer journey feel more genuine. And as PWC found, 82% of U.S. consumers want more of that valuable human experience from brands in the future. But how can you as a marketer transform an otherwise faceless digital presence into a living, breathing brand? 

Well, one answer is social media.

Social media is leading the charge in digital transformation. The organic, two-way conversations social media platforms offer is rapidly replacing more clinical-feeling research methods that often only provide historical information rather than real-time data. 

Once you've mastered applying that human touch and engaging your customers across digital channels, the next challenge is figuring out how to capture the full potential of the data your marketing team collects to gain a competitive advantage.

How to analyze your analytics

We'll let you in on a little secret: numbers alone won't reveal the full story. Experience, context, and creativity are a very necessary (and human) part of the process.

However, analytics are key to increasing customer loyalty, improving forecasting accuracy and boosting customer acquisition.

Choosing the right data to monitor is your first obstacle, and equally as challenging is actually using it. In fact, Salesforce has found that once companies collect metrics across touchpoints, only 17% fully integrate the information into their processes. Avoid becoming the other 83% with data analytics visualization, which helps you:

• Identify the processes that need attention or improvement.

• Recognize the most impactful influences on customer behavior.

• Understand which touchpoints to focus on.

These visual models will help you turn raw data into actionable insights. Leverage the most impactful drivers to build a cohesive customer experience through smarter and faster marketing decisions.

The future of modern marketing

Innovation is crucial to success — you know that. But innovation also can't be put off for tomorrow. Neglect the writing on the wall and we might as well be communicating via messages in bottles. And hey, while that sounds kind of fun, there's a better way: digital marketing transformation.

If you're not sure where to start or how to better use your marketing technology to get you there, contact GeekHive for help. We've been there, and we'd be happy to share what we've learned.