A digital marketing first strategy recognises that the world has changed.
Everyone carries smartphones around with them, don’t they?
A smartphone is, in effect, an extension of the human brain. Need an answer to a question? Ask your phone. Need directions? Use one of the Maps services. Bored? Listen to some music or play a game. Need to communicate with a colleague? Email, instant message or phone them, regardless of where you are.
We have become so used to smartphones that we take them for granted. What is more, we are starting to expect a similar immediate response from the world around us.
We hail cabs via Apps and look for jobs within LinkedIn. An increasing number of households are starting to have AI capabilities (Amazon Echo, Google Home).
To what extent is this increasing digitisation of our society affecting businesses?
The answer is that ‘it depends’. Email, smartphones and websites are ubiquitous. A digital strategy, central database (CRM) and integrated digital marketing system less so.
This is surprising, as the cost of customer acquisition via digital marketing is lower. In addition, the chances are that your competitors are currently working flat out to digitise their businesses.
What does a digital marketing first strategy look like? It includes a written plan, buy in and a holistic approach to online brand awareness, customer acquisition and retention.
It sees things from the customers’ perspective (as marketing always has done). The perspective, however, has changed with the new way in which consumers and business decision makers research products and services before they purchase.
It takes into account online brand reputation, starting with the results of a search for your enterprise / what you are selling.
If you are not showing up for a reasonably wide range of search terms on page 1 of Google, this is a negative message.
Once the customer has found you, they want to learn, or take an action, or buy then and there.
To what extent do you offer customers the opportunity to learn about what you do, how well you do it and what your customers think of you?
In my case, I have a community of several thousand business people and marketers who discuss marketing issues via The Marketing Compass, I give talks and I write blogs and books on marketing. I publish an e-newsletter and I am active within social media.
Regardless of the type of enterprise that you own / work for, the principles are the same. Sharing knowledge online, keeping track of contacts and customers via a legally compliant database and making yourself visible in an interconnected world works surprisingly well.
It is helpful for you to ‘become your customer’. Try searching for the items that you are marketing, both on a desktop / laptop and also on a smartphone. See your website as if you are looking at it for the first time. Fill in a contact form. Try calling your own company.
Does everything work? How does it make you feel? What could be improved?
We all need to keep learning about the digital world as it currently stands and the changes that are coming.
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” ~ William Gibson, author
