Do you ever notice people snapping food pictures with their phones in restaurants? Or what about couples who spend entire dinners staring at their devices and not speak? Even in the work place, smiley faces and text speak – think ‘lol’ or ‘thx’ – are now sprinkled throughout e-mails.
Our personal and professional lives today are so immersed in the digital scene that it’s tough to figure out what’s appropriate or where to draw the line. We communicate more informally than ever, and we’re now a 24/7 workforce – blessed with the ease of being connected, and plagued with the constant struggles of not switching off. We now have greater flexibility at our fingertips and the traditional 9-5 working day is now a thing of the past.
The uptake of everything digital – be it social media, swanky gadgets or the newest enterprise tech solutions – has also opened global doors to all kinds of businesses. The digital playing field has gifted brands large and small, rich and poor, with the power to reach global audiences on a mass scale, with minimal costs. Because of this, we are seeing some hard-hitting trends shaping the industry, which are crucial for marketers to be on board with.
1) Marketing is no longer an afterthought
We now have access to products and brands anytime, anywhere – with just a couple of clicks, consumers can be purchasing that t-shirt from a London store or downloading a productivity app created in the US. Tech startups are sprouting up by the minute, and digital is making it possible and cheap for them to do so.
Whilst digital solutions can be a big plus for brands, it can also act as a double-edged sword. Competition is stiff, and brands need to stand out to connect with the right audiences. The most successful brands today are constantly thinking about the best platforms, crafting the most interesting content and reaching out at the appropriate times to find success. Intermixed among all these concerns is the importance of UX. If your interface isn’t user-friendly, your potential customers will drop off without a second thought and move onto your competitor’s site that offers them what they want, easily.
It’s important that all marketing teams get this right. Often referred to as ‘fluff’, marketing is today given the gold stars it deserves as brands start to see real traceable impact.
2) Integration of digital
In the agency space, only a few years ago, digital marketers were going like hotcakes and social media was the new platform for you to make it big. There was a huge demand for digital-specific roles and expertise. Today, demand has drifted towards marketers who know and understand digital as part of their overall marketing expertise, rather than those who only specialise in digital. Integrated marketing agencies that provide holistic services – weaving digital with every element of marketing – are the ones that brands look to for help. Companies now understand the power of digital marketing, and its exponential reach when integrated with overall marketing strategies. What this really means is that agencies need to start joining the dots among all the verticals of traditional and digital marketing to provide comprehensive offerings. It’s the direction we’re headed in, and before long integrated agencies will be the new normal.
3) Win the marketing war with analytics
Riveting digital marketing campaigns might win awards and help brands reach specific group of people – and that’s winning the first half of the battle – but to truly succeed, businesses need to skillfully crunch and analyse data, decipher the results and push out even better creative and innovative campaigns to be set apart.
Digital platforms are a marketer’s dream. Traditionally, marketing has been lacking solid methods to link outreach and sales with empirical evidence. Today digital marketing is the game changer that enables campaign results to be tracked with precision. Click-through rates, website traffic and sales conversions are just the tip of the iceberg. Many are figuring out which content resonates with different audience segments and discovering more ways to reach the best audiences. There’s an ocean full of insights that can be extracted and we are desperately in need of experts who can make sense of all the numbers.
Marketers more than ever are tasked with leading the pack and bringing digital to life to score real brand outcomes – digital isn’t just a good-to-know anymore, it’s a must-know.
