Around 250 million years ago, Earth saw what we know as a Tectonic shift. Then came into existence the continents that are spread across the globe. This was followed by a series of revolutions that took place time and again to give shape to the world we live in now.
What we are now a part of is the Digital Revolution. With everything getting mobile, including even our communication, we are witnessing the Digital Shift where trends and technologies keep coming, staying in the trend, and then becoming obsolete only to be replaced.
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Although companies are trying to keep pace with these shifts, there are a lot of challenges that they are facing. With each passing day, social media and the internet are empowering customers with all they need to know about various brands.
Various social media handles curate the best marketing ads and campaigns that are even liked by people other than marketers. And #TrendingFormats in graphics is not just jargon anymore.
They have become a part of everyone’s daily life and are shared by millions on social media platforms. People already have their favorite brands, be it for drinking coffee with friends or buying superhero t-shirts. It is a common example of digital marketing transformation.
What is a Digital Transformation in Marketing?
Digital Transformation in Marketing refers to the process of using digital technologies and strategies to fundamentally change and improve the way businesses promote and sell their products or services. It involves leveraging various digital tools and channels to enhance the customer experience, streamline marketing efforts, and adapt to the evolving needs and preferences of today’s tech-savvy consumers.
Top 7 Challenges of Digital Marketing Transformation
1. People with the Right Set of Skills
The competition is increasing, and so is the requirement for skilled people to drive the business. But where are all these people hiding?
Well, it has become increasingly challenging to find the right set of skills in one person.
Although companies can form teams with a blend of different skills, it is difficult to manage and keep that workforce motivated to run along with the changing market demands.
The key is to find and collaborate with hiring agencies that can pick out the best for your organization.
If you don’t want to go for such third-party contracts, you can approach the people using social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, where you will also get to know their work. Once done with the people hiring process, focus on how to keep them updated and motivated to walk with the market dynamics.
Companies also need to focus on providing the right environment for growth and learning within the organization. That said, aim for a harmonized workflow and integrated teamwork to get the best out of everyone.
Also, Read: Which Social Media Platform Is The Best For Your Business?
2. The Customer is King
“Best phones under 15,000 with a high-resolution camera.”
The above search might have been entered in Google Chrome, and those billions of pages would have been scavenged through for information, including YouTube videos.
This will have been followed by endless product reviews on e-commerce websites and social media. And even then, when companies try to flash and follow customers with ads, there is no guarantee that they will get the customer to click on the BUY NOW option.
What companies should do in such scenarios is to make the best possible use of consumer behavior analysis data to prepare a highly targeted audience segment for launching marketing campaigns.
The martech tools used must be best utilized to gather information from multiple channels to curate customized campaigns.
3. A Transparent Brand Identity
On the one hand, we have brands that are winning hearts with their customer-centric approach, and on the other hand, there are the brands that were once loved but who betrayed this trust. Business decisions are no longer limited to the “within four walls.” People are more informed even when they don’t read the newspaper daily because there’s Twitter!
Organizations can communicate transparently with their customers to develop trustful relations and bag those loyal audiences to play in the market field in the long run. This not only involves giving out the right information to the community but also keeping them updated on what will be the best for them.
No one wants to be cheated, and by being honest with your customers, you are already making way for word-of-mouth marketing through goodwill. This is a very common challenge in digital marketing transformation.
Also, Read: The Ultimate Guide to Brand Loyalty
4. Making Sense of this Big Data
Information and more information about the customers and their interactions on various platforms has left many organizations clueless.
Although there is a lot of software that helps in making sense of this real-time data, how to convert these analytics to insights that can be later transformed into marketing strategies seems to be an arduous task.
The key to reaching out to the right set audience that guarantees higher conversion rates lies in getting real-time feedback from the market as to how your customers are taking your products and services.
Once you have those numbers, you need the resources that can draw conclusions from the data at hand and come up with campaigns to implement, keeping in mind the user segmentation.
5. Integration of Teams
Usually, in most companies, communication among teams doesn’t take place frequently unless there are escalations. This is one of the reasons that companies suffer because the bridge among the teams that should communicate more often is rather burning.
For instance, the Marketing Team and Data Analytics Team must go hand-in-hand to plan out strategies that sell out. And the same holds for the Marketing and Sales team, as they need to get on the same page when customers are concerned.
This can be done by regulating information flow in organizations and also having a centralized data management system accessible to all teams. Apart from that, the teams that are concerned with customers have to resonate with the right information to provide a seamless experience to customers.
6. Hyper-personalization
You may think that personalization is too overrated. But it is overrated for the right reasons. Due to social media, people are used to getting attention, and thus one message for all won’t work anymore. Your marketing campaigns and consumer responses have to be tailored, keeping in mind the behavior of individuals.
You have to empower your marketing team with prognostic measures that can help you project what will work the best.
With powerful data analytic tools that get you real-time data, you can come up with user segments and curate messages to set forth on the right channel to interact with your spectrum of consumers.
Personalization thus achieved this way will take your brand a long way towards staying as the favorite with your audience.
Also, Read: How to Use Marketing Automation to Boost Personalization
7. Crafting an Omnichannel Experience
People are on their mobile phones, scrolling Instagram for a while, and then jumping to an e-commerce platform to pick up on their shopping list.
These cycles are endless, and the pattern repeats with the majority of them. In this scenario, when your company has set paid ads on one platform and carousels on another, and then you also send timely updates through SMS or pop-ups, it is mandatory that you give out consistent information rather than misguiding.
Most of the time, companies fail to provide a smooth transition across platforms. And this isn’t good for business.
What you can do to overcome this is tailor an omnichannel experience for your customers. There is a lot of martech software that helps companies craft uniform experiences across all the communication channels to reach the target audience. Employ that software to get the best results in providing a seamless user experience and see your conversion rates go high.
Wrapping up
The challenges of Digital Marketing Transformation, as mentioned above, will also keep changing their forms as we have something new with each changing day. But for now, check these out, see if your team is facing any of these difficulties, and make sure that you clear the way out for them. This will ensure that you grow your business despite the changing market dynamics.
Chirantan Patel is the Product Manager at Softwaresuggest & Callhippo, an Inc. 275 company that researches and analyzes software to educate, advise, and connect buyers and sellers of business technology.
