The Role of Marketing in Digital Transformation

In current times, companies with the purpose of having success, have to have a solid and well-structured digital transformation strategy for each department. And Marketing is no different! Digital marketing has risen its importance in the last few years because of that transformation. New communication channels have showed up to the party, along with more organising systems that gave a new breath of innovation to this business area!

Some struggles with changing mindsets and long implemented ways of work may occur. But you have to be well prepared for these growing pains and address the best ways to face it. That may also take its time! You can’t change digitally your entire way of work in a blink of an eye. But you can start operating some crucial changes today. The implementation starts with the first technology advance you take at your work. And many companies are doing so. A new marketing era is arising!

As a quick example, the ruling social media handlers that have helped businesses in the promotion are Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc. According to Statista, a market research report reported that:

The digital transformation is being implemented, step by step by companies. The common factor between all of them is the fact that they are all looking to improve the customer experience with their online services/products. Especially their ways of operating online and digitally connecting with clients.

And we are surely one of the best companies around to do so.

So, what exactly is the digital transformation?

“Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, resulting in fundamental changes in how a business operates and the value they deliver to their customers.

Put simply, it’s about changing the way a business interacts with its customers. As well as providing their customers with a consistent experience whenever and wherever they need it.

In fact, when asked about factors that influence a business’s decision to implement a digital transformation strategy companies tend to focus on the same issue. Nearly half of all organizations cited customer experience and customer satisfaction as their leading influences.

Companies that do transform digitally are creating highly engaged customers.

And those customers are:

Six times more likely to try a new product or service from their preferred brand
Four times more likely to have referred your brand to their friends, family and connections
Two times more likely to make a purchase with their preferred brand, even when a competitor has a better product or price

Furthermore, highly engaged customers buy 90% more frequently, spend 60% more per purchase, and have 3x the annual value (compared to the average customer).

And that's not all.

A study at MIT found that companies that have embraced digital transformation are 26% more profitable than their peers!

As the table below illustrates, there's a huge revenue and growth opportunity you could be taking advantage of by digitally transforming your business.

digital transformation case studies

One thing is clear:

It's the customer who is in the driver’s seat.

And “in order to deliver on a better customer experience, you first need to understand who this new kind of digital customer is.” (by Jennifer Lund)

Digital transformation in Marketing

Digital Transformation, in marketing, means that we, marketers, are using digital channels such as email and social media, web applications and other communication platforms. That in an all new innovative and creative way. Marketers now have the task of studying and selecting the best platforms at their hand, that will allow them to have a multichannel presence. By having that, marketers can establish two-way communication with their customers. That helps them understand their needs, and exceed their expectations by providing them with a seamless buying experience.

This allows marketers to make a safe and well-thought selection of what they need to do. And also, which tools they need to master, to start doing it all for every action they project.

All that by having your end user in mind. And how well your experience is going to be designed for them. Putting all new marketing technologies at your disposal to use.

The digitalization of marketing is a much more useful and effective tool when you support it with a data organisation that will help your company gather a bunch of important information. Now your user is customer-first! All your company embraces a model that will help itself reading along all the information and adapting to your users needs.

Data for the rescue as a digital transformation must-have

The key asset for marketing managers is data. This is the sustainability of every digital transformation in marketing.

The general behaviour of users in digital environments, and on communication digital channels, reveals a lot about their requirements. This makes data essential to digital marketers. But, this doesn't mean you need to have all the up-to-date digital marketing tools at your will. You also need to create and follow-up on the organizational conditions at your marketing department. That way you'd be able to make full use of the performance capacity offered by the technology available for marketers.

At the end of the day, information is the key, but it has to be sustained the right way with a great organization system. This way you can jump into content creation and marketing automation (two of the greatest success factors in digital marketing) in a more efficient and sustained way!

Success factors for a digital transformation

Besides all the factors mentioned previously, it is really important to have in mind much more than those. Digital marketing is evolving in a way that, yes, you need to have a really solid organisational structure to sustain it. You also need to drive your work to receive and transform data into value to your company. But, all that needs to be done minding other factors that we have compiled right here. So let’s start!

Content marketing - You have to be able to produce your content minding your users. The language, the tone of voice, the channels you use, the kind of content. Everything matters and you have to make it in a way it is consistent and aligned with the identity of your company;
Marketing automation - It is much important nowadays that you have a structure to predict, follow and target your users. Marketing automation systems are a very effective way to make your users follow a path on your company that goes. At the flow of what they want, and also what you can offer them;
Talent & training of your team - People are your greatest asset, so you need to make sure you have the right talent. And you also need to make sure that they are active in developing new strategies. As well as mastering all your marketing technology at the same time;
Ability to test and learn — See what works and what doesn’t. Give your time the time and space to learn. This way you will evolve and strategically define new ways of engaging and answering the customer needs.
Supporting tools and documentation — Use digital tools and technologies and document it in every step of the way. This way, nothing can affect you and your team to have a basis to work on and document registration of what works best for every company!

With these factors all covered up, you can say that you have a sustained and solid marketing structure to face the demands of the new market! That’s what really matters doesn't it?

The new market demands you to be ready to react to its dynamics and surf the way of it without the struggle to have significant changes and efforts to do so.

Now you can say you're digitally ready for a true digital transformation!

So, let your best days come!
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Examples of digital transformation

As a digital experience business, we at Hi Interactive have come across to take place in many digital transformation processes in every industry.

Our work is focused in guaranteeing a consistent experience and a brand-aligned design. But we always transcend this initial work to transform every company we work with in the way they think of their businesses digitally.

Throughout our expertises, many are the examples of the value of what we can bring to every digital transformation process.Being it front-end, where we produce apps in record time, whilst having a big set of documentation. Enabling the reuse of most of our work for future applications, all that with the quality we are renowned for. And also by our UX/UI work, where we develop every project to deliver the best experience to the end customer, which is a key factor in the digital world!

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