Marketing Transformation in the Digital Era

Digital Transformation is essential for business growth in 2021, but what exactly is it and can it actually transform your business? Digital Transformation can be described as a strategic and systemic change within your business strategy that redesigns operating processes across your business, from sales and marketing to customer service. 

The Growing Importance of Marketing Transformation

Marketing transformation fits within the Digital Transformation umbrella and refers to the enabling of new marketing capabilities and software's across the organisation, software's that align marketing, sales, and services while collecting vast amounts of customer data, streamlining processes and making information accessible to all team members in a single location.

As it stands today, marketing has taken a more prominent role in terms of business strategy than ever before  and this is due to the rise of the empowered consumer who is able to retrieve information about business offerings and solutions within seconds thanks to an array of easily accessible online channels. Because of this, simple advertising tactics are no longer enough - marketing teams now need to define their vision and path to ensure greater marketing transformation. 

Defining Marketing Transformation

Below, we take a look at what marketing transformation means in real terms for your business and business processes:

• Structural and Operating Shift: Marketing transformation is not a subtle change to processes, it is a complete shift in processes, operating models, culture and team roles within an organisation. 
• Marketing for the Empowered Consumer: Again, marketing transformation is not a subtle facelift, it is a complete transformation to ensure that your businesses is able to keep up with today’s empowered consumer - essentially, you are no longer just marketing a single message - you are creating a delightful and personalised experience for the consumer through new software’s and processes. 
• Aligning Teams: In today’s digital world it is important that your marketing team is aligned with other teams within your organisation - including your sales and customer service teams. This kind of ecosystem ensures that your leads and customers experience the most personalised and hands on service - from the marketing stage through to the purchasing stage and beyond.

The above may sound overwhelming but it is important to understand that modern day marketing is a complete evolution within the marketing space and it needs to be acknowledged and implemented if you want to rise above your competitors in 2021.

The transformation itself is still evolving and you need to keep your finger on the pulse of transformation if you want to succeed in your marketing endeavors moving forward. 

What does it mean when marketing transforms?

As we keep reiterating, the biggest driving force in marketing transformation is the consumer. As the digital age continues to shift and evolve, the more expectations the consumer has for brands and businesses and organisations need to continuously deliver what the customer expects in order to remain competitive and relevant. 

This is important when it comes to customer retention and lead generation marketing efforts as the focus is no longer on what is being sold, but rather, who we are selling to. So, what are the expectations of the customer in the digital age?

What the Customer Expects:

As we keep reiterating, the biggest driving force in marketing transformation is the consumer. As the digital age continues to shift and evolve, the more expectations the consumer has for brands and businesses and organisations need to continuously deliver what the customer expects in order to remain competitive and relevant. 

This is important when it comes to customer retention and lead generation marketing efforts as the focus is no longer on what is being sold, but rather, who we are selling to. So, what are the expectations of the customer in the digital age?

What the Customer Expects:

• The customer expects to search for a service/product online (through Google or related search engines) and find top service or product providers in their area. If your business is not present on the first page of the search engine results then you will lose out on customers to your competitors - they want to find a business quickly. In order to be found online you will need to have strong and helpful content on your website combined with Search Engine Optimisation - both on-page and off-page. Businesses that place marketing effort on their content and SEO will reap the benefits as their website will begin to rise high in the search engine results. 
• The customer expects to find as much information as possible regarding your business and your business offerings. They should be able to find this content through a variety of devices, from their laptop and PC to mobile devices. You need to ensure your content is optimised for all possible channels and also ensure that you provide helpful content - from videos and inforgraphics through to blogs and e-books.
• They want instant communication through a variety of channels including social media, email and real-time chat. This means that you need to be available to answer customer questions at all times. This can be done through automated email software, AI (such as Chatbots) and strong social media management. 
• They also expect to view testimonials or reviews of your business through online channels such as social media, online communities or Google places. It is vital you are present in all areas and are able to provide customer insight into your service offerings. 

So, how is this all accomplished?

Digital tools, software systems, Customer Relationship Management Platforms and team alignment all make the above possible. And your team members need to embrace new tools and tactics in order for this to be successful - essentially, it comes down to creating a culture of alignment and information sharing - this is the key to marketing transformation. 

The Key to Successful Marketing Transformation

With marketing transformation comes new tools, tactics and strategies all of which rely on a new culture within the company. So, how can marketing teams ensure a digital friendly culture throughout the organisation?

• Alignment and Collaboration: Marketing in the digital era is no longer about hierarchy within teams. Because marketing requires creativity combined with technology and automation, alignment is a marketing team's strongest asset. By creating alignment between marketing, sales and service teams you are able to understand the customer in greater detail and create marketing campaigns for every stage of the buyers cycle - ensuring each individual lead receives a personalised marketing message that drives them through to sales and to making a purchase. 
• Evolving Skill Sets: By creating a culture of alignment and collaboration within your company when it comes to marketing, your teams will be driven to upskill. For example, your social media teams, copywriters, search engine optimisation experts, lead generation professionals and graphic design teams should learn to work together and understand what each department offers the other in terms of marketing success. By providing your teams with access to a Customer Relationship Management tool such as HubSpot they are able to learn more about each team and the success of their marketing efforts - and learn how each team affects the other. 
• Consistent Learning: With marketing transformation comes advanced software and tools that your teams will have to use and understand. This means they need to take initiative and ask questions in order to learn and grow alongside these new tools. They should be willing to learn, fail and try again using these tools in order to create a more agile team that is able to live up to customer expectations. 

In Summary

Today’s modern marketing teams need to invest in technologies that are customer centric and designed to support their customers needs and expectations. The customer needs to be prioritised above all else, and a marketing transformation strategy cannot be ignored as we head into 2021.

In order to find success in the marketing transformation world, businesses need to invest in systems that allow for team alignment, automation, and data collection so that all teams can monitor their marketing success - as a unit.

About Nexa

From implementing the HubSpot CMS and CRM systems to training your teams, we transform organisations with the inbound methodology and we adapt HubSpot to suit your business goals (no matter business size or industry.) Whether your focus is generating leads, accelerating sales or developing a powerful marketing strategy to provide a personalised customer experience, we offer the complete range of digital transformation services to meet your needs. 

Together, we build your custom marketing transformation solution.

Contact Nexa today for all your digital transformation needs.