Why Is There a Need for Brands to Tech-Innovate?

Technology is affecting consumers' lives by changing the way they live and interact with brands. A recent study by consulting firm Kantar TNS, found that that 47 percent of India's consumers with access to basic Internet feel constantly followed by online advertising, about 13 percent more than the global average. But what is more interesting is the fact that 21 percent of those responded that they ignore social posts or content from brands. This brings us to the question: Can publishers and business owners still find success to win customers?
Problem is in the roots

One of the biggest hurdles that still hinders the brand-consumer conversation is the lack of personalization. The traditional methods of web marketing included mainly Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (SEO and SEM) and paid search. In those days, 'more visibility' of the product was the primary motive of online marketing. The directive was pretty straightforward - find a product and promote it digitally. It took a while for brand managers to realize that mere visibility is not effective - the results were more often linked with how the message engaged the consumer.

That is when the marketers understood the value of 'Unified Consumer View' and 'Customer Journey Mapping'. Thus, with the advent of data analytics the shift of focus from 'push marketing' to 'pull marketing' began. These changes also gave rise to marketing technology or MarTech, slowly crediting it to become a critical part of the brand strategy. The question is: Is enough being done? Perhaps, not!

Marketers today are looking at something more than just marketing messaging gateway. Brands today are capable to track their consumer behaviour through their digital footprint by means of analytics and MarTech tools to help customize product offerings depending upon the consumers' individual interest. A paradigm shift in this direction has already begun - from finding a product to promote to eventually becoming marketing relevant products basis consumer needs.

The workflow of visual-based marketing has made way for marketing automation tools to help brand managers to engage consumers with the right message on the right platform. This often means that companies need to tech-innovate (innovate using technology) to craft engaging conversation points across channels such as web mail, SMS and social media, etc. This habit of innovation using technology has to be based on the understanding of the customer's preference. For instance, if a consumer prefers email as source of information from brands, data analytics will process and assimilate the data and automate personalized email messages can be directed to the consumer.

The most important aspect of marketing automation is that it enables brands to strategize and manage their Marketing campaigns well in advance. Therefore, in case of festive season, which is peak time for brands in terms of sales, marketing automation helps brands to manage their messaging and strategize promotions well in advance, which leaves no space for chaos during heavy traffic on their websites.

The benefit that a consumer gets is access to all the information of various products and services on relevant platforms and engage real-time with brands while browsing or shopping online.

The adoption rate of marketing technology is extremely high with brands to gauge better customer data integration, and mapping customer experiences to a company's vision of omni-channel customer service.

Therefore, the data analytics embedded at the core of MarTech helps to improve customer service. Currently, ecommerce, retail and BFSI have been taking the lead in this. But opportunities are galore for other industries too. There are innumerable things that a brand can do with MarTech more efficiently and get into the next level of customer integration.

Digital media and technology in marketing has become omnipresent and there is no longer complete divide in perception amongst "digital marketing activities" and is simply considered as part of marketing. This thinking is partially driven by changes in consumer media consumption where they continue to consume content in different formats such as mobile, web, social media, etc. basis their preferences without consciously thinking about the channels. Real-time engagement in digital platform has emerged to be the most significant tool to drive improved outcome for brands to engage directly with consumers in a more coordinated and efficient approach.

Often, building in-house capabilities to nurture and implement MarTech best practices poses a challenge. In such circumstances, it is best to associate with a marketing technology consultancy that not only understands the ecosystem, but also has the wherewithal to execute plans across channels, which is imperative.

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By Winay Bari




Article Source: Why Is There a Need for Brands to Tech-Innovate?