We really liked this article on LinkedIn from Kim Kandola, Marketing and Business Development Executive at MPH Creative Solutions. You can find the link here.
There are some things in life that work really well together for example popcorn and a movie, but in the sense of this topic and as years has gone on, marketing and technology have really got closer to one another and has become a dynamic duo in terms of helping each other out.
Over the past few years marketing as well as technology have been enjoying a huge change and is one of many few elements that evolve side by side. Views of marketing has certainly changed and has become a strong medium to really branch out and to network too many individuals around the global spectrum. The common medium that nearly everyone in this day and age has access to be technology, ranging from computers, tablets and smartphones. With the two combined, you have a partnership made in heaven and this blog is simply to express why and to share thoughts on this topic. The field of marketing is changing in such a rapid way that the traditional way of doing things have changed and new forms of marketing has now come into play.
It’s not about the size of your business; it’s about the digital marketing strategies you implement! Any business in any industry can compete with its competitors regardless of its size providing they have the right digital marketing strategies in place. This leads me onto the powerful tool of Digital Marketing itself; the one tool that all the big boys love to manipulate! As technology continues to evolve, simultaneously, there is a significant need to be online and have that crisp site, giving consumers that desirable experience of a simple, smooth journey through your products and services.
Remember! Your marketing campaigns can be discovered from anywhere in the world. You can market your business on various social networking platforms via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter giving you the capability to gain some REAL unbeatable exposure through ‘Likes& Shares’. There is a ridiculously high demand for Google Analytics, Adwords, SEO as once you have invested into a key word optimised search; your website ranking could potentially give you an attractive ROI… As long as you divert the traffic in the right direction and convert of course!
Brand identity is a crucial aspect for any business. What does your brand reflect about your business? Where does the target market position your brand? Are you using the right colours? Notice how simplicity is the way forward when it comes to branding, yet this is not so obvious as there are many businesses out there that get this wrong … its a common element which gets overlooked and needs to be taken into serious consideration should you want to be successful.
One of the biggest advantages of being online is that it is Real Time; therefore, you can monitor your success as you go along. Unlike traditional businesses you can track click rates, open rates, bounce rates, demographics, locality as well as performance based graphs. The great thing here is that you can gain a good sense of direction and adapt accordingly to your results. TIP… Google Analytics is a great tool to measure the traffic on your site and attaining conversion rates.
What techniques do you use to gain good publicity? How do you encourage prospects to visit your site? Social Media platforms are a great way of capturing awareness, creating powerful engagements and enhancing your prospects. Feedback has considerably become significant over the years in terms of customer experience; this only encourages followers to take action by commenting, blogging, ‘liking and sharing’, visit websites, rate products and services that you may have to offer.
Who needs traditional mediums of advertisement such as directories, brochures, leaflets, magazines, television and radio when you can take advantage of digital marketing! It’s not only free but you can conquer the world by using the power of technology, the power of the net, empowering you to funnel your marketing strategies through international distribution channels. It amazing as it can all be done through a click of a button!
The days of waiting to receive important documents via fax and post are over. The beautiful thing about technology is that it’s instant! It’s 24/7. You can monitor your conversion rates, visitors/subscribers and peak times wherever and whenever desired.
So how has technology changed the way that marketers reach out to all of us? Well over the past ten years or so, technology has seen a rapid growth and one area that has changed a lot has come in forms of mobile phones. Gone are the days of playing Snake on a Nokia 3210, but now we live in era where we are able to obtain information whenever we want and where ever we want right in the palm of our hands. People now are happy to take in more information at a more constant bases and people look at websites, social sites, use apps and check emails many times within a day. In today’s world technology is at the forefront of everything, social attitudes are changing, the way we communicate is changing, and the way we do business is also changing.
Originally technology was seen as a barrier to social and even family time, with teenagers and young men and women shutting themselves away on a PC in a small dungeon somewhere. Now technologies such as smartphones and tablets are actually helping increase the time that people spend with their families, sitting in front of the TV multitasking on their smartphone and tablet, with PC sales declining as a result. Everybody is socially connected in some way through mobile technology.
People are now filling their time with these amazing versatile devices by surfing on the internet from playing games and banking, to planning their diet and writing important business documents, all whilst watching TV ads, travelling, or even sitting in a waiting room at the dentists. Reading a newspaper on a train is becoming obsolete as more and more people now just read the news on their phones, some people now even sleep with their phone next to them and monitor their sleep patterns to help them relax better. Devices such as portable CD players, disposable cameras, flashlights, GPS alarm clocks, voice recorders, electronic dictionaries, electronic organisers, calculators and guitar tuners are all devices that have been made obsolete and consolidated into these devices that save space and time.
This change in technology is driving the rise in sales of tablets and smartphones which are also starting to slow down the sales of PC’s. “In June 2011, the International Data Corporation was forecasting that by 2015 total world PC shipments would rise to 541.5m. Now, it reckons the total will instead be 318.2m – a 41% cut on its earlier expectation” (the guardian 2013). Furthermore, Sales of “Tablets to Grow 53.4% This Year, As the Traditional PC declines 11.2%” (Gartner 2013)
It has also been stated that people who have a smartphone also have a tablet despite the overlap in functionality. Even though the technologies achieve the same things, more people are now rating a tablet over a PC. The ease of use with these technologies are even influencing children as young as 2 years of age, “Nearly a third of children now learn to use a mobile phone or a tablet computer before they can talk, Some 29 per cent start using the gadgets as toddlers, with 70 per cent mastering them completely by primary school age”. (Daily mail 2013)
This is an indication of how important it is to have an online presence going into the future for the current and future generations. Typical marketing models have been revisited to understand a shift in buyer behaviours. This outlines the importance of having an online presence as the typical marketplace is now shifting from the high street to the istreet where eventually the majority of business will be conducted online
With tablets and smartphones on the up and up, and more and more people being connected through said devices, can your business afford not to have an online presence that will increase the user experience with mobile responsive web design? It is becoming more apparent that tablets and smartphones have changed the way we live forever, from social attitudes, to entertainment and communication, all the way through to medical and business functions.
Chorus Communications 