Digital, or more specifically, digital marketing is an ever-changing and exciting industry that offers a plethora of opportunities. It is now more important than ever before that marketers invest time developing knowledge and learning all of the latest tools and techniques out there.
The most recent Bellwether report in July 2014 revealed a sharp increase in usage of different marketing skills. For instance, the propensity of search recorded a 12.5% rise in usage, whilst spending on internet based marketing activities rose by 14.7%. So if this is what marketers are expected to know, they need to understand how to deliver it.
Marketing is a field now adapting and changing in the face of digital growth and a move towards developing a comprehensive skill set is not surprising – you have to evolve in order to stay in the game. Think of plumbers taking electrician qualifications or linguists adding more and more languages to their polyglot portfolio and you begin to get the idea. However, what does this new know-how mean for the industry?
With marketing, what matters most is people – or more specifically the people who are buying a brand’s products or services. For a while now, marketers have been focusing on delivering customer engagement programmes that speak to the consumer on a more profound, personal level and the holy grail of any activity is the ability to target and personalise campaigns.
This is not something that digital platforms can enhance or do better as a default. Instead, what is needed to implement targeted campaign analysis is a deeper understanding of purchasing behaviour and psychology. This can only be gained through extensive consumer insight and data. Whilst before digital, consumer data was harder to lay your hands on, the boom in technology has allowed for freer and easier access. In essence, digital platforms are delivering data to marketers with a lot more speed and efficiency. Just think of social media platforms and the wealth of information that is freely available.
As well as this benefit to the marketer in making their jobs easier, it is also important to focus on the benefit to the consumer that all this real time insight and cross-platform data and behaviour harvesting provides. It is all too easy to let your process become too mechanical and lacking in a human element. It is vital to not exclusively look at marketing from a "seller" point of view. A consumer who receives relevant, targeted communication about products and services has a much more organic experience and often willingly allows brands into their life, without feeling that they are being given a hard-sell. It is at this moment where the role of creative takes over to deepen that relationship with a brand - on all relevant channels.
Beyond the fact that data is now easier to understand, digital offers the means to implement creative that is not only eye-catching, but allows for greater cut-through with the consumer. Several platforms, for example Twitter and Instagram as well as a raft of mobile and smartphone apps that host marketing content and communicate to customers directly all support creative (pictures, video, infographics etc) that consumers will engage with. In addition, all these platforms are rich with customer insight, but they also provide an outlet for marketing activity created from the data they offer. Indeed, digital marketing campaigns would not be as effective without some form of insight. This means that marketers must never forget that consumer data is essential for creating campaigns that have both a granular understanding of what makes people tick, and offer seamless, joined-up experiences, which can be dynamically driven on digital platforms.
The linking of these newer digital platforms with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and dynamic creative is another tactic that can be employed to add further value to marketing campaigns. Combining traditional CRM tactics including direct marketing with these digital channels and the latest technology enables marketers to create newer and more effective methods for targeting customers. Although digital is clearly the way forward, it is important that those ensconced in the world of digital don’t underestimate the power of harnessing traditional CRM methods in order to boost their campaigns.
New skill sets often mean that specialists are placed into silos where no inter-departmental communication is possible. The fundamental purpose around developing new skills is to develop an understanding of new technologies and their capabilities as well as their limitations. This doesn’t necessarily mean that marketers need to know all the technicalities. It is advisable to know what they can use new technology for and how they can implement them intelligently into their campaigns.
As the playing field continues to evolve, knowledge development will become key in delivering that much needed competitive advantage and implement a driven and intelligent visionary approach.
By Nadja Von Massow, Head of Creative at the GIG at DST.
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