The technologies that have been emerging and evolving over the last few years have penetrated our lives to the point of transforming tools and techniques. This is true in both the personal and corporate spheres. In the latter, their impact on the digital transformation of marketing is perhaps the best demonstration of how demand generation can benefit from these new horizons.
What is digital transformation?
Every technological advance improves the performance of the discipline in which it is applied. In turn, it allows the creation of new methods that take advantage of it and evolve in parallel. To understand this statement, we need only look back to the point at which computers replaced typewriters.
It can be seen that such a change does not happen overnight. This transformation should be understood as a succession of stages in technological adoption, where old procedures (associated with the previous technology) are replaced by new ones, imbued with technological innovations.
In fact, it is in the digital transformation of the company where the potential of this new philosophy can be most clearly appreciated. It is not just a matter of incorporating new technologies, but of modifying the overall culture so as not to return to old processes, but rather to focus on new ways of doing things, and to get the most out of the investment made in IT.
Optimization of procedures, reduction of work times, increased productivity, improved competitiveness… The advantages of digital transformation are quite tangible, although, according to a study by the consulting firm BTS, 84% of digital transformation projects fail. Mainly because the staff itself has torpedoed, consciously or unconsciously, the adoption process.
Digital transformation objectives
Every digital transformation process in the company will always pursue the objectives of:
- Improve staff productivity. Employees will complete their tasks in less time, which will reduce the company’s structural costs.
- Gain in operational efficiency. Processes will be more agile and completed with less effort, resulting in a greater capacity for work absorption and real possibilities for business expansion.
- Improve service quality. The company will be able to offer more complete and accurate products and services, which will allow it to be more competitive with its competitors.
- Increase human potential. New profiles capable of handling new technologies will be required. This will result in the company having more qualified employees with more complete professional profiles.
- Protecting company data. A correct custody of sensitive information, as well as customer data, will be necessary for the organization to comply with data protection regulations. In the same way it will be shielded against cyber-attacks that hijack such information.
How digital transformation influences digital marketing
At this point, the question arises as to where digital transformation can improve demand generation strategies. As companies and consumers increasingly rely on the Internet to search for and offer products and services, the Inbound Marketing is emerging as the best set of strategies to leverage web traffic and generate new business opportunities.
- Email Marketing. The generalization of the use of e-mail means having a powerful tool to send commercial information to potential customers.
- Content marketing. Having a website with content of interest to the target audience is a very effective strategy to generate traffic to the page. It allows customers to get to know what our company offers, but also its values, recommendations, processes, know-how, etc.
- Measuring the impact of actions. Thanks to web monitoring tools, it is possible to count the number of openings and clicks on emails and web visits. In this way, it is possible to know the reaction of our target audience to our demand generation tactics.
- Conversion of opportunities. Every digital marketing strategy is accompanied by a part in which the company collects data from potential customers. For example, those who actively show their interest by clicking on CTA(call to action) buttons, present in emails and websites, to request more information or access additional content in exchange for providing their contact details.
- Marketing funnel monitoring. Nowadays, it is very common to use CRM(Customer Relationship Management) programs that allow mapping the lifecycle status of each potential customer. This centralizes information so that the sales and marketing teams can coordinate their efforts and facilitate customer engagement.
The digital transformation of marketing allows all businesses, from the smallest to the largest, to take advantage of the Internet’s capabilities. To make themselves known, collect data from their target audience, and track the lifecycle of their leads until they become real customers.
