Commerce tells the tale of one of the most important aspects of human interaction. The creation and harnessing of goods and services, and their interpersonal exchange. Buying and selling, which is a way of life and has been since time immemorial, shall be in the folds of a distant future. Now, there are four important factors that surround this basic human activity: the giver, the place, the means, and the receiver. All of these create an ever-shifting network on which stands the whole industry of commerce.
If you’re a giver, a producer or a marketer of goods and services, then you need to align yourself with the other three factors in order to survive and reach the delicate commercial balance. It is imperative that you recognize the changing trends, the spirit of the times and the current consumer behavior before forming your marketing strategy.
Understanding the Digital World:
Times have changed greatly since people carried heavy stones up the hill. The rapid technological advancements have introduced an era in which physical labor is notoriously out of fashion. Nearly every task is performed digitally by way of of gizmos and gadgets which operate on the cloud of the internet.
One such tech-tool is the tiny device which you see people holding everywhere at all times – the smartphone. From closing the front door of the house to sending a request to a friend on the opposite side of the world, these ‘smart’ phones have enabled people to manage their lives without having to get up from the couch.
This extreme form of convenience catered by advanced technology has modified the behavior of today’s generation. There is a constant air of impatience surrounding the whole digital phenomenon. People want everything that they desire via digital means and they want it all without any sort of delay.
Instant gratification. If they aren’t satisfied on one website, they immediately move over to another one without giving it a second thought. Catching their attention has become an increasingly taxing task for businesses that operate virtually. Without enough consumer traffic, the commercial ventures cannot continue to operate. Can you sense the subtle shift in the balance of power from producers to consumers? This is all due to the massive digital upswing which is happening right now.
Marketing in the Digital World:
Such is the digital transition that marketers of today have to take into consideration if they are to make their stand in the commercial flux. They are to market to a digitally engaged audience, through digitally-enabled means and in digitally-tinted times. This is what I mean by marketing in a digital world.
Now, let me present to you these five essential ways by which you can mold your business strategy by keeping the digital advancement in sight, gain an edge over your competitors and successfully step into a digital future.
Read the Digital Body Language:
The environment has changed and so has its actors. There are millions of voices in the digital arena. How can you make your own voice stand out? More importantly, how can you convey it efficiently to the listeners who are already distracted? You need to see what gets through to them. Read the digital body language of the online consumers.
How do they behave virtually, what are their tastes and how can you cater to them in a way no one else does? After observing the general tendencies, then, from amongst the diverse crowd of online users, locate and pick out the audience which will respond to your business the best.
This is called precision targeting. Define your buyers’ circle and then start formulating a message which pointedly catches their digitally-divided attention. Because, addressing the right sort of audience, using the right means and at the right time matters a lot.
Optimize your Platform Accordingly:
After pinpointing and hooking potential buyers, where will you direct them? On your brand’s landing page, right? The need for a solid platform is of the utmost importance in this digital age. It is like a virtual piece of fertile land on which you can grow your brand. Now, the internet is filled to the brim with all types of websites.
How can you make your own domain withstand the competitive pressure and reel the audience right in? By tailoring it in such a professional way and using your Mediacom packages so that it suits the tastes of your ideal customers.
Let’s say that you sell home security gadgets. Now, having a website that has pleasing graphics, to-the-point content, video-based testimonials of regular customers, detailed product descriptions, convenient check-out options, a live chat assistance and clear contact information will surely increase the traffic on your site. This is what I meant by a ‘solid’ domain.
Go for Tactful Personalization:
Simply having an information-ridden website out there is not enough. If it doesn’t effectively engage the bored online user, then it is just like a book which sits unopened and unexplored in a dusty old corner of the library. Do you want your business domain to end up like this book? Then, make sure that your site offers a full-fledged brand experience.
An experience that is made personalized by advanced tools for each user that visits your landing page. An experience which leads the audience on a journey from a casual visit to the purchase. An experience which digitally enhances the relationship between buyers and sellers and retains leads. For instance, you can incorporate a smart recommendation tool for a smoother shopping experience, or include personalized messages that touch the consumers’ heartstrings. Remember, it’s all about the power of the people these days.
Advertise through the Right Channels:
Once your main domain is up and running, the next step is to advertise, promote and draw attention to it. Again, this depends on the behavioral tendencies of your target audience. If your ideal buyers are young adults under the age of 30, then you can use social media marketing as your main advertising strategy.
For instance, check out the multiple makeup brands which flaunt their latest products on Instagram, a platform used for promotion by around 70% of online businesses, as of 2018. Or if your target buyers are prone to use search engines to find the solutions to their problems, then you can create a helpful blog and use SEO tactics to make sure that it gets a higher ranking and more exposure than its competitors.
Or if you wish to address the gaming or music community, then you can select YouTube or some such video-based channels for your brand’s promotion. Similarly, there are many other digital marketing channels that you can employ and take advantage of in this digital era.
Nurture your Leads:
After generating sales, comes the nurturing. How to take care of your customers once you’ve established a good connection with them? The problem, however, comes in differentiating the potential buyers you want to facilitate with extra discounts and bonuses, to random browsers that you want to convert into customers by means of sign-up pop-ups.
The latest AI predictive technology can help you do just that by analyzing the frequency and the tendency of the clicks and then creating a report on that basis. With the aid of such digital tools, you can reinforce your user base, predict the future consumer reaction curve and then mold your strategy accordingly.
Thus, businesses need to be flexible enough to transition with the times, from traditional to digital, and the aforementioned tips can help them do just that.
