The ‘Adobe and Econsultancy Digital Intelligence Briefing: Digital Trends in 2016’study has revealed some new insights into the trajectory of digital marketing. Over 7,000 respondents participated in the survey, with almost one fifth coming from the Asia-Pacific region.
Perhaps one of the biggest reveals is that marketers are prioritising the individual. In other words, they are prioritising user experience, with their top three focuses being social media engagement, targeting and personalisation, and content optimisation. All these priorities point to the general trend of tailoring unique and relevant content for individual users.
With at least 31% of marketers in the Asia-Pacific region prioritising social media, it’s clear that not only interacting, but listening to customers is more important than ever. Customers want to be able to talk companies directly, to have their queries answered quickly and efficiently on social media. Having an effective media strategy that encourages this sort of interaction is paramount.
To offer targeted and personalised content, marketers are reaching for data to glean information about their customers. Data is said to be a key element to modern marketing because it allows companies to build customer profiles and to effectively map content to consumers at different stages of the buying cycle.
While data is perceived to present many opportunities for marketers, it also poses various challenges. The top obstacle to delivering great customer experience is seen to be data-driven marketing that focuses on the individual. Lead capture forms are extremely helpful in these circumstances; they will help you obtain some very basic data on your leads which can be later nurtured over time.
The next two big challenges include optimising customer experience and creating compelling content for digital experiences. The former means giving great consideration to how users experience, for example, a company’s website – is it easy to navigate? To find the a FAQ to answer their queries? Are the company’s contact details easily located? These are just a few examples of the factors that will contribute to a user’s digital experience. The latter relies on data, because to create compelling content is to create content that is valuable and engaging. It requires a nuanced approach which must take into account the customer’s characteristics; these may include age, income, occupation etc.
By optimising your content and website based on these questions, you can ensure traffic stays on your site, and doesn’t bounce to competitors.
