Credit : https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajoamb/

Credit : https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajoamb/

What happens when you combine internet, online, and digital media; is neither another channel to reach out to customers nor a marketing gimmick. The amalgamation of above media produces one of the most lucrative emerging market place capable of salivating any organization. No other market of the time, especially emerging, could get as big as the “Digital Emerging Enterprise Market” (DEEM). It goes beyond geographical borders, yet remain social. It’s a concoction of motley demography, myriad culture, and multifarious opinions; yet remain networked and Linked-In. It’s a market where companies don’t need to buy-beg-bug but build relationships based on merit. Unlike traditional believe of whether companies “Can” or “Can’t” in an emerging market, the digital emerging market provides a level-playing field where everyone “Should”.

Digital Outcome Rely on Management and Oversight

Digital Outcome Rely on Management and Oversight

Digital, an inevitable modus-operandi for companies to succeed, has given a new direction and definition to the C-level team. Unlike the traditional board room definition, the contemporary C is more about Collaboration, Communication, Conversation, Contribution, Content, Context, and Customer driven team.  It requires a consistent support and involvement of CEO+CIO+CMO+CFO+CDO+UFO to be able to achieve digital success. “UFO = Business & Management consultants”.

Having said that, it requires internal-external alignment between stakeholders to achieve the digital vision. It isn’t as simple as making it a strategic priority or part of an already existing marketing channels. It requires a constant collaborative effort to adopt, adapt, and reap the social ROI, one of the important reason behind having an UFO in your team or outsourcing the entire digital department.

The digital may sound like a mission to Mars requiring large investment but, in reality, it requires an understanding of what’s best for your business from among the trending media. The beauty of digital media lies in the fact that it reaches out to every individual, creating an ever connected emerging market. The value and magnetism of the market is such that companies across the industry are making time and capital investment to create their own digital cult.

Customized and one-to-one marketing was never as easy as it is with the presence of digital technology. If you feel that the presence of all those tools, SDKs, APIs, DMPs, Apps, and platform has made marketing tougher then you’re taking digital marketing as a hobby or just having an online presence. Contrary to that, digital marketing needs to be your business’ habit to be able to juice out the benefits.

Digital Marketing need to be your Business' habit

Digital Marketing need to be your Business’ habit

Two words which better defines the contemporary society is “Instant Gratification”. This isn’t Gen X or Gen Y. This is a generation on-move, master of various jack trades, which eats instant food and drink instant coffee. They want insurmountable information in 140 characters at a click of smartphones or tablets. In a nutshell, mobile traffic is the next big thing and if your business isn’t aligned to mobile then you’re not aligned with your customer. The best medium to emerge in the digital marketplace is to have a responsive web design, advertisements tweaked for mobile screens, and analyzing the traffic. If “from where to start” is the first question that comes to your mind then, “start from here” is the answer.

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Content is a backbone on which the digital market operates. This is one reason why companies have started investing in building a full time content writing department or team. Whether 140 characters or full-fledged blog, your content must address the right issues at right time to the right audience.The usability and benefits of content marketing could be understood by the fact that 93% of B2B brands and 90% of B2C brands are now using content marketing to connect to their customers. Producing global content in local language is the key to achieve content success in digital emerging market.

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Social media has grown from being a playgroup for adults to enterprise class market and marketing platform. If change is the only constant then can’t be a place better than those larger than life social media platforms to witness the change. It’s one marketplace where the rules change per demography, opportunity, and fascination. It will require a robust, yet flexible, process to adapt and adopt the change to be able to achieve customer satisfaction, brand equity, and sales ROI. It isn’t as simple as just having another page on any of those platforms, reason strong enough to have a dedicated team to set-up and mature with market.Digital4Marketing366Pi

If content is the future of marketing then that future could be reached by being agile in curating the conversation per customer expectation and organizing the information in a relevant manner. Digital emerging market is a concoction of people with diverse language and literal fervor. Companies need to have a real-time marketing effort, utilizing synonyms, to discover their niche or segment. Storytelling has to be simple and journalistic to be able to create a happy brand.  Real time experimentation with marketing is the future as the modern consumer is more collaborated than ever before, craving for personalized attention, influencing peer decision, and less likely to be understood through a board room meeting.

Here is a rule of thumb for you to assess whether yours marketing department and effort is agile or not. In case your marketer knows when to start A/B or split testing, as well as when to stop, and knows the difference between having 1.5% and 1.9% CTR then you’re agile.Digital5Market366Pi

The effectiveness of marketing automation could be understood by the fact that 53% of B2B marketing companies is using the same and another 17% contemplating to adopt.

Marketing productivity and conversion rate is directly proportional to the quality of lead generated, something made possible by automated marketing.  If digital market runs on an inter connected set of devices then marketing automation is the enabler which leads to lead nurturing, integration with CRM, mobile platforms, and analytics capabilities. From deployment of marketing automation platform to actually executing the ongoing effort is something which requires niche skills and capability. This is one reason for which companies either outsource an entire automation department or a part of the work.

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There can’t be anything better than having a glass of water after long run, may be a cup of coffee to start your day, and a cone of ice cream in scorching sun. This is where the essence of context lies.

There can’t be anything better and worth remembering than a brand which reaches out to its audience at the time desired most.

The beauty of context marketing lies in providing a food to converse in a collaborative environment on a trending subject or something which should trend. The creativity and innovative process of any marketing department can be understood by looking at contextual communication, something which is making companies increase their budget spent of such activities. There’s nothing called second chance and the first mover always carries an advantage.Digital7Market366Pi

In short, the current and future emerging market place isn’t offline but, online. It would require an aligned approach for companies to carve out their own space in this market.

The future isn’t in roughly 1,000,000,000 cars and trucks across the globe, nor in 3,000,000,000 credit cards in motion. The future has to be found in a global population of roughly 7,000,000,000, among which more than 9,000,000,000 connected devices are in use through 35% internet penetration and 26% social network users. And, this list is ever increasing.

It’s time for you to challenge your status quo and progress from “As-Is” to “To-Be” utilizing our “As-Is-To-Be” framework.  Let’s Dig-it-all to adopt and adapt Digital.

Reach the author: The author of the blog could be contacted at Linked-In or reached at sushant@366pi.com.

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