The digital marketing future is now

It is dynamic and customer-centric and changing and reshaping itself according to expectations

THAT digital marketing is a constantly evolving phenomenon is a given. It’s no longer changing monthly or weekly, but daily.

And companies that are waiting for the next wave to break before venturing into these fast-moving waters will be left high and dry.

Waiting for something new to happen in digital marketing is a bit like waiting for the next cellphone to be released – there will always be a newer and possibly better cellphone about to take the market by stor m.

The fact is that companies can no longer afford to say they are still transitioning from traditional to digital marketing, because the two are now encompassed in one – and customers expect their chosen brands to have a digital marketing presence that they can interact with.

Ideally, companies should have the ability to engage with their consumers – and be flexible.

They need to spend more time developing and i mplementing their business and marketing strategies to ensure they make the right decisions for online success for their company, and to make sure that all capabilities are in place to effectively achieve their strategic goals.

This means that choosing a digital marketing company is about finding a business partner, not just a supplier – a digital marketing company that works very closely with their own business, that is as agile as their business, and that can ensure that their marketing strategy changes as the business changes and as digital marketing evolves.

In ter ms of the evolution of digital marketing, what we’re see- ing now in the digital space is that bandwidth is steadily becoming more af fordable and video is exploding as a means of communication.

People love to see gifs and video; they want to conceptualise how things would work for them rather than the generic consumer.

Video is enabling companies to get into consumers’ mind space by showing them things that are meaningful to them.

We’re also seeing the instrumental g rowth of mobile and video as people fit more interacting and infor mation sourcing into their days – while at work and at home – consuming media across multiple channels.

With this steadily increasing digital i nteraction comes t he exciting and strong g rowth of gamification (the application of game elements and principles in non-game contexts to encourage user buy- in and engagement), which is drawing in users in their droves, primarily in the below-50 age categories.

The 30 to 40-year-olds are into g amification, either by themselves, or with their kids. We’re finding that embracing gamification on their digital platfor m is likely to future proof an organisation.

The consumer is getting younger and, for the longter m future protection of any business, it is vital to understand this generation and the next – and how they want to i nteract with organisations.

Interactive content is seeing s t r o ng g r owt h too. This includes pl at f or ms s uch as Periscope, live broadcasts on Facebook, and augmented reality.

Augmented reality is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real- world environment whose elements are augmented ( or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, or GPS data. When people do a search on a brand, what will come up first is how people feel about that brand – good or bad, their comments are coming up at the top of the search.

For this, and a myriad other positive reasons, it is important for companies to interact with their consumers.

Too often we have heard com- panies state that they are choosing not to play in the digital space because they are worried about the negative feedback. The reality, however, is that their brand is already playing in t he social s p a c e. Their business needs to be out t here now to j ust i f y itself and prove its value. Digital marketing i s not an unf at homa bl e myst e r y. It’s dynamic and c u s t o me r - c e n t r i c and i t ’s changing and reshaping itself according to the expectations and demands of its users – all the while offering companies an exciting platfor m for a wealth of communication opportunities with the very people they want to reach.

With the steely rise in interaction comes the excitement and growth of gamification in non-game contexts

Founder of CBR Marketing Solutions.