There has always been an argument that professed that marketing was unable to show its worth in terms of a clear return on investment. This has arguably quite clearly changed and the emergence of digital marketing, that is integrated and holistically implemented, is the reason that most businesses are now able to quite easily track spend on marketing, and then see the return in terms of hours worked or money spentin store, as well as the number of new clients and customers that are recruited in the process.
Modern Marketing
The main changes to the world of modern marketing have been the introduction of the internet and internet ready mobile devices. This means that businesses can speak to whomever that they want, as long as they have a cogent and holistic marketing plan.
A major part of such a cogent and holistic marketing plan has to be a website and social media presence that are linked and related, allowing customers and clients to easily move between the two. This will require both quality content to keep the customer on the site, as well as the ability to be found easily through organic searches for the products and services that your business supplies. This will require a professional level of search engine optimization to allow google to rank the site appropriately. There are some great resources and reading in this regard at clickintelligence.com where these aspects of modern marketing are explained in more detail. It is useful for all business leaders or managers to access such information written by the professionals to determine exactly what they could be doing differently in the online space. Being found more often or the right things is one of them.
Big Data and Modern Marketing
The use of big data in any marketing campaign or process is now the norm for most businesses who are able to access and use the data they have on their customers over a lengthyhistorical period of time. The use of big data is one of the best ways to begin to measure the success of your marketing. Firstly the data you hold on clients and customers will allow for targeted/personalized marketing as well as the ability to track and see exactly who buys what, when, and perhaps even ask why. This kind of detailed customer data allows for easier recording and research of company and client data. Tracking a customer through the entire buying or shopping phase using ongoing communication and interactions allows you to put a cost on the communications as well as then see what benefits the communication brings – for instance, has there been a sale and how much was it for and how many customers did it bring in?
This is the level of detail that big data can provide and in doing so it will allow an insight into your customers behaviors and what it is that they want from your business. Again, and in conclusion, keep in mind that your customers can’t interact with your business unless they are able to find you online.
