Hello everyone, Captain Obvious here…Americans have moved to a lifestyle of digital focus. High engagement socialized online media that keeps pace with today’s “always-on” perpetually connected consumer cuts across every market and every customer segment:
- 70% of American Internet users are mobile only
- 50 billion devices will be part of the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020
- 54% consumers age 65-74 own a tablet and 55% use a smartphone
- 71% Millennials visit a social media site once a day
- 26 minutes a day are spent texting compared to 6 minutes on voice calls
- 83% customers see value in being recognized by retailers across devices
This continued shift in consumer medium means that now more than ever it’s essential for marketers to produce highly engaging content that keeps pace with the perpetually connected. This capacity is now digital table stakes.
In 2015, successful marketers must concentrate on addressing customer needs in real time with digital assets that speak to consumers in the medium they prefer. Concurrently, marketers must also incorporate robust analytics to learn from these interactions — every visit, click and call.
The rapid expansion and continued evolution of the digital landscape makes managing a marketing budget a moving target. To maintain success and stay on track, it means constantly re-evaluating every aspect of an integrated digital marketing strategy. Here’s a few guiding principles:
- Make all digital marketing dollars accountable with direct response discipline
- Enhance user experience by focusing on needs-driven customer solutions
- Validate in-market creative and messaging using a test-and-learn process
- Gain intelligence by aggressively tracking paid and organic search results
- Leverage social media so advocates share content in their online communities
Taking a “right customer, right message, right time and right channel” approach means each digital placement — paid search, SEO, microsites, landing pages, registrations and email — requires individual data-driven optimization focused on marketing ROI. Its table stakes!