Business is undergoing a huge transformation - call it revolution - driven by emerging technologies. Marketers and entrepreneurs need to learn how to understand, engage and delight their digital customers, delivering experiences that are meaningful in every (micro) moment of truth.

In this world shaped by mobile devices - where customers are constantly connected and information is readily available with a tap on the smartphone - what is better than finding smart digital strategy tips to innovate your business plans?

Look around and you will see that every single organization is now involved in the endless search for revolutionary roads to become best-in-class examples of digital transformation. Long gone are the days when ‘digital’ was overlooked and sidelined as the weird cousin of traditional marketing. Innovation, today, inevitably translates into digital innovation.

In the Age of the Digital Customer, marketing planning needs to fulfill two different requirements:

  • On the one hand, develop and narrate the brand storytelling, building upon company’s values and uniqueness to assert loyalty;
  • On the other hand, engage customers across all channels and touch points, delivering a true real-time customer experience on every channel.

The avalanche of mobile devices has deeply changed the way people live, communicate and connect to each other. Instant decisions and micro moments have replaced long decision making, and the entire customer experience comes out disrupted from the process.

You need to embrace the change, but how? Not every company is ready to adapt, while it is extremely easy to miss the mark, committing digital strategy mistakes that might kill all your efforts. When that happens - no matter what you do to recover - you will likely lose customers.

The first step, then, is to take the necessary precautions. It is evident that traditional patterns are not able to ensure that your campaigns are executed effectively. In this ever-changing scenario, old strategies cannot help you in the search for tips and good advice, even if they were winning only a few years ago.

Why that? What happened that made the old certainties crumble?

  • The analog and digital worlds collided.
  • Disruptive devices connected into a network.
  • Life got fragmented into micro moments.
  • Young digital customers took center stage.
  • The new customer journey exploded into multiple touch points.

New horizons mean new patterns. Mobile technology means huge opportunities, if you only know how to catch them all. So, it is about time to get right to the point, the 10 digital strategy tips to inspire your business revolution.

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER

Before even thinking and planning your digital strategy, it is critical that you know who you are talking to and what are the needs and desires that move them. How do you get that knowledge? First step: build your buyer personas, semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers. Second step: map the customer journey across all touch points (digital and physical).

SET ACHIEVABLE GOALS

Of course, every single marketer wants to get the best results in the shortest time possibile. When wise men say “always aim for the moon” they forget to add that - at least in marketing - you can only reach the moon if you set achievable mid-term goals. You will then land among the stars step by step, knowing what is good and improving what is wrong.

STAY DIGITAL FRIENDLY

Do we need to talk about the Mobilegeddon? The most recent changes in Google’s search engine algorithm have brought the attention to the importance of a digital-savvy strategy. If you do not have a digital-friendly presence, with a special consideration for the mobile experience, then you are not talking the same language your customer talk.

FIND YOUR OWN VOICE

Let’s be honest here: you will never be able to connect with customers, create amazing content marketing and engage with meaningful experiences if you don't know who you are in the first place. As perfectly shown by the Lego success story, your company is defined not only by what you produce and sell but also by what you are and narrate.Your archetypes and storytelling.

DESIGN YOUR OWN ENGAGEMENT

Engagement, the pain point that any single organization is trying to solve in these days. It is the absolute need to create a relationship with customers and pave the way to loyalty (the new currency of digital times). If you want to stay top of mind, do not forget to create unique contents and memorable experiences. And use gamification to enhance your strategy: if you can't win them, play with them.

PERSONALIZE CONTENTS

Personalization is the keyword to understand why customers today are so difficult to put into standard categories. Digital customers - and millennials above all - refuse to be treated as one broad mass with undefined behaviors. They demand tailored content, served at the right time on the right device. Talk to everyone and you will end up talking to no one at all.

THINK AND ACT MOBILE

Right-time personalization could hardly exist before the mobile era. The brand could not locate the customer nor identify peculiar behaviors or patterns. Then the smartphone came in, with its constant connectivity, and everything changed: our daily life was splitted into micro moments, hanging in the balance between digital and physical worlds. Mobile is not just a plus, it is a categorical imperative if you want to survive in today’s markets.

UPDATE AND STAY CURRENT

Do you still rely on that strategy that was so good just five years ago? Do you think that you don’t really need to include the Apple Watch, the iBeacon or wearable technology in your customer journey mapping? Think again. Don’t forget that the digital transformation in an ever flowing river. Stay current, ready and willing to embrace every single innovation that could change your customer experience.

PLAY ON DATA

Every science is rooted on data. Marketing and digital strategy make no difference. The technologies that surround us produce a humongous quantity of information. Some are useful some are just ground noise; it is up to you to tell good from bad, using data to understand your customers and learn how to engage them effectively. Big Data is not just a name for speculative analysis. It is a science in itself.

NEVER STOP TESTING

Testing and learning, the last step of your actual strategy and the first one of your next strategy. Analysis should be inherent in everything you do with your strategy, and it is only by testing what you are doing that you will be able to refocus budget, goals and technological support. Ultimately learning from your mistakes in a looping cycle. Forever only lasts until tomorrow.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 5 Ways You Can Use Mobile To Improve Customer Experience

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download the free guide here:

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