What is digital transformation in marketing?

Digital transformation in marketing is the strategy needed to better connect with your customers and sell more. 

The digital age has brought great benefits for marketing companies.

With so many people surfing the web, our opportunities to sell are greater! 

Digital marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing: greater reach, more precise targeting, more accurate metrics and hundreds of tools to manage and analyse the information available. 

This translates into more effective campaigns and higher sales for your company. More than an option, your company has to experience this digital transformation of marketing! 

Today we want to help you in this process, teaching you what you need to know to get into digital marketing:  

What is digital transformation in marketing?

Digital transformation is a concept that impacts all sectors of a company. So it's not only limited to marketing. 

Therefore, we need to understand two separate concepts. First, what digital transformation is in general. And then, how this concept applies to marketing:  

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is the incursion of a company into the digital world with all the changes that this implies. We can also define it as the step a company takes towards the implementation of digital technologies and media. 

For example, a company goes through a digital transformation when it starts to have a presence on social networks, when it opens an online shop to sell its products, or when it implements digital technologies for internal management.  

The digital incursion is a necessity brought about by the digital era in which we live. 

Most customers are navigating the digital world. So our reach as a company is much greater in digital media. With so many potential customers, the chances of connecting with them and selling them our products increase. 

The other reason is that the digital age has brought about many technologies that make it easier to run a business in every way. This makes the company's work more efficient, organised and simpler.

A good example of this is when companies use mobile applications for internal management. With these applications, there is greater control and organisation in sales, personnel, warehouse...  

This is why we said that digital transformation affects all sectors of a company! 

Digital transformation and marketing

The digital transformation in marketing is the use of digital tools and media to connect with our customers to increase sales. This happens when we move from traditional marketing to digital marketing. 

Although traditional marketing can and has to be part of our strategy, our company's efforts have to be in digital marketing. 

Digital marketing has greater benefits: digital media allows us to have a greater reach. So the return is higher than in traditional marketing. 

Another strong point of digital marketing is that customer segmentation is more precise. This allows us to create more effective strategies to connect with our ideal client.  

All companies that have gone through the digital marketing transformation have experienced a significant increase in sales. 

5 tips for making the transition to digital marketing

To achieve the digital transformation of marketing, as a business we must overcome some challenges along the way. Don't worry, they're no big deal. 

With these 5 tips, most businesses can make the transition to digital marketing:   

1. Willingness of those who run the company

The first thing to remember is that it is the leaders of the company (such as the CMO or CEO) who have to take the initiative to make this digital transformation. In fact, there are better results when the leadership of the company is the one who understands the need for this transition. 

Today, companies need leaders who adapt well to the digital age; making effective strategies to sell in the digital world. 

In case the initiative comes from marketing managers, the company's management must have the willingness to make the change. And take all the necessary steps to do so. 

Marketing managers can present all the benefits that the company will gain, if it undergoes a digital transformation in marketing. 

2. A team willing to embrace change

Undoubtedly, teams will have to face new changes. Especially the marketing team. 

Although traditional marketing and digital marketing have a lot in common, digital marketing works very differently. And it requires new and different strategies from what the team is used to. 

That's why we need to keep our team motivated and willing to experience this change. The team must also be willing to learn digital marketing.

Change is possible. Many companies have done it. And for sure, we will too. 

3. Change the company's culture

In order to adapt to new technologies, our company has to change its business culture. 

The way of selling and the objectives in digital marketing are different. Especially because our focus is now not only on the product, but also on the customer. 

In addition, thanks to the constant evolution of the web, professional growth must be a philosophy of the entire team. So that our strategies are in line with current trends and web algorithms. 

Having the collaboration of our professionals in the digital area is a plus that we have to take advantage of. These professionals will enhance the company's culture by sharing their knowledge with the whole team. 

4. Create customer-centric strategies

Companies that handle traditional marketing usually have a business model focused on the product. This business model must change as we transition to the digital age. 

It is very different in digital marketing, as the focus here is on people. Digital marketing is more humanised. So all strategies must be customer-centric. 

Our products and services have to be formulated in the direction of the value they have for the customer. 

5. Taking on new responsibilities 

Migrating to digital marketing will bring new responsibilities for the team. 

The marketing team is now responsible for the customer user experience, design, search engine optimisation, service definition and the loyalty process. 

The key is to organise the company effectively so that the marketing team works well! 

7 ways to implement digital transformation in marketing

Digital transformation in marketing can be implemented in a number of ways. These are the most common: 

1. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing are strategies to attract customers in a natural way. Instead of bringing them advertising, as in outbound marketing, inbound marketing strategies aim for users to find us by their search intentions. 

In inbound marketing, customers are the ones who search for our company through content related to our niche. 

That is why content marketing is essential in inbound marketing. The idea is to offer relevant content to users so that they can find us through their search intentions. 

To achieve this, our company must have its website with relevant content and optimised for search engine optimisation (SEO). Offering relevant content on social networks will also allow us to increase leads and attract more customers. 

2. Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is the traditional marketing model. The company promotes its products and services seeking to reach as many customers as possible. It is also a strategy used in digital marketing. 

This marketing strategy is based on interruptions. It is intrusive because the customer is not always interested in our products.  

Inbound marketing reaches only users who are interested in our products. Whereas outbound marketing offers the product to anyone regardless of their interests. 

In outbound marketing, the company is the one that looks for the customer by offering its products to as many people as possible. 

Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, Youtube ads and other similar tools are part of an outbound marketing strategy. 

3. Big Data

Thanks to the digital transformation, the amount of information available on the web has potentially increased. 

This growth boomed in the last two years after the pandemic. With so many people at home, the use of social networks and digital media increased the information available on the web. 

This is valuable information for digital marketing. And Big Data makes the most of it. 

Big Data is the analysis of massive amounts of information to gain a more precise understanding of consumer behaviour in digital media. 

The result of this analysis is the creation of strategies to sell more considering the behaviour of users. 

4. Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is any algorithm that is capable of simulating human behaviour. To be more specific, they are those algorithms that are able to collect data, segment it and make decisions based on it. 

Voice assistants such as Siri or Alexa; social networks such as Facebook or Instagram; or even Google's search engine work with artificial intelligence. And they are excellent tools when it comes to making campaigns more effective. 

Thanks to this, artificial intelligence knows precisely how users behave on the web. And it provides us with useful information for digital marketing. 

Machine learning and deep learning are good examples of how to use artificial intelligence to improve the sales funnel. 

Content marketing also makes use of AI. Keyword research, for example, gets its keywords from Google's artificial intelligence. This AI provides us with the keywords of our niche and tells us how our users can find us. 

5. CRM

A CRM is a tool that allows us to automate the management of information about our customers. 

With a CRM we can have more control over the behaviour and interactions that customers have with our company. 

CRMs allow us to massively manage information about all our customers. In addition, the entire marketing team can easily access this information to use it in their particular functions. 

6. Social Selling

Social Selling is the selling through social networks. Social media has a lot of potential for sales. Thousands of people around the world use social media.

Social media allows us to build our brand, generate leads and increase our sales. The Social Media team is in charge of social media marketing. 

7. Product Marketing

Product marketing is the creation of a product taking into account the needs and desires of potential customers.

The product is developed as a marketing strategy to reach a specific target group. Products are intelligently and intentionally designed to be consumed by these specific customers. 

It's time for your business to experience the digital transformation of marketing.

The pandemic of 2020 showed you the huge need for companies to experience digital transformation, especially in the area of marketing.

You either go digital or you don't sell. 

Digital marketing is the future of marketing. Companies that experience digital transformation effectively will be the ones with the most sales. 

The best thing you can do for your business is to migrate to digital marketing. You don't have to leave traditional marketing behind. But come on, digital marketing can double or even triple the sales you have today. 

Once you understand the need for digital transformation, the next step is to organise your business: improve your teams, change your marketing model and set new goals. 

Assess the possibilities for your business and start with what you have at hand. The first thing is to have a website for your company and to be present on the social networks that best suit your business model. Content marketing is also essential. 

Little by little you will grow and enjoy migrating to digital marketing! 

May you have a lot of success in digital marketing.

P.S.: Let us know in the comments what you think about digital transformation.