Tag Archives: digital marketing

Observation

Happy 2021!

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When reflecting on the year, I am reminded of Bob Dylan’s famous quote – there is nothing so stable as change. I believe that we can all agree that this year has taught us to always be ready to reinvent ourselves, be in tune with what is going around us, and quickly adapt to change.

Talking about change, here are my top 3 predictions for digital marketing in 2021. Personalisation, personalisation and personalisation – it applies to all aspects of marketing. Start introducing the people behind your brand as in general nobody likes to deal with faceless organisations. But more importantly, get to know your audience/your customers first, talk to them and listen – it will help you find creative ideas not only for your content strategies, but also new prospects for your business. So, let’s get personal in 2021!

Happy New Year!

Observation

Why adopting new communication channels isn’t enough

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We’re so excited to use new communication channels in business which is understandable. We try to be ahead of the game with chatbots, emails, social media and content marking, search and display ads – you name it. We’re so excited to introduce a new digital service which we hope will be a game changer and put us on the map. Sure, but sometime it seems like we forget WHY we develop a new service or product, or launch a new communication channel.

The fact is we can adapt multiple communication channels, but for our customers there is still just one – our customer service regardless online or offline. I believe the biggest challenge is not about advancing our digital communications, but how to make our messages coming from our channel mix consistent and relevant to customers. So, before we decide to introduce our nicely-designed chatbot or new app, let’s think about our customers first.

Would your chatbot help to solve their problems as soon as they occur? Would your website 24/7 help-line be able to answer your clients’ questions without redirecting them to other channels or departments? Would your app help customers get required information in a one-step process? We don’t want to overwhelm our customers with unnecessary and often useless information, do we? So let’s get back to basics and think how we can help them to get from Point A to Point B before reaching for any fancy new technologies.

Yours in lifelong learning

* I borrowed this signature from Sakhile, my Digital Analytics Course Success Manager at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 🙂

Observation

Digital humans as influencers?

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Do you follow digital humans on Instagram? According to StopPress, “a new wave of influencers is already here”. Last week I had a conversation with my colleagues about how AI will shape the future of marketing. While agreeing with many predictions, I was not sure about why we used the future tense in the discussion as AI is already shaking things up. I’m waiting for the day Instagram digital influencers replace current brand ambassadors, so that instead of hiring Julia Roberts for Lancôme, just custom build a virtual one based off the looks, personality, and slang promulgated by social media users to drive engagement. For example, @lilmiquela (a “change-seeking robot” with 1.8m followers) and her digital human friend, @burmudaisbae.

digital humans on instagram
Image from @lilmiquela , Instagram , 2020

These are perfect examples of where I see branding going. Obviously, there are plenty of possibilities associated with AI that can massively change a PR or branding strategy – but there are also many questions around digital humans moving from the sphere of pure entertainment to becoming poster-children for political and social movements…Let me know your thoughts.