With the Internet becoming a necessary tool for profitable businesses, powerful shifts in how clients respond to marketing messages accentuates today’s influential digital marketing environment. Smart 1 Marketing recognizes the constant increase of challenges for brand marketing executives as consumers demand more digital interaction. We bridge the gap between brands that have the ability to adapt to the rising change of the digital landscape and those that do not. The marketing industry refers to this free-for-all as “Digital Darwinism.” This coined term describes the phenomenon of technology and society evolving more quickly than a business can adapt. As most of us know, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution asserted the fittest or strongest aren’t the ones that survive. The survivors are the ones that can easily adapt to the environment.
Digital Darwinism is the ever-growing gap between brands with the strongest ability to adapt to the rapidly changing digital landscape and those that are not. Essentially, it is the survival of the fittest in today’s digitally dominant environment.
Today, customers have easy access to digital resources and companies have less control over the information the consumer receives regarding the brand. Every business wants to improve customer satisfaction, but unless you have your customer in mind at every touchpoint, there’s a chance you’re dropping the ball. You might always deliver a great product, on time, with a smile, but a wayward touchpoint like off-target advertising or an ineffective website can scare customers off.
The Educated Consumer
The digital age puts limitless amounts of information at our fingertips in an instant which means today’s consumers are more educated than ever before. Yesterday’s consumer walked into a store and was completely reliant on the information a salesperson chose to give about a particular product in order to persuade the consumer’s opinion and purchasing criteria. That’s not usually the case anymore. Today’s buyer is gathering information on their own from varied digital resources before they walk into the store. Thus, once the buyer indicates they are ready to purchase, that buyer has already decided what product features and factors are important to them; the company has an enormous uphill battle to change the buyer’s opinion, or preference, of the company’s brand.
Keys to Digital Survival
So how does a business’ marketing team assure their company thrives instead of dies amid the era of Digital Darwinism? By thinking outside the traditional marketing box. This is where Smart 1 Marketing can help create a forward-thinking business marketing strategy that will:
- Create a lucrative marketing organization with equal elements of Marketing Strategy and Marketing Operations
- Understand the customer-base and why they specifically need a company’s product
- Communicate with customers from a distance with messages that encourage customers to develop an undeniable preference for the company’s brand
Marketing Strategy involves a deep understanding of the customer and their motivations. With more and more consumers learning about and purchasing products online, companies no longer have as much physical contact with consumers day to day.
It is critical for businesses to reach consumers digitally to educate them on why they specifically need a product or service. It is also crucial businesses keep up with the digital resources and channels consumers interact with regularly.
Just like having resources who are certified at operating forklifts or other tangible equipment to move product, businesses need skilled experienced professionals who know how to operate the right digital tools to effectively deliver a brand’s message to today’s consumer psyche. Smart 1 Marketing assists companies in designing digital marketing plans to attract the consumer to the company’s brand. A business strategy without having the expertise to put a digital marketing plan into action may work for a short amount of time, but when the digital marketing environment begins to shift or new competitive forces come into play, it’s tough to keep up. By the time the company realizes what has happened, they have lost significant traction trying to recover and, ultimately, are left struggling to come up with a new strategy while their competitors advance.
Smart 1 Marketing has an adaptive approach to Digital Darwinism. We know a well-designed and executed Digital Marketing Plan can provide 15 to 25 percent improvement in a company’s effectiveness, as measured by return on investment and customer-engagement metrics. This proactive approach provides not only a means for maximizing a company’s marketing spend, but it also dramatically improves efficiencies and creates a significant barrier for the company’s competition. Our focus is just not on a business’s survival, but creating a solid foundation for ongoing success.