By Lim Wee Khee, Chief, Digital Innovation & Design, NUS-ISS
We are living in a digital world, where constant technological advancements are exploding into the mainstream, where the voice of consumers are gaining power and where organisations are rushing to transform themselves in order to keep up.
This makes marketing and digital marketing more complex than it has ever been. A plethora of new tools such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and machine learning have emerged, allowing brands to connect to consumers in unprecedented ways. Various new roles are also created in the realm of marketing due to changing consumer habits.
According to a report by Robert Walters, there was a high demand for digital marketing professionals across all sectors last year. The trend is expected to continue this year, with companies on the lookout for marketers with niche emerging skillsets, such as big data, e-commerce and digital transformation.
Driving performance with data
When it first started, digital marketing was all about performance and measurement. We tag, track and measure because we can. We bring science and data analytics into marketing so we can go beyond ‘traditional marketing channels’ and offer ourselves a glimpse of what we did well in and areas where we need improvement. Indeed, the abundance of web analytics, social media analytics, content and digital tools out there make it easy to collect data. Through thoughtful analysis, data can lead to actionable insights, inform business decisions and facilitate implementation.
For example, data speaks louder than your manager’s opinions if you leverage real visitor data with A-B testing on web design. With programmatic advertising, you can slice, dice and target your dream customers wherever they are. Using re-marketing tactics, you can get a higher chance of response from customers who have prior interest in your products. Facebook’s look-alike audience can even help you match the data of your existing customers and target potential customers with similar profiles so that you can maximise the dollar spent.
Nevertheless, unlike in the past, marketing in the digital age is not just about getting your brand heard and not just about targeting either. The ability to understand, engage and connect with the target audience in the long run becomes a competitive advantage. How you craft the message is just as important as how you get the message across. A right balance of credibility, authenticity and that X factor, makes a lot of difference to whether you can become an influential influencer or yet another wannabe. While you can analyse hundreds of metrics of social interactions, having a knack of producing the right content at the right time is still an art itself.
Marketing through a human lens
At the end of the day, technology is but an enabler. It can provide us with data and insights to scale at speed, but the challenge here is to interpret the information through a human lens. This is a skill that is critical to digital marketers – or in fact, any professional who wants to thrive in the digital economy. The ability to integrate different departments and different touchpoints for a seamless customer experience is yet another endeavour that no qualitative data can help with.
Creating a chatbot for example, will require a marketer to first understand the needs and pains of the customer through human-centred research, and then navigate the organisation’s matrix of processes, policies and practices, in order to design something truly useful beyond a re-purposed set of FAQs. Machine learning tools can help to create a chatbot that is ‘natural’, intuitive and sensibly responsive, but without infusing an acute sense of human behaviour and needs, and organisational capabilities, your chatbot will just be just another white elephant.
There is little doubt that today’s modern marketing team needs both hard and soft skills to succeed. Marketers need to tell stories that the consumers can relate to, communicate in an authentic and engaging way and provide real delightful customer experience. This will require a healthy dose of imagination coupled with a deep understanding of human psychology and technology. After all, with all the data that machines can churn and learn, it is the humans that will ultimately add the final touch that connects to your heart.
Click here for more information on the Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing & Content Creation or you may email Ms Elizabeth Ee at isseee@nus.edu.sg for enquiries.