What’s the Best Marketing Technology for your Business?

3 Steps to Handpicking the Right Marketing Technology

One of the ironies that you often see in businesses today is that many already established businesses are struggling to make ends meet and quite a few start-up companies are actually doing pretty well. There seems to be something wrong in the picture considering that the older companies have the experience and resources to do better. Why are these new businesses able to cope up in a highly competitive world? The answer lies in their use of the right marketing technology.

The younger companies are not shy or hesitant to use the latest marketing tools that technology has to offer. This should be something that all existing companies should take note of. There is a need to update your marketing technology and that means handpicking the right fit for your business.

Tailoring your marketing technology to your needs

Marketing technology solutions can help streamline a lot of processes that can benefit your business. A lot of unnecessary and time consuming processes are consolidated which can bring about improved efficiency, better collaboration across teams and simplify complex processes. Saying that you would upgrade your marketing technology solution is easier said than done though. Careful deliberation must be done to ensure that you are able to choose a marketing tool which would be able to cater to the needs of your business.

Find the right match by anticipating possible scenarios.

Not all marketing technology solution would be a perfect fit for your business. But you would only be able to determine which would suit your business the most if you are able to know the specific needs and goals of your business and if they can be met by the solution in mind. In the academe world, the use of case studies is a popular learning tool. This style of learning can be utilized by businesses to determine whether solutions would work for them or not.

Think and look beyond the now.

Ideally, you would want a marketing solution which would integrate with your processes seamlessly. However, you must also think ahead and allow for evolution. As you know, the marketing world is constantly changing thanks to the dynamic needs and wants of customers. What could work for your business now may not do so well in the future. Part and parcel of your consideration in choosing the right marketing technology shouldn’t just be integration but on adaptability as well.

Picking your vendors.

Vendors would have to be one of your most important considerations for choosing a marketing technology solution. You would want to consider customer service and accessibility. For sure your IT team would want to have a vendor that is easy to work with. Besides, finding a reliable vendor would make the integration of the system with your business easier.

Finding and choosing the right marketing technology is not an easy feat. However, it is crucial if you want to get your business in the limelight and stay on top of the competition. Handpicking the right marketing technology may take a while but it will pay off in the end.

Marketing

Taking a Closer Look at Responsible Internet Marketing

Without a doubt, people are very dependent on social networking sites. The World Wide Web has initiated a crossroads of ideas and a blueprint of opportunities. In this light, we see the prospects of internet marketing, paving its way in risk taking and the possibility of commerce within the online community. In the fast paced life we all have, there will always be an opportunity to post publicly in any social networking site per se.

However, no matter how formal a message is in the communication process, social accountability should always be acknowledged and executed. Truth be told, keyword spamming has its fair share of unethical undertaking in the web domain.

According to the communication model of Harold Laswell, communication is a two way process where there is a sender, message, channel, receiver and effect. Relating this to the strategy used by internet marketing, repetition and extreme use of keywords associates with keyword spamming. As a result, these web pages populate search engines and pose threats to competitors within the field of online marketing.

Nonetheless, reputation management comes into the picture. As this practice performs accountability in responding to complaints related to spamming and unethical use of the web, it is also responsible in influencing an entity within the web, individuals or businesses. Though there is a jungle in the web, ethics still enters in the form of reputation management. As they draw the line through certifications, unwanted content is alleviated.

Moreover, Google Penguin is defined as an update penetrating to the standing of websites, decreasing in number the search engine rankings which infringes the Google’s webmaster guidelines. Technically speaking, there is term used within the web which is algorithm and logic, determining a website’s quality and examining keyword spamming and cloaking. Not putting too much information overload, but there is also what we call Search Engine Optimization (SEO), responsible for the visibility of a web page or a web site. SEO can make or break a website in its ranking in the search results of a search engine website. With these in mind, webmasters manipulate figures in order for their websites to be prioritized and frequently visited. In effect, they make use of back links to lead the online community in navigating to their websites.

We observe that business tycoons continuously redefine brand value and inculcate different strategies with the intention of having their trademark be noticed. Since the boom of the social networking sites, consumers have been manipulated in so many ways. However, dependence online and idleness offline is still an understatement.

Social accountability must still be a priority, because online marketing is by no means different in the real marketing world. The clamor of ethics to a safe and secure online business must be maintained and legal actions must be executed to online crime hoarders.

According to Matt Dickman of Techno Marketer, social media isn’t the end all be all, but it offers marketers unparalleled opportunity to participate in relevant ways. It also provides a launch pad for other marketing tactics. Social media is not an island. It’s a high-power engine on the larger marketing ship.

The power of the social media is not as powerful if users use the medium responsibly.

What Will Shape the Future of Marketing?

Today, everywhere we turn we hear about globalization, social media, Big Data, the Internet of Things, and digital natives. All these trendy terms try to explain how the world is changing and the new complex technology we are experiencing. However, when we try to downsize complex social dynamics into a few catchy phrases we are only fooling people into thinking they understand these new ideas. Unfortunately, nobody really understands these phrases and what the future will be.

We all see that new changes are coming. We see them each day around us. However, the next 20 years will bring about so much change and it will happen quickly. Most people around the world will have a difficult time understanding and keeping up with the new changes.

The new changes will not only affect people but businesses large and small. The speed and impact of these changes will be the downfall of many businesses. Unless marketers really understand the driving force behind these changes so they can be ready to adopt and survive. Marketers need to look ahead to the new horizon-level revolutions that are starting to take place around us today. In the next few years, these changes will be felt with a dynamic force. If you don’t prepare today your business will suffer.

What are the new revolution changes we will see in the next 20 years?

Revolution 1: The ‘Information Age’ will end. 

We are now leaving the Information Age and entering into a new age of human development that is filled with improving technologies and global inter-connectedness. The new revolutionary era of social change will result from new technologies, growing population, tech and media-savvy consumers. Unfortunately, the growth will come so fast that humanity has never seen anything like it before. Therefore, businesses need to prepare and protect themselves for the inevitable disruptions that lie ahead. At the same time they need to recognize the opportunities and advantages of the future. 

Revolution 2: Power changes shift from institutional to individual.

One of the biggest power shifts we saw in the 20th century was from an institutional power to individual power. The Internet gave humanity the power to communicate with anyone in the world. Unfortunately, populations that are armed with only cell phones have brought down entire governments. Therefore, education, media, business, health care, and religion are being forced to change. Because people now have the power to demand, innovate, organize, mobilize, and disrupt the way of life today.

Brands are also going through a change. Before brands were institutional inventions, but today, they are personal expressions of many kinds. Businesses are seeing the change through individual customers, which means that the business customer relationships are evolving. Customers will continue to demand more integrity, responsiveness, and transparency from companies they choose to do business with. Therefore, businesses are forced to comply with customer demands. Smart business owners will choose the inevitable now and not wait to be pushed later. 

Revolution 3: The advancements in artificial intelligence. 

Humans believe that computers can’t become creative and have imagination because machines don’t have the same inner working of our minds. However, this is not true. It is already possible to control a computer with our minds. Furthermore, IBM’s Watson computer has the ability to help chefs create new recipes and can use data to spark new creative inspirations. 

Artificial intelligence is continuing to improve and evolve today. The new super human computers are powered by the Internet of Things and Big Data. Plus, all the devices connected to us that identify our location and activities. Soon the computers will start to behave like a giant alternative brain. This can easily surpass humans in many ways. Afterwards, computers will start taking away designers, engineers, teachers, and writers jobs. Computers will not be taking away jobs they will start to challenge us and what it means to be human. 

The new artificial intelligence revolution will cause psychological stress for people. Therefore, people will start demanding new goods and services that are designed to help them adjust to the new reality. Therefore, the only brands that can help people adjust to the new future will survive. Also, brands that can help humans affirm their identity and values. 

Revolution 4: The new rise of the digital natives. 

Much has been said about people born between 1981 and 1997 and the effect they have on the workforce today. But what about the next wave of workers that will enter the workforce? The next generation of workers will come from the digital native’s era born after 1997. The digital natives are the first population born into the world of hyper-connected information. The new digital natives have been connected since birth and will never experience the flood of information thrown at them. Because they were born in this technological era and understand this is the way things are.

Currently the Millennials are starting to dominate positions of power in the workforce. Their new ideas of marketing, social media, cross-platform content, use of viral memes and spheres of influence have been seen as profound. However, when the digital natives start to add their ideas into the mix we will see a rapid change that will accelerate faster. Soon the older generation will feel disruption and chaos. Where the digital natives will see this as the way things ought to be and business and usual. 

Revolution 5: Changing marketing from selling to sharing.

Businesses need to understand that Millennials and digital natives have been marketed to from the beginning and are savvy about the media they consume. Therefore, direct marketing and blatant pitches don’t work on them. The new generation hates to be marketed to. However the new generation trusts the opinions of their friends more than commercials and marketers. Therefore, the social media has become a powerful tool for marketing.

The future of sales will go from persuasion to participation. Brands will need to be considered trusted friends if they are to survive. Your brands will have to be truly worthy of your customers’ trust. Your company will need to tap into the IT infrastructure and make information more readily available to your customers. You need to move your business into a new mode that will inspire trust and loyalty in the 21st century. 

source https://brandets.com/internet-marketing/whats-the-best-marketing-technology-for-your-business/