If you haven’t heeded warnings regarding the “digital transformation” that has been underway for years, now is definitely the time to take notice. Among other business sectors and industries, the digital transformation for manufacturers has served as a proving ground that clearly separates top performers from the rest of the pack.
The digital and physical world are blending and unifying at an accelerating rate, driven by the rapid evolution of powerful technology. In short, the proliferation of online shopping, social media, and Internet connectivity has led to a revolution in marketing that has led to the development of MarTech. A combination of “marketing” and “technology,” MarTech is an essential piece of the modern business landscape.
While some companies have been quick to adapt their sales and marketing efforts to meet the demands of the evolving digital landscape, many have been hesitant to make a change. In fact, the recent MarTech Stack Optimization Survey by the research-based marketing organization Ascend2 determined that the majority of today’s marketers (39%) still have yet to implement a MarTech strategy that is appropriate for their particular businesses.
As part of our comprehensive manufacturing marketing outreach, ManoByte wants to remind you that now is the time to carefully consider your company’s stance on digital transformation. This is even more important in light of current events that are making digital communication more essential than ever before. You might be regretting your past failure to implement new technology-driven platforms and tactics, but being late to the party is far better than never showing up at all! After all, if your business isn’t effectively leveraging MarTech—you’re missing out on leads, and ultimately, revenue.
Briefly defined, marketing automation describes the use of technology to manage all the functions, channels, and campaigns of your marketing outreach without the need for constant human interaction and oversight. Key components of marketing automation include targeting prime customers, delivering automatic messages, and tracking marketing effectiveness in real time using a variety of digital analytic metrics. Examples of automated marketing messaging include emails, social media posts, and text messages. Examples of key digital analytic metrics include consumer touchstones such as website visits, specific pages viewed, and conversion statistics such that range from signing up for more information to making final purchases.
Commonly abbreviated as ERP, enterprise resource planning assists large companies by integrating application-based solutions across multiple departments and areas of business. ERP allows organizations to eliminate data discrepancies and unify previously inconsistent operational practices by pooling all relevant information and centering all relevant operations in a common database. ERPs also provide support in multiple languages and comply with regional laws/tax codes, along with other key capacities available in a global ERP system.
A blanket term that encompasses multiple technical modalities and practical guidelines, search engine optimization (SEO) strives for a singular essential result: a high search engine ranking. If you want to grasp the supreme importance of SEO, just ask yourself how often you have toggled through multiple Google pages after searching for a particular product or service. There’s no doubt about it, the first result provided for any given search has a considerable leg up on the second or third (not to mention the 22nd and the 33rd). If you don’t want your company to get buried when prospective customers make relevant searches on the most popular search engines, you must improve your overall SEO ranking by understanding both the logarithms that these search engines use to generate results and the terms that Internet users input when they conduct common online research.
Content that reaches hundreds of thousands of people will fail to make an impact on your bottom line if it fails to start productive conversations and generate viable customer leads. This illustrates the absolute necessity of tailoring your online marketing efforts with conversions first and foremost in mind. In order to spur online interaction and ultimately drive consumer purchases, you must ensure that each of your social media posts invite deep connections and each of your blog articles end with a clear call to action.
If you have questions about the ongoing digital transformation or if you want help preparing your company for the business landscape of today and tomorrow, contact ManoByte and we’ll help you rethink your digital strategy today.