How to do Business in the Digital Era

“The times they are a-changin’.” Bob Dylan already knew it: the world is changing, and we live in interesting times. Technology is definitely becoming more important in today’s world.

Screens are more and more present, and the interaction with these screens is different than the interaction between people. Digital disruption has been going on for decades and won’t stop soon.

So how do you do business in a digital world? There are 3 things you can do: you lead, follow or get out of the way.

Innovate or die

Ronald Velten had some shocking numbers for us:

• 70% of companies that were in the Fortune 1000 in 2004, don’t exist anymore today.
• 20% of B2B sales professionals will lose their job by 2020.

Does this mean the death of the Marketer? Not quite, we just have to change our behaviour.

Businesses have to innovate and adapt to the changing world we live in. They have to keep answering to the demands and needs of the customer.

How to differentiate in the age of ‘me’

Customers don’t want marketing. They expect personal service, and client expectations are higher than ever. And they will let you know if something’s not ok.

In order to make your clients happy, there are 4 elements you need to keep in mind:

• Design matters: The product or service has to be attractive, “the eye wants something too”.
• Experience matters: The way a product makes a customer feel, whether it’s easy or hard to get the product, the level of service the client gets … These aspects all contribute to a good or bad customer experience.
• Moments matter: Your product has to be there at the right moment. Your product has to be what, how, when and where the customer wants your product.
• Context matters: Is your customer in a state that he wants your product? Are the circumstances good?

Creating awesomeness

How do you incorporate these 4 aspects in your product and business? How do you create awesome moments that will engage your clients? The diagram below shows the solution:

• Relevant and unique: As marketeers, we should be more concerned with these concepts. Because combining the two creates awesomeness.
• First you have to understand your customer and his wants and needs. The next step is to engage customers and get them to believe in your product or brand. When you have achieved that, don’t forget to optimize your actions and repeat the cycle.

But how do you know exactly what the customer wants? By collecting and analysing data about that customer. By using science for your marketing, to make moments that matter.

Marketeers need to improve their data driven marketing capabilities. With today’s technologies more data is available every day. And this amount and variety of data is creating an unprecedented opportunity.

IBM Watson and Marketing

A good example of people and computers working together is IBM Watson. Ronald Velten described it as: “Creating a new partnership between people and computers that enhances, scales and accelerates human expertise.”

Watson is a self-learning system that can help with almost anything by answering all your questions. Whether it’s backing up medical decisions, educating children or cooking.

What is the use of Watson for marketeers?

Watson can outthink the following aspects of marketing:

• Personalize: Watson can help companies get a deeper understanding of people’s personality characteristics, needs, and values. This will lead to a better personalization. Below you can see an example of the visualization of personality data. Check out IBM to know more about this.
• Relevance: It will also help products and services to be relevant to the customers. When you understand your audience, you can adapt your product to them.
• Predict: Watson can make accurate predictions, e.g. about the weather tomorrow. Companies can use this knowledge for scenario planning.
• Performance: Watson helps you understand your business performance. It can even guide the commercial process and thus increase sales.
• Overall, IBM Watson helps businesses create moments that matter.

The future is (y)ours

Technology is ever present and a new connection between people and computers is forming. Along with the amount of available data, this change creates a lot of opportunities.

As a marketeer, you’re in charge of what you do with this knowledge. Marketeers and sales men are not dead, we just have to adapt.

Don’t just use technology for the sake of using technology. Use technology to create relevant moments and connect with your customer.

Use the data your systems capture to give customers the personalized service they want. In the words of Ronald Velten: “Be a king, not a cub.”