How does technological and product innovation stimulate digital transformation?

[ad_1]

According to the Salesforce 7th Edition State of Marketing report, the global pandemic has caused 86% of marketing organizations in South Africa to adopt new business collaboration technology.

Salesforce interviewed over 8,200 global marketing leaders to find out where the marketing landscape stands right now. How have priorities changed since Covid-19? What trends are marketers seeing and are they different now from the pre-pandemic?

Marketers in South Africa, as well as the rest of the world, are facing challenges in their work. These challenges are caused in part by the pandemic and other recent socioeconomic impacts. We can dig deeper into the overall data to find out what’s happening specifically in the South African marketing landscape.

In this article, we will look at some of the challenges you may face and the possible solutions to those challenges.

Using innovation and technology to overcome challenges

We learned from the report that the top three challenges for marketers in South Africa are:

Engagement with customers in real time Innovation Evolution of digital customer experiences

All three of these challenges speak to the important need for digital transformation. Marketers knew the importance of going digital before they even heard the word COVID, but the need wasn’t as urgent as it became during the pandemic. Now we know that going digital is a must, not just a good thing anymore. Product innovation and technological innovation are at the top of the priority list.

Going digital is undoubtedly the way forward.

So how can South African marketers overcome the challenges on their way?

Digital Challenge No. 1: engage customers in real time

We found 72% of marketers in South Africa say meeting customer expectations is more difficult than it was a year ago. It’s above the global average of marketers who say the same (66%) and proves it’s a real need.

The answer to meeting customer expectations is a variety of different factors. But one thing is certain; real-time engagement is key. Customers now more than ever expect personalized, connected and real-time communications across multiple channels.

Many of the companies customers do business with offer omnichannel experiences. Using product innovation and technology, they can respond to their customers’ needs as soon as customers realize their needs.

Digital Challenge No. 2: product innovation in technology

Innovation is critical to driving business growth in today’s rapidly changing digital world. Especially during times of crisis, when both customers and employees need to feel like their problems have been solved. They need to have that trust in companies, whether they buy from them or work for them.

Innovation starts with your people, but are marketers completely satisfied with their training? The report shows that less than half of South African marketers (44%) rate their employee training as excellent. So how can they be more innovative?

One thing to note here is that, globally, the percentage of marketers who rate their training as excellent is only 20%. So employee training appears to be more successful in South Africa. Skills upgrading and marketer retraining could be a valuable way to foster product innovation and technological innovation.

Digital Challenge No. 3: the evolution of digital customer experiences

Marketers usually manage to adapt to customer needs and changing behaviors at a constant pace. But the pandemic has changed that. Customer behavior changed rapidly over the course of a few months and their needs changed hand in hand.

Customer needs have evolved at a rapid pace, and most of these needs revolve around digital experiences. This means marketers have no choice but to accelerate their digital transformations to keep up.

According to our report, 90% of marketers in South Africa say their digital engagement strategy has changed from before the pandemic. Furthermore, 48% say it has completely changed and 42% say it has changed slightly.

It is clear that an optimized and personalized digital customer experience is essential. Having multiple digital channels also plays a central role in marketing today. There is technology and product innovation, but are marketers ready to make the most of it?

Product innovation and digital challenges

The key thing to remember is that it’s never been more important to deliver connected digital experiences. Even if companies were already digitizing marketing activities or planning to do so, the pandemic has accelerated the need to “go digital”.

There may be multiple challenges to scalable digital transformation, but armed with the right tools, marketers can overcome them. Lack of training can be a problem, but as already mentioned, this can be worked on.

Bulky and legacy systems are a common obstacle to the success of digital transformation. Product innovation in technology can help and remember that replacing ineffective technology can have a positive effect on long-term budgets. Organizations with a lack of an overall digital strategy will stumble and fall in the long run. It must be a business priority.

Robbie Kearns is Salesforce Senior Regional Vice President. To take a closer look at the results of the current marketing landscape, download the Salesforce 7th Edition State of Marketing report.

Do you want to continue this conversation on The Media Online platforms? Comment on Twitter @MediaTMO or on our Facebook page. Email us your suggestions, comments, contributions or suggestions at [email protected].

[ad_2]