For the past several years, the world has become heavily technological, and the trend seems to be never-ending. The emergence of new devices complemented with the Internet omnipresence has confined our lives to smartphones and other gadgets, changing the usual everyday activities drastically. The recent COVID-19 pandemic with its social distancing restrictions has aggravated the situation, forcing even the most conservative and traditional business leaders to turn to virtual platforms. Today, it is possible to find anything online, from booking hotel rooms in another part of the world to a personal statement writing service. Subsequently, the ways of conducting business and marketing products and services need to conform to new realities of the digital world.

Digital Realities of Businesses

Wise businessmen, who understand the digital marketing landscape, are becoming data-driven to reach consumers and successfully compete in their respective industries. They realize that in today’s mobile-synchronized and optimized reality, it is important to build and sustain the relationships with and loyalty of online customers if they want to pioneer the digital economy.

The world that has become a global village is intensely actuated by blockchain-driven social media platforms, in which users are linked with multi-smart interactive portals. Thus, short-range transactions are ineffective anymore. In the dynamics of a virtual world, businesses should aim at promoting a positive brand image and brand equity, which is increasingly consumer-based. Tools of attracting target traffic and product awareness require the shift to algorithmic and programmatic mechanisms of communication. As a result, digital marketing comes to the fore in all industries, and managers and marketers should master new technologies of researching and reaching the market, creating and distributing content, and attracting and retaining potential consumers.

New Way of Marketing

In a totally digitalized world, the primary source of information is the Internet that can be accessed from any gadget in any part of the world. Such a state of affairs requires new marketing techniques, bringing content marketing into play. Advertising and information sharing moved online, generating novel tools and mechanisms of attracting and retaining target consumers.

Simple advertisements do not offer sufficient effect anymore. Quality content that adds value to products and services is what matters nowadays for the information-thirsty customers. As a result, content marketing is gaining momentum with all its tricks and secrets aimed at winning loyal customers and leads.

At the same time, content marketing (if effectively executed) goes even further by triggering the consequential promotion of products and services by customers themselves. What is conventionally known as word-of-mouth advertising, has become much simpler, having assumed new forms and appearance. Customer feedback and reviews posted online or even a friend’s photo with a product on Facebook or Instagram molds a brand new consumer decision journey. Being hooked by a firsthand “ad”, the buyer purchases the item and posts another review or tweets about it, promoting and prolonging this advertising loop even further. Digital marketing works to its fullest!

So, how to handle marketing in a digital world and make it work?

Know the Customers’ Location

Market research is a significant part of any marketer’s responsibilities. Content marketing is not just about posting content anywhere you like. You should know your ideal consumer and the places they spend the most of their time at. Having determined the most suitable channels for content sharing, you will hit the target right away. However, it does not mean that you cannot use other platforms, apps, and sites. Focusing on the primary channel is not enough since cross-linking and sharing posts is a powerful driving force in the realm of digital marketing.

Make It Customer-Centric

Well, there’s nothing new about it. This is the main principle in traditional advertising that retains its significance in digital marketing. However, it is important to consider the new realities in this case. With the increased online presence of an average consumer, marketing should also enhance its online direction, focusing on value-adding content and scrupulously determining the most advantageous channels of communication.

Moreover, instead of simply offering a product or service and saying that it is really good, focus on the customers’ problems. The content that you create and distribute should offer the needed solution. Study the target market and define the problems it faces in the first place. Any piece of content should be designed in such a way as to convince the consumer that your product or service will solve their burning problem. This way, you will win their loyalty and trigger the never-ending decision loop.

Let Customers Advance It

The word of mouth is still the main promotion tool in the business world. An average customer is more likely to trust and follow the advice of a family member or a friend than the most eloquent description or reviews of people they do not know. In a virtual world driven by social media, both negative and positive reviews of products and services are shared immediately on multiple online platforms, spreading the respective characteristics among the reviewer’s numerous friends and followers. Thus, delighted consumers will recommend the item, bringing you more customers and generating revenue. But to stimulate their desire to become ambassadors of your product or service, you need to convince them that it can solve their problem, change their life, and make them special. And that is where content marketing best practices come into play to create incredible content able to achieve this target.

In the totally technological age of the digital economy, marketers need to keep pace with the changing business reality faced by all industries. Content marketing is what rules the sphere today and will only thrive in the future. Skillfully created and distributed content only needs to make the first push to trigger the chain of satisfied reviews and make it work for itself across social media platforms.