The Digital Marketing Revolution has Just Begun

Sally Falkow — May 18, 2017

According to a new BCG report on Digital Transformation released today digital marketing presents a tremendous opportunity to engage consumers because the ways in which consumers engage with media have shifted dramatically in recent years—and marketing approaches must be reinvented accordingly.

However, the study found that precious few companies have realized its full potential. And it’s not for want of trying.

Some leading companies are capitalizing on three forces that have fundamentally changed the way marketing can be done:

• Access to large quantities of real-time data to inform their campaigns
  
• Ability to engage in long-term, omnichannel relationships with consumers (as opposed to one-way, scattershot interactions)
  
• Flexibility to deploy multiple concepts and gather real-time feedback from customers

The report identifies several areas where most companies fall short:

Getting basics in place: This includes updating the website, fine-tuning e-mail interactions, and improving CRM activities. It can also cover building in-house analytics capabilities and hiring specialized digital marketing agencies.

Targeting and Personalizing: Using rich consumer data to tailor and target ads with greater precision, optimizing the return on investment of individual campaigns or of the digital elements in the media mix.

Build new skills, talents, and tools. Digital marketing demands new skills, including advanced analytics, test-and-learn media design, and data management. Marketers must relearn their trade while reclaiming their role as integral business managers.

Create a new technology infrastructure: This means developing explicit strategies to acquire, integrate, and analyze data, both in-house and with partners.

Building long-term relationships: Consumer loyalty, repeat purchases, and brand advocacy represent the Holy Grail in marketing. Marketers aim for loyalty, but they are forced to guide campaigns on the basis of aggregate monthly sales data, with no way of differentiating between first-time buyers and longtime customers.

Implications for Organizations

In the new world of digital marketing, standard processes and ways of working will no longer get the job done. Organizations accustomed to traditional, slow-paced, unilateral marketing will need to change—from top to bottom—in the following ways.

Read the full report for more information.

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