How Brands Can Successfully Leverage Martech Solutions to Improve Their Customer Experience Journey
Customer choice is at an all-time high. The more options on offer, the more likely it is that they will keep looking for the perfect product or service that matches their expectations exactly. Much of that searching for perfection takes place online.
Whether they are browsing a website or using social media, the consumer in 2022 expects a consistent and relevant digital experience – from their home, their office, or anywhere they take their smartphone or tablet.
They might come into contact with a brand on a website, app, chatbot, social platform, customer portal, in-store kiosk, digital stadium billboard, and wearable all in the same day. They will want each of those experiences to reflect any interactions they’ve had with the brand since they woke up earlier that day.
The customer wants to access their favourite brands in the most convenient way possible, at any time of the day or night, and with a tailored message that is meaningful to them. An inconsistent or generic experience may lead to confusion, annoyance, and, ultimately, the customer going elsewhere.
To create this kind of all-round customer experience, marketers have to get their content and customer data to interact with, update, and trigger personalised events in real-time across all channels simultaneously. Integrating all the required marketing technology solutions that make this possible is one of the biggest challenges that every brand and marketer will face.
Many companies are putting digital asset management (DAM) software at the heart of their digital experience platform (DXP) and using it to power and streamline their customer journeys.
Adding a DAM solution — which organises, stores, and retrieves rich media such as photos, fonts, logos, animations, and podcast content — to your digital ecosystem, makes it easier to manage assets throughout the content lifecycle. It also helps deliver highly sought-after personalised experiences. A secure, central content hub helps teams ensure brand consistency, eliminates redundant tools, and streamlines workflows.
The main reason marketers benefit from using a DAM solution is that it gives them the ability to centralise content in a single system allowing internal teams and external partners to securely find exactly what they need, when they need it.
It also includes the ability to consolidate redundant content storage, file sharing, and collaboration tools into one system; streamlines proofing and approval workflows; and ensures brand consistency through the alignment of content guidelines and standards.
Marketers also face challenges with data silos — both across teams and technologies — which can act as barriers to delivering a more integrated content strategy. After all, when data lives across numerous systems, processes and ownership become unclear. Integrating DAM software with other marketing technology solutions streamlines workflows by syncing content across platforms and channels, seamlessly and without friction.
A good DAM platform can store popular file formats in a secure and organised environment, one that is built to control content across all six phases of its lifecycle: planning, creating, managing, distributing, optimising, and preserving.
With a DAM system, users can automatically convert images, audio, video, and documents to other file formats on the spot — eliminating the need to recreate and store multiple versions of the same file.
The operational efficiencies made possible by DAM, translate directly into cost savings. Companies can redeploy the staff that were previously needed to find and share assets and save huge amounts on the time needed to fulfil download requests.
A DXP is simply a collection of integrated technologies that connects information and data across tools. Anchoring DAM at the foundation of these technologies allows for consistent information to be accessed across systems that support business efforts such as ecommerce, content management, personalisation, and localisation. Minimising the risk of brand inconsistency as a result of manual processes.
Digital marketing’s development during the 1990s and 2000s changed the way that brands and businesses use technology for marketing. The customer journey was improved with the help of ‘journey mapping’, enabling marketeers to visualise current and planned customer journeys as well as key touch points across different marketing channels.
But with every passing year, digital marketing gets more sophisticated and, some might say, complicated.
The huge number of different marketing technology (martech) tools available can sometimes feel overwhelming, but choosing the right ones, such as DAM, to power your DXP can be a rewarding experience for everyone involved.
Receiving a positive digital experience is, and will continue to be, a priority for customers everywhere and the brands that can deliver on this expectation with the latest marketing technologies will come out on top.