Content marketing is where it's at, with 300 percent more leads and 600–700 percent more conversions. But where are things going from here? The answer is customer experience. We are on the bleeding edge of a new era, and it's a battlefield out there!
“By 2016, 89 percent of companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, versus 36 percent four years ago.” — GARTNER.
The idea of funneling all your potential customers into one linear, predictable buying experience is obsolete. Businesses think they deliver a superior experience 80 percent of the time, but only eight percent of customers rate their experience as even good, and only one percent report their needs as consistently met. That's just not going to cut it.
Customers want choice and content-driven experiences
If you want to make it to the promised land and become a preferred brand, you need to give customers that superior experience, every time, in every marketing channel, because poor service kills 68 percent of potential sales. That just goes to show how cream always rises to the top, with 86 percent of customers willing to pay more for better service.
So, what does that look like? Integrated touch points in sales and support, be it in-store, online, through emails or mobile messaging, and meeting and exceeding buyer expectations quickly and effortlessly. Response time is the key. Service is moving to social media, as 67 percent of customers look for it there and 33 percent prefer it to the phone.
Reaction time and responsiveness builds relationships
Why are customers trying to contact you and engage with your brand? In 46 percent of cases, it's because they have a problem. Customers expect you to deliver and build value into the relationship, not dictate to them or push them in another direction.
Audiences expect answers 29 percent of the time in two hours on Facebook, and 22 percent want at least same-day service. Twitter users are even more demanding, with contact expected within 24 hours by 81 percent. 22 percent want responses in two hours and 30 percent expect it within 30 minutes!
Your reaction time is crucial when it comes to customer complaints and questions, but being proactive will get ahead of the game. Find the contact points your customers prefer and engage with them there, giving them the answers they need before they even think of a question. That kind of responsiveness builds the strongest, most lasting sale relationships.
- Show them that you know them. Acknowledge their needs and anticipate their preferences.
- Relate to them on an emotional level, with relevant information they care about, not what you might want them to see.
- Don't make them wait or ignore the media channel they want to use.
Integrated tools increase your speed
That leaves your marketing content managers juggling an average of 13 content tactics and six social networks. Assets can easily get away on you, with digital files for so many tactics, audiences, platforms and channels. Forrester Research says that kind of unstructured content is growing 200 percent every year. If you're feeling overwhelmed by the avalanche of broken systems, you're not alone.
Some people know the answer, with 97 percent of marketers naming integrated tools as “important” or “essential” for growth, but finding and implementing them is something else, since only 40 percent report their current systems as even adequate. Fighting without a unified framework constantly wastes time and resources. It's like having one arm tied behind your back in a potato-sack race. It just slows you down, and customers hate it.
Digital asset management holds it all together
You can control and organize all of your content, including files with multiple versions, usage information and approvals. All you need is one central system with an exact overview of how users interact with everything. Sound good? This goes completely beyond the old store-search-share-and-download paradigm.
That’s where digital asset management (DAM) comes in. Optimizing the management of content allows you to hypothesize, test, optimize and prove the best marketing strategy. You can capture, create and govern your assets with the right organization, management and tags. This allows you to collaborate, distribute and publish content with better socialization, tracking and analysis, extending your reach and integrating resources. Everything is in one archive, so assets are recycled, repurposed and reused, or expired and terminated as needed. All this with less effort and time than ever before!
Digital asset management brings results for everyone
Do you want increased revenue and productivity with reduced risk and creation costs across? Who wouldn't? Optimal DAM brings an average of a 10 percent increase in profit or more for 79 percent of users. There's a 10 percent or greater rise in productivity for 97 percent of users as well. Check out the infographic for even more results!"
It's not just the ups; DAM is with you for the downs, too! Asset creation costs drop by 10 percent or more for 97 percent of users, with a 25 percent savings for 57 percent and an average decrease of 28 percent.
Customers get the results they're looking for, too. They can expect a meaningful representation of who you are as a brand, which evolves to meet their demands at every contact opportunity with relevant, accurate and timely information. Say goodbye to broken or disjointed content systems and give them:
- The right content
- Deployed in the right format
- For the right audience
- At the right time
More conversions with a bigger return on investment and a stronger brand
DAM gives you one central place for your digital assets throughout their lifecycle for better management, distribution and analysis. It makes the job of creators and project managers a lot easier, with more agile content set for multiple conversions, improving how they manage and deploy enterprise content and marketing resources. You'll see increased reach across every platform, be it on the web, by email, using videos, social media or apps or through other communities. Your content's almost on autopilot, releasing valuable time and resources for your team, so they can concentrate on the creative process and how to impress your audience.
Napoleon Bonaparte said it best: "An army marches on its stomach." You can win or lose a war by your supply lines. The battle for customers and better content-driven experiences is no different.
Request a demo to schedule a conversation and see how everybody wins.
