You think about what an experience means in the digital marketplace; all together it’s not just a website or a banner ad like it used to be.
Todd DeRemigis is the Director of Digital Experience at TBC, an independently owned, full-service ad agency with experience across industries, from education to healthcare to financial. TBC was named Top Agency in Maryland by ADWEEK.
In this episode of Velocitize Talks, DeRemigis shares his insights into the future of digital experiences, social media messaging, and martech trends.
Get the message out (2:15)
The idea between how someone uses Facebook versus Instagram versus Instagram stories is totally different; so is the idea of what content you’re going to put in there and how you’re going to connect that messaging all over, but with the same goals and different layers.
On average, people spend three hours per day on social media, according to GlobalWebIndex. Brands and customers are increasingly using social media to connect, especially during Covid-19. As DeRemigis points out, it is crucial to create a unified message across all social media platforms as people use their social networks in vastly different ways. You can’t have a comprehensive digital marketing strategy today without social media.
According to Smart Insights, 45% of the world’s population is on social media. However, recent trends show that people are choosing to reduce the time they spend on social media. Almost 30% say they’re deleting accounts or removing apps from their phones because they feel “overloaded” by it.
Get real (2:54)
One standpoint is authenticity: Making sure the content feels legitimate and not just totally facetious messaging; it’s actually what the brand stands for and what their values are.
Marketing to Gen Z requires companies to be authentic and trustworthy, according to the new WP Engine Gen Z study. The study found that 72% of Gen Z is more likely to buy from a company that contributes to social causes. Gen Z’s belief that the real and digital worlds are one, coupled with their desire for authenticity, is the reason why they demand such a high level of brand trust.
The study states: “Just as they [Gen Z] see the web as a digital representation of themselves, they expect others to present themselves authentically in the digital realm. Failure to do this, through inauthentic or tone-deaf content, will send Gen Z elsewhere in a heartbeat.”
Home base (7:20)
[Websites] are at a bit of a stalemate right now because there are so many other connected experiences but the endpoint is still a website. A lot of social campaigns are still going to some variation of a website, whether it’s a landing page or not.
In 2015 Website Magazine, ironically enough, published an article entitled “How Traditional Websites Could Become Obsolete by 2020,” a sentiment held by many in the industry. In part this was due to the rise of apps and social media. Obviously, that hasn’t happened.
Downloading an app for every website you visit is not practical. Marketers need to centralize their message on one platform—preferably one the brand controls—and a website is the optimal place to do that. Additionally, even if the majority of search moves to the Google Search app, users will be searching through and displaying websites as the result. In other words, websites will continue to act as a home base for a brand’s identity and its marketing.
Trending now (10:17)
We’ve seen a bit of an increase in integration with Amazon and making sure that we’re integrating into existing marketplaces as much as we possibly can.
In late 2019, Martech Advisor predicted the top 5 marketing trends for 2020 would be automation platforms, machine learning, mobile marketing, mobile and voice search, and customer data privacy. As we have encountered a very different 2020 than anyone could have anticipated, martech trends have continued to evolve to meet the marketplace demands.
Scott Brinker, the Program Chair of the Martech Conference, shared that 74% of companies have stopped or altered their marketing and 47% are shifting their tactics since the start of the pandemic. Continuous change is something all brands should expect (even the unexpected) and plan for. If brands embrace that idea, they will be better prepared to make it through any unimaginable event.
Channel surfing (11:48)
If there’s a better platform that pops out for a specific need and whether that’s just more accessibility or easier to update or integrate into other automation processes. It’s an interesting experience that’s come up that will gain more headway in the future as stuff becomes a little bit more decentralized.
As we move deeper into the era of IoT (Internet of Things), brands which publish to a handful of channels—desktop, tablet, mobile—will soon discover that’s no longer enough. As consumers continue to demand more from brands, the need to meet them where they are has increased. Headless architecture gives you that flexibility to create more personalized experiences across multiple channels including smart devices.
For more information on TBC, check out their website and follow them on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.