If a consumer is asked to look back and point out the great changes that the outbreak of the pandemic brought to their day-to-day lives, they will end up talking about digitization. You are unlikely to use that term, but your experiences will point in that direction. Consumers acknowledge that they are buying more online , spending more time with content on the Internet or depending much more on digital services .
If the same request is made to the head of a company, he will also talk about the same thing, although already using the appropriate terminology. The coronavirus crisis accelerated the digitization of companies and made technology tools much more crucial to business strategy. “The current situation has materialized in a few months the changes that were to take place within 3 to 5 years.
In this context, intelligent tools such as Dynamics 365 have allowed clients of all sectors and sizes to work in a more agile way to build loyalty. to its customers, attract new audiences and accelerate the conversion of business opportunities, “says Juan Chinchilla, director of the Business Applications Business Unit at Microsoft in Spain.
Companies have realized the transformative role of technology, in addition to the importance of omnichannel and the personalization of customer experiences. Hence the trend for Real Time Marketing Automation solutions that develop real-time campaigns based on customer interactions with the company and creating personalized experiences for each individual.
This is how technology has changed the marketing strategy
The investment patterns in marketing and advertising over the last year can be read as a guide to understand what the success of the company increasingly depends on . Likewise, they are a sample of which tools allow marketers to reach consumers more efficiently.
If in recent years the value of data had already been harnessed, the experiences during the pandemic showed that it was essential to survive in the market and, above all, to improve the consumer experience. The data is the basis to offer the buyer what they need, when they expect it and with a relationship between them and the brand, without problems and without errors.
Data has become something of an oracle for marketers. They are the guide to find new business opportunities and new sources of income, but also what helps them to differentiate themselves from their competitors, to detect and solve problems, to refine their strategy and to maintain those good relationships with the expected consumers.
To maximize the full potential of the data , Microsoft proposes Dynamics 365 Customer Insight and Marketing, tools that, based on machine learning , create customer profiles by capturing explicit and implicit signals about their behavior and purchase intention .
The solution performs segmentation and defines proactive actions based on behavior . In this way, marketers apply intelligence to the data collected and launch personalized messages at the right time or recommend the products that best suit their preferences and needs.
Hello, Integrated Sales and Marketing Solutions
When it comes to business strategy and how to reach consumers, one word has become almost the wild card to understand the present and the challenges of the immediate future.
It is that of the omnichannel company, in which it is necessary to respond to the consumer wherever he is and that, today, implies assuming that the buyer will jump from the offline channel to the multiple possible channels of the online channel. In this scenario, three major trends can be identified in how consumer data will be managed and how companies will have to work from now on .
The first is that there will be a migration from the physical to the digital, with a greater weight of digital experiences thanks to the boom in virtual reality, augmented reality or artificial intelligence. The second key trend will be personalization, which will draw on more and more points of contact with the consumer during the customer journey and will require greater collaboration.
And finally, agile and integrated technology tools will be more critical than ever. Following the real pulse of the market and the consumer will be crucial. Currently, solutions such as Dynamics 365 Marketing allow you to manage end-to-end campaigns, from design to execution.
In addition, it connects and integrates with Dynamics 365 Sales and provides commercial leads generated by marketing campaigns. In this way, with Dynamics 365 Sales, companies can connect the digital sales channel , strengthen relationships with customers and automate tasks and processes, increasing competitiveness, by keeping the focus on the customer and their end-to-end experience.
The importance of choosing the best tools
In conclusion, all this makes it very clear the decisive importance of choosing tools that fit the specific needs of each brand . The software tools for marketers must enable collaboration with the other members of the own team first and then with the other departments of the company (such as Microsoft 365, integrated in Dynamics 365).
They must also be able to follow the customer journey, collecting all the data it generates and at all points of contact with the consumer. From Microsoft, they recall the importance of IT solutions to optimize the use of data “and get” the most out of it. “The success stories are tangible proof that this works.
Sanitas , for example, has combined Microsoft technological tools Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn Sales Navigator with the aim of expanding sales management and customer loyalty to the digital environment.
Now, with the adoption of these leading-edge Microsoft solutions, which are integrated with their own systems, the number of opportunities for recruitment, As well as the new accounts won, they have risen by 20% while, on the other hand, the percentage of conversion of LinkedIn leads is 10% higher compared to other outbound channels . Choosing the best tools implies, therefore, clearly improving the return and execution of the marketing strategy.