The world of digital marketing is transforming at an unprecedented pace. Owing to the changes of pandemic protocols around the world, marketing sphere has adapted to the ‘new normal’. The next stage, as organisations create new digital experiences that meet evolving customer preferences, is to improve hybrid customer experiences. As more and more customers are preferring online space to meet their requirements, this step should be taken with utmost consideration and brainstorming.
“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.”
-Milan Kundera
Digital marketing agencies should refrain from getting overwhelmed. They should focus on delivering impeccable hybrid experience to the customers by adapting their digital marketing strategies with the new changes and bringing those changes to their advantage.
We have compiled a few crucial points which will come in handy for the digital marketers to ensure a remarkable hybrid experience. Read on!
Human-centered design
We all are witnessing the combination of physical and digital experiences. Society members across the globe are shifting towards the ease and convenience of online education, shopping, doctor consultations and much more. Students across prestigious universities want both in-person and digital learning options. Professors are also pressing for both the options after the pandemic subsides. According to the Praxis Report, the number of doctor consultations in India crossed 4 billion in FY21 and the same report predicted that India’s teleconsultation market is set to reach $836 million by 2024.
So, what should a brand do? To address the need for enhancing these experiences, it's best to start by putting the human at the center—and human-centered design principles can help. Brands can make their physical and digital experiences as nimble and flexible as consumers have grown to demand by putting human needs first.
Putting humans first means personalisation. Every digital marketing strategy has the end goal of satisfying the customer so that they don’t switch to market competitors. In order to ensure a satisfactory experience, brands need to meet customers on their preferred channels. Understanding customer demands and acting on it is probably the best thing a brand can do to ensure loyalty and superior customer experience. For instance, many young individuals are now making purchases through social media, voice assistants and even through VR headsets. In order to guarantee their loyalty, brands need to incorporate these cutting-edge technological changes in their platforms.
Upgrade your ‘hybrid’ framework
In order to enable a hybrid experience, infrastructure must be in place to ensure that all aspects of the consumer experience are connected and consistent. Gaining a complete line of sight into the client journey is the first step. With the decline of third-party cookies blurring the line of sight, organisations should invest in infrastructure that records and analyses customer activity across all touch points. Cloud-based consumer data platforms are one such example. These platforms collect omnichannel data to map the complete customer journey and enable organisations to more clearly design the solutions that their customers are asking for, whether directly or implicitly.
In a 2021 Deloitte survey of 1000 global executives, 75% said they are open to invest more in delivering concrete hybrid experiences over the next year.
Another way of ensuring a robust hybrid framework is by acting on the customer feedbacks. While a hybrid investment begins with the freedom of choice for end-users, obtaining feedback allows those choices to be refined. Apart from acting on the feedback for customising experiences, analysing behavioural data allows marketers to directly understand what users want.
In order to ensure a frictionless feedback experience on your platform, digital marketing services need to be innovative and think ‘out of the box’. For instance, brands can use QR codes across all of their channels to allow customers to submit feedback or to indicate which channels or services they would like to see in the future.
Hybrid experience is clearly the ‘new normal’ and adapting to it with your transformed digital marketing strategy seems to be the way ahead.
