MARKETING ECOSYSTEM

You must be present to win

We’ve all been to town fairs where greeters encourage us to purchase raffle tickets on our way in, then proclaim, “You must be present to win.” Content marketing is like that. Picture the crowd at this fair, and let’s suppose you have something to sell them. As you look around, your inner entrepreneur naturally begins to profile and segment the audience.

The kid with the cotton candy-not a buyer. The lady with the Gucci bag who can’t put down her cell phone—influencer. The middle-aged guy with a GoPro on a selfie stick—buyer. The woman running the crepe stand—prospect.

Now if someone challenged you to sell to ten people from the fair in the next ten days, could you do it? A traditional salesperson would play the numbers game and start conversations with as many fair-goers as possible. A traditional marketer would hand out flyers to as many people as possible, and maybe even put some flyers under windshield wipers in the fair parking lot. The problem with both of these strategies is that the fair-goers just want to enjoy the fair. They’re not in the mindset to buy anything that doesn’t have to do with jumpy houses, face paint, or beer. Their attention span for anything not fair related is inherently short. And as soon as you leave the fair, your opportunity to sell is over. I hate to break it to you but no matter how charming you thought you were, no one will remember you in a week or even a day. Maybe you got a phone number you can follow up on, and maybe that friend-of-a-friend you ran into will call and invite you to a barbeque, but I wouldn’t bet my business on it. Just like the fair raffle, you must be present to win.

By contrast, content marketing—and expert content management—is about omnipresence. You need to be everywhere so that customers can find you, first when they’re ready, and second, through the channels they’re most comfortable using.

Let’s take another look at the fair through the eyes of a content marketer, and explore how to transform this event into a marketing ecosystem.

In this scenario, it’s about creating opportunities for fair-goers to engage with your brand on their terms, and make buying decisions when they’re ready

In the marketing ecosystem, you would have a kiosk at the fair where brand ambassadors would greet people and recite your elevator pitch, but more importantly get people to subscribe to your follow up list using a simple form on a tablet or laptop. You would have a sign at the kiosk displaying a QR code that people could scan to get to your Facebook profile and enter to win a contest. You would hand out flyers or cards directing people to your website. You may even have brand ambassadors just outside the fair greeting people on their way in, and tweeting about the event throughout the day.

And the real magic happens before and after the fair

Prior to the event, you would send an online press release touting your sponsorship and encouraging attendance. You would also announce your participation through social media and blog posts.

After the event, you would post photos and video content captured during the event on your social channels and blogs. Then you would email your new subscribers to offer them a variety of ways to engage with your brand— newsletter, website, social media and offer some incentive for doing so.

Through this coordinated activity, you become omnipresent, positioning yourself for more wins, and the marketing ecosystem begins to feed on itself, amplifying every story you tell.

There’s obviously more to it than this simple fair example and I invite you to read on to learn the mechanics of becoming an expert on building your marketing ecosystem!

A Paradigm Shift in Marketing

Just as technology has become more complex in recent years, so have the challenges faced by marketers. These days, we’re experiencing a paradigm shift that requires marketers to continually produce content for many channels. while considering the diverse technologies that have become second nature to their audience. Keeping up with production requirements and tight deadlines has marketers everywhere feeling overwhelmed and under constant pressure to perform.

Traditional marketing meant that we would push our advertising messages out through one or two media and hope a buyer would see it. The only way to measure campaign performance was to look for an uptick in revenue in the days or weeks after launch, and rarely would we glean any insights from direct response.

Today, we can target our marketing to specific customers thanks to advanced analytics and segmentation. Not only are we able to reach customers through many channels, we’re also able to get valuable feedback in real time through direct response, social channels, and digital footprints. Despite these major advances, we are still scrambling to push out content because we’re so busy chasing our own channels.

The marketing ecosystem solves this. It is a way for marketers to organize and manage content efficiently, which can save you time and money and address the ultimate goal of building relationships with customers.

We’ve all felt pressure to create new and different content, blasting it out through as many channels as possible. But in our haste to churn out more content in a fast-paced, ever-evolving marketplace, long-term planning is often left by the wayside. We need to be nimble so we can react to our marketplace more quickly. We need to take a holistic approach and get ahead of the churn.

For many of us in larger organizations, channel strategies are managed individually, so content tends to be created in silos. Because of this fragmentation, messaging becomes inconsistent and confusing to customers; efforts are duplicated, time and money are wasted. Marketing often loses credibility with sales as clients and prospects convey their perception of brand alienation.

Those of us running small businesses or start-ups often start out with fewer channels, but the pressure to churn out content may be even greater. We still need to engage customers through a variety of channels, and we have fewer resources to get it done. And our sales reps, if we have any, wind up spending much of their time sourcing and sifting through marginally qualified leads.

Without a system in place to react quickly to shifts in customer behaviour, industry changes, or current events, valuable opportunities for visibility and sales will be missed. This shift presents challenges for customers, too. They want to locate the content they need when they need it, on any device. Reliable, consistent, credible information that’s corroborated by third parties like influencers, past customers, even current customers, all help customers reach buying decisions. Satisfied customers return when they feel recognized and that companies understand their needs.

Whether you’re a marketer, agency, executive, or business owner, at least some of these challenges and scenarios must sound familiar. So where do you start?

How do you finally stop the madness and make a change?

Building a marketing ecosystem begins with making a few, but important, adjustments to your overall view of marketing and the principals of old, and then setting goals for what you want to change.

Here’s an example you can use as a starting point within your organization.

MY BRAND

Improve Channel Synergy

Less “Just-in-time” Content Production

Better Harmony Between Sales and Marketing

Enhance Customer Insights and Segmentation

All these goals can be met with the creation of a MARKETING ECOSYSTEM

The Marketing Ecosystem Defined

So, what exactly is a marketing ecosystem? The marketing ecosystem is a new way to look at your channel and content management more holistically. By understanding how your customers behave at various touch points and interact with your content, you can build a synergistic program that maximizes content development and delivery. It’s time to get away from the days of “batch and blast,” and forget about “pushing” content to your customers. Instead, welcome this era of customers self-guiding personalized tours of your brand, consuming marketing content when they want, where they want, and how they want.

This is a “work smarter, not harder” concept. You can let your customers do more of the work for you by empowering them with timely, relevant content they can consume and share. Accept that they will be doing their own market research, talking with influencers and buying from someone, and if they’re in your ecosystem they will buy from you.

A well-thought-out marketing ecosystem incorporates a systematic approach for messaging across all channels concurrently. Its basis is in planning and organization. It allows for the repurposing and customization of content for each channel, so efforts aren’t duplicated and continuity is not lost. Content for all channels becomes integrated. The result is streamlined, efficient distribution of content—and, ultimately, a solid foundation for building customer engagement and loyalty.

Most companies (large or small) fail to recognize the interaction between channels and therefore miss opportunities to let customers self-guide and consume content in their own way. A one- path customer journey is no longer appropriate for any company regardless of what they intend to communicate and ultimately sell.

SAMPLE CUSTOMER PATHS

Customer “Joey” first hears about your brand from a friend over coffee. A few weeks later, Joey sees your brand mentioned in an article he’s reading on his phone. Wanting to learn more, he Googles your brand from his desktop computer in the office. Joey browses a couple pages on your website. A few weeks later your brand crosses his mind again, so he goes back to your website and clicks a link to your Facebook page so he can read what others are saying about your brand, and to see what sort of recommendations you’re making within the community. A month later Joey receives a Facebook alert informing him you have an infographic to download. He follows the link and enters his email address when prompted. The next day he receives his first email from you letting him know about a webinar you have coming up in a month. Joey registers for the webinar and immediately after he emails your sales team.

In this example, several months have passed between the time Joey first heard of your brand, and the time he contacted sales. During that time, a typical sales person would not even have recognized Joey as a qualified lead. Your marketing team might have counted Joey on several disconnected reports—a visitor to your website, a follower on social media, a new email subscriber—each channel manager would claim victory on their stats, but together none of them would know Joey or know that the other channels know Joey. The reason is that despite Joey’s engagement with your brand, you don’t know Joey.

Let’s fix that.

Don’t just count Joey on your sales and marketing reports—you need to demonstrate to Joey that you know him. This means making sure you don’t send him marketing messages about things he is already aware of. It also means recognizing his engagement and making him feel good about it.

If you have defined a progression of meaningful engagement steps on the path to conversion, you can guide customers like Joey in a way that makes them feel they’re in control of the purchase.

MY OWN BUYER EXPERIENCE

Recently I was in the market for a new car. My specs were relatively few but important to me. I wanted an SUV that got decent gas mileage, handled well in the snow and had a third-row seat so I could make room for my kids’ friends. A friend mentioned the Dodge Journey—which I had never heard of—and said it had a third-row seat. I Googled this model and looked at the specs online. I eventually went to their Facebook page and also searched for online reviews and safety ratings. I then went to YouTube and searched for videos of people driving this car in the snow. I wanted to see it for myself and not in a TV commercial—and I did indeed find several videos of people driving this car in deep snow in parking lots, up hills, and in their own driveways. Satisfied with my research, I went back to the company website and submitted a “design your own car” form. I immediately received an email from the head of online sales at a dealership near my home inviting me to come in and see the inventory. Some time passed and we continued communicating via email—some automated and some personally sent. When I was ready to buy I started asking questions about price and financing. Finally, after several months of interaction, I set an appointment to visit the dealership and pick up the exact car I wanted at the pricing and terms I wanted. It was the easiest car purchase I have ever made, and the reason is the brand gave me the opportunity to do my own research in my own time and let the salesperson know when I was ready to close the deal.

In both of the above examples—one real and one hypothetical—customers were able to navigate the content they wanted whenever they were ready to consume it. These scenarios also illustrate a marketing trend that has taken hold in recent years that shows how customers are doing more research and waiting longer before reaching out to a salesperson. Studies have shown that today’s customers may be as much as 70% through the buyer journey before having their first conversation with a salesperson—a dramatic departure from sales trends even 20 years ago.

Many consultants and agencies recommend multi-day workshops and complex processes for mapping out your customer journey. The marketing ecosystem diagram in this book has simplified the process and you can use it for the following exercise.

BUYER’S JOURNEY MADE SIMPLE

Use the marketing ecosystem diagram to map the buyer’s journey for your brand. Consider how prospects and customers are introduced to your brand and label that hexagon number 1. Then consider the next most likely touch point and label it number 2, and so on. You may want to make several copies of the diagram and label them for each client segment or persona; for example: prospect, client, influencer, premium buyer, wholesaler, etc. Try not to bias the paths based on where you want the customers to go, but rather based on where they want to go or actually do go. If you’re not sure, surveying your best or most recently acquired customers may be in order. Ask them how they found you, what information influenced their buying decision, and what role sales and customer service played in the buying process.

This exercise helps you think through how and where customers will touch your content upon entering a communications stream. It is not a paved path that all customers will follow, so don’t over-engineer it. Each path is designed to empower customers to move in and out of communications streams and self-guide their buyer’s journey.

It’s also very important to draft a journey for your loyalty program. The power of message amplification through the marketing ecosystem may be more pronounced here than at any other point in the buyer journey because your clients talk about your brand the most after they have spent their money. Use the worksheet and build communications streams that will keep your best customers happy and influence new customers to convert.

Components of a Marketing Ecosystem

Let’s break it down:

The first thing you’ll need is a marketing ecosystem manager.

Depending on the size of your organization, you may designate a marketing manager or project manager to assume this role and it could be someone who is already on your team.

This person must own the marketing/editorial calendar and coordinate communications between channel managers to achieve the following:

• Increase Awareness of the Content in the Pipeline
• Share Content Opportunities and Gaps by Channel
• Improve Message and Brand Continuity
• Put Customer Experience Front and Center in the Content Development Process

SAMPLE MARKETING EDITORIAL CALENDAR

The marketing/editorial calendar is the platform on which the ecosystem is built. It shows events and deadlines for every channel, and every opportunity for pushing content through that channel.

Promotion Dates	Subject	Event Date	Content Overview	Channels
11.06 – 11.11	Veteran’s Day	11.11	In honour of Veteran’s Day head over to www.turnupagency.com and enjoy 10% off all services	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blog
11.06 – 11.09	ME Video	11.15	We are so excited to show off our brand-new Marketing Ecosystem Video! Download for free today!	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blog
11.16 – 11.26	Thanksgiving	11.26	Happy Holidays! Thanksgiving is a time for appreciation! Let us show you how much we appreciate you, by giving our eBook Marketing Ecosystem	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blog
11.27	Black Friday	11.27	Hopefully the turkey didn’t put you into a coma! If so, we have an amazing deal to help revive your spirits and get you all ready to endure the rest of your holiday season! Click to learn more!	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blog
11.30	Cyber Monday	11.30	It’s Cyber Monday! which means today only receive a free coaching session with Kevin Petersen!	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Blog

If you’re working within a large organization you may already have an editorial board that reviews channel calendars and messaging, but the marketing ecosystem manager function is designed to get further ahead of individual channel content and calendars. If someone is really put in charge of raising awareness of existing content, as well as opportunities to leverage content, your organization will spend fewer resources reinventing content that gets published in a disjointed way.

If you don’t have an editorial board or content review process today, put one in place. If you’re a small business it’s okay if your editorial board is just you and a writer or agency contact. You will also make great strides in your marketing program if, as part of your process, you always answer these seven questions.

Seven Questions to Answer Before Drafting Any New Content:

1. Why do we need this piece and how will it help our customers?
2. How will our customers consume this piece (social media, website, download, email, etc.)?
3. Is there an opportunity to break this piece of content into several pieces that can be delivered through multiple channels?
4. Does this content already exist elsewhere? Can we recycle and refresh something?
5. Can we enable our customers to share and independently promote this content?
6. What action do we want our customers to take (download, like, share, register, buy)?
7. What other content can we make available to customers who want more?

Channel managers will begin to create and update content when needed, not just in parallel with the marketing/editorial calendar, but also in anticipation of and reaction to industry trends and current events. The most important piece here is that channel managers increase awareness of content in development and opportunities to publish through their respective channels so that work is optimized and content usage is maximized.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

There are several distinctly different channels and there is both art and science to mastering each, but for the purpose of this definition we are lumping them together. The reason is that in terms of your marketing ecosystem, the goal of these channels is to position your brand as a voice of authority. If you’re not already doing so, begin curating “thought leadership” content. This includes white papers, infographics, blog posts and other content that demonstrates your expertise in your field, your awareness of market trends and technology, as well as your customer insights and feedback. You can include survey results, observed changes in buying behaviour and cutting-edge product and service features you’re launching.

The most important point here is to keep your marketing ecosystem in mind as you develop thought-leadership content so you’re rolling out consistent messages across all channels without having to reinvent new unique content for each. Challenge your channel managers (if you have them) to make specific recommendations about how they can use a new piece of content in their channel and how soon they can get it on the calendar. Don’t force the timing for each channel, but do force multi-channel coverage—in other words, make sure every channel manager is finding opportunities to tout other channels within their channel (see the Multi-Channel Plan example on page 20.)

Opportunities You’re Missing: Customers engage most with brands they believe are leading and are highly regarded in social media and user communities. If you don’t deliver leadership content, your customers will be less engaged and actively seek information elsewhere.

WEBSITE

This is where the voice of your brand can really shine in today’s paradigm of customer-driven messaging. It may sound basic, but be sure the information your customers want most is easy to find and the pages you call the most attention to are accessible on many devices and platforms. One of the easiest fixes you can make to improve the customer experience and response is to upgrade your website to a mobile-friendly platform. This goes for your landing pages as well. It’s critical that all key content is in responsive design, meaning the code recognizes in a fraction of second what device your visitor is using and optimizes content for that device (e.g. tablet vs. desktop, Windows vs. iOS, etc.). If you don’t know where to start, see Litmus.com to test your pages and emails for responsive design and go from there. You may also consider contracting a design agency that specializes in site optimization.

Opportunities You’re Missing: If you’re not tracking which pieces of web content your customers view most and following up in near-real time with those who view high-value content, you’re leaving money on the table and educating customers to the benefit of your competitors.

A Few Words on Content Gating

Thoughtful website design is of course an integral part of the marketing ecosystem as customers will likely look here first to research your brand. There are as many ways to design websites as there are websites! But focusing on how, where and when you serve up high value content will increase engagement and brand loyalty

Content gating allows customers to access information in exchange for information about themselves (for example, an e-mail address, budget, time horizon, social handles). Brands often view gating as a great way to grab visitor data at the top of the sales funnel, but most marketing agencies will tell you that gating is best reserved for the middle of the funnel once the customer has shown some level of engagement.

Here are a few takeaways for planning how and when to gate your content:

Don’t limit first-time customers’ access to information. That’s not a nice handshake! Don’t overwhelm potential customers with roadblocks to your content. Don’t gate content for customers who are close to making a buying decision. Once they’ve transitioned from prospect to buyer, they should be engaging with Sales. Don’t treat customers like prospects when they’ve already made the decision to buy. Don’t “buy it back”! Customers will discontinue communications if your messaging is irrelevant.

Do give customers a chance to explore and become familiar with your brand. Do start gating once you’ve tracked that content has had some engagement, by providing “Welcome back” and “You might also like” messaging that you have on hand in your content library. Once they’ve demonstrated that they have some real level of interest, you can start asking questions. Do show customers that you’re listening by presenting them with customized landing pages based on their browsing habits.

Use progressive profiling to pinpoint your customer with relevant content. Progressive profiling is the process of unobtrusively collecting information on your customers gradually as they interact with your brand. Over time, this results in a profile you can use for segmentation and targeted content delivery. This is also a good method for collecting qualified leads.

Here are some sample profiling questions:

1. What is your role in the organization?
2. What are your goals for the coming year?
3. Do you host webinars?

EMAIL

There has been ongoing debate about the effectiveness of email since it was invented. The truth is that spammy email is lame and email done right is pure gold. Just a reminder, the days of “batch and blast” are over, so if you’re still doing this, stop. Savvy email marketers are installing marketing automation platforms like Marketo and Infusionsoft, enabling complex multi-touch, multi-channel communications streams that are 100% triggered by customer behaviour. The automation is based on actual behaviour and not some chart your PhD statistician put together. The bottom line: marketing automation empowers you to demonstrate “we know you” to your customers by identifying hand-raisers and responding to their needs in near-real time. You can and should deliver the right content to the right customer at the right time.

Opportunities you’re missing: The hardest issue for marketers to address is optimizing the timing of the pitch. Not using an automated platform to deliver email content is exactly like ignoring your hand-raisers and sending them elsewhere

SOCIAL

Many brands completely misunderstand the purpose and the value of social media in marketing programs today. As a marketer, your focus should not be on getting likes, followers, and retweets (although they’re nice to have) as much as using social media as a fully interactive conversation channel with your most engaged customers.

Customers today are quick to hit social media with customer service issues, questions and testimonials. You can encourage this behaviour by acknowledging comments, responding quickly to criticism and rewarding loyalty and referrals. It’s also a great medium for conducting surveys and crowdsourcing new ideas that keep your brand fresh and relevant.

Opportunities You’re Missing: Set up a listening program so someone on your team can respond to customer comments with genuine follow up in near-real time. If customers sense that no one is listening, they will go somewhere else; or worse, they’ll make negative comments that tarnish your brand without you even knowing about it.

Fall of an Empire: The Story of Sears

Long before Amazon or eBay, in the pre-internet era, there was Sears. The 125- year old company used to be the greatest innovator in the retail business: Sears was the first to start selling goods through mail marketing, first to make consumer credit widely available, and was a co-creator of the very first consumer online service.
This all started to change when in 1990, Walmart (with its fast service and low prices), had replaced Sears as the world’s largest retailer.

Then, 1994 became the year eCommerce was born: Amazon started its victory march to replace both Sears and Walmart, as well as dozens of other retailers. Soon, Sears found itself in the same position as the other stores it used to drive out of business back in the 1890s. Sears, once a leader in its niche, has recently filed for bankruptcy.

Walmart, in its turn, not only survived the Amazon competition but became its major rival — all thanks to its commitment to innovations. The retailer invested heavily in technology to improve its customer experience: Pickup Tower to facilitate a faster pick-up experience, Scan and Go service to speed up checkout lines, and ordering kiosks for deli orders, to name a few. Needless to say that Walmart’s digital strategy paid off well. Today the competition between Amazon and Walmart is fierce: the retail giants are in a constant “arms race”, trying to win over the market with innovations. Although it is too early to say who will win this battle, it is already clear that all other old-schools retailers, that haven’t adapted to the digital age, have already lost.

Sadly, the case of the retail industry isn’t a one-off incident: there are dozens of companies across other industries that failed to keep up with the market demand and were disrupted by tech-savvy competitors.
With all the innovative technologies and emerging business models, digital transformation has become a matter of survival. It is the only way to compete in today’s fast-paced market, even for the established market leaders. If you ignore the market demand and resist change, you’ll be at risk of being left behind once a new, tech-enabled market entrant joins the race.

So, if you are looking to future-proof your business, this eBook can serve as a good starting point on your digital transformation journey and help you lay a solid foundation for its success.

What does “digital transformation” mean and why does it matter?

Digital transformation means adapting the existing business processes (or creating completely new ones) with the help of technology to meet the evolving market requirements. While digital transformation typically includes cloud migration and the modernization of legacy systems, the process itself is far more complex.
To transform your business, you need to rethink everything you do, both internally and externally, focusing on your clients and their experience.
A modern, digital business is, first of all, a customer-centric business. However, the most important benefit of a digital transformation is financial, and here’s why.

What are the major opportunities that lie within digital transformation?

Digital transformation allows you to address the two core needs of every business —the need to increase revenue and the need to reduce costs.

How can digital transformation help you grow your revenue?

• Creating new, digital revenue channels.
• Shortening time to market for new products thanks to the agile approach.
• Catering to a broader audience, both demographically and geographically.
• Creating better customer experience thanks to faster order processing, efficient customer support.

How can digital transformation help you reduce operating costs?

• Reducing maintenance expenses (cloud vs on-premises infrastructure).
• Improving employee productivity and mobility.
• Automating routine processes.

Now, to put it into perspective, let’s see how your organization can benefit from the use of technologies (and consider some real-life examples too).

7 Ways Digital Transformation Can Fuel Your Business

1. Cloud Migration and Modernization

Building a future-ready business upon decade-old technologies is difficult, if not impossible. By moving your infrastructure to the cloud, you simplify its maintenance and facilitate its growth.

• Reduced maintenance cost and effort
• Unlimited infrastructure scalability
• Improved safety and reliability
• A shortened time to market due to easy deployment

Case in point: One of our clients, a leading foodservice data provider wasn’t able to utilize new revenue channels because of the outdated on-premise infrastructure that didn’t allow for remote access to most of the data.

Challenge: The on-premise infrastructure lacked the ability to support instant access to the data remotely, limiting providers’ options for monetization.

Solution: A modern, cloud-based infrastructure brought up new opportunities for monetization, such as a subscription-based model and ‘pay as you go’ service, providing access to new, digital revenue channels.

2. Employee Mobility

Allowing your staff to access and report the required information at any time, anywhere, can be a substantial contribution to their productivity (and, as a result, to your business efficiency).

• Higher staff efficiency
• Real-time collaboration
• Instant access to business applications and data

Case in point: Ryanair, a leading European low-cost carrier, was looking to improve their operational performance and introduce a more convenient and easy way for the crew to access the required information in-flight.

Challenge: One of the main challenges was that there was no convenient and efficient way to deliver up-to-date information to the crew instantly, e.g. real-time aircraft performance calculations and navigational charts. Outdated paper manuals traditionally used by the pilots were too heavy and difficult to use.

Solution: Ryanair provided their 3,500 pilots with electronic flight bags, switching from paper flight manuals to lightweight iPads with pre-uploaded flight manuals and direct access to real-time flight information. This led to a lower fuel burn thanks to more accurate flight calculations and a reduction of weight on board. It also contributed positively to flight safety by reducing the risk of human error.

3. Process Automation

Routine tasks are extremely time-consuming and, as a result, wasteful. By using the right technologies, you allow your staff to focus on what matters most – your customers – and save your resources.

• Fast and effortless execution of time-consuming routine tasks.
• Improved staff productivity.
• Reduced risk of human error

Case in point: One of the leading US financial service providers, JPMorgan Chase, was looking to streamline some of their internal tasks, including the review of commercial credit agreements.

Challenge: The traditional process was extremely labour-intensive: it took the organization’s legal staff approximately 360,000 hours to review all of the 12,000 annual commercial credit agreements. Plus, any manual process typically assumes the risk of human error, which can lead to additional expenses.

Solution: To solve this problem, JPMorgan Chase introduced the Contract Intelligence (COiN) platform. The software, which is based on a machine-learning algorithm, allowed the company to process the same amount of documents in seconds and eliminate the risk of human error

4. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Similar to automation, AI and machine learning can be a great way to save your budget and resources. Some of the areas of application for these technologies include customer service, security, process optimization, customer experience personalization, etc.

• Routine tasks optimization.
• Improved, personalized customer experience.
• Reliable, always-on service

Case in point: A major US banking provider, Bank of America, decided to pursue the digitization path, focusing on the customer experience. Above all, the company needed a convenient way to offer mobile banking services and personal financial advice on demand.

Challenge: The company was looking to add more value to its mobile banking service offering to further improve its customer experience. Plus, they needed a reliable tool to serve their customers’ needs 24/7.

Solution: To cater to this need, the company created Erica — a virtual financial assistant accessible via the Bank of America app. By using predictive analytics and cognitive messaging, this chatbot can provide 24/7 financial guidance to its users and make personalized suggestions based on their income and spending habits. The initiative had a great response: in just 3 months after its launch, more than 1 million customers have used the chatbot

5. Big Data and Predictive Analytics

By drawing valuable insights from the data they accumulate, organizations can find and address operational bottlenecks as well as better target their service/product offerings to meet the customers’ needs.

• Real-time insights on your business performance.
• Optimized operational efficiency.
• Improved product/service targeting, based on the customers’ needs

Case in point: The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) was looking to optimize its operational efficiency by reducing its operating room delays.

Challenge: Operating room delays can be frustrating for both clinicians and patients, and as a result, have a negative impact on the customer experience as well as employee efficiency. Plus, they are extremely wasteful as operating rooms are expensive to run. However, there is a certain procedure the staff needs to follow after surgery ends and before the next one can start. As a result, such delays are hard to prevent or even predict.

Solution: The UCMC employed real-time data analytics and a complex algorithm to streamline internal workflows and orchestrate the operating room transition from one surgical team to the other. As a result of this move, the organization was able to reduce the operating room turnover by 15-20% (up to 4 minutes per room) which, in turn, resulted in an additional $600,000 cost savings.

6. The Internet of Things

Along with mobile solutions, IoT technologies facilitate employee productivity across a number of business aspects, including warehouse management, logistics, etc. Customer-facing IoT solutions can help you improve your CX and open new data sources.

• Enhanced employee mobility and, as a result, productivity.
• Better customer experience.
• Additional source of valuable business data

Case in point: A hotel chain with over 5,000 locations worldwide, Hilton, was looking to improve their customer experience by empowering their guests to take full control over their stay.

Challenge: Facing severe competition from tech startups, including Airbnb, Hilton had to shift the company’s focus to provide a better, more up-to-date, personalized customer experience.

Solution: As a result, the company introduced the Connected Room concept. The room is equipped with smart devices, which allow you to control the lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning using the company’s Hilton Honors app. The same app works as a digital room key and provides access to personalized entertainment content. In addition to the improved customer experience, the solution helped the company gain an additional source of valuable user data and further personalize its services, based on user preferences.

7. Augmented/Virtual Reality

AR/VR technologies provide an opportunity to build meaningful connections with users and add more value to products/services, e.g. offering a more convenient or entertaining way to interact with it.

• Added value for your product/service.
• An improved user experience.
• The ability to reach a broader audience

Case in point: A large Swedish home retailer IKEA was among the first to integrate AR capabilities into their mobile app.

Challenge: The company wanted to make mobile shopping even more convenient and reach a broader audience so that those people who can’t come to the physical store can still buy from IKEA. The problem was that making a purchase decision based solely on the product description is a significant deal breaker.

Solution: to solve this problem, IKEA introduced AR capabilities within their mobile app. This allowed their users to “try on” the furniture to see how it looks in their interior prior to making a purchase. As a result, IKEA managed to keep its market share and stay competitive in the age of Amazon and eBay.

How do you know if your business needs a transformation?

The cases described above serve as a great example on how technologies can set a business apart. So, in case you still have any doubts as for the importance of digital transformation for your business, ask the following questions:

• Do you still rely on manual data input and processing for logistics and inventory management?
• Is your on-premises server infrastructure maintenance the major expense item on your IT budget (and does it keep growing)?
• Do your in-store sales continue to decrease because of the outdated customer experience?
• Do your customers leave because you fail to deliver upon their expectations?
• Does it take days to process a single customer support request?
• Are you struggling to expand your service/ product offerings and scale your business?
• Do you need to maintain multiple, disparate internal tools because you can’t merge them into one system?
• Do you feel a growing pressure from your competitors, but can’t keep up?
• Do you keep piling up user data, but lack a comprehensive strategy on how to drive any benefit from it?

If your answer to any of these questions is “yes” — digital transformation is the right choice for you.If your answer to any of these questions is “yes” — digital transformation is the right choice for you.

Start your digital transformation journey today

Despite all of the benefits, mentioned above, digital transformation shouldn’t be taken lightly. It is an ongoing process that takes time, resources, and the dedicated effort of a professional team.
So, if you lack the expertise in-house, consider hiring a professional. Our team at Eastern Peak can offer professional consulting to help you get your digital transformation off the ground and lay a solid foundation for its success.

Book a free project discovery workshop with our digital transformation experts to:

• Discuss your business challenges and pain points.
• Learn how technology can help you overcome your challenges.
• Develop a detailed roadmap for your digital transformation.

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