Optimized Digital Experience- But For Whom?

As it happens, that is the question to ask these days. The Internet has always provided new ways to connect with the audience. Only, in all the time that marketing has used this weapon, the concentration has shifted from the consumers to the channels.

Today, around a marketing team's meeting table, you'll hear terms like target audience, email marketing, paid media, ad programs, and other close ones. It has become a huge deal to count how many people clicked on a marketing e-mail, or viewed and liked and shared and commented on paid ads or a promotional video.

And don't get me wrong, these means have taken advertising and promotion and marketing to high hills. But along the journey, we have lost the sense of importance that aspects like lifetime retention of a client or an enhanced consumer experience used to carry.

People Based Marketing- Why?

We've all had such an infuriating and disappointing experience. The reason behind is simple- machines can't strike a connection. They can't understand your woes. They don't work fast because you have an emergency. And it doesn't matter if the world is coming to an end, you have to press 1 for English, 2 for Hindi, 3 for drowning yourself in your annoyance- you get the idea.

To a consumer, consistency in service and a quickly and efficiently solved problem matters more than the platform or device or browser that serves as the medium.

Personalization Just Isn't Cracking the Deal

Because it expects people to tether their activities to one browser, device or medium. A personalized experience works on predictions. What you did in an application on your phone a week, a day or an hour ago makes up for the whole 'suggestions' tab, and it just isn't enough.

You, or I can't limit our shopping or browsing to one means. Or at least, we should not be expected to do so. In a multi-device and a multi-channel situation, personalization not only falls through the roof, but it also becomes more troubling than advantageous.

Marketing Has to Expand Its Reach, But Not at the Expense of Consumers

Opting for people-based marketing doesn't mean waving a teary goodbye to the power of multi-channel personalization. It means welcoming the added aspect of communicating with consumers without a screen in between to blot out the advantages of engagement.

As a consumer, your expectation is a good experience that ends in you getting what you want. As a business, you need to remember this. Channels are secondary where consumers are concerned.

People- centric approaches will land you believers and believers are way more significant than numbers.