Cloud technology is revolutionising business from top to bottom, but interestingly one of the departments that still has considerable ground to make up is marketing.
The technology that many organisations have in place for marketing has now become incredibly complex — a mix of multiple pieces of cloud and on-site infrastructure, with very little integration between systems. This lack of integration is having a significant effect on overall digital fitness — it slows marketers down in their day jobs and makes mapping customer journeys and building buyer profiles extremely challenging. And without the ability to understand customers, organisations will struggle to tailor experiences to customers, limiting customer loyalty and potential revenue growth.
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It’s understandable how businesses have ended up with such complex technology and systems in place. Marketers, who work under immense pressure, don’t always have time to consider the technical implications of their tech buying decisions, and so adopt point solutions that address one specific problem at one particular time — without being able to consider the wider implications and future needs of that technology.
Not only is the technology incredibly complex, a lot of it is also now very dated. Much of the technology that marketing teams have at their disposal today was designed to solve specific IT problems that no longer exist anymore. Most of these problems were caused by the need to involve the IT team in nearly anything that was underpinned by technology, for example spinning up a new landing page for a particular project, or updating content on the website. Involving the IT team at every stage stifled the speed with which organisations could move digitally.
Content management platforms of yesteryear have successfully solved this problem, but modern-day marketing requires so much more — and this legacy burden is holding organisations back from innovating and offering the 21st-century digital experience customers now demand.
Offering a high-class digital experience is now essential to doing business. Digital experiences are on a par with having a great product to sell, a great team of people working together, a strong supply chain and great customer service.
A bad digital experience, on the other hand, can cost you. Competition is too rife and consumers too savvy for them to stick around for something they don’t like.
A digital strategy isn’t enough
So, what are organisations doing with regards to solving these technical issues? Going about a fix to the problem is no simple feat, so like most things, a solution starts with an effective plan. The good news is that most organisations seem to have a digital strategy in place according to the research of 450 digital respondents from organisations in the UK, France, and Germany in Acquia’s Beyond the hype report.
But having a strategy in place isn’t enough — to be truly ‘digitally fit’, have to be able to execute on that strategy. And the key to execution is technology.
How a central, unified cloud platform helps marketers improve digital experiences
Integrated cloud technology has a central role to play in helping organisations become digitally fit. Cloud offers organisations speed and control with marketing essentials like producing and managing content, personalising experiences to different customers, and mapping customer journeys across digital touchpoints like smartphones, tablets, laptops. Cloud helps with pulling information together on customers, centralising it, and making it available to any part of the business throughout the world.
Speaking of global operations, integrated cloud technology is also essential with regards to managing a brand across multiple territories. To ensure a consistent brand feel across all territories while giving branding teams within each region the flexibility to work freely, cloud technology is pivotal.
Capturing opportunities with integrated cloud
In short, a central unifying cloud platform is key for organisations who want to speed up, regain control and enhance the delivery of digital experiences.
Ultimately, cloud technology is essential if you’re to create data-driven journeys and capture new opportunities.