If I was addressing a meeting of 100 business owners and asked them to put up their hand if they were a tech company, then probably 6 to 10 hands would show. Well, guess what? No matter what your business is, if you are not a technology company then you will not be here in 10 years’ time. Companies who are not fully digital and using all the technological applications for business, will simply die. There is a start-up coming this year that will be your biggest competition in five years.
The top three things that a business should do, to be more high-tech are:
- Use Cloud technology
- Make full use of mobile technology
- Incorporate Artificial Intelligence into the business
This applies more than ever to marketing. Using social media to raise your profile is essential because that is where your customers gather now. Are they more likely to be on Instagram, Pinterest or LinkedIn? Of course, they are all on Facebook. The discussion used to be about whether your company is a B to B (business to business) or a B to C (business to consumer) marketer. Now, on social media it is simply B to P which is Business to People. Your future customers are there, interacting with all the other people on social media.
Having found these potential customers, you will need to bring them to your website which means giving them interesting content to view. Good advice, new ideas and videos are essential. Using Artificial Intelligence software to talk with them to discover their needs, is what is happening now. Forming a relationship and acquiring their email addresses is essential. Your aim is to be able to communicate with them regularly through the Internet, to create a loyal customer who will be happy to recommend your business to their friends.
This whole process requires a set of knowledge and experience that can only be provided to you through specialist companies. Finding that company is discussed in our next post.