Lindsay Tjepkema is CEO and cofounder at Casted, the world’s first podcast and video marketing platform made for B2B marketers.
We’re all familiar with the phrase “digital transformation” at this point. But familiarity doesn’t equate to application.
You might be aware of the need to keep up with changing digital norms. But what are you doing to help your business survive and thrive in the digital age?
If your digital transformation has lost some of its momentum, here are a few high-level areas I recommend considering to reignite your ability to stay at the bleeding edge of your industry.
Amplify Your Marketing
Marketing in the digital age has always been complicated. The fractionalization of digital marketing channels has created a myriad of different ways marketers can reach their target audience.
Social media marketing is personable and community-oriented. Email marketing is direct and personalized. Search engine marketing matches benefits with customer pain points with increasing precision. All of these marketing methods are still great ways to reach your target audience. But I’ve found that the way that we’re using digital marketing methods is evolving.
Plain, old content marketing doesn’t work anymore. You can’t stick a few keywords and backlinks in a piece and expect it to perform. You have to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Enter: amplified marketing.
For an amplified marketing approach, it’s essential to craft content that resonates with your audience’s pain points and aspirations. Then, infuse the content with expert interviews, conversations and similar elite input. As you work with SMEs (subject matter experts) to inform your content, you amplify their voices across your marketing channels, associating yourself with their expertise and enhancing your credibility in the process. By addressing audience concerns and offering valuable solutions, you create a lasting impact and foster a genuine connection.
To determine whether amplified marketing is the right path for your business, consider factors such as industry dynamics, available resources, target audience preferences and brand identity. If embracing amplified marketing complements your overall marketing objectives and long-term strategic vision, it can drive your business forward in the digital age.
Consider Creating A Podcast To Market Your Brand
Let’s narrow our focus for a minute and talk about one hyper-relevant form of marketing: podcasts. Mass adoption has put podcasting in the spotlight—and more and more businesses are adopting the new marketing medium. Fractional CMO Neal Schaffer contrasts podcasting with old-fashioned radio broadcasts. While he spins this as a change, though, I find it’s more of a “return to what works” than anything else.
We’ve shifted our focus to things like personalization and individualism in marketing. This has fractured traditional channels and led to a smorgasbord of niche communication channels—all of which require a growing amount of resources to utilize. The bulk appeal of broadcasting a message in a purely audio format remains an efficient and, once again, relevant way of getting news out about a brand.
You don’t need to get the attention of a major radio station or the Home Shopping Network to get your message in front of the folks you want to hear it. You can create a business podcast that caters to the specific needs of your target audience. This brings mass consumption and personalization together into a single, show-driven audio experience. Creating podcasts has never been easier either, with many tools available depending on your needs and budget.
Don’t Stop Learning—Ever
Podcasts are one of the top marketing channels at the moment. Amplified marketing is building on traditional content marketing right now. But the truth is, all of these cutting-edge trends could be old news in a matter of years—some in a matter of months. This makes maintaining a learning posture an essential element of sustainable growth.
Back in the early days of full-throttle digital transformation, everyone talked about having a “growth mindset.” Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, coined the term. In 2016, she wrote a follow-up paper for Harvard Business Review clarifying the misuse of the phrase, debunking the buzzy misinterpretation of what it looks like to have a perpetual interest in learning and growing.
She pointed out that a growth mindset isn’t inherent (i.e., you don’t have it “naturally”), and it also isn’t linked to praising or rewarding effort. Nor can you simply adopt it, and it will magically help you adapt to change. She stated that everyone has inherent “fixed mindset” triggers that hold them back from true growth, adding that this even affects the upper echelons of business.
If you want to maintain growth, don’t just generically adopt a growth mindset. Identify your fixed mindset triggers and learn to resist them when they creep into the picture. Seek out challenges, embrace failures as learning opportunities and pursue feedback to consistently refine your strategies.
By cultivating this profound approach to learning and growth, you not only fortify your resilience in the face of change but also pave the way for successful digital transformation. By fostering adaptability, encouraging innovation and nurturing a willingness to explore and integrate new strategies and technologies, you can stay ahead of change.
Growing In A Digital Age
There are plenty of ways to put your brand on a path toward growth in the digital age. From amplifying your marketing to building a killer podcast for your brand to learning to both resist and work with your fixed mindset tendencies, invest in the areas that matter. That way, you can unleash the true potential of your brand, even in a market that is changing at the speed of light.
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