How should marketers adapt?

When there is the question "What will future marketing look like?," a clear answer is almost impossible, because the world rotates too fast to predict, but if the question is changed to "How should marketers adapt?," the answer immediately becomes clearer.

Instead of pursuing new digital tools alone, what marketers need to focus on is "tightening the basics" and sharpening traditional skills amid the complexity of the modern world. These are four key skills that you need to have with you to survive in the marketing battleground of the future.

1.Target Persona design (see "people," not just "statistics")

The age of broad-based target identification is no longer just gender, age or habitat, because changing technologies and societies have made humans more complex and fragmented.

The skill of Target Persona in this era is not just to fill in the form, but to "empathize" or understand the customer as a human being, having to delve into:

- Psychographic: Attitudes, beliefs, values

- Interests & Behaviors: True Interests and Living Behaviors

- Problems & Pain Points: The problems he is facing and needs a solution.

This is the basic skill that startups use as a template to build a successful business. If marketers still view customers as just statistics, you may be talking to people who are not.

2. Customer Journey Understanding (Tracing the Formless Path)

We used to be taught the beautiful linear Purchase Funnel (Awareness > Consideration > Purchase), but in reality, today's consumer path is much more "broken and complicated" than that.

Customers do not see the advertisement and walk to buy immediately, but find information, check out reviews, compare prices, ask friends, or go back to search, hover around many times. The key skills of marketers are:

- To visualize this complexity.

- Discern which points are important, which points to devote resources, and which points can be released.

- Caution: Don't confuse Customer Journey (Purchase Decision Path) with Media Consumption Journey (Media Behavior), because these two may not always be the same story.

3.Customer Touchpoint Management (The Art of Choosing Touch Points)

When Customer Journey is complicated, Touchpoint is even more diverse and messy. Today, brands are no longer the sole owner of the media. Customer experiences can be caused by other people's reviews, by community, or by telling.

The challenge is "accuracy" in choosing Touchpoint:

- Stop sowing: Having a lot of Touchpoints doesn't always mean good.

- Stop Copy & Paste: Do not use the exact same communication method on all channels.

- Context is King: Must understand the role of each Touchpoint and design communication to suit the context of the channel to create the most fluid experience.

4. Building Experience Design (Beyond Just Advertising)

Marketing has long been dominated by the word "Advertising," but as advertising becomes less powerful, what it will replace is "Experience."

Marketers must be "Experience Designer" or Experience Designer. Adopt the principles of Service Design:

"Experience is a memory that happens to consumers, and that memory affects future purchase decisions."

Your job is to set the story from seeing content, searching for information, trying out products to after-sales services into a great and impressive memory, because in this day and age, content can attract attention, but experience is what closes sales and builds lasting loyalty.

Future marketing may seem daunting with ever-changing technology, but if we hold on to these four cornerstones - understanding people (Persona), seeing paths (Journey), placing touch points, and creating memorable experiences (Experience), you will always be a marketer ready to deal with change, no matter how digital tools change.

# Marketing # Online Marketing # Lemon 8 Howtoo