Why add digital to the marketing mix
For 30 years, Madison Design has applied design thinking principles to engage audiences and connect them with brands. We’ve found that every customer experience either helps, hurts or stagnates a given brand. Digital tools and a data-driven content strategy help brands better understand their audience and refine that experience.
To help customers engage in a meaningful way, companies must adopt an end-to-end approach to the brand experience. Traditional formats should be supplemented by interactive tools; user experience principles should be the new design norm; and content marketing must drive the bus.
This blended approach is the key to maximizing attention for brands in today’s market.
Digital capabilities your brand could use
CONTENT STRATEGY uses data up front to guide content choices. Applying research to brand strategy can involve content planning, topic and keyword research, content gap analysis, brand personas, KPI alignment, and defining the customer journey. The more brands come to know the customer’s mindset, the better they can plot relevant touchpoints in an editorial calendar. With the help of data analytics, brands can:
58% of B2C marketers don’t have a documented content marketing strategy 3
DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGN (UX/UI) is a natural extension of empathic design (something we consider a bit of a Madison superpower). The heart of user centered design is research and data – prototyping, wire framing, heat mapping, usability testing and remediation. Of course, numbers alone aren’t enough. By adding insight to data collection, brands are able to truly understand their audience and create a quantifiable solution that:
Every $1 invested in UX results in an estimated return of $100 2
INTERACTIVE CONTENT naturally encourages users to engage – in fact, it produces twice as much engagement as static content. Websites, apps, calculators, quizzes, games, infographics, whitepapers, videos, online events and estimators can all help solve a business need while helping customers interact with a brand. By combining traditional content elements with interactive tools, brands can:
73% of marketers agree that interactivity helps message retention 1
Building a digital branding strategy
Madison Design has a 30-year history of recognizing customer motivations and decision-making. Thanks to this experience, our shift to adding digital capabilities has been more of a logical step than a leap, and we’ve used a blended brand experience at every step.
We start by leveraging insights from data to identify nuances in customer understanding. We also have content strategists, UX/UI designers, a deep creative team and on-site developers working hand-in-hand to create holistic brand experiences. And finally, we apply empathy and curiosity to building long-lasting client relationships.
When building your digital brand strategy, it helps to remember that data is simply another avenue for giving customers a great experience. But when blending the art and science of branding, it is an indispensable one.
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1 Interactive Content Fuels Customer Experiences, Content Marketing Institute
2 The Six Steps For Justifying Better UX; Forrester.com
3 B2C Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Insights for 2021