Screen Industries And The Importance Of Customer Experiences
This blog exploring customer experiences was written by Joe Stubbs, an MSc Digital Marketing Management student at Staffordshire University, working with Platform as a part of his work placement project.
It could be argued that the screen industries are one of a few global industries at the forefront of digital marketing. The symbiotic relationship between the screen industries and marketers creates a trickle-down effect for technological trends.
As industries transition into the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) businesses should be looking beyond traditional mobile tech and focusing more on the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).
This use of new data-driven technology delivers differentiated and valuable customer experiences (CX). One of the biggest issues currently facing businesses is optimising CX. The only way to do this is to increase your data gathering and analytic capabilities. Whether it’s the deployment of a customer relationship management (CRM) system or sending a survey to clients and analysing the results. Having a better understanding of your customers will lead to the creation of optimised content which will lead to valuable experiences.
Optimise your content with big data.
According to Adobe’s Running on Experience report: “Companies that successfully transform into an experience business will grow and thrive. Those that don’t will struggle to catch up.”
Most businesses should consider the following experience-based opportunities:
- Create compelling content for digital experiences.
- Data-driven marketing focusing on individuals.
- Using video/AR/VR content to increase engagement.
- Multi-channel marketing.
- Social marketing.
- Using marketing automation/artificial intelligence/bots to increase efficiency and drive campaigns.
- Understanding the behaviour of mobile users as well as reaching and optimising your website for them.
Most of these opportunities are content-driven experiences. The Running on Experience report states that “70 percent” of media and entertainment (M&E) companies rank content marketing and connected experiences as “very important” in building customer experience capabilities.
In the report, Jeff Gross, VP of Technology delivery at Epsilon says that “media and entertainment industries need to deliver relevant content wherever their customers are and ensure it’s a seamless experience… These companies need to deliver the right content to the right person at exactly the right time—regardless of what screen they use.”
So, for most businesses this means making the most of the user data at hand. Assuming you’ve connected your site to a Google Analytics account you can easily find:
- What time users are visiting your site?
- What device/browser/operating system are they using?
- Where are these users coming from Direct/Organic searches, Referrals, or Social Media?
Using these simple habitual metrics you can target users more effectively. Then you can overlay that with demographic data to identify customers and personalise content for them. By considering a range of customer preferences, you can keep content relevant to customers so that they will come back for more.
Be innovative.
My advice to screen industry businesses in Staffordshire is actually a reminder. Remember, your industry is at the forefront of technological change, so making an effective and efficient use of the time that you invest into digital marketing is an investment worth making. Also, utilise your customer data. It will allow you to target them with original and personalised content which will naturally differentiate you from your competitors.
To conclude, consider how Spotify uses machine learning algorithms to create personalised playlists for each user based on what they have previously listened to. You probably don’t have the financial capability of Spotify, but you could easily create a blog/vlog based on the interests of your followers and post it during the time of day they are most active using a social media management tool like Hootsuite.
Be sure to take a look at our previous post Creative Industries Council Visit Platform. Keep an eye on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages for new content.
