The Digital Marketing Revolution
Between the buzz of social networking sites, the rise of the blogosphere, and the
continued drive of online advertising, digital media and marketing through digital
means has moved to a prominent concern and opportunity for most mainstream businesses.
The effects of which can be seen in a continued shift of the top spenders on advertising
away from traditional media.
Spending follows a shift in customer activity to online, mobile devices, game consoles,
and other areas not easily reached by traditional advertising. Digital media and
marketing allow advertisers to observe and reach the ever-elusive customers yet
also drive greater accountability and return on their marketing investments. This
shift in technology adoption, led by the Web and mobile devices has started to shift
not only how consumers interact with businesses but with each other.
User-generated content, social applications, mash-ups—things once simply labeled
as "Web 2.0"—represent a Web incarnation of an overall shift in expectations many
consumers have around technology and the expectations they have for interactions
with businesses, brands and products; a shift towards collaboration in creating
personal, interactive and social experiences.
Though advertising garners the most attention with respect to digital marketing,
it is only one aspect of the overall marketing relationship, a relationship increasingly
driven by interactions through software. Businesses must consider not only how they
attract customers but how they engage and excite them as well.
This trend is not limited to the Web. From mobile phones to interactive TV to in-store
experiences, customers increasingly expect these relevant, interactive and social
experiences to be consistent across all of their devices, all aspects of their lives.
Businesses cannot support these types of experiences through a series of isolated
Web sites, mobile applications, etc. Connections must be made from back-end systems
out to a myriad of end-points using a combination of software plus services. At
the same time, many businesses are busy building ad platforms to better track and
control advertising investments. Piece by piece, most companies are building marketing
platforms, often unknowingly.
Read on to learn how Microsoft offers a unique ability to not only help provide
the technology to support marketing platforms—from back end business systems all
the way to advertising solutions— but the experience to help bridge the two worlds
of marketing and information technology.
Microsoft offers a unique ability to not only help provide the technology to support
marketing platforms—from back end business systems all the way to advertising solutions—
but the experience to help bridge the two worlds of marketing and information technology.
Today, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help businesses:
Build adaptive web sites:
From easily adding functionality through many of our Windows Live products (Virtual Earth,
Instant Messenger,
etc.) to building Web sites that you can easily upgrade and maintain (using Visual Studio,
Silverlight,
Internet Information
Services (IIS), etc.) to Web sites that can adapt to your customers (connecting
CRM with Dynamics,
BizTalk,
and SQL Server)
Microsoft has a suite of options that can help you remain agile in adapting to changing
business conditions
Engage Online Communities:
Microsoft can help you reach existing communities through advertising and sponsorships
on Live Spaces,
MSN and
on Facebook, Digg, and Xbox Live.
Microsoft can help you build communities using SharePoint
or Commerce Server
for public or private communities that you can control or Microsoft partners can
host for you. And using our technologies, Microsoft partners can help you measure
your impact on your communities and often other communities.
Create more consistent, relevant experiences across channels and touch points:
From interactive Web experiences to experiences on the go (call centers, Auto, mobile
apps) to the living room experience (Xbox
Live, Media Center,
Live Mesh)
to Work and the Store experience (Point of Sale,
Kiosks,
etc.) Microsoft can help businesses use software to create better, consistent experiences
across multiple devices and locations. Additionally, through its Avenue A/Razorfish
acquisition, Microsoft can help with strategic planning, creative development, and
asset management and user experience design.
Business Intelligence and Analytics:
Microsoft can help marketing departments and businesses overall make sense of the
mountain of data they deal with on a daily basis. With dashboards (Microsoft Office
SharePoint Server, etc.), Microsoft can link not only advertising data but
business data into real-time dashboards to help determine return on investment and
to help take immediate action. Through Atlas and adCenter tools, advertisers can
quickly determine the effectiveness of advertising online and off.
Reach the right audience with the right ROI:
With Microsoft Advertising,
Rapt and AdCenter,
Microsoft can help you maximize the efficiency of your ad spend, Microsoft can help
you reach the right audience on our network and off it and Microsoft can do more
complex ad campaigns through programs such as BEET and Xbox Live.
Beyond finding new customers, using CRM (Dynamics,
etc.) and other business information Microsoft can help you reach the customers
and partners you already know with the right products and information.
