David Jenkins, Director of Mickey Llew, features on the Modern Marketing Digital TrendCamp, speaking about communication and content across the digital marketing landscape, and how to correctly leverage various digital assets to drive return on investments.

South Africans now use the internet more than ever before. Customers engaging with businesses online do so with purpose. People are not just aimlessly floating around on social media, they’re doing research about products and service providers before making any purchases. A companies ability to be present on the various digital channels in the way they need to have major benefits for marketers and the companies bottom line.

The process starts with understanding the landscape which includes platforms such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to name a few and understanding how a consumer is most likely to engage them. People, generally, will go to Google to search for an Office Chair for their new home office or find PC equipment or look for a plumber or contractor nearby. Consumers don’t go to social platforms to make purchase decisions and find suppliers but they certainly will reach out to a support team through Facebook’s messenger where the traditional email or phone call wasn’t working for them. Your ability to be present in Google and FaceBook for both those eventualities make a big difference to a consumer and your bottom line but they do serve different objectives and needs. The point is the general idea that of investing in Social Media for acquisition and relying on your website to handle customer support is just not going to cut it anymore. You need to be aligned to the consumers intent.

Your marketing and communication strategy has to be specific, consumer-centric and cater for the platforms you utilize.