Brands must respond faster to changes

BRANDS NEED TO BE MORE CREATIVE AND MUST RESPOND FASTER TO CHANGES. THIS IS ACCORDING TO A 2021 SURVEY CONDUCTED BY OPINIUM AND COMMISSIONED BY SHAPED BY THAT SHOWS THAT COVID-19 HAS BROUGHT A RENEWED FOCUS ON CREATIVITY AND BRAVERY AMONGST SENIOR TECH MARKETERS IN THE US AND UK.

the research states that design and creativity has become the top priority for nearly two-thirds of US and UK marketers. More than 60% of the 200 respondents identified design and creativity as a key priority for their marketing efforts, and 75% say that the pandemic has already enabled them to become more imaginative in their work.

This inspiration has translated to a greater willingness to try something new — a phenomenal 98% said they have begun experimenting with and expanding the capability of their marketing channel activities.

As a result, nearly 60% of senior tech marketers have seen an increase in customer engagement with fresh content and messaging, while 55% saw an uptick in the ability to acquire new leads.

There’s been a dramatic shift in the way modern businesses interact and engage with customers. Digital technologies have levelled the marketing playing field. Digital customer experience management is the key differentiator shaping the market.

Technologies like Optimizely can help companies get new messages and products to market with speed, and it also enables brands to adapt to rapidly changing customer demands. It gives autonomy to marketing where they can make direct changes to the live website, reducing campaign cycles from months to minutes.

CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CREATIVITY

These solutions ensure content creation is simplified using streamlined interfaces for each scenario. Full page layouts as well as simple blocks of text can be presented for editing. It also allows for more on-brand content to be created as content creators get options that are consistent with a brand image, style and message.

Ultimately, it provides more power and creativity for marketers. Various drag-anddrop methods and the ability to preview content in different environments make content creation accessible to marketers, and anyone who prefers working with visual assets.

In today’s omnichannel marketing landscape, campaign management is indispensable for marketers when reaching out to customers and prospects through different channels and with different content. With respect to campaign management, Digital Agility starts with very basic messaging, then moves to marketing automation campaigns. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

It ends with campaigns that automatically address the right person with the right message at the right time – using AI- based technology and predictive means for the entire customer lifecycle. SPEED Optimizely offers improved quality control, allowing marketing leaders to easily configure roles, permissions and publishing approval workflows to ensure only the best experiences are delivered to customers. They can now organise group product content and promotional changes into one project, preview before publishing, and schedule to go-live all with the click of a button. More importantly, they can publish live landing pages, target promotions, and launch new products all from the same simple interface, with full control over every aspect of the user experience, and without the need for IT support. More than 65% of customers make buying decisions based on the customer experience (CX). Failing them once could mean losing the customer and not having another opportunity to win them back. Customer experience management (CXM) is the continuous process of optimising every interaction between a brand and the customer. It largely depends on utilising the latest marketing strategies and digital technologies to create personalised experiences. USING THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGIES To bring everything together and deploy changes quickly, marketers must choose the best technologies to support the process. The solution must provide intelligent analytics, customer data, experimentation features and streamlined content delivery. This is the best way for marketers to realise their strategy and continue to optimise customer expectations. The choice of technology should enable marketers to work collaboratively while engaging with customers and extracting valuable insights simultaneously. For them to maximise their investment in CXM , they need to choose a platform that provides them with all the tools they need to unlock your digital potential and increase customer loyalty.

“design and creativity are top priorities for marketers

REINVENT HOW MARKETERS WORK

Marketing workflows for delivering relevant content and personalised customers experiences have become more complicated. Most marketers spend most of their time attending to stakeholder feedback and trying to navigate through fragmented marketing tools and other bulky workflow processes.

With the drastic increase of digital channels, marketers require a more efficient way to keep up with the ever-changing needs of their digital customers. It’s challenging for marketers to keep up on the status of campaigns, how to best iterate and collaborate on content, and how to track performance.

Speed and creativity has never been more important for marketers and so they need to explore new ways to promote products and services. Creativity will ensure their marketing efforts stand out from their competitors and might capture the attention of their ideal customer. This, in turn, will help the business increase sales and profits.

BY NICK DURRANT, BLUEGRASS DIGITAL CEO

INtheKNOW

OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA’S YOUTH IN THE GREAT RESIGNATION

YOU CAN HARDLY OPEN A MAGAZINE, A NEWSPAPER OR A WEB PAGE RIGHT NOW WITHOUT A HEADLINE LEAPING OUT AT YOU ABOUT THE GREAT RESIGNATION. IT’S LIKE A MASS STAMPEDE OF PEOPLE LEAVING THEIR JOBS, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

the experts say people ‘are rethinking their relationship with work’, or looking to work remotely, or simply looking for something better.

LEE NAIK

TRANSUNION AFRICA CEO

How big is the Great Resignation? The Boston Consulting Group estimates up to 75% of digital workers are looking to change their jobs in the next couple of years. Some are looking for new opportunities abroad. Others want to become ‘digital nomads’. Bottom line: there are lots of jobs out there looking for people to fill them. I just see one thing: Opportunity. With a Capital O. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the Great Resignation is an opportunity for Africa like few before it. And here’s why. According to the UN’s World Population Prospects, sub-Saharan Africa’s workingage population is growing faster than other age groups. Way faster. In fact, the average age of an African in 2020 was 18.7 years. How old do you think the average European is right now? Get this: 42.5 years old. The average age in the world right now is 30.9 years of age.

By 2100, the average age in Africa will be just over 34. Slap bang in the middle of the ideal working-age population. So while the rest of the world is getting older, Africa is young and ready to work. The UN calls this opportunity for accelerated economic growth the ‘demographic dividend’. I call it time for the continent to rock and roll. I could argue that the data says we could rule the world by 2100 – and the Great Resignation can help us to fast-track this process, and rethink our future position. But we have to catch it now.

A fundamental truth that many people miss in the broader discussion around the Great Resignation, digital nomadism and untethered workers is this: Jobs that can be done remotely can also be done offshore. The significance of a nomadic workforce isn’t middle-class workers moving to Estonia or Hawaii for a year. It’s a sign of a broader global redistribution of work following the pandemic. The Boston Consulting Group says creating an ecosystem of contractors, gig workers, and agencies is an additional valuable tool for sourcing talent in a highly competitive market. Its report suggests that 80% of African digital talent would be willing to work for a remote employer. I’d suggest that number could be even higher.

The question is: are we as African businesses leveraging outsourcing as much as we can? Last year, the company I have the privilege of working for, TransUnion, launched a Global Capability Centre (GCC) in South Africa to service clients around the world. What’s different about this GCC is that it’s 100% virtual. Every single employee works from home – but the experience that the company’s clients get is no different to what they would have got from a conventional contact centre... and their service portfolio is significant and growing!

UP TO 75% OF DIGITAL WORKERS ARE LOOKING TO CHANGE JOBS WITHIN TWO TO THREE YEARS

THE 2019 REVISION OF WORLD POPULATION PROSPECTS IS THE TWENTY-SIXTH ROUND OF OFFICIAL UNITED NATIONS POPULATION ESTIMATES AND PROJECTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN PREPARED BY THE POPULATION DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT

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In South Africa, government sees BPO as a priority sector to help grow the economy and alleviate the country’s unemployment crisis. The sector has a target of creating 100,000 additional jobs by 2023 and 500,000 by 2030.

And that’s just in one country, and one sector. Imagine if we could position Africa as the skills hub of the world, providing a series of increasingly valuable services to companies across the globe, and creating jobs for millions of young Africans in the process. So how do we, as African businesses, organise better to be alive to this opportunity? We should be asking ourselves:

Four years ago, The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017, released by the World Economic Forum, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank Group, kicked off with these words: “Looking ahead, the continent’s young and increasing population presents an unprecedented opportunity to spur rapid development … a growing labour force and a large and emerging consumer market hold the promise of significant growth opportunities.” We’ve got the people. We own the future. The Great Resignation has given us the chance to accelerate this. We, as African leaders and business people, must move fast to grab the opportunity. It may not come by again soon.

BY LEE NAIK, TRANSUNION AFRICA CEO

ARE WE MAKING THE TOUGH CHOICES to make our businesses more resilient? Are we leveraging the gig economy and other specialist third parties to deliver services? Are we exploiting our business limitations by partnering in the sharing economy? ARE WE SEEKING OUT NEW REVENUE STREAMS linked to the fast-tracked demographic dividend we talked about earlier, and finding ways to bring the demographic window forward? WHAT KIND OF LEADERSHIP IS NEEDED in this new world? How does it change the way we run our businesses? HOW DO WE EVOLVE THE EMPLOYEE value proposition to attract and retain hot young talent? And figure-proof our revenues in the process?

“Africa could rule the world by 2100

Lee Naik, CEO