Digital Transformation in Marketing: CRM is blazing a trail

We emphasised the Internet of Things (IoT) as a driving force of digital transformation in marketing in the previous article of our digital transformation (DT) series. But while IoT projects are undoubtedly important, digital customer relationship management (CRM) may have even more strategic relevance. Customer relationships are increasingly managed digitally as of course are the data streams that result from a functioning CRM program.

The main goal of CRM systems is to integrate and automate sales, marketing, and customer support. The development and operation of a CRM system is therefore a strategic consideration to elevate the sales and marketing activities of a company to a higher level. When all activities are recorded and made traceable, all customer data relationally linked, conversions made measurable and ultimately everything analysed with the associated Business Intelligence, CRM provides us with a perfect example of DT.

CRM and multichannel as heralds of digital transformation

User journeys and user experiences can be viewed holistically, aggregated and collaboratively refined using the appropriate digital tools. Around this revolves the whole world of multichannel and touchpoint management. If CRM is the concept, multichannel is the implementation of that concept. The CRM data is obtained mainly by equipping the channels with appealing content, engaging customers and target groups and triggering high response rates. CRM and multichannel have evolved into a science in their own right, due to their digital sophistication and the growing number of digital tools available, but they are nevertheless excellent examples of digital transformation.

Perhaps you remember the “lumind” device for people living with diabetes we mentioned in our last article, which reminds patients to regularly check their blood glucose levels: From a CRM perspective, this device is a new touchpoint, which not only enables the collection of data (because it works on the patient’s actual blood glucose data), but also facilitates direct communication with the patient. Thinking ahead: instead of just serving as an illuminating reminder, perhaps in the future it will also have a loudspeaker and microphone – thereby enabling direct dialogue.

This is article 3 of our “Digital Transformation in Marketing” series. The other five articles of the series cover the following topics: Digital Transformation, Internet-of-Things, Marketing Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.

Our author Thilo Kölzer is a member of the board and responsible for Digital & Mobile, Performance Marketing and the Internet-of-Things at antwerpes ag.

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