The fusion of marketing & tech | Mark Schaefer | Engati CX

Advancements in tech is changing every industry’s landscape. Find out Mark Schaefer’s thoughts on the fusion of marketing and tech.

Mark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized blogger, speaker, educator, consultant, and author. As Executive Director of U.S.-based Schaefer Marketing Solutions, he specializes in marketing strategy and social media workshops. Mark has advanced degrees in marketing and organizational development and holds seven patents. He is the author of seven best-selling books. He is the co-host of The Marketing Companion, one of the top 10 marketing podcasts on iTunes. Mark is also among the Top 10 most re-tweeted marketing authorities in the world and listed as one of the Top 10 authorities on Social Selling by Forbes. He is among the world’s most recognized social media authorities and has been a keynote speaker.

The fusion of marketing & tech — An interview with Mark Schaefer

The fusion of marketing & tech

The following section is a summary of our interview with Mark. But if you’d like to listen to the full interview, there’s a link to the below.

How will companies undergo digital transformation post the pandemic? What role will AI play?

Regardless of the pandemic, Mark believes that the idea behind digital transformation doesn’t change. Transformation doesn’t occur unless it has to. Big companies are normally conservative and judicious with their budgets and are not open to invest unless they have to. Mark believes that this pandemic certainly has been an accelerator for this change.

We’re seeing realities that might have taken a decade to achieve.

It’s changing aspects that needed an upgrade at a faster rate regarding using technology to work, connect, to buy, serve, or to entertain. So now, Mark is seeing investment in a lot of WFH technology right now.

The companies that are feeling pain are the ones that will move towards digital transformation. It’s providing a layer of innovation we need in our lives.

How will social media become a crucial marketing tool and what new trends do we see?

Mark believes we’re entering a post-social media phase in marketing. Where people are more doubtful about information they see on social media. But while people may not trust the news, or social media, we do trust each other. Over the last six months, there’s been a shift on many platforms, like Facebook, that are putting an emphasis on groups.

The biggest trend we’re going to see going forward is a focus on communities.

Social media is enabling groups and private conversations with people we trust and respect. That’s the general direction social media is heading towards, according to Mark. That’s why we’re also seeing a renaissance of Twitter, because of how easy it is to build a community there.

Social media will become an enabler to communities. And we wouldn’t have the opportunity to do any of this without technology. Technology gives us excellent opportunities to create weak relational links that have great potential. Without social media, this link wouldn’t exist at all.

Social media opens the doors, but it’s up to us to take it forward and to build meaningful relationships.

How has marketing evolved with technology and automation until now?

Marketing has evolved in general. We’ve gone from a culture that was super loyal to brands to a shop-around culture. Research suggests that one of the reasons why we’ve lost this is because marketing has been lost in a way. There’s been a disconnect where companies think they’re doing great marketing to connect with people, but when you ask customers, it’s a different story. There’s overall just a vast chasm between the job we think we’re doing and what we’re actually doing. We’ve almost lost the meaning of what good marketing is.

Marketing is about touching our customers and we’re sadly losing touch with our customers these days. Mark partially feels that this is because of our obsession with technology and efficiency. But these processes take time and a lot of work, it’s not about the efficiency. Technology is a tool, according to Mark. It’s an opportunity for us to be at our best. So it’s up to us to adapt, not technology. The problem with marketing is that we’re almost becoming too reliant on technology.

“Great marketing and branding is about building an emotional connection between what you do or what you sell, and our audience.”

Technology is at its best when it is invisible. It shouldn’t be used to create a barrier between us and our customers. Especially at a time like this where we’re all isolated and crave human connection. According to Mark, the most human company wins, and that sums it up. That’s what we crave in our hearts.

With the technology we have today, we have the opportunity to collect data. Data is a brilliant resource and if we use it in a way to create a more human and compelling presence, we’ll win. The pandemic has shined a real light on this and has been an accelerator to a lot of the points highlighted in Mark’s book, Marketing Rebellion. Mark’s biggest takeaway is that the companies responding in a truly human and helpful way are the ones we’ll remember and never forget.

“When we use tech to serve cust in a more human way that creates delight, engagement, connection, and inspiration. That’s when we can use technology in marketing at its best.”

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The fusion of marketing & tech — A Spotify Podcast with Mark Schaefer

Mark shares what major shifts we’re going to see post-pandemic in the rest of our interview with him. We discuss the future of video-marketing, as well as the future of chatbot-marketing. Whether chatbots can be used as a tool for marketing and customer service.

Listen to the full interview here:

Engati CX

We hope you learned a lot about how to fuse marketing and technology in an effective way. Engati CX will be back with a new expert in a new episode soon. Stay tuned.

Find Mark Schaefer

Mark specializes in marketing strategy and is among the world’s most recognized social media authorities. For more brilliant insights, find him on LinkedIn, Twitter or on his personal website for a consultation.

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