Why digital marketing needs to be rethought

Digital is no longer an add-on; it forms the core of modern customer experiences. However, many marketing strategies remain stuck in the past, focusing on products, driven by channels, or overly fixated on technology. The chapter “Building a Next-Generation Digital Marketing Strategy” makes it clear that, to be successful today, we must rethink customers, data and technology together in a strategic manner.

What I took away from the chapter:

• Marketing must shift from a push approach and towards relevant, data-based interactions that are precise, contextualised and empathetic.
  
  
• The convergence of social, commerce, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and service requires a new operating model – Customer Experience Management (CXM) instead of CRM and experience instead of transactions.
  
  
• The key component is the ‘golden record’, which serves as a complete, consolidated customer profile that becomes the true source of truth.
  
  
• Data silos, poor data quality and a lack of customer consent are no longer just IT problems; they pose a threat to any strategic initiative.
  
  
• A sustainable, scalable digital strategy is based on a solid data foundation, intelligent segmentation and platforms capable of orchestration.

My conclusion: This chapter offers both a warning and a fresh perspective. It emphasizes that digital marketing must encompass more than just automation and retargeting. It is a call for data-driven marketing that is respectful, intelligent, and genuinely places people at the center.

🔗 To the book on Springer

This blog post is based on the chapter “Building a Next-Generation Digital Marketing Strategy” by Frédéric Demierre from the book “CRM Goes Digital – Design and Use of Digital Customer Interface in Marketing, Sales and Service”, published in 2024 by Springer Gabler Publishing House.