7 Ways Cloud Technology is Influencing the Marketing Landscape

As a result, marketers have struggled with several customer scare moments because of pushy tactics.

But cloud has paved the way for “inbound” where consumers can now go to the brands they want to purchase from. This has made the marketing landscape much more ‘customer-centric’. As a consequence, marketers need to deploy new strategies to make themselves relevant to their audience and better than their competitors.

The marketing landscape before cloud computing

Before cloud computing came into the picture, marketing was a tedious task. With time, distance and reach limitations, traditional marketing techniques incurred huge expenditures.

Additionally, marketing techniques suffered from the ‘intrusive’ image and most of the efforts came across as a ‘sales pitch’. However, cloud has allowed users to look for meaningful products and services and eliminate much of the previously intrusive elements. And from a marketer’s perspective, cloud has greatly reduced the efforts necessary for effective marketing.

How cloud computing has transformed marketing

For marketers, cloud is a “ready” solution. It gives on-demand services to marketers by giving them greater flexibility to purchase as many features as they want and the ability to deploy applications immediately. This greatly reduces the time to market, a factor which often governs marketing success.

Here are a few ways in which cloud has influenced marketing:

1. Marketing no longer suffers from location dependency

The introduction of cloud has eliminated the need for marketers to physically go out to their potential customers.

Gone are the days where marketing meant knocking doors. The introduction of cloud gives an easy entry point for brands to reach their audience.

In fact, cloud hasn’t only ruled out location dependency, it has also paved the way for instant connection.

Your audience can reach out to you with a simple form, video call or live chat, all thanks to the cloud. This instant connection not only makes it easier for the consumer to contact your business but also makes it easier for you to improve customer relationships by providing instant fixes.

Key Takeaway

Cloud has completely revolutionized the marketing landscape by easing the process of communication and delivery. Since location dependency is out of the picture, cloud can be used to target a wider global audience.

2. Pay as you go structure offers a cost-effective solution

Most cloud services come with a ‘try-before-you-buy’ or ‘pay-as-you-go’ structure. This makes cloud an accessible solution for small businesses who have struggled in the past with creating a significant presence due to budget constraints.

With pay as you go, companies only need a modest marketing budget which allows them to invest in other channels which directly bring a higher ROI. Additionally, it allows businesses to scale up and down quickly because they don’t have to predict how much storage they will require. They can simply rent whatever they need, on a dynamic basis, instead of opting for a fixed structure which doesn’t guarantee the same flexibility.

Key Takeaway

Most cloud services come with a pay-as-you-go option. This option lets marketers decide which features to pick, which ones to abandon, and they can do so dynamically because of the ease of cloud deployment.

3. Cloud technology helps connect the social dots

The shift to cloud technology has completely transformed the social landscape by easing the process of social listening.

Cloud has enabled marketers to plan campaigns faster, and the results of all the campaigns can be put together in one place. Both these factors allow you to improve your social listening skills by pulling the data from various channels together in an efficient manner.

This resolves one of the key issues marketers face when making their social efforts coherent. Since cloud gives them the space to pool all of their social data in one place, it improves the quality of social analysis. 

Key Takeaway

By bringing all the social results together via cloud, you can plan your social strategy in a way that moves towards a common goal.

4. Freemiums offer easy sampling

Most cloud services come with a trial option where you can use some features for free. This means that the user gets to sample the experience of the service on offer.

As a marketer, the effort of “selling” the product to the potential user is reduced because free sampling lets the user decide whether that particular service fits their requirements or not.

This model works the same way for marketers looking for useful tools; marketers can easily pick the features that are relevant to their business and only pay for what they’ve selected, thus reducing the cost.

Key Takeaway

The freemium cloud structure allows marketers to test various cloud-based technologies for free. This helps them pick the best option. 

5. Flexibility in access allows marketers to use every opportunity

Unlike the traditional marketing model, cloud is online and accessible anywhere, anytime. This feature helps marketers to quickly transform opportunities into actual projects and make the most from them.

This flexibility also improves their relationships with customers.

Key Takeaway

Cloud technology is easy to access. This strength is favorable for marketers as it helps them address their customer’s concerns quickly and in real time.

6. Smaller businesses now have a level field against big companies

Small businesses love cloud technology. Since cloud offers affordable infrastructure, these businesses can allocate their resources to creating dedicated campaigns and this allows them to focus on more important aspects of business growth.

Before cloud came into picture, small businesses struggled to find an affordable infrastructure. This meant that they suffered from lack of resources when competing against big businesses. With cloud, everything has changed.

Key Takeaway

Since cloud technology is much more affordable than traditional marketing platforms, small businesses are able to successfully compete against bigger organizations.

7. Cloud allows you to integrate all data and analyze it in one place

Marketers collect data from various touchpoints like video, mobile, search etc. This pool of data is not useful unless it is integrated and brought to a common point. This is where cloud has a very important role.

Cloud has allowed marketers to integrate the data from various sources into one platform where it can be studied, analyzed and used to create better future strategies.

Key Takeaway

Cloud technology has made it easier to pool and analyze big data and borrow those interpretations for better future marketing methodologies.