Digital trends in South Africa

Econsultancy in partnership with Adobe, has released The 2017 Digital Trends in South Africa report.  It is based on data from almost 250 South Africa based digital marketing and ecommerce professionals.

Some of the key findings were:

Companies strive for integrated approach to digital marketing activities
Companies are typically committed to developing an integrated approach to communications across all digital channels.  Additionally, in-house respondents noted that training is a high priority for their companies, suggesting a high level of commitment to the digital transformation that is required in a fast-changing business environment.

Agencies are more tuned in to the mobile challenge
As South Africa transitions from being a feature phone nation, to a smartphone nation, agencies are focusing on how mobile is changing the business landscape. Seventy seven percent of agency respondents report that understanding how mobile users research/buy products is ‘very important’.

Another priority from the agency perspective is optimising the customer journey across multiple touchpoints –  which talks to how mobile consumer behaviour is changing the way we research, buy and even consume products and services.

Customer experience and cross channel marketing are major areas of strategic focus
Customer experience (CX) is a major focal point for South African companies; with almost nine in ten (89%) saying CX is one of their top-three strategic areas of priority for 2017. Another area of focus is

cross-channel marketing, compared with four other strategic areas, namely customer experience, data-driven marketing, mobile and programmatic buying, cross-channel marketing is second only to CX for the proportion of companies that rank this as the first choice priority area for their businesses.

Focus on social media engagement and brand building
Companies are embracing the opportunities that have presented themselves via the various social media platforms. More than a third of respondents (37%) say tactics such as social media engagement and brand building / viral marketing sharing are among their top three priorities.

Businesses embrace technology to enhance the customer experience
Respondents were most likely to select engaging audiences through virtual reality and augmented reality and utilising artificial intelligence / bots to drive campaigns and experiences as the most exciting prospects for 2020.