What is Phygital Marketing and How to Use It?
Introduction
The advancement of technology is unending. Since we now live in a digital age, purchasing goods online is a usual deal. This is one of the key factors behind the significance of the term “digital customer experience” in today’s society. Every marketing and customer experience conversation now includes the buzzword “phygital.” Phygital is a peculiar term for a trend of upgrading a physical brand experience with a digital component – or vice versa.
We all understand that the marketing environment has been dominated by the digital domain, but when running businesses, we cannot disregard the phygital marketing tactics. Experts constantly advise using the Phygital strategy, which blends the physical and digital aspects of marketing to give clients a better shopping experience, and to establish a long-lasting relationship between a company and its customers.
What exactly is phygital, though? In this blog article, we’ll explain what phygital marketing is and unravel some of its usage.
What Is Phygital Marketing?
“Phygital” is a marketing phrase that refers to fusing digital and physical experiences.
As customer interaction and communication channels multiply, businesses strive to make combining these channels easy and seamless. For example, customers should be able to call a company, then communicate on a social media platform, then send an email without the company losing track of the conversation or understanding the issues related to the customer account record.
Companies are now required to close the physical and digital gap, which is sometimes referred to as an Omni-channel customer experience, in order to lower customer friction, dissatisfaction, and churn. Digital characteristics are incorporated into the physical experience of the client. Combining the two creates a hybrid experience that is now forging a new path through the UX maze. Companies can give clients individualized communications via email, SMS text, social media, and other channels by using marketing automation software.
What Does Phygital Marketing Aim For?
The conditions for a successful phygital marketing are for consumers to take action that demands a sense of urgency, while also ensuring that they engage with the brand, immerse in the experience & the product while gaining value-add out of it, & have real-time discussions.
The main goal is to ensure that consumers may physically interact with objects, products, services, pictures, etc. that they would otherwise see on a regular basis but might not necessarily engage within the true meaning of the word using offline and online mediums. These kinds of advancements allow businesses to provide proactive, distinctive services in addition to bridging the gap between the digital and real worlds. These right-place, right-time encounters are intended to engage customers predictably and meet their requirements or open prospects for upselling.
Why Phygital Marketing?
As mentioned, the sensory experience and interpersonal connection of shopping in a physical store are combined with a digital experience in phygital marketing.
By fusing the advantages of the digital and physical worlds, phygital marketing has the potential to be strong and successful, helping firms to increase sales prospects. By providing opportunities for both online and in-store activities, phygital marketing aids businesses in enhancing the purchasing experiences of their customers.
You can utilize digital campaigns to interact with customers while they are in your business, either before or after they make a purchase, as part of your marketing efforts. This may be offering clients digital coupons as they enter your store, providing them with QR codes to scan for discounts, or installing interactive displays around the store that suggest things. In other words, you can use digital techniques to control the in-store physical experience of your customers.
Businesses that provide both physical and digital choices are more likely to attract clients and generate revenue in the long run than those who solely concentrate on one type of marketing.
Businesses must have a full understanding of the behaviors of their clients, therefore using only one platform to gather client information is insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to master their behavior both physically and technologically.
What Role Does Marketing Play In Phygital?
Your marketing strategy must be incorporated into your plan for doing phygital marketing in some way. Your success will depend on how effectively you convey new digital services and set up customer support when people start to sign up for and use these experiences. To promote adoption, consider the special deals you may offer users of your mobile app or website. Are you making the user experience more personalized? Your overall plan should consider such kind of elements. Additionally, remember to evaluate and analyze your data in order to continuously improve your phygital strategy for the best customer experience.
Benefits Of Phygital Marketing
Marketers are turning to phygital marketing methods for diverse reasons. The following are some of the advantages that phygital marketing can provide:
- Measuring engagement: It is possible to engage customers who aren’t always in-store shoppers by offering touch screens, having an interactive storefront, or even integrating augmented reality into the shopping experience. By collaborating with a Mobile Measurement Provider (MMP), you’ll be able to track physical interactions with subsequent digital activity within apps and assess the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives.
- Better for the environment: One of the best things about phygital marketing is how it can reduce the use of paper and other similar materials. The negative environmental effects of an offline store can be reduced through phygital marketing, which can substitute a paper receipt for an electronic receipt that is delivered over your email.
- Improves physical experiences with knowledge: By placing digital content on top of your physical area, you can give more details about your product or service. Customers can access information about specific products via an app or website when they enter your store.
- Reduces churn: Use digital marketing strategies to keep your clients coming back. You can cater to client retention by giving them unique experiences that make them feel appreciated.
- Deliver a seamless experience: Phygital marketing enables firms to identify areas for development and offer solutions to do so, resulting in a smooth client journey from beginning to end.
- Produce individualized content: Combining marketing channels enables a deeper comprehension of the wants, needs, and patterns of your customers. By doing so, you can anticipate interactions in the future and give customers the information or products they want.
These are only a few of the numerous advantages that phygital marketing may provide for your business.
How To Develop A Phygital Marketing Strategy?
Any business, regardless of size or industry, aspires to gain the loyalty and engagement of its customers. Consider every potential problem that could arise during the client experience, then put solutions in place to stop it from happening again.
The basic goal of phygital techniques is to enhance the user experience. Below are a few tips to help you develop a phygital marketing strategy:
- Recognize your target market
Knowing your target market will help you develop marketing efforts that are especially targeted at them. Encouraging clients and consumers to give you feedback and periodically read reviews to see how you can enhance your product are two of the finest ways to gain a thorough understanding of your target audience and what they want.
- Utilize apps
Utilizing apps is an outstanding way to develop an effective phygital marketing experience. Since they are already in your customers’ wallets, apps are a fantastic platform to leverage. Customers who have the app can download a wealth of information directly to their smartphones using something as easy as a QR code, facilitating the seamless practical transfer of knowledge.
- Observe your omnichannel approach
Implement an omnichannel strategy for your channels of communication. Utilizing all available media, this strategy helps you integrate your consumers with the main goal of engaging your audience. The consumer must be the core of the omnichannel strategy’s phygital experience focus, providing an exceptional journey.
- Use technology to your advantage
It is erroneous to believe that a phygital approach will be successful if it uses expensive or unattainable technologies like Smartphones, QR Codes, and artificial intelligence to keep customers engaged in making purchases from your business. Better customer experiences can already be delivered with minor adjustments, like making your website mobile-friendly. All of this is only feasible with a creative and methodical application of the technologies at your disposal.
5. Create unforgettable experiences
The need for life-changing events appears to be one of the most important themes in the upcoming years. A well-executed plan of action will make the consumer marvel or feel surprised, and it may also give them the impression that they are an integral part of the brand. Nowadays, people purchase more than just goods and services; they also seek sensations and experiences. Businesses who can provide these will prosper and distinguish themselves from rivals.
Phygital And The Future Of Marketing
True phygital experiences in the future will feature a sophisticated anticipation model. Many, for instance, have voice-activated remote controls. Your TV service will immediately start playing your favorite program when you speak its name into the remote control.
The goal of Phygital is to establish a connection between a user (a human) and an activity (a business), and to make that experience so seamless that your clients’ lives become easier without even realizing it.
Numerous industry surveys predict that organizations will become more individualized and user-centered in the future. Therefore, to meet the challenges of the future, marketing will need to incorporate marketing automation software and multi-channel phygital techniques into its analysis, planning, and communication processes. The three main areas of emphasis are customer service, communication, and entertainment.
These focal areas serve as the framework within which all decisions must be made with the customer experience at the core of all business decisions in order to provide products and services that can meet their needs. Achieving the ideal balance between the online and offline worlds will need any firm to incorporate phygital into its strategy in the coming years, given how increasingly important phygital is to modern marketing.
Wrapping It Up
Organizations require marketers that can comprehend digital customer behavior and develop strategies to create compelling omnichannel experiences that support long-term business success in this dynamic environment as customers transition to a hybrid world and phygital experiences become more common. To improve the user experience, physical spaces and digital information are fusing together even more. Digital marketing provides a lot of advantages. Physical or digital solutions can be used to address any elements of your present marketing plan that need to be improved.
