How to expand brand reach using cloud-based tech strategies

A look at the rise of cloud computing, how it improves digital commerce strategies, and how your organization can expand your brand’s reach with the right cloud-based tech.

This guest post was submitted by Jyesht Diwani, for Beaconstac. Beaconstac provides end-to-end proximity + QR Code marketing solutions.

Digital commerce has outperformed traditional retail in the past decade. More people are buying online, and hence, more brands are selling online.

Digital commerce opens up new avenues for sales and marketing teams to reach a broader, global audience and get more sales. As a result, digital marketing budgets have increased rapidly. In 2021, businesses spent 15.4% more on digital marketing than the previous year. This increase in marketing spending was only 1.4% more in 2021 for traditional advertising than in 2020.

Cloud computing has made digital commerce even more accessible, measurable, and efficient. Brands can use cloud-based tools to reach a global audience, sell online, improve customer data management, and measure their marketing performance. 

Here's a definitive guide to using cloud-based tech to implement digital commerce and improve your brand outreach and marketing strategies. 

The rise of cloud computing

With digital transformation growing rapidly, cloud adoption among businesses is on the rise. The global cloud computing industry is projected to grow from $371 billion in 2020 to $832 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 17.5%. 

While cloud adoption isn't a new trend, the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation to a phase where businesses see it as an urgent business upgrade. Remote work has become the norm, making it essential for organizations to have a cloud infrastructure in place. Certain industries have been at the forefront of cloud adoption, including IT, telecom, media & entertainment, and BFSI. 

Here are some factors driving cloud adoption: 

• Need for flexibility and agility
• Need for real-time transformation
• Constantly changing customer behaviour
• Need for security and compliance
• Increasing data storage requirements
• The transition towards operating expenses (OpEx) model

How does cloud computing improve digital commerce strategies?

The benefits of cloud computing are widespread. Most companies use the cloud to reduce infrastructure costs, add mobility to their business, and improve operational efficiency. However, not many companies realize that the benefits of the cloud go beyond data storage and mobility. 

Let's briefly look at five essential reasons to combine cloud computing with your digital commerce strategy. 

1. Access customer data: When selling online, the only effective way to get sales is by understanding your customers well. Cloud computing provides access to detailed customer insights that help you know their needs, challenges, and expectations. This kind of information allows you to implement a level of personalization that brings your customer a closer emotional connection with your brand 
2. Use powerful analytics tools: Cloud-enabled analytics and customer management tools can go a long way in enhancing your website performance. For example, by examining your traffic and examining entrances and exits, you can develop a sense of where your customer’s user journey may not be working. By improving page layout, content and calls to action, time on page increases along with conversion rates.  
3. Understand your local audience: Even though cloud computing is an increasingly digital technology, you can use it to learn about your local, offline audiences. For instance, you can create a QR code with tools like Beaconstac, link it to your website or social media, and put it up on your offline sales materials. When people scan the code, you can get information like the time, location, and device used for scanning. 
4. Enhance data privacy and security: With data privacy laws strengthening, marketing departments need to be extra careful in storing and using customer data. Integrating cloud computing into your marketing helps you protect customer data and build trust with your customers.
5. Boost collaboration: Lastly, when your digital commerce strategy is based on the cloud, the collaboration between multiple teams and departments becomes easier. For example, the business development team can communicate with the account management and customer service teams to ensure the content they share online reaches the company’s entire audience. 

How to expand your brand reach using cloud-based tech strategies

Cloud computing creates new opportunities for you and your marketing team. You can understand your customers better, test your messaging strategies, make informed and data-driven decisions, and streamline your operations. However, implementing cloud solutions on their own won't improve your brand reach and business growth. You'll need to take the right steps to make the most of what the cloud offers. 

Let's delve into some proven strategies to enhance your business outreach using cloud-based technologies.

Understand how the cloud works

First, you need to understand how the cloud works and how you can integrate it with your digital commerce strategy. Cloud computing solutions are available in three types:

• Software as a service (SaaS) — A SaaS solution is a computer program installed on cloud servers instead of your company servers or systems. Almost all modern-day commerce tools like Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento reside on the cloud. 
• Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — When you use a SaaS solution, your business and customer data is stored in third-party data centers. You can rent an IaaS solution like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure if you want better control over your data. It allows you to own the hardware infrastructure on which your SaaS applications run. 
• Platform as a service (PaaS) — A PaaS solution lets you build and deploy your applications. If you want to develop tools in-house and deploy them on the cloud, you can use PaaS solutions, like OpenShift and Google App Engine. 

It's equally important to understand the pricing of each cloud computing model. SaaS solutions are available as monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly subscriptions (like Netflix). You need to pay a monthly fee to use the software. 

The pricing of IaaS solutions is based on hours of usage. You'll need to pay a cost per hour to your vendor. PaaS solutions are priced based on the cloudlets (resource units) you consume. One cloudlet comprises 128 MB RAM and a 400 MHz CPU. 

Understanding the working and pricing of cloud solutions will help you create optimum budgets. 

Prioritize customer data security

Data security is critical to business growth. Customers will lose trust in your business if you fail to protect their sensitive information. Nearly 50% of customers will walk away from a company over privacy concerns. 

Since data fuels digital marketing campaigns, marketers need to be responsible for data security. When you integrate marketing with cloud computing, your customers' data is stored on public servers, making it easier for hackers to lay their hands on it. You must've heard of the recent LinkedIn data breach where a hacker stole data from 700 million users and posted it on the dark web.

You can take several steps to enhance the security of your cloud solutions. These include:

• Implement multi-factor authentication
• Manage user access 
• Monitor end-user activities
• Use cloud-to-cloud backup solutions
• Provide security training to your employees
• Invest in IaaS solutions to get better control over customer data

Unleash the potential of digital channel strategies

Once you have your cloud strategy in place, now is the time to flex that muscle and branch out to digital channels to improve sales and reach. 

• Social media — Social media has emerged as the cornerstone of cloud marketing in recent times. 54% of internet users use social media to research products and follow brands. By using cloud-based social media tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, and SproutSocial, you can take your social media outreach to the next level. 
• Email marketing — Email marketing has been out there for decades, and it remains one of the most rewarding channels out there. However, manually sending emails to a large audience can be challenging and time-consuming. Several cloud-based email tools – SendPulse, Omnisend, Mailchimp, etc. – are available that allow you to segment your email subscribers and automate email by setting up triggers and scheduling emails. 
• Digital advertising — Traditional advertising still has its place, but digital advertising has taken over the marketing space. Online ad platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and AdRoll to reach a global audience and increase their brand reach. For even more targeted reach, try Demandbase.
• Content marketing — You can host your website on cloud servers to reach customers worldwide. By leveraging content marketing techniques like blogging, SEO, and guest blogging, you can maximize your reach and drive more conversions. 

Overcome location dependency

Cloud-based location services eliminate the need for marketers to meet customers in person. You don't need to knock on doors, put up billboards, or conduct in-person events anymore (you can still do them if you want to). Thanks to the cloud, webinars and live streams have replaced in-person events, PPC and display ads have replaced billboards, and cold emails and calls have replaced door-to-door sales tactics.

Integrating cloud computing allows you to overcome location dependency. You can reach potential customers in any part of the world regardless of your location. You only need a laptop and an internet connection. 

Pay as you go to reduce costs

14% of new businesses fail because of poor marketing, which boils down to improper budget management. In traditional advertising, there's no reverse gear. There's no coming back once you pay for a TV ad, newspaper ad, or billboard. Moreover, you can’t track if your advertisements are working. Advertisers can't help but take a wait-and-watch approach.

Cloud strategies help you overcome both these hurdles. You have full control over the investment you make online. Suppose you have a digital advertising budget of $1,000, and you put it all in a PPC campaign. However, if you realize after spending $100 that the campaign won't work, you can stop it right away and protect your marketing dollars. 

You can also save money on cloud-based marketing tools. You can subscribe to a tool for six months, and if you don't see the results, you can stop using it. This is unlike legacy systems that come with an exorbitant one-time license fee. 

Moreover, most SaaS tools come with a free 7-day, 14-day, or 30-day trial. You can use them for free to check if they work for you and pay for them only after you're convinced. 

Transform your digital strategies in real-time

Cloud computing also allows you to test your strategies in real-time and optimize them based on their performance. For example, you can run the same ad in two different locations to see which one drives better engagement. Once you find the winner, you can scale it up and discontinue the other one. 

This strategy is known as A/B testing, and you can use it for any revenue-generating campaign, including email marketing, paid advertising, content marketing, and more. 

Integrate all data into one place

Lastly, you need to leverage the biggest benefit of cloud computing by integrating all your data into one place. Cloud computing allows you to collect customer data from various touchpoints, such as social media, websites, ads, etc., and integrate it into one place. 

You can use a customer relationship management (CRM) system to integrate all touchpoints and access customer data from a single place. As a result, marketers can better analyze data, make informed decisions, and formulate better strategies.  

Cloud solutions also enable you to get detailed insights into your marketing performance and how you can improve your campaigns for better reach, engagement, and revenue. 

Conclusion

The cloud has emerged as a key driver of digital transformation. Businesses can leverage cloud computing to streamline digital commerce and utilize cloud-connected digital sales channels to improve reach and sales.

That said, there is no predetermined way to use the cloud. Businesses need to be innovative and discover how cloud computing can fit into their sales and marketing operations.

If your business is looking for ways to scale at will, increase revenue while keeping an eye on operating costs, these strategies may be the correct route for your organization.

Still, have questions? We are always here to talk, with no obligation, no pressure.