Tips for Keeping Your Brand Safe During a Digital Shift

In 2024, digital transformation will be very important because more and more deals will be done online. New digital tools, processes, and AI technologies can make an organization more valuable and improve how well it runs, but they shouldn’t hurt the trust that customers have worked hard to earn.

63% of a company’s market value comes from its image, so marketers need to make sure they protect their brand when they use new digital tools and workflows.

Risks to a brand during the digital shift

Digital transformation depends on smart experimentation, which means testing new ways to make current workflows and online presence better in a planned way. But trials have risks, some small and some big. To minimize the bad effects of going digital and maximize their return on investment (ROI), brands need to be aware of the risks that come with it.

AI tools have some flaws

AI is still very new and isn’t perfect, so material made by AI often looks like it was made by a machine and doesn’t connect with people. When AI tools are used carelessly, they can get in the way of your brand’s efforts to connect with customers on a personal level, which is a big risk in today’s digital world.

Even worse, AI can be wrong or biased, which hurts the customer experience. For instance, AI chatbots don’t have the subtlety needed for real conversations, which makes the encounters unsatisfying. Or, material made by AI can contain mistakes and misleading advertising without meaning to. If the information is wrong enough to be considered damaging, the person who made it could be sued.

Overall, AI tools that aren’t taught the brand’s philosophy and values, based on the brand’s goals and rules, or closely watched by humans become weak points.

After looking at a bunch of different AI tools side by side, we found that they are still not as good as professional content writers when it comes to correctness, readability, and style.

Brand experience that isn’t constant

These days, customers’ trips are very disorganized, so your brand needs to be there whenever and wherever they look for help. If you want your presence to matter, you need to have the same story and experience for customers everywhere they interact with you. If not, it will be hard to build brand value and relationships with customers based on trust.

Separated attempts to change things

If there isn’t clear communication and understanding within your company about how to digitally transform your brand, different groups will work on different things that aren’t related to or based on the main business plan. Even the best efforts can fail if KPIs are not aligned clearly and effect reports are not consistent.

Key stakeholders may get angry and burned out, or even leave, when there is a lack of contact. This situation wastes chances to develop your workers, who are your best brand ambassadors.

How to keep your brand safe during the digital shift

The good news is that your team can lower the risks and damage to the brand that come with adopting new digital strategies. The first step is to know what the risks are.

Pay attention to how you use AI tools and be ready to change.

Always keep an eye on and improve your AI tools. Figure out what they can do to help you and what they need more help with. Our study showed that AI tools can help with coming up with ideas for content, finding sources, and checking it over, as long as human writers read over the final draft.

As a safety measure, brands should put together groups of AI experts. These groups can make plans for AI control and keep an eye on AI tools. One way to get the benefits of AI without giving up the personalized, high-quality material that people want is to involve employees.

Stay in touch with each other clearly.

Set goals and KPIs early and often. Refer to them to keep the team on the same page and inspired, and talk about or come up with new strategies as needed.

For digital change to work, people who can think creatively and solve problems are also needed. You can help them grow by putting money into your company’s mindset to encourage creativity, ownership, and teamwork.

Keep your name consistent.

All of your marketing materials and efforts should be based on a core set of assets, such as your brand’s values, identity, goal, and purpose. A strong brand base will support marketing and content assets, making sure that the whole brand experience is consistent.

A uniform experience makes people more likely to visit your website. This will make it easier for your brand to connect with customers and lessen the effect of digital offers that aren’t always consistent. Put the most important jobs first, and know that progress won’t happen overnight.

Use a plan that focuses on the customer.

People today use digital tools like Google and social media to learn more about products and services before they buy them. Your brand needs to come up with a plan to always be ready to help customers, no matter where or when they’re looking.

Make sure your digital change is based on accurate customer data by using reception marketing. Where do they want to find answers? How are they making progress on their trips? Your digital approach should be based on consumer intent insights so that you can reach and connect with customers in a real way.

Protect your business and make it bigger at the same time.

The benefits of going digital are worth the risks and problems that might come up.

For this change to go smoothly, we need new information, skills, and rules to make the most of new technologies like AI, which is still growing. Before the competition catches up, brands that want to be in the lead need to move and make the right investments.