Written by Rachel Revie

Adobe’s annual Summit conference recently took place, all online. It was my first all online conference and I was very curious to see if and how it would work. Looking back now, I’m glad to say that it did. The sessions were engaging, not long but full of information. And, despite not meeting others in person, it felt exciting to know I was joining people all over the globe watching the sessions at the same moment as me in countless time zones.

Besides ending the 3 days feeling exhausted, I felt inspired and excited for the future. It was fascinating to hear about the shift happening in marketing and design practice and see docs24’s place in that.

The key phrase I picked up across the sessions I attended was “Digital-First”.

Digital-first refers to a cultural shift away from traditional channels to favouring digitals ones. In this instance, it is in reference to how we approach content creation, marketing materials and the customer experience. It means creating a flexible environment to allow optimized marketing and customer experiences that work across as many channels as possible. One tool delivering bespoke content on print, web, mobile, social, etc.

Studies have long predicted a slow cultural shift towards a digital-first world, but as a result of COVID-19, this expected shift has sped up significantly and digital-first is happening now. Customers have embraced online communication and platforms. Because of this, companies are re-prioritising their efforts to manage this.

Here are a few of the things the summit highlighted:

Personalised digital experience

  • Understanding and anticipating the customers’ needs before they engage to ensure they can flow through a process efficiently.
  • Smart technology that knows who is engaging with the tools and arranges a workspace for them.
  • Marketing materials that are personalised and of specific interest to a specific client.

Dynamic journeys

  • Understanding the customer journey as a whole, beginning to end
  • Creating processes and tools that work seamlessly through the entire process.

Data

  • Cookies are becoming obsolete so managing customer data effectively will be necessary to provide a personalised experience.
  • Harnessing data to map journeys and interactions and produce more improved and intelligent content and tools.

Asset Accessibility

  • Understanding remote working conditions and providing services and tools that allow flexible use as well as consistency across de-centralised businesses.