Introduction
Continued technological advancements are revolutionizing conventional business practices as organizations leverage emerging trends to improve productivity and streamline operations. Cloud computing ranks among the most widely adopted digital transformations due to its ability to optimize workflows and confer competitive advantages to businesses. However, this technology’s performance and subsequent success in an organization are influenced by such factors as consistency with the firm’s specific characteristics and the value added by the new application. Companies use the fit-viability model to obtain valuable insights and decide whether to adopt such technology.
Before adopting new technology, a company should assess the extent to which the changes are consistent with the internal organizational factors and the value added by the installation. The study conducted by Yoo and Kim (2018) sought to establish how such factors as economic feasibility, technological readiness, internal organizational aspects, and environmental attributes impact the performance and success of cloud computing. The researchers adopted the fit-viability model to assess and identify the critical prerequisite considerations before integrating cloud computing. The managerial implication of the survey is that besides the decision-making factors, an organization should also consider the success components of embracing such technology.
How Cloud Computing can be Used in Marketing
Cloud computing is a technology whose popularity is attributed to its versatility and wide application in almost every sphere of business in organizations seeking to optimize their operations. Technological advancement has revolutionized multiple aspects of marketing and drastically changed the ways through which enterprises are reaching and engaging their audience, particularly regarding the distribution, usage, and storage of critical data. Organizations are deploying cloud computing capabilities to obtain insightful analytics and gain competitive advantages in their operations.
Marketing automation is among the leading applications of cloud computing in businesses. It entails automatically managing marketing processes and multifunctional sales campaigns across numerous channels and platforms. Due to the repetitive nature of marketing tasks, the sales departments automate their online campaigns and dispatch messages automatically according to workflows developed on templates, modified mid-campaign, or custom-built from scratch. Marketing automation allows an organization to implement a digital marketing strategy in a simplified and streamlined manner by executing complex campaign management and data analysis within a single spot. For instance, companies can develop marketing templates, schedule messages, define and measure goals, analyze statistics, dispatch content across many channels, and reach customers at different stages of their lifecycle. This scalability and flexibility optimize operations and minimize dependency on employees, who can be deployed to handle higher-order business activities (Attaran & Woods, 2018). Therefore, marketing automation ranks among the most popular application of cloud computing in enhancing efficiency in sales campaigns.
Additionally, cloud computing helps businesses to gather data and apply analytical processes to obtain valuable insights and maximize marketing’s returns on investment. By integrating marketing analytics, companies can evaluate big data to gain a holistic view of their marketing performance and impact while utilizing minimal internal resources. For instance, organizations can connect information from siloed systems to develop marketing mix models. Further, cloud computing allows organizations to leverage machine learning capabilities to create differentiated audiences and segments for targeted marketing campaigns. For instance, extensive analysis of consumer profiles facilitates the construction of successful propensity-to-buy models, enhancing the design and allocation of appropriate marketing approaches. More specifically, BigQuery is a robust cloud-based tool that stores all past information, enabling an organization to have a complete overview of its historical performance, consumer purchasing habits, and other relevant data (Ali et al., 2021). In this regard, marketing can leverage the tools available on cloud platforms to obtain comprehensive reports on various business aspects for such decision-making as targeted campaigns.
Further, organizations utilize cloud computing to revitalize their lead management systems by streamlining the process and enhancing effectiveness. Tracking the activities of a potential customer from the initial contact and documenting all the engagements is fundamental for analysis and subsequent marketing optimization. In recent years, leads have proven influential in driving marketing and sales. Lead tracking allows an organization to collect data regarding how the sales funnels function for such activities as fine-tuning the campaign and abandoning a strategy. Such an approach requires a seamless synchronization and processing of multiple data sets, which enhances an enterprise’s ability to convert potential leads into sales.
Benefits of Cloud Computing in Marketing
Cloud computing provides the marketing processes of an organization with many benefits. Among such advantages are the scalability of the operations and the potential to integrate additional applications. For instance, a business can expand or reduce the resources needed depending on the demand dynamics (Yoo & Kim, 2018). Additionally, cloud computing provides low-cost technology alternatives, eliminating the need for an organization to purchase and maintain in-house systems and infrastructure. Moreover, it streamlines firm operations, optimizes workflows, and improves productivity.
Conclusion
Cloud computing is a technological innovation that has revolutionized business operations. The emerging technology has been integrated into such areas as marketing, where it provides a wide array of services, including monitoring and analyzing leads, evaluating historical data, and assessing the effectiveness of a given strategy. These benefits allow organizations to streamline their workflows, improve productivity, and optimize operations, thereby enhancing the performance and overall success of a firm.
References
Ali, H., Hosain, S., & Hossain, A. (2021). Big data analysis using BigQuery on cloud computing platform. Australian Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology, 3(1), 1-9. Web.
Attaran, M., & Woods, J. (2018). Cloud computing technology: Improving small business performance using the internet. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 31(6), 495-519. Web.
Yoo, S., & Kim, B. (2019). The effective factors of cloud computing adoption success in organization. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 6(1), 217-229. Web.