The cloud, a decade ago it was just a natural phenomenon in the sky. Now the first thing you think about is a server room storing your data. How times have changed. Almost every service today uses some sort of cloud computing. If you have a phone, services that store your data and photos you use the cloud. iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc all use cloud technology.
All video apps like YouTube or Netflix use the cloud to distribute the streams. Even things you didn’t consider like some of your core OS software, uses the cloud to function. The first time I heard about it was on the themediax.com blog owned by Darshan Negekar. Sadly this blog doesn’t exist anymore, but his knowledge still lingers around the web! So, do you know what the cloud even is? Or more importantly, how it can help you with digital marketing?
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What is cloud computing and why should you use it?
Over 70% of companies run at least one app from the cloud. As the tech advances even further, this number will climb to 100%. But what is that cloud thing? The cloud is a bunch of servers that distribute your data or the app’s data across them. Cloud computing thus is the delivery of computing services over the internet.
This is a big shift from the traditional approach that was used since the start of computing. But this new tech offers some incredible benefits. These benefits make it enticing to use for developers and users. The benefits of the cloud are incredible:
- Cost
Cloud computing eliminates the need to have the best and highest-end hardware available. This cost is offset by the cloud service provider. Your access to the cloud can be low-power machines with a decent internet connection. This eliminates most of the upfront cost of starting a business.
- Speed
The cloud uses advanced hardware that is unavailable for regular users. This can give cloud users incredible performance and gains. The limit is your internet connection, which is one of the easiest things to upgrade.
- Performance
Due to the advanced hardware, you can expect incredible performance in compute-heavy tasks. In theory, you can have the computing power of a supercomputer at your disposal. But for marketing purposes, this is not a big concern.
- Scale
The cloud is built so that it can scale its services across the globe. If you suddenly get increased traffic, the cloud can adjust to fill in their needs.
- Reliability
The cloud is made out of distributed computer servers. They work together on tasks and create backups. This means that there is an incredibly small chance of losing your data.
- Security
Cloud systems are notorious for their strong security practices. That security can protect your data from misuse and stealing.
How does cloud computing help media?
Now you have a slight grasp of what cloud computing can do. It’s time to ask what kind of connection it has with digital marketing. The main advantage has a lot to do with the amount of content being produced today. Companies that operate in publishing, broadcasting, music, sports, advertising, and others create an incredible amount of content. Each second these companies produce thousands of terabytes of data. This incredible output means that there is a lot of need for data storage and non-local computing. This is where the cloud comes in of course.
As Darshan Negekar wrote on his blog themediax.com, these companies wouldn’t be able to operate without the cloud. Imagine a site like YouTube alone. 60 hours of Full HD or even 4k footage is uploaded every minute to the platform. And there are more than 4 billion daily views. These insane numbers mean that YouTube needs a lot of computing to keep things running. This is why the site uses massive computer farms all over the world.
These farms compute all the required data over the cloud. The cloud saves the videos on servers all over the world so that users can see them no matter where they are in the world. After this, the cloud also saves all the videos in many places. It creates backups so that everything stays safe. Even if a critical error occurs on one or more of the cloud servers.
This tech is insanely useful and the whole industry is moving more and more towards it. Cloud computing helps with a lot of things. It reduces storage costs, increases computing power, and makes moving assets from one location to another trivial. All these upsides also come with unrivaled security. It’s pretty easy to predict that the future will be cloud-based.
What advantages does cloud computing offer to digital marketing?
Some of the best tips I remember from themediax.com were linked to security and data analysis. These tips were great and always stayed with me throughout the years. Recently I researched the subject a bit more and came to new and unique conclusions that help
Innovate at an Unprecedented Level
Innovating is the core of any business. The better you are than the competition the more of the market share you can take. With technology like the cloud, you can speed up your innovation rate. Cloud computing can give you and your team unrivaled hardware power. It can lower the time spent on projects and leave you with more time and power to create new and exciting features. This is often seen in new and innovative marketing campaigns. They usually use untraditional ways of approaching potential customers.
Collaborate Seamlessly Over The Web
Darshan Negekar always wrote about is how easy collaboration gets when you use the cloud. People from all over the world can work on the same project and continue where their coworkers left. Cloud computing enables you to work from remote locations. These locations don’t need access to powerful hardware. All you need is an internet connection!
Increase Your Productivity
Waiting for things to load, render and analyze can waste a lot of time during the day. If your company dabbles into things like online advertising, email marketing, web analytics, affiliate marketing, and more you know there are always a bunch of steps you have to do before getting the finished product. With the cloud, you can streamline the whole process and ease bottlenecks much easier.
Optimize Your Workflow Through Cloud Computing
Cloud computing allows the use of specialized tools. They help marketers achieve better control over their marketing and content. You can develop effective strategies that are only possible through their use. The cloud can also help decentralize the workflow. Enabling projects that operate independently of other departments within the company.
Analyze Customer Data With The Cloud
The themediax.com blog always mentioned how customer data can be analyzed. As any marketer knows, the more data you have the better your marketing can be. The cloud can help you collect and analyze customer data. It can take into consideration data taken from surveys, conversions, and other sources. This data is stored in data centers. This helps with the access and analysis of the information anytime from anywhere.
Analytic Tools at Your Disposal
Continuing with the customer data analysis, cloud computing offers a lot of incredible analytic tools. Some of these tools are custom-made for digital marketing needs. These tools can turn your useless random data into valuable information. This information can be used in your marketing campaigns. These tools also allow testing new marketing channels, lead tracking, and strategy testing. All this can be done for specific audiences without any risk. With the proper usage of these tools, you can gain better insight into your customers. You have to find ways to approach and optimize your campaigns for them.
Analyze and Create Content
Cloud computing-based analytics surpass the analysis of customer and audience data. There are tools that focus on other aspects of digital marketing like the content itself. Content is the most important part of your marketing strategy. Knowing what kind of content works is valuable. It can determine what content is more engaging to your customers. What you can optimize to make it better. These cloud-based tools can track how your customers interact with and consume content. This information can help you create better posts that will bring your more views and profit.
Drive Inbound Marketing Through The Cloud
One of the key components of successful marketing campaigns is social engagement. This is where cloud-hosted services like social media platforms come into play. Platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the rest can drive your engagement rates up. The reason all these work is the cloud! Adopting and integrating their functions into your marketing is essential nowadays. Use it whenever you can!
Prepare for the Future of Media Cloud Computing
As Darshan Negekar from themediax.com used to say, the cloud is the future. Those businesses who don’t adopt it right now risk being at a huge disadvantage soon. Early adopters are already optimizing their workflow and process to use the cloud as much as possible. Those who still aren’t using the cloud are already behind the curve and that gap will only grow bigger as time goes by. If you want to have a fighting chance in the future, it’s time to adapt to the cloud and its tools. With the cloud companies can lower their costs while earning more revenue, scaling up much easier, and improve their security all at once!
Final Words About Cloud Computing and Its Use in Marketing
Industries that use and create huge volumes of data are already seeing the benefits of cloud computing. Every company has something that the cloud can improve. No matter if it’s the speed, cost, security, storage, scalability, or data analysis. The important thing to note is that the cloud can help every business to some extent. As time passes and the tech develops even further, the cloud will become necessary for successful marketing campaigns.
Modernizing your business to use the advantages of the cloud has many advantages. First of all, you will get access to all the features that the cloud enables you to have. And second, you will cultivate an open and agile mindset. Your employees will tend to develop and improve with the increase of advanced tech.
If you are still on the fence about the cloud, read up on some technical data and cloud service providers. See how much benefits your business can gain from it. Darshan Negekar and people like him are incredible advocates of tech. They have compelling arguments to prove how much of a major step cloud computing is.
Does your business utilize the cloud? What are the biggest advantages you saw when switching to it? Share your experience with us!
