Editorial
In today’s world of instant communication and gratification, marketers are no longer solely responsible for the creation and distribution of campaigns. They are increasingly responsible for the entire customer experience.
And there are elevated expectations surrounding this experience — on the part of customers and on the part of the business the marketer serves.
Let’s take a look at how marketing technology convergence can help marketers and businesses across industries meet this challenge head on.
Make Data Actionable
More than ever before, marketers have ample access to customer engagement data. But access to data isn’t enough. While data is the catalyst for relevant customer experiences, brands need access to data that provides a cohesive view of customers, rather than disjointed moments in their buying journey.
Connecting digital marketing channels and traditionally separate technology disciplines such as sales, service, advertising, and marketing can help brands achieve a holistic, data-driven picture of their customers — from initial touchpoint through win-back process to everything in between. Only then will they be able to not just collect data, but truly harness that data to drive engagement and increase customer satisfaction and sales through personalized messages.
Provide Consistent Experiences
A single customer’s journey with a brand may start with an ad click, transition to a website view, prompt a question on social media, lead to a conversation on chat, drive an app download, and ideally, culminate with a purchase — all within a matter of minutes.
Marketers should have a clear view into the path each customer takes with their brand. Whether campaigns include online channels such as email and mobile, or an offline channel such as direct mail, marketers need a clear view into what is and isn’t working and the ability to change campaigns when they aren’t performing.
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Cross-channel pioneers embrace this fluid journey and deliver content on channels mandated by the customer and the situation. Whether the right channel at a specific moment is email, mobile, social, ads, the web or connected devices, they have the ability to plan and optimize each interaction for a consistent experience.
Make Everything Personal
Having access to end-to-end data about the customer allows for an unprecedented level of personalization. It’s never been easier to form authentic relationships at scale by not only responding to known interests, but predicting future needs.
Marketers can easily leverage tech integrations between email, SMS, mobile push notifications, digital advertising and predictive intelligence — and expand their reach to channels like in-app messaging, call centers, connected devices, and even offline channels like direct mail — to send targeted, one-to-one communications to customers.
Measure and Adjust in Real Time
Marketing leaders share a similar attribute: they’re rarely satisfied with the results of their work. They recognize that every campaign can be optimized to perform better.
The most effective marketers measure much more than clicks and opens. They align each campaign to a specific business goal, and are able to gauge every interaction’s impact on attainment.
To truly take this a step further marketers should evaluate metrics on how different factors influence every interaction. What messaging frequency and content produces the best results? On which channels? Using what digital marketing tools? And perhaps most importantly, how can a marketer adjust and test combinations of each to improve performance going forward?
Follow the Customer’s Lead
As much as we might like to think otherwise, marketers aren’t pioneering the digital revolution. The best and brightest are following the customer’s lead. With or without us, customers have gone cross channel, cross-business function and cross-device — and they expect a personalized, relevant and rewarding experience every step of the way.
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