Q&A: Marketing at full power

Why is it such a crit­i­cal time to cel­e­brate the mar­keter and show what’s pos­si­ble when it comes to the future of mar­ket­ing?

We have been on a nev­er-end­ing jour­ney where chan­nels and data keep being added into the mix, both gen­er­a­tional­ly and region­al­ly. There is a con­stant need to con­nect data and acti­vate it across those chan­nels – all while try­ing not to let it over­whelm us.

There are times when organ­i­sa­tions think they need to have it all, the per­fect 360-degree cus­tomer view. Cer­tain­ly, it’s a mis­sion, some­thing to strive for, but there’s plen­ty to work on in the here and now. Near­ly a third of mar­keters can’t reach their goals because they are unable to act on exist­ing cus­tomer data, and 50% can’t deal with new cus­tomer data because it’s stuck in siloes. But mar­keters are the glue that holds the organ­i­sa­tion togeth­er. They need this data to work for them to be able to deliv­er on cus­tomer demands.

You recent­ly did some research to find out what the impact would be for busi­ness­es that ful­ly com­mit to the idea of being ‘cus­tomer-obsessed’. What does this mean and what were the find­ings?

What is cer­tain is that the cus­tomer is 100% in charge. We com­mis­sioned For­rester to speak to 622 senior mar­keters glob­al­ly to find out where their busi­ness­es were on this jour­ney to ‘cus­tomer obses­sion’. I like Forrester’s def­i­n­i­tion: it’s the abil­i­ty to con­nect chan­nels in a clear way that’s fric­tion­less. We’ve seen addi­tion­al research say­ing that cus­tomer obses­sion improves sat­is­fac­tion by dou­ble dig­its, so focus­ing on it and cre­at­ing uni­fied goals to put it into action is a clear suc­cess strat­e­gy. Yet the For­rester research found that only 15% of busi­ness­es fell into the cat­e­go­ry of being ful­ly cus­tomer-obsessed.

What does the ide­al cus­tomer-obsessed strat­e­gy look like and why are so few mar­keters suc­ceed­ing?

It’s about mak­ing sure that you can lever­age the data you have access to, look­ing at the chan­nels you know are work­ing but also try­ing out new things. But in today’s fast-mov­ing world it’s also about doing them quick­ly. Many mar­keters have been ham­strung because they’re under a huge tech­no­log­i­cal bur­den. One cus­tomer told me it took them 12 dif­fer­ent sys­tems to build a cam­paign.

Emarsys is in the busi­ness of break­ing down the siloes between data and over­com­ing the mul­ti-sys­tem maze mar­keters must nav­i­gate. For some brands I talk to, every time a mar­keter wants to add a new attribute or field, they have to start it as a new IT project. Mar­keters can’t func­tion like that in today’s world.

Two recent addi­tions to our plat­form real­ly show how we can help mar­keters move into the future. One focus­es on Con­ver­sa­tion­al Chan­nels – find­ing new ways to con­nect with cus­tomers across What­sApp, and soon Face­book, Mes­sen­ger, chat­bots and more.

The sec­ond is real­ly a recog­ni­tion of mar­keters as that glue, that organ­i­sa­tion­al con­nec­tive tis­sue. It’s more impor­tant than ever that they work in col­lab­o­ra­tion with their col­leagues across oth­er depart­ments, such as sales or sourc­ing. Our Account Engage­ment solu­tion allows mar­keters to reach new audi­ences in col­lab­o­ra­tion with, or some­times on behalf of, their sales part­ners, sur­fac­ing high­er qual­i­ty, sales ready leads. It gives vital whole-organ­i­sa­tion vis­i­bil­i­ty into mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties and their results, but in a pri­va­cy-first way.

What can atten­dees – both in-per­son and vir­tu­al – expect from Pow­er to the Mar­keter 2022?

This is a mul­ti-cen­tre, mul­ti-part­ner event that not only show­cas­es the lat­est thought lead­er­ship but also fea­tures insights from top mar­ket­ing tal­ent and lead­ing organ­i­sa­tions. We’ve part­nered with Vogue Busi­ness to shine a glob­al spot­light on inno­va­tions that mean con­sumer needs are met in both phys­i­cal and vir­tu­al envi­ron­ments. Some pre­sen­ta­tions will be a lit­tle more out-there and futur­is­tic, and oth­ers will be best-in-class insights that you can take away and use today. We are cel­e­brat­ing the pow­er of the mar­keter and all they have achieved, and all they will be able to achieve – with the right sup­port and tools at hand.

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it Emarsys.com

Pro­mot­ed by Emarsys