Customer-driven digital marketing: Focus on measurable dimensions of customer-centricity in a cookie-free world

The Google announcement to eliminate third-party cookies in 2023 is a wake-up call for marketers. But this is not the only initiative that affects ROI and revenue generation through performance marketing campaigns.

Mobile device identifiers, privacy protection regulations and walled gardens will impact marketing campaigns as well. Today, up to 50% of web traffic lacks third-party cookies, yet performance marketing is still going strong. Chrome dominates, but since 2019, Adform has provided first-party ID solutions for performance marketers, allowing the identification of users in Firefox and Safari. ID providers work jointly on use cases with “data clean room” providers. A data clean room is software that enables advertisers and brands to match data on a user level without sharing any personally identifiable information (PII) or raw data with one another. Marketers need to be aware that this impacts marketing performance KPIs.

Create value through customer-driven customization

Primary data has been and always will be the preferred option for marketers, but it’s time to break free of the limited thinking of the past. Efficient and successful marketing campaigns are not limited to newsletters. In fact, newsletter fatigue is omnipresent, and research shows that Gen Z is not interested in this kind of communication. Now is the time to bring the concept of hyper customization to life.

Personalization and customization are often used interchangeably. But personalization relies on data points collected by the company and reused to increase relevancy of ads. In contrast, the customers themselves provide the information for customization. They share their preferences, and marketing campaigns feature corresponding content. Moving into an era of first-party data marketing requires the collection of data and preferences from all channels in one single system. As CMOs face the “cookie challenge” that will impact performance marketing, they must shift focus to true customization.

To create true value through dialogue with customers, CMOs must carefully revisit their customization strategies. The data required for customization comes from multiple sources, including sales. Actual experiences, qualitative and quantitative insights, real time analytics and customer service data are the holy grail.

AI-powered persona-based and account-based algorithms enrich this diverse set of information. Intelligent marketing campaign design and marketing platforms allow for truly customized content that can be automatically created and shared with the customer. This includes re-targeting to close the purchasing process, using reinforcement tools or recommendations that map the actual and behavioral data.

Develop a customization strategy with data and analytics leaders

Getting to this point requires a detailed customization strategy that syncs all touchpoints and marketing campaigns for a unique and compelling customer experience. First-party data is essential to gain an accurate measurement of defined KPIs and campaign performance. According to a 2021 study, 88% of marketers state that they are making collecting first-party data a priority. The required data collecting processes and consent requirements must be in place, as this data will connect automation platforms, advertisers and publishers.

Moving beyond the basics requires a robust data strategy that clearly states what data is captured initially in a customer interaction, as well as what other data is necessary to improve the creation of customized content. Turning to a first-party, data-led, multichannel marketing strategy requires marketers to know how to customize content with the help of marketing technology and innovation. Marketers must create a continuum of feedback and analysis to improve and maximize use of the data to maintain the trust and loyalty of the customer. A positive customer experience today is the most important competitive differentiator.

Successful CMOs work with data and analytics leaders to clarify desired business outcomes, optimal use cases and relevant technology investments. Customers demand transparency about the use of their personal information, and they will grow to expect full control and ownership of their personal data. The data strategy must reflect on self-sovereign identity models and allow users to provide proof of their identity and their claims. Customers will pre-program the permission to use data, including granting usage for analytics. The strategy should contain use cases involving data to increase customization and engagement at every touchpoint to ensure that trust is the guiding principle.

Customers are only willing to share their data with companies that reinvent the customer experience and treat them with respect and fairness. The strategy should focus explicitly on assurances to customers about how their personal data will be used and protected and provide proof through actions. It should explore how data insights can create a competitive advantage, open new market opportunities, impact brand purpose, tie back into the supply chain and impact sustainability objectives.

Source: ibm.com

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Customer-driven digital marketing: Save on costs through operational efficiency in marketing

Even when most parts of a business (such as production or accounting) are already digitalized, marketing often remains more art than science. While the merits of creativity in marketing remain undoubted, efficiency plays a vital role in the complex orchestration of marketing tools and assets.

Marketing organizations must explore the processes and procedures enabled by digitalization. They must revisit and question every aspect of their operation to determine if there are ways to leverage technology. CMOs can gain efficiency by examining the technical resources and the skill sets available within the team. Are there sufficient digital-savvy team resources? Are all team members enabled to collaborate digitally — beyond Slack or Teams? Are they managing their projects online with transparency and insight into correlations with other colleagues? While that should be a given by now, most departments manage projects in an analog style, leading to siloed knowledge, bumpy collaboration and increased agency costs.

Optimize agency workflow with clear expectations and accountability

CMOs should bring the same level of analysis to their collaborations with agencies: Do each of your agencies know their exact role and responsibility in a project? Do they navigate the intersections with departments and other agencies to seamlessly execute on deliverables? A lack of clarity often leads to misunderstandings, specifically when delivering campaign assets. To maximize efficiency across channels, set specific expectations from the beginning, and communicate them directly with all parties.

Consider when to bring the media agency on, when to share the production plan, and how to align on timing. Decide when creative assets should go directly to the provider and when they should go to the media agency for upload. And taking this further, make a concrete plan for managing innovation projects. Identify who has the right technical expertise and who will evaluate new formats and technologies. Thoroughly map the process from initiation to completion and consider the intersections along the way.

These clarified processes, combined with embedded collaboration tools, provide a transparency that leads to significant savings in agency fees. The ability to track change requests, feedback and executed changes allows CMOs to identify issues in the workflow and correct them immediately. With these changes, I personally achieved 18% savings in my annual agency fees in a short space of time.

Standard asset templates, consistent cost savings

CMOs should also standardize the creation of marketing assets that typically are created for each campaign from scratch. Pre-configured templates, containers for landing pages, and dynamic creative optimization (DCO) banners allow for real-time updates. Marketers can launch a campaign or a promotion (or adjust a running campaign if the KPIs are not met) in a matter of hours versus days or weeks. The IT department will appreciate the reduced maintenance challenges of this streamlined approach to online assets.

As marketing technology evolves, it creates a demand for flexible teams with state-of-the-art diverse expertise. CMOs can overcome the challenge of filling skill gaps within teams by establishing systems that maximize the efficiency of agency resources. Our IBM analysis shows that on average, our clients achieve a 275% increase in project capacity, 50% increase in speed to completion of work, 98% reduction in approval time, over 15% savings in agency fees and 10% savings in campaigns. Digitalization allows these marketing departments to harness the kind of savings and freed-up resources already enjoyed by other departments.

Source: ibm.com

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Customer-driven digital marketing: Marketing has become one of the key drivers for enterprise growth

According to a 2019 McKinsey report, 83% of CEOs say marketing has become one of the key drivers for enterprise growth. But how does it work in reality? On an operational level, people still believe marketing is the first budget to be sacrificed when profitability slumps. The marketing budget is often reduced to improve the firm’s overall financial results in the short term.

50% of marketers say they struggle to demonstrate their quantitative impact according to a 2020 Gartner Marketing Data and Analytics Report. Having held multiple senior marketing leadership positions myself, I have firsthand experience with this struggle.

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I am thrilled that nowadays marketers have strong, reliable data to prove their value and impact. They can specify how actual revenues are driven through marketing campaigns and calculate the respective ROI of specific channels. By taking advantage of real-time data, augmented through artificial intelligence, marketers can adjust campaign, advertisement and agency spending in real time.

Investments in innovative technology drive enormous efficiencies. But how many marketing departments are following the call to digitize their processes?

To be a true partner for the CEO, marketers need to dive deeper into numbers. To achieve this, here are three areas that provide CMOs unparalleled opportunities to make their case, crystallizing the value that marketing contributes to manifest significant revenue growth for B2B and B2C:

◉ Harvest significant cost savings through operational efficiency in marketing

◉ Focus on measurable dimensions of customer centricity in a cookie-free world

◉ Generate incremental revenues through real-time AI-driven analytics and campaign steering

Harvest significant cost savings through operational efficiency in marketing

While the merits of creativity in marketing remain undoubted, efficiency plays a vital role in the complex orchestration of marketing tools and assets. Marketing organizations can gain efficiency by questioning processes to find more ways to leverage technology.

Having an online collaboration tool embedded within your digital asset management software provides the backbone of the workflow, providing the ability to track each change request, each piece of feedback, and each change executed along the complete workflow. This transparency leads to significant cost savings in agency fees.

CMOs should also consider evaluating the opportunities to industrialize the creation of standard marketing assets such as landing pages and banners. Pre-configured templates enable marketers to launch a campaign or a promotion in a matter of hours versus days or weeks.

Focus on measurable dimensions of customer centricity in a cookie-free world

As the focus shifts from third-party cookies towards primary data, marketing requires the collection of data and preferences from all channels in one single system. Turning to a first-party, data-led multichannel marketing strategy requires marketers to customize content with the help of marketing technology and innovation. Marketers need to create a continuum of feedback and analysis to improve and maximize use of valuable data from multiple sources, including sales, actual experiences, real-time analytics and customer service data.

To leverage this set of diverse information for marketing campaigns, you must enrich it with attributes related to algorithms and powered by artificial intelligence. Intelligent marketing campaign design and marketing platforms allow truly customized content to be automatically created and shared with the customer via the preferred channel of communication.

Generate incremental revenues through real-time AI-driven analytics and campaign steering

Only 54% of marketing decisions are influenced by analytics, and CMOs are often slow to adapt to data-driven decisions and recommendations, according to a 2021 Forrester Global Marketing Study. Many marketing departments still need days or weeks to compile reliable data. The shift to relying on a combination of data from multiple sources, along with the improvement of cross-channel attribution, is paramount to fully understanding customers and the market.

A good system constantly monitors the results based on classic marketing KPIs, ROI and revenues. Underlying negative trends can be identified before they have an impact on marketing campaigns, revenues or business in general. This leads to a more objective, predictive and proactive approach to data discovery, automatically identifying patterns and trends that humans may never uncover. It can unveil bias within data sets stemming from unconscious human preconceptions or flawed data collection techniques, helping to avoid a negative performance impact.

By mirroring the customer journey, attribution modeling reveals which parts of the experience customers prefer and which parts need to be enhanced.

Conclusion

Though CMOs face several challenges, they are now in a unique position to manage marketing like a business operation. Digitalization allows them to harvest significant cost savings by implementing efficient and seamless processes within the marketing team. Additionally, partnering with creative and media agencies frees up resources and allows for significant cost savings. Addressing the skill gap unlocks the full potential of data and technology.

Aligning all campaign data and introducing real time analytics unleashes incremental revenues. If the data and customization strategy is in place and aligned with the business objectives, CMOs can set their companies apart from competitors, increase NPSs significantly, and create stable brand loyalty. Now is the time that CMOs, along with their teams and partners, can respond to the CEO’s call to identify new areas of enterprise growth.

Source: ibm.com

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