Do you have a centralized customer and prospect database that you access to plan, execute, and measure cross-channel 1to1 marketing campaigns? You're fortunate if your answer is, "Yes."
But... are you done? I think not, as the pace of change in on-line and digital marketing, coupled with the increased splintering of the web, introduces more and more disparate data that need to be harnessed continuously for marketing -i.e., trigger-communications, interactive dialogs, audience segmentations. Face it, the ability to frequently modify a marketing database data model, change its update processes, expand audits, and manage the new data sources to sustain the much needed 360-degree view is unrealistic. Even the best IT staff would be challenged to keep up without making compromises or exchanging long-term strategies for short-term needs.
Don't fret despite my somewhat gloomy intro, as marketers can solve the challenge of data fragmentation -- without IT!
Yes, you heard me correctly! I'll explain, but first I must go backward in time before forward. I was never a big fan and stayed away from the industry kool-aid that many drank when they built a virtual marketing database that used campaign management software to create the "single-view" that a marketer could use for segmentations. (There are many reasons for which I am not a fan, and I can elaborate on those some other time if you should be interested.) I bring it up because marketers have long had the ability to connect to multiple data sources in order to see a whole customer view, but today's dynamic marketplace reveals limitations and perhaps, obsolescence in yesterday's solution. How could this be you ask?
On-line and digital customer information is growing at great speed, and the marketer's need to leverage and innovate with it for a competitive advantage is universally embraced. Marketers need access, and don't have the time to wait for IT and DBAs to load data to the servers to which they have access and map data to the campaign management software, AND to estimate the affect of the additional data on system performance when more data are moved onto the application servers for processing. That simply doesn't work with the pace of marketing change we are experiencing.
Marketers like me need a campaign management solution that allows me to connect to multiple data sources, adding new ones when and where they emerge quickly. We need to do this without IT or DBA intervention and without unnecessarily moving data just to create our expanded or new customer view.
Does anyone know of a marketing automation solution that lets the marketer adjust and expand ever-changing customer view needed for 1:1 marketing communications? Hmm... I do.
B2B Marketing Digital Conference in London
Stephen Mills from O2 advised that you only have 4 seconds to capture interest so RELEVANCY is key if you want to drive campaign results.
Given the volume of communications that we are all trying to manage, you can see why Marketing Management Technology is so popular right now.
Will Schnabel explored the shift of power from vendor to buyer in the sales process - the hunted become the hunters and use multiple channels to inform themselves (Tom Chapman advised that 1 in 5 tweets mentions a brand, product or service). With 70% of leads not being "ready now", event trigger marketing and lead automation are no longer optional tools for the B2B marketer.
Katie and Pamela from Volume informed us that 69% B2B decision makers use social networks and 90% participate in video - thanks for sharing the Oracle case study on Enterprise Performance Management TV.
David Beard re-enforced the message that Sage don't just do finance software! They are doing a great job "keeping the conversation going" around their CRM solutions and interacting with any interest they observe.
"Too much noise" was the message from James Hanson. Every prospect you are speaking to is likely to have at least 5 influencers. Empathy is key - understand what drives the influencers and adapt your marketing plans accordingly. Thanks to Drew Nicholson for sharing the influencer experience at Cisco Webex.
Great energy from Prof Merlin Stone. Are we approaching a tipping point similar to the explosion of telephone marketing 20 years ago? Web 2 has given the customer parity with the supplier this time. Hyper-competition makes planning very difficult - best to be guided by how you would like your customers to talk about you.
A stimulating debate, led by Scot Mckee from Birddog and Steve Kemish from Cyance, forced us to consider whether traditional forms of B2B marketing were dead and that we all need to migrate to digital. Despite protestations from Joel, the panel - and audience - migrated to the middle ground and the much maligned word "Integration".
Guess I'll have to be careful about how much I reference the ability to integrate all your marketing efforts in Aprimo Marketing Studio!
Online Anonymity
One of the things that I love about online surfing is my anonymity. Last week, I hit a site that asked me all sorts of questions which I answered but not truthfully 'cause I just wanted to get to the next page. I answered that... 'I love Green Day and would like to see more of them. How did I know they are a rock band?
Now, because of that innocous questionaire that I filled out I am getting some event trigger marketing emails that reflect my stupid answers. On one hand it is cool that companies can create brand content and deliver it through digital marketing avenues but unfortunately there is no way for them to register or measure the truth. Since I work in marketing automation software as a lead generation specialist, the personal experience with 'Green Day' hit me between the eyes. So, how do I really know I am getting authentic interest on my site or just junk? How do I keep from getting the junk in the first place?
One of the answers could be found in website marketing. You know, pushing out my content to those that might find it relevant through search engine management and PPC (Pay Per Click) management and then from there, measure its effectiveness through either microsite monitoring or just plain Web site traffic analytics. I am curious to know what tools some of you may be using presently to do this. My company is a B2B, which is important to note.
Me, well I will continue to answer questionaires dishonestly but I will be smart enough to get a hotmail account for all the junk I will get in return.
Social Media for a B2B? Come on!
Wow. I just read this great article on the effectiveness of Social Media specifically Facebook and it made me realize the vast possibilities for my organization. Take a minute to read Facebook's frighteningly impressive ad potential and see what I mean. I realize this article is geared more for the B2C then the B2B but I think that is changing even as we speak.
Yes, social media marketing is one piece of the pie, yet tying it to specific offline activity is key. As a marketer responsible for Lead Generation, it is one thing to get alot of leads but it is quite another to actually have the majority of those leads be highly qualified. My goal is to create a healthy sales funnel and consequent sales pipeline. Now, with lead scoring every lead you receive can be a high quality lead. So, when will we initiate trigger marketing based on where someone goes on our Facebook or website? Now is the answer!
What is cool is the ability to send a person a highly personal communique which then links out to a specific microsite or purl. They get to then be engaged with marketing content relevant to them and all the while we are scoring them on thier behavior and determining our next line of communication. Kind of like predicitive modeling. Yes, digital marketing has taken on a whole new life and it is time to join the fun but don't just jump in, be deliberate, methodical and open to change. Make sure your technology for karketing is the best... meaning use a robust, easy to use marketing software tool. We use Aprimo Marketing Studio and love it. What do you use?
Technical Marketing in a Marketing Software World
Well I have to admit, the notion of putting my thoughts into the open world did seem a little daunting to me. I am the technical marketing manager for Aprimo, a marketing automation software company. Seems like the word marketing is used a lot in my title and role :). A few years ago, the words technical and marketing together would have seemed strange, but its amazing just how much marketing is reliant on technology these days, especially in my world. Now, technical marketing is not a role unique to Aprimo, but it just so happens that we are a marketing software automation company.
Interactive Marketing, Direct Marketing, Digital Assets, Lead Management, Social Media - to name a few, are arenas we play in every day and all are completely online. Every day we are solving problems for marketers, andthrough the use of our software.
I dare to think where we would be without the Internet, email or social media (I wouldn't be writing this post for one). The direct mail trend is dropping while interactive and email channels are growing exponentially. Every email sent, opened and clicked can be tracked. This is all valuable information, which is then used to further engage and target each prospect or customer. This information is gold to a marketer and its all using technology, our technology in this case. As you may have guessed I am a technology junkie and I am lucky to be involved in one of the hottest growing industries in the world.
I believe we have only scratched the surface of what we can do with technology and marketing, and I am so excited to be part of this exciting industry.
Being my first blog, I seemed to have waffled a bit. As you can see my passion is technology and how we can use it to solve marketers problems. If this is something that interests you then watch this space, well this blog anyway.
Before I go, I leave you with with this story that really tickled me. Sometimes I think we are not as advanced as we think.
More to come next time....
Marketing Campaigns - Pondering Definition Obsolescence
I was talking to a dear friend of mine in the marketing software industry earlier last week with whom I have not spoken in a few years, as our Linkedin email conversations keep us current [with each other]. We reminisced and then marveled about how much this industry has changed over the past 20 years! I thought it might be fun to share this conversation with you. Okay...I'll skip the updates on kids and other family matters and stick to what a marketing campaign is -- then and now. (Psst, Facebook for other stuff!)
We talked about today's 1:1 marketing campaigns and how to define them. Why do we care? Because he's an academic who needs to impart his industry experience and knowledge to his students and I am a long-time marketing practitioner who now works in product marketing with a product that directly contributes to the possibility of definition obsolescence. Perhaps it's not really an outdated definition in the formal sense, but rather one that that just needs a face-lift.
Here's my thinking: A cross between Wikipedia’s definition of Marketing and the dictionary's entry for campaign, yields the following, which I think still holds true: Marketing Campaign (n.) - A series of connected activities, processes, and communications that are designed and executed to bring about a particular result(s). Not bad, eh?
Our industry-sourced definition has its heritage in transactional, high-volume linear marketing initiatives that are time-driven -- i.e., they have beginning and end dates. Back when campaigns were often outbound mailings (mail was the dominant, if not only channel back then), we mailed to the most qualified individuals according to a set budget. Er, let me amend that... We asked ourselves, "How many can I mail at the existing cost-per-piece?" And, we did everything "manually" because -- back then, our clients didn't yet have customer or prospect databases or campaign management tools. Everything was done ad hoc and took time! Now…
The emergence and continuous evolution and innovation in marketing automation platforms and marketing databases and the proliferation of new digital channels and communication venues have dramatically altered how we plan, execute, and measure campaigns. This is particularly true in the Digital Marketing space. Today, Marketers run multi-channel virtual campaigns, which run continuously (24/7 - if that wasn't clear enough). There is no beginning, and consequently, no end. Or, it ends when the last of all of the individuals has progressed through the Marketer's pre-defined interaction, which includes a mix of communication steps, offers, response opportunities, wait steps. These campaigns require business rules, in the form of decision paths, to "route" individuals through the appropriate mix and sequence of steps in the interaction based on their unique behaviors. They elude description in terms of time, channel and direction (i.e., in/outbound) that are features of our early transactional campaigns. Just push the "RUN" button and let each person in the target audience "hear" his/her own version of the marketing conversation!
I could go on, and for those of you who know me, know that I can!!! I will, but in another blog entry. Come back and visit me, as I'd like to start a conversation about if and how dialogue marketing and virtual campaigns change us, our campaign process, and how we measure performance and ROI.
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