The journey from data to actionable insights
Disruption is shaking up the business world. New technologies are continuously evolving, propelling the natural transformation of the customer buying process. The exponential growth of web, mobile and social networking has redefined the customer journey – customers are now interacting with enterprises across more channels and touchpoints than ever before.
While additional data from these sources can be a great way for marketers to craft a targeted and personalised approach to engage customers, the process of analysing available data to gain valuable insights can be complex and daunting.
In order to ensure meaningful relationships with current and potential customers, marketers require a solution that can integrate data from content management, relationship management, marketing automation and other systems to provide a holistic view of known and anonymous individual customers.
Aligning key metrics to business goals
Despite, and perhaps because of, the sheer volume of available customer interaction data, there has been little success when it comes to translating it into relevant insights.
Usual spreadsheet-based analytics are not insightful enough and tend to be reflective rather than forward-looking. To add another layer of complexity, data is stored in numerous disconnected systems and such a fragmented approach makes it near impossible to effect real time change to the brand experience.
The challenge lies not only in measuring and analysing the data but also knowing which marketing metrics to measure and how they align with the larger goals of the business. Each business unit, be it marketing, sales or customer service has its own set of KPIs and organisations rarely measure individual successes against the key goals of the business as a whole.
A centralised command centre that collects and analyses data can give organisations the capability to relate the KPIs of each business unit to the overall KPIs of the business. As a result, organisations get a comprehensive view of how each activity is contributing to business success.
Armed with this knowledge, companies can connect thecustomer journey across the multiple touchpoints to deliver a more relevant and consistent experience with the brand.
Cloud-based analytics and real-time machine learning
Relevant data can be mined from a host of different sources – CRM tools, content management and marketing automation systems among others. In order to paint an accurate picture of the customers’ journey across the buying process, businesses must dip into all these systems that record customer information and engagement. Some available tools will simply provide background data, while others can run programmes or make adjustments to push groups of individuals toward marketing, or client satisfaction goals.
However, new age cloud-based analytics and real-time machine learning technologiescan leverage data in more than one way:
• Track customer interaction through different channels and provide suggestions on how the individuals can be engaged. The information is then shared automatically across sales and marketing teams, when it can make a difference, instead of being included in a report to the management at the end of a campaign.
• Provide information on both known and unknown contacts. This can be a crucial factor, considering only 2-3 per cent of all contacts are authenticated in most organisations. Unlike simple marketing tools which work on authenticated contacts, these tools give companies the ability to build personas for unnamed contacts providing a much more informed view with which to build engagement techniques.
How it works
A digital marketing command centre can be a powerful tool for businesses. It can change the way businesses market to, and nurture, their leads. Take for instance a typical email marketing campaign. The email can be tailored to different segments. A new customer can see a message prompting them to try the product whereas an existing customer can be given a promotion for their next buy. Some platforms also use connectors to collect and collate data from various marketing systems. This data is then used to evaluate how marketing efforts are contributing to goals such as lead generation or revenue growth. As such, the central command centre acts as a repository for all information related to marketing. This information can be leveraged by companies at crucial points in the prospect’s decision making process.
We are already witnessing the shift towards data-driven marketing. The emergence of cloud-based platforms that unify data analytics will further disrupt the marketing models. Companies will be able to grow beyond archaic concepts such as the marketing funnel, click-counting, opinion-driven decisions and one-way communications, that measure activity but don’t predict customer behaviour.
By working in the cloud, companies can create a self-driving and self-improving platform that can incorporate insights from all relevant data enabling meaningful and productive customer conversations. In the competitive marketplace today, this could very well turn out to be a defining factor for the company’s success.
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