When you know a little about someone, you can relate to them. And the better you know your customers, the better you can relate to them, help them, and meet their needs.
Brands that pay attention to their customers’ behavior can use those insights to provide better experiences: information, tools, and services that can make their lives easier.
Data Is the Key
Brands that use data to drive experiences will win over their customers – and win against their competitors – by being not only relevant, but anticipatory. Using the right data in the right ways can help you to understand, predict, and answer your customers’ needs before the needs even arise.
But how do you get there? It’s a process of maturing the ways in which you find, gather, analyze, and act on all of that data.
At Intouch, we believe in modern marketing, and we help our clients by investigating and building a plan to increase their levels of readiness – focusing on what makes sense to do in the right order to make the most impact.
Where do you sit on the path to modern marketing maturity, to becoming truly data-driven?
Collection
You know you have data coming in, and you have access to at least some of it. But it’s fragmented, which causes a lack of visibility, and a lack of access, to it. You have some measures of success that have been defined, but they’re limited. Here’s a tough question: Does that imply an underlying fear of the marketing truths that data might reveal?
Targeting
Some level of systems integration is in place to inform the ways in which you engage customers. But traditional market research is still the primary driver of your strategy and segmentation. Is it fair to say that there is a limited understanding of the value of data at both the organizational and the stakeholder levels?
Strategic
Data is used as the basis for dynamic customer segmentation and personalization. KPIs, based on the ecosystem, are used to inform segment- and journey-based performance and optimization. Is your data truly driving your strategy?
Insight
Customer engagement and data insights are automated and optimized. They work to drive micro-segment strategies and experiences. If you’re really here, at this stage of modern marketing evolution, your brand’s performance metrics are probably tied to individual customer journeys: are they?
Foresight
Moving past automation and orchestration: At this phase, your brand’s ongoing strategies are informed by predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. You are able to anticipate customer needs and optimize all of your customer touch points to generate the greatest business results.
Once you know your current level of modern marketing maturity, you can build an actionable plan to move to the next. Data is the secret to success. Reach out to B2D today to learn more.
Mike Strassberg is senior vice president of sales and marketing at Intouch B2D.