It may be data driven, but isn’t it all just Marketing?
It’s not Direct or Digital anymore. Newspapers have online subscription services. TV has ‘on demand’ viewing. Customer databases inform targeted social media advertising. And nobody is saying that web customers and shop customers are completely different. They haven’t been for years. The data tells us so! It tells us that Integrated Marketing, rather than a ‘battle of the channels’ will deliver Marketing and Business success
What’s been ‘new’ for quite a while, is that data is no longer the province of ‘the data people’. It is essential that ALL Marketers are equipped to understand what is needed, how it might be managed, resources required and how to apply it. To be data driven.
Direct vs Digital? Advertising vs Marketing? Acquisition vs retention? It’s history.
We’ve always known that different channels work together for more successful marketing, but the explosion in both the volume and processing ability of customer data, means that we now have the greatest opportunity to direct and combine our efforts more effectively.
2/3rds of brands say they now plan budgets and organise marketing across channels and 90% of the remaining brands are planning to do it soon! (Salesforce research Jan 2018)
Data of course tells us what people do, but it is still for the marketer to piece together the insight of why they do it. We must understand the customer’s WIIFM – What's In It For Me? – and then be able to translate, brief and manage compelling adverts, direct comms and customer experience
Marketing is both simple and complicated
Simple in that we only have 3 jobs:
- Find and attract the best customers
- Hang onto them
- Help them spend more with us than with our competitors
Complicated in that there are so many channels and techniques to choose from and until now, divergent ways of understanding their relevant value. And then there’s always the latest ‘Magic bullet’ – QR codes anyone?
Job 1 was often the province of media research and intelligence, and yet now our ability to understand who our best customers are – database analysis – and mapping onto acquisition media either through segments and profiles of traditional media, or directly through ‘lookalikes’ in for example Facebook advertising, mean that not only Direct & Digital are as one, but Advertising and Customer Marketing have moved ever closer together.
Jobs 2 & 3 were often the responsibility of the CRM people, but we now know that managing customers’ relationships, or more accurately, the interactions and preference for your brand, however tenuous, is critical to marketing and business success. That success starts with who we attract and convert in the first place.
Customer experience has never been more important and now browsing data and interaction with customers, means that we can better understand the customer journey and how that might differ, not just for different segments, but right down to individual customers and convert retain and grow those customers
The sheer range of available media means that the modern marketer needs to be equipped to understand which customer data is a priority is and how can it be applied to evaluate channels, inform Marketing planning and communicate responsibly with prospects and customers.
From ‘Direct & Digital’ to Integrated Marketing
Today there is no meaningful distinction between offline or digital channels, that seek a response. Add in the fact that we know that Integrated Marketing across channels works best and relies on varying forms of Data to inform its planning and implementation.
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