How instrumental Marketing is influencing our personal life.
"Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does." - Marketing Author Steuart Henderson Britt.
This notion might make you smile. However, this oversight could lead to disastrous consequences: bad communication is the premise for future business failure.
Imagine this: you are the CMO at an innovative company selling a new product that is set to revolutionize the industry. But, if you are shouting into the void and nobody hears you, what is the point?
To survive, you need a great product coupled with an excellent concept combined with winning communication. Why? Because Marketing sits at the intersection of a company and the consumer. Marketing is a conversation that begins with an introduction between two entities, posing the right questions that lead to a greater understanding.
Digitalization has connected our world like never before and has pushed our sense of social connectedness and digital identity, further. A young generation of 'digital natives' emphasize these facts even more.
Social media technologies are today the golden link. Anyone, anywhere across the world, can post, comment, and share information. These socially connected users represent a vast pool of aggregated data for Marketers to capture. With the right set of tools to 'instrumentalize' Marketing through social listening, they can target the intended audience at the right moment, and most of all influence their perspective with the relevant messaging. Promoting a product is essential, but promoting it successfully without customers noticing - is genius.
Consumerism: the Paralyzing Contradiction.
Today, consumers struggle in an overwhelming environment of never-ending options. To some extent, having the power of choice is excellent; but this could also lead to decision making paralysis. The digitalization of our daily lives and the infinite number of products online have given rise to a new set of challenges for businesses.
Consumers are now driving the buyer's journey and changing the game. They are more informed, connected, autonomous, and flexible when buying their products: they define when, where, and how to consume.
This aspect redefines the business rule with a need for Marketers to adopt a more intelligent consumer-centric approach. Not only must they create faster, more streamlined interactions with consumers - but also take a much more personalized, guided, and empathetic approach to communication. Therefore, collecting more information about consumers (psychological, personal, social, and cultural), will lead to a better 'engagement architecture' that helps the consumer make an easier, final choice.
The dilemma.
Consumers expect interactive purchasing experiences delivered with personalized decision options and relevant brand recommendations based on their preferences. They expect to see what they are looking for, when and where they are looking for it.
Can you know your consumers better without invading their privacy?
Can you attract the right consumers and address their needs individually?
Can you deliver impactful value at every stage of the consumer journey without spamming them?
Can you achieve this optimal combination?
Introducing: Smart Marketing.
As the modern father of Advertising, David Ogilvy would say: "A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself. It should rivet the reader's attention on the product. Instead of saying, 'What a clever advertisement,' the reader says, 'I never knew that before. I must try this product' ".
While some companies focus on pushing their products, others approach the business in a more forward-thinking way: adopting intelligent Marketing to address real peoples' needs.
We need to rethink Marketing workflows through the eyes of a sophisticated consumer. The objective is to attract interest with the right engaging content and move consumers to the 'buy now' button: they see it, it speaks to them, and they are just one click away from having it!
I know you very well, but I'm not a creep.
With more than half of the world's population using the internet, we can collect unprecedented amounts of consumer data. If login data is gold, social media logins are platinum. Why? Because social logins across sites provide so much qualitative and verified data: geodemographic preferences, interests, habits, previous interactions, likes, dislikes, and more.
This intrusion into consumers online activity could enhanced a certain level of creepiness that they would rather avoid…! So, while personalization is needed, be careful to approach it with finesse. Never step too far across the line otherwise, the stalker-vibe is here and game-over. Don't create a negative digital experience – it is the paradox of hyper-personalization: create relevance without crossing the creepy line.
Like Hansel & Gretel, people leave digital crumbs along the way...
To stay on the right side of the privacy line, Europe voted in 2018 the instauration of the data and privacy regulation (GDPR), which led to a shift from a personal data 'ownership' by companies to 'ownership' and even greater control by the individual. But is it the case? Now, consumers consent to terms & conditions for the use of personal data, and almost always, accept conditions that they don't really understand or haven't read...
When users click 'Yes' and agree to access a website, site owners obtain explicit consent and official approval to enjoy precious pieces of information to build a highly accurate and relevant picture of their users for Marketing strategies.
We can identify three primary consumers data-sources collected by companies:
The most valuable is First-party data. This data is obtained directly through a website or app, using cookies and web-tracking technologies. Behaviors, interactions, and interests are aggregated across the interface providing the first-party data collection.
An organization’s partners who offer complementary products or services, allowing reaching a new audience of prospective consumers, consolidate second-party data. Think of a hotel-booking website collaborating with an airline to mutually benefit from each other's consumers data sources.
Finally, Third-party data is purchased either from a company specializing in data collection or by any other third-data provider for data 'off the shelf'.
With the rise of machine learning (AI), combined with the complexity of emerging analytics technologies, amplified by the proliferation of IoT devices, we have entered a new era of unprecedented consumer data quality and usage.
The law of action-reaction.
Understanding consumers' insights and intent help Marketers trigger an action. Thanks to advanced analytics, Marketers can make predictions about future behaviors, and uncover new, unexpected patterns or connections across channels. Soon, even more intelligent technologies will generate prescriptive analytics: reusing the insights revealed by the predictive analytics to generate key recommendations for the 'Next Best Action.' Knowing the trends that influence your consumers will help you anticipate their next needs. It is simple: every consumer's action (towards a brand) should trigger an instant, automatic Marketing reaction.
More data sources mean more data accuracy, which leads to conversion. Yes, it is all about conversion. To maximize it, you need Inbound Marketing techniques. Why Inbound Marketing? Outbound Marketing pushes messages to a broad (and potentially uninterested) audience, while Inbound Marketing represents the most cost-effective way to catch and 'pull-in' your best potential customers. Like a magnet, they irresistibly come to you thanks to the personalized-targeted content you provide…without even noticing it. Here comes the beautiful invasion.
The end-goal here is to turn prospects into actual customers, and in-fine promoters. By using a conversion funnel: retargeting, social listening, relevant call(s)-to-action, and incentives to push visitors to a website or app, the end-goal is tangible. The objective is to increase the value of each visitor to achieve optimum ROI. Shaping the best experience by understanding how people react to a given context is what it is all about. So test, test, and retest! Listen and learn from your consumers because learning is where innovation strategy begins.
By approaching consumers holistically and comparing cross-channel metrics in real-time, companies can gain a better understanding of what is working and enables them to be responsive. This is how the virtuous circle of consumers data is created: by identifying the right combination of techniques, you will reduce your consumers acquisition costs and take the guesswork out of what comes next - isn't that great?
Your key takeaways:
- Understand your consumers as individuals and not as a mass.
- Use that understanding to shape an intuitive & personally relevant consumer journey.
- Be a better partner to your consumers and embark on a real relationship.
- Use Inbound Marketing techniques and combine them with AI-powered technologies and capabilities to maximize your impact.
- Use all those ingredients to get the ultimate power: delivering the right experience, the right way, for the right reason.
Now you know. Be inspired. Anticipate your consumer's thinking and behaviors, and exploit those valuable information traces to get the best plan aligned, and build the most pleasant consumer experience architecture there is!
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This article is part of a series by the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXCITE Strategy Department. Get involved in the conversation - like, share, comment!
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