Thinking Customer-First Approach to Marketing

Business success in the digital age largely depends on the ability to keep pace with technological changes and evolving customer behavior. The marketing industry is one amongst many which have been impacted by changing technology. Seventy percent of marketers believe that their company’s marketing technology budgets will increase this year. Recent research has revealed that top marketing trends which are likely to play in 2017 include influencer marketing, data-driven marketing, and personalization. Along with these trends, emerging technologies slated to make a strong impact are chatbots, artificial intelligence, mobile marketing, and virtual reality. Marketers today must implement innovative digital strategies as well as achieve revenue goals simultaneously, which may prove challenging at times.

Embracing a customer-centric approach

CMOs today spend more time on technology than CIOs – in the last few years, technology has helped digital marketing come a long way. Marketers today have realized that technology will continue to amplify smart marketing endeavors. Adopting the right marketing mindset in a digitally-driven world is crucial for business success. At the same time, marketers also need to adopt a customer-centric approach. With every 10 percent rise in customer satisfaction, a company can boost its revenue by 2 to 3 percent.

Harnessing the power of mobile technologies and social media

The job of the contemporary marketer is more complex than it was yesterday. To succeed, they will need to adapt to change. They cannot afford to neglect the power of mobile technologies and social media. Mobile has brought in a new era of personalization which gives marketers the opportunity to connect with consumers at a deeper level. Businesses today are harnessing technology to follow their customers across virtual and physical locations. This journey mapping helps them to capture the behavior of customers and drive engagement.

While trying to ascertain how a brand is relevant to a consumer’s life, marketers can leverage the potential of social media. In the complex climate, thinking digital will help them deliver consistent customer experiences across touchpoints. By incorporating social media and qualitative insights into their marketing efforts, they can truly understand what the customers are on the lookout for.

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Three Customer Experience Technology Trends which play a crucial role

Three customer experience technology trends which have been playing an important role since the last year include omni-channel service, Big Data analytics, and mobile messaging. Providing omni-channel services helps companies establish meaningful connections with the target audience ensuring a seamless experience across all channels.

Furthermore, Big Data analytics is fast changing how businesses communicate with consumers. Leveraging Big Data analytics, brands can establish long-term relationships. Recently, a low-cost airline used speech analytics to derive insights from live-recorded interactions with customers. With speech analytics, they could ascertain customer sentiment and what their experience was like.

Customer experiences also depend on the brand’s ability to communicate. Mobile messaging has emerged as a critical channel today. Approximately 3.6 billion people will be using messaging apps by the end of 2018. In spite of this trend, most companies have not been prompt in embracing mobile messaging in order to diversify customer communication.

AI helps Deliver next-gen customer service

In addition to the above trends, marketers need to keep an eye on the developments in artificial intelligence and chatbots. In the era of digital transformation, companies cannot be slow in implementing the necessary technologies. Customers expect ease, efficiency, and authenticity in services. To wade through data and make better use of it, companies can turn to AI or artificial intelligence. The basic trend which marketers witness today is data overflow. AI streamlines the customer interaction process, reducing the friction which customers witness to obtain relevant information. Data is no longer “read-only”. Bots have introduced interactive elements leading to a paradigm shift in customer service technology.

Putting the customer’s needs first in a digital world

Apart from taking innovative technologies in consideration, a customer-centric approach lies at the heart of a successful business. Creating digital content and campaigns which put the customer first has become imperative. Instead of promoting a brand, the content should focus on enhancing the customer’s life. The good news is that technology empowers marketers to respond to customers effectively. To stay in the game marketers must bring in data and analytics to ascertain customer pain points.

Using analytics, an insurance company discovered that its customers were distressed over the long claim process. To make their lives easy, the company introduced a mobile app which allowed customers to file claims within minutes. Hence, we see how digital innovation acts as a catalyst to enhance customer experience. One of the best ways to tackle customer experience is to follow it from the customer’s point of view. This unlocks new business opportunities and facilitates the creation of effective business models.

Adopting a customer-focused mindset

Four best practices a company must adopt for customer-centricity are:

• Being passionate and believing that customers come first
• Using customer data to gather valuable insights
• Focusing on customer wants and aligning products to these requirements
• Aiming at building relationships which maximize customer’s service experience
• Planning and implementing a well-thought out customer strategy which focuses on retaining loyal customers
• Increasing brand advocacy

Why should everyone be involved in marketing?

It will be difficult to disseminate the brand message if everybody in the organization is not in sync with the brand story. It is a good idea to encourage employees to create a social media presence where they share positive sentiments about the brand.

Far too often businesses leave the job of marketing to the marketing department. However, by corralling marketing functions into one department, businesses unintentionally diffuse the impact which other departments have on the customer journey. But the question is-are all departments prepared to carry out marketing functions? One smart step is to impart marketing training for all involved in the business. This can include the finance team, the admin team, and the delivery people. The human resource department, which is also the face of the organization, can organize company-wide trainings which instill a culture of marketing in every function. Additionally, the CRM features may not be obvious to all the employees. It’s necessary that the staff is trained on CRM systems. Although technology is an enabler, it is the employees who can bring about a transformation.

Moreover, inclusive marketing is the need of the hour. It involves marketing to specific demographics without relying on stereotypes. It also refers to processes and approach which work best for the larger audience and yield tangible results. These processes should be deployed by teams which are not broken down into silos. Instead, different teams should step into each other’s shoes and steer the business together towards success.

Charting out a competitive position

Technology is a double-edged sword for marketers. Understanding marketing technology is only one part of the equation which leads to success. This knowledge can be applied to harness the potential of social and mobile. Forums can act as powerful social media channels for brands. The online communities provide insights into a focused target which enable marketers to be precise. The other side is understanding the tech tools which ensure marketing success. Moreover, technology also prompts companies to get more stringent with their hiring and training. They are looking at people with expertise who will guarantee maximum returns from tech investments. The current times are one of the most exciting to work in marketing.

Fueled by innovation and actionable insights, marketing endeavors coupled with the right mindset will help businesses to carve a niche for themselves. Developing an agile marketing mindset is imperative for businesses. It includes planning, rapid iterations to campaigns and transparency. With agile marketing you can develop a vision which is creative, gather insights into customer behavior and create ideal conditions for execution of projects. In marketing, some tactics may look promising, but if you are smart enough, you will realize that it’s best to test the waters. The first step is to launch a pilot campaign, followed by ascertaining the quality of data which is obtained and finally run an effective market testing program which helps determine messages that resonate best with the audience. It will help determine what the customer exactly cares about and align campaigns to these needs.

Staying at top is not impossible – all it requires is taking small, constructive steps and remaining prepared to evolve over time. The results may not be apparent overnight, but with the right mindset and patience you will indisputably witness positive results.

To know more about developing a customer centric marketing approach, attend the session on “The Best Marketing Doesn’t Feel Like Marketing: Adopting a Marketing Mindset for the Modern Digital World” at the MarTech conference in  San Francisco on Thursday, May 11 at 9:00 am. Speaker Tom Fishburne, Founder and CEO at Marketoonist will speak about framing the right marketing mindset needed to take advantage of the modern digital world.  

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