Digital Disruption from EX²

By now, all marketing professionals are surely aware that their customers are using multiple channels to interact with their companies. Reaching customers on their preferred channels has spurred the growth of cross-channel marketing campaigns to deliver a consistent message and enhance customer engagement. Managing cross-channel marketing can present a number of logistical challenges, including budgeting, asset management and collaboration. A marketing process optimization solution, or MPOS, can help with all of these tasks by streamlining processes from initial planning through cross-channel analytics.

MPOS should not be confused with marketing automation solutions. Marketing automation can be an important part of an MPOS, but a marketing automation solution will not offer the variety of an MPOS. An MPOS can be used for approval workflow, spend management and distributed marketing as well as to streamline all other routine marketing functions. Adding a customer relationship management, content management or digital asset management system to the front-end of an MPOS with integrated automated marketing capabilities increases the value of all solutions and improves the probability of successful marketing efforts.

The days of captive audiences are long gone. Once, marketers could decide when consumers would receive their messages and on what media. Today, consumers have turned the tables and seized power. They choose which messages they want to see and when. They also decide the medium on which they want to view the message. This makes it increasingly important for businesses to utilize cross-media campaigns to reach their target audiences.

What you present, how you present it and when you present it can have a significant impact on the success of your marketing efforts. Cross-media campaigns reach across channels to engage customers with relevant, consistent messages that can be highly personalized for each recipient. By demonstrating an understanding of and respect for the customer's preferences, you have enhanced opportunities to build lasting relationships and improve customer loyalty.

Cross-media campaigns require a bit of special handling to obtain the best results. If you want to help ensure the maximum success from your cross-media campaigns, these tips may help.

Companies are spending more money than ever on marketing analytics and mobile ads, and this spending trend is expected to increase in the next few years. The outlay for these two things is linked. Most marketers understand how much traffic they receive from mobile devices and the types of devices their visitors use, but many are lagging behind in tracking users across different channels and identifying the same users across desktop and mobile app usage. This data is vital as marketers operate in changing technologies, because understanding how customers engage with the brand allows greater efficiency in targeting ads and better marketing campaigns. 

Understanding how customers arrive at a purchasing decision allows companies to spend marketing money wisely. Without the right cross-channel analytics, companies are left without the resources they need to make those decisions. A customer's purchasing journey may start with a TV ad, but the path rarely goes directly to the store from there. Customers may research a brand and its competitors online, often on multiple devices. They may interact with a mobile ad on their phones or tablets. While on their mobile devices or computers, they might get good word-of-mouth reviews from their social media networks. As interest grows, targeted ads keep customers reminded of the brand, which may then culminate in a purchasing decision.

Marketers are exposed to a bevy of buzzwords on a daily basis. Recently, there has been a great deal of attention paid to the terms multi-channel, cross-channel and omni-channel. In some people's minds, these are just three names for the same thing. In reality, although they share some similarities, the terms actually represent very different concepts.

As marketers, it is essential to know how to assign credit to the proper campaign. Without proper attribution, you have little way to know whether the dollars you are spending on a television commercial, print ad or other efforts are providing you with the necessary return. 

In the "olden days," giving credit where it was due was relatively simple. The order form that customers mailed in carried a code that identified the magazine ad or catalog that had generated the sale. When ordering by telephone, customers gave an extension number that identified the commercial they had seen or heard. Discount codes or coupons could be tied to specific campaigns.

You have undoubtedly noticed that the behaviors of your customers have changed dramatically in recent years. Not only does technology now allow customers to shop whenever they want and from any location, but it also alters how they shop and what motivates them to make a purchase decision. 

There is an old saying that if you keep doing the same thing in the same manner, you will get the same results. The saying is only true if the result you are getting is failure. Unfortunately, past success does not always ensure future success if you keep utilizing the same tools and methods. 

The need to adapt is especially critical when disruptive technologies appear. For example, consider how much retailers had to adapt when the Internet became widely available to consumers. In the years since, many chains have had to close numerous brick-and-mortar locations; some brands have completely disappeared from the market, either through acquisition or bankruptcy. At the same time, however, many established brands have thrived and, along with new brands, taken over the market share vacated by those that failed to adapt properly and quickly.

In the coming years, successful marketers are going to have to adapt to the changes brought by advances in technology. They are going to move away from "selling" and become more skilled at establishing relationships. 

Why Engage a Technology Partner

A true technology partner provides many benefits that a technology vendor cannot provide. A vendor might sell you a piece of hardware or software, but a technology partner will make sure that it is the best solution for your specific situation. A vendor can sell you an off-the-shelf solution, but a technology partner can offer a customized solution. A vendor can offer you what is currently available, but a technology partner stays current on new products and new methodologies that could potentially affect your long-term satisfaction with your decision.

To some, the relationship between technology and humans is a bit like the "chicken or the egg" question. There are those who feel that technology is in the driver's seat, and when an innovative technology appears, clever marketers make people believe that they must have it. As a marketing professional, however, you know that it is virtually impossible to sell a product that has no appeal. Even seemingly useless "gadgets" (think singing fish, electronic pets or the iPod toilet dock) have always had some appeal to certain people. 

Other products, such as the emailer telephone, digital audio tapes and laserdiscs, faded into obscurity quickly. It was not that these items were useless or unappealing. It was more that superior technology arrived that offered more to the customer. The people chose to embrace the new technology — not because marketers manipulated them, but because the new technology gave the customers more of what they wanted.

Giving the customers what they want, when they want it and how they want it is what successful businesses do. Today, customers want to interact with your company across a variety of channels, most of which are digital. They want to use their favorite mobile devices to access your site, find you on Facebook and manage their accounts online. 

Consumer attitudes have changed since the early days of the web. When the Internet was in its infancy, baby boomers accounted for a significant portion of sales across all industries, however, they were not comfortable with the new technology. They were hesitant to place online orders, slow to master effective use of search engines and loathed to spend more time conducting a transaction online that took more time than a traditional interaction.

That was then. Today, you are marketing to a generation that has grown up with technology. Generation Y, also called millennials, have been surrounded by cell phones, home computers and high-speed Internet providers for all or most of their lives. You are also marketing to their parents, who came of age during the transition to the digital age and embraced innovative technology. As for the baby boomers, they too have grown more comfortable with technology. They have become accustomed to paying their bills online, using their smartphones to do more than make phone calls and relying on the Internet to locate the products they want.

What all this means is that you need to embrace innovative technologies if you want to reach your customers. You have probably already realized the importance of mobile technology for your marketing efforts. (After all, the smartphone was one of the most disruptive technologies of the 21st century.) However, you cannot afford to ignore other innovations that are quickly gaining popularity among consumers as well as with your competition.