Undoubtedly, the biggest problem marketing organizations face today isn’t implementing new tools, or consolidating their data, neither of which are trivial, but its managing the human aspect of upheaval wrought by the need for change.
Lead the way
Translating Customer Engagement
… from Strategy to Action
If there is any silver lining in the current economic downturn it is that desperation has emboldened marketers to begin abandoning traditional approaches in favors of new ways of reaching their audiences. At this point, many are familiar with the notion of engagement – that you can no longer just broadcast a message, but need to make communications highly targeted and highly relevant, but few have been able to bridge the concept into action. “Translating Customer Engagement” is intended to be a 101 level treatment of how to begin enacting engagement.
(<- click here to download a 1.8mb .pdf of the eBook)
One thing that has become apparent while breaking down marketing services organizations is that there are two different definitions of the term strategy floating around that have fairly different meanings.
CCMO Pyramid – Building Block by Block
Many of today’s marketing organizations were built and optimized for a scenario in which they had nearly complete control over the consumption of messaging. Changes in technology and society however have dramatically altered this picture. Due to shrinking reachability, and greater addressability the control has shifted to the customer. To remain relevant, therefore, marketing organizations need to re-optimize around the reality of this changed environment.
Measure It
Talking Continuous Improvement w/ Laura Patterson
Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Laura Patterson, President of Vision Edge Marketing, a consultancy focused on driving metrics and measurement into marketing organizations, and recount some of her fundamental beliefs on the need for the marketing organization to become a performance driven organization.
Marketing organizations are facing unprecedented challenges. Traditional above the line techniques are producing diminishing returns; A host of new technologies are enabling a multitude of new engagement strategies; and economic conditions are mandating a commitment to demonstrable performance. While all of these must be addressed, the fundamental starting point needs to be with an analytical, continuous improvement program – one that embraces ROI and drives maximizing LTV. Ultimately, this will be accomplished by analyzing the interaction points and developing an optimal treatment path for high value segments.
Relationship Economics w/ Allen Weiss
Here is a recount of Allen Weiss, distinguished professor of marketing at USC, talk on relationships at the MarketingProfs b2b conference: His approach is very economics, Porter’s 5 forces centric for evaluating relationships.
What inventory is to a product business, hours are to a services organization. One way a service organization can differentiate is by finding ways to maximize the return of their bench time; both in terms of re-investing in new capabilities, but also in managing their contingent worker usage and overall margin.
Coach It
Overall, the marketing landscape from both a philosophical and execution perspective is changing radically. Successful marketing organizations, however, don’t just react, but take a measured, patient approach to evolving themselves to suit the times.
