15 years ago, the main responsibility of the database marketer was mainly to produce analysis results and outbound DM selections on the customer database. As a result of the introduction of a wave of new media and technologies today\u2019s marketer is required to manage a whole new and vastly more complex set of skills to communicate properly with the consumer. <\/p>\n
The modern consumer is 24\/7 connected, across a broad spectrum of channels and expects relevance in every channel at every moment that he or she decides to interact with you. The Gartner Digital marketing transit map gives an idea of the channels marketers have to deal with these days.<\/p>\n
Relevance indeed. And not only relevance from the consumer\u2019s perspective (with whom you are communicating with). You also need to be relevant from the perspective of the customer\u2019s needs (based on external data and\/or previous contact moments) and at every moment in every channel that this consumer is communicating his needs to you. On top of that it\u2019s essential that you find just the right touch with regard to subtlety. Knowing too much can be just as damaging as not knowing enough when it comes to managing the customer relationship. <\/p>\n Ideally your company has a customer contact strategy that\u2019s implemented and applied across the business, so that you can be relevant and consistent across all channels. <\/p>\n The dimensions in which you should be consistent and relevant are amongst others:<\/p>\n In this ever changing work space it is becoming harder and harder for a marketer to balance all these processes. The volumes of data that are being processed and also the increasing set of skills that are required to manage all that, make it virtually impossible to manage all this by hand yourself.<\/p>\n New types of marketing software help the marketer to make his tasks more and more efficient to manage. The main responsibility of the marketing team has become to manage all processes using the right set of tools. And in that context, a real-time dialogue has replaced the historic outbound campaigns and programs. As a marketer you need to be able to coordinate across channels seamlessly. A strong grip on Cross channel campaign management or program management is crucial to achieve this.<\/p>\n According to Gartner, the definition of campaign management<\/strong> is: According to this definition, campaign management is a mechanism through which marketing expertise and technology go hand in hand to optimise data-based marketing. <\/p>\n Technology can play a very important role in managing and evaluating the effectiveness of programs and campaigns based on business rules. This allows marketers to spend valuable time and energy on implementing and optimising their marketing vision. Technology can play an important facilitating role, because it can help solve operational bottlenecks. Software is not a goal on itself but a means to achieve your goals (cross channel consistent and relevant interaction with your customer).<\/p>\n So that sounds easy, right? In order to manage the new marketing complexity, all you have to do is select and implement the right marketing software so that you can once again focus on your marketing duties. In reality however, this has proven to be a formidable challenge to most companies. You\u2019re likely to come across the following obstacles in your own company if you try to make the transition to campaign management as a strategy<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Many companies are organised in various commercial divisions that have a certain amount of autonomy. It is very common for Sales, Marketing intelligence, Marketing communication, Online marketing and PR to be separate teams. These separate teams have their own agendas and very little coordination. If you then try to make the transition to a centrally led marketing approach, all these silo\u00b4s will have to converge<\/a> into a new structure where their own decision making role is often reviewed completely. Not everyone will be comfortable with a change like that.<\/p>\n There are many companies out there who still work from legacy systems that were designed long before the multichannel challenge started. As a result it will be very challenging to align them in a structure that facilitates a centrally coordinated approach. <\/p>\n Replacing these systems is usually a very painful cost-and labour intensive process because of the fact that these systems are intertwined with all kinds of processes and structures in a way that over time has grown to be completely intransparent. In a recent case study a Dutch major bank calculated that the replacement of legacy systems for the purpose of implementing cross channel campaign management cost them 70 million euros!<\/p>\n In decisions involving any software (including marketing tools) IT often is in the lead. To most IT staff, it is not obvious why the software needs of a marketer (flexibility of data-driven communication) are not covered by the existing systems that IT is managing and that contain all the companies data as well (manageable and structured \/ controllable). As a marketer you\u2019re then challenged on subjects that are not your primary field of expertise, like costs of cross channel marketing integration<\/a> or data security.<\/p>\n The step to cross channel campaign management usually presents additional challenges to an organisation that are easy to underestimate up front. Examples are IT-related matters, but also marketing communication (like producing the required content, which can be a lot!), cross channel data linkage (how do I recognise the same customer especially in channels where he is under normal circumstances anonymous) and proposition development \/ matching the right propositions to the right segments. <\/p>\n A good planning and preparation is needed to make the step to centrally coordinated campaign management. The following 5 elements are key for this: Many suppliers of marketing software use the term \u201csegment of one\u201d these days, implying that it\u00b4s possible to define unique communication strategies automatically generated on individual customers\u00b4 preferences. However, trying to implement this in the way it is meant, puts an awful lot of pressure on your product- and content teams. In reality, the extra effort does not generate the ROI compared to working with segments. Segment-of-one technologies end up re-using the same content into contact strategies with less variation as you would expect from the term.<\/li>\n It is always better to have a solid but basic customer contact strategy that works and that is implemented consistently than to have a hugely advanced and complex 1:1 strategy that your company can\u2019t manage. <\/p>\n So start small and build up within the constraints of size and complexity that your company has. It\u2019s important that you keep control over the way you\u2019re managing your interaction with the customer. The most important thing is a solution that gives control within the marketing team and manages it centrally. Technology is just facilitator. Automate what is feasible, make sure that you as a marketer can spend your time deciding what you want to do, not how you\u2019re going to make it happen. In the end that’s what technology should do for you. <\/p>\n![\"gartner](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/gartner_digital_marketing_transit_map.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span>Right touching and relevance are the key driving forces<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Dimensions of consistency and Relevancy<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>Getting a strong grip on Cross channel campaign management<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\n \u201cthe process through which organizations segment, target, manage and evaluate multichannel marketing messages.
\nElements of campaign management functionality include data mining, customer segmentation, customer-event triggering, next-best-action recommendation engines and campaign optimization\u201d. <\/p>\n<\/span>Technology is a facilitator<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>The challenges of campaign management as a strategy<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Separate teams and divisions<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/span>Legacy systems stand in the way<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>IT and marketing<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Cross channel campaign management challenges are underestimated<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>5 steps toward solid Cross channel campaign management<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n\n
<\/span>Building a solid customer contact strategy <\/span><\/h2>\n