Fragmented data not only loses you money:
it also kills productivity and slows you down.
★ 3 MIN READ ★
Intelligent Marketing Mini-Course | PART II
You'll Learn
- Integrating customer information in a Customer Data Platform is a key success factor.
- Combat fragmentation and unify disperse data in a Universal Consumer Profile (UCP).
- Use these details to more quickly respond to demanding omnichannel clients.
- Relevance and personalisation are important, yet use wisdom. Don't be too intrusive.
We hope you feel more focused -- even more strategic -- after reading the first post in this series.
You "looked for Wally" and you found him: that 20% who causes 80% of your business. You now know that every Euro that you invest will produce better results.
Great news, right? Sadly, that's not how all of us feel these days.
Many of us understand the principles, and want to really get going. Yet it seems that we spend our days fighting basic challenges that prevent us from reaching our goals.
Just like tragic Sisyphus in the ancient Greek myth: always pushing that huge boulder up the mountain. Only to have it roll back down upon him.
Why Don't We Reach Our Goals?
In very many cases, the frustration, burn-out and ineffectivity stems from our urgent need for relevant data upon which to base critical decisions.
Yet we're hampered by the fact that this same information is literally all over the place.
Such scattered, incoherent data causes us to waste hours and hours trying to manually consolidate and transform the figures into Business Intelligence that truly helps us.
Absolutely vital, in the age of Omnichannel Consumers.
In a recent 2019 study, 90% of retailers and brands affirmed that they had consolidation strategies, in order to satisfy Always On, omnichannel consumers. Yet, only 8% felt they had mastered this challenge.
1. Get It Together
So, is this Data Fragmentation your fault?
Well, yes and no.
To be fair, those of us who are advanced Digital Sales and Marketing professionals have understood -- since the advent of Social Media -- that valuable consumer data is to be found "out there". Critical information about their tastes, preferences, complaints ... even moods. And we quickly adopted inexpensive Saas-based consoles such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social and others to help us track this information.
Pioneering platforms for Email Marketing such as Mail Chimp are used as basic CRM and Marketing Automation solutions, whilst economical dashboard solutions like Cyfe aim to help "mortals" like us in Communications, Sales and Marketing to create our own, personalised analytics.
Not everyone has time to become a Google Analytics Guru.
So, we have been trying.
However, in large organisations, it is truly a task of heroic proportions to integrate such disperse customer data from webs, mobile apps, chat sessions, help desks, and e-commerce transactions into one, unified picture.
The good news? There is hope!
2. From USPs to UCPs
Say "Hello" to the Universal Consumer Profile. Yes, it already exists: a wonderful oasis for any Senior Marketer or visionary CEO, intent on converting her company into a true, customer-centric enterprise.
Many industry analysts consider such integrated customer databases to be one of the key differentiation factors in early 21st-Century Business.
A smooth, cross-channel data integration is the perfect -- and urgent -- antidote to serious problems such as fragmentation, operational silos and desynchronisation.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Relationship Marketing Trends: Brand Rankings Report
Want to keep playing "Alphabet Soup"? One of modern Marketing's most famous achronyms is the USP, or Unique Selling Proposition.
The Universal Consumer Profile (UCP) we just mentioned offers a one-stop solution to building segmented campaigns that place the individual customer at the center.
And just in time, by the way.
You need a UCP as soon as possible, in order to satisfy the USPs of demanding, Omnichannel consumers! We'll talk about how you can fully exploit your Universal Consumer Profile in our final section below.
Yet before we do, we should also consider another major challenge in companies, both large and small.
Anyone who bears the noble title of Chief Data Officer, Customer Experience Manager or CIO (as in Chief Information Officer) know that she is called to arm herself with courage and tenacity.
Just like Spain's famous Don Quijote, she'll fight windmills, waste and the whims of entrenched interests and fifedoms of Corporate Culture.
As our indignant friend in the Cloud to the right says: "Wow, hard to believe!" As you have seen thus far, the benefits of consolidating client data in one place should seem obvious.
Unfortunately, not everyone understand this.
Digital Disruption and Company Culture
We invite you to listen to our interesting interview with Elodie Martin of Paris-based KPC on this very subject. You'll find it in our November Alexa European Marketing Flash Briefing podcast.
3. Your Omnichannel Opportunity
As we explored in the first article of this 4-post series, knowing who your most profitable customers are will help you to invest more of your precious budget in reaching and satisfying them.
As always in life, things of value always cost effort and dedication.
A further benefit of focusing on your Profitable 20%: such "Wallys" surround themselves with "Friends & Family" with simIlar needs and interests.
Invest continually in assuring their loyalty and you'll soon see how such "Super Wallies" will begin to organically recommend your Brand as a WOM ("Word of Mouth") consumer.
One special characteristic of your best customers in our 24/7 media "matrix" are the extremely high expectations they have. Product quality is a given. They take it for granted. What they now expect ... we mean, demand, is almost instantaneous service and hyper-personalised attention.
Any company that has no memory of their previous purchases -- or is slow in answering -- is in serious danger of losing their business. Especially among the younger consumers:
This is why it is vital for you to consolidate the data about each individual customer history in your own UCP. Capture and store each consumer's click-stream activity (website, mobile, email and call center) to her very own profile.
Take a look at these findings from the 2019 Selligent Connected Consumer Index (link UPDATED to the 2024 Marigold Global Consumer Trends report).
Personalised? OK. Yet Not Too Close.
By triumphing over the main Enemy you have today -- Data Fragmentation -- you'll come a long way toward the goal of winning over such important customers. You'll continue to learn about them, segment your contents and promotions -- and even begin to use Artificial Intelligence based on this accumulated knowledge.
Virtual Voice Assistants such as Alexa (Amazon), Siri (Apple), Bixby (Samsung) and Google Assistant will then be able to help you craft Predictive Marketing campaigns that seem straight from science fiction.
Nevertheless, it's exactly at this point that your professional experience and human intelligence will trump the machine-learning capabilities of Virtual AI assistants.
SEE ALSO: REAL-TIME · 5 Things AI Needs to Know about Intelligent Marketing
As we enter what we call Third-Decade Marketing (2020-2030), consumers are still not accustomed to synthetic "beings" who intend to aid them proactively by suggesting up-sells or cross-selling based on the data in your company's shiny, new Universal Consumer Profile:
The need to now automate your Marketing, based on the integrated data found in your UCP, is the subject of our third post, now in the making.
We look forward to your comments here on the blog. Please also feel free to contact us directly, if you feel we can help you in any way with your own strategy.
If you'd like to be notified when the next post is up, just leave us your email here.
Key Points
- Integrating customer information in a Customer Data Platform is a key success factor.
- Combat fragmentation and unify disperse data in a Universal Consumer Profile (UCP).
- Use these details to more quickly respond to demanding omnichannel clients.
- Relevance and personalisation are important, yet use wisdom. Don't be too intrusive.
Read the entire series:
1: Where is Wally? | 2: Fight Fragmentation | 3: Content Is King | 4: Cute Robots & AI
Originally published on this blog on 15 November 2019
Updates:
- 19 November 2019
- 26 November 2019
- 27 November 2019
- 11 June 2020
- 03 October 2024
* Full disclosure: Barcelona Virtual is a Partner Agency of Hubspot and Marigold / Selligent Marketing Cloud.
