The Great Marketing Declutter
By Abhishek Kahol, Managing Director, Intelligent Platform Services Lead, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa Accenture and Boo Beng Khoo,?Managing Director, Chief Technology Advisor Customer Sales & Service, Southeast Asia, Accenture
The pandemic continues to prove that adaptability is paramount for businesses. And as customers’ priorities have changed rapidly over the last two years, marketers have often struggled to keep up. New forms of data analysis are now necessary to understand our altered consumer landscape, where it’s harder than ever to connect the dots between customers’ past and future behaviors.??
Embracing minimalist marketing
A few years ago, many marketing teams focused on acquiring as much data as possible. And they often purchased data from third parties.
But now, we’re witnessing the great marketing declutter. Companies are favoring quality over quantity, as they’ve learned that collecting unnecessary data slows teams down. Instead, they’re focused on gathering the right data to understand each customer’s decisions, craft personalized experiences and engage people at different touchpoints.
This has sparked a huge drive towards simplification. The upshot? Companies are recognizing that successful data-driven marketing includes technology-enabled transformation – harnessing automated solutions to generate insights, drive growth, and accelerate speed to value.
This shift comes as a relief for burned-out employees. In our research, nearly 70% of marketing executives said the past year has completely exhausted their teams, who have been facing rapidly changing conditions, the daily pressures of COVID, and far more data than many of them are equipped to crunch. Relieving this burden starts by equipping marketers with tools that:
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Let’s take a quick look at each of these areas.
Breaking down data siloes
Minimalist marketing is about using less data but extracting more value from the data you do use. To achieve this, marketers need modern customer engagement solutions that help them retrieve qualitative and quantitative customer data from various sources, then connect all that data and analyze it. This might include tools for data visualization, data lakes, customer surveys, CRM data and much more. The priority is that marketers gain a deeper understanding of each customer.
Accelerating execution times
In these uncertain times, situations can change rapidly. And when they do, marketers need to react fast. Traditionally, campaigns were developed in a series of siloes – from creative development and IT through to direct mail, e-commerce, lead nurture and personalization. But now, companies can use integrated marketing tools that connect these different areas and significantly accelerate campaign execution. This means that when things change, marketing can adapt on-the-fly and pounce on fresh opportunities.
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Harnessing automation
Once companies have broken down data siloes and accelerated campaign execution, they’ll likely experience a sudden influx of customer interactions. How can they prepare? By setting up automated message journeys that feel conversational – for example, using chatbots or feedback surveys. This can help cut operating costs, save time, and increase customer engagement.
Automation can add value in other areas, too. It can handle many routine tasks, freeing up employees to focus on innovation and reducing the risk of burnout. And organizations can accelerate value delivery by investing in cloud technologies that automatically organize data to surface patterns and other actionable insights.
Automation also benefits consumers, too. How? By empowering marketers to create more compelling interactions that drive customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.
Fostering cross-functional collaboration
Reaping the full benefits of data-driven marketing involves collaborating with teams across your organization to see the bigger picture. Marketers can use their data and insights to spark conversations with sales, customer service, finance, and IT. This can shed new light on customer experiences and reveal new ways to add value. After all, brand perception is based on customers’ feelings about their end-to-end experiences with a company – not just its marketing.?
Cross-pollinating data beyond institutional silos also helps develop a unified understanding of the company’s identity, collective difference, and ethical priorities. These morals matter more than ever to consumers today, and prospective customers expect each brand they support to tell a clear story about its purpose. To meet this new demand, businesses must first ensure that everyone internally is clear on their narrative. This will help drive brand differentiation.
Less clutter, more profits
It’s clear that the great marketing declutter benefits employees and customers, but our research reveals that it also improves the bottom line. In a recent study, we identified a group of businesses which are simplifying their marketing operations. We found that these organizations are 1.4x more likely to significantly outperform their peers in revenue growth and profitability.
They’re also 2.5x more likely to have greater awareness of customers’ needs and desires. And they’re ready to rethink, redesign and strategize to create and deliver experiences that meet these expectations.
Initially, we've seen this in the online retail sector. But people have also become used to speed, ease, and personalisation on the other platforms they use. And some organisations have taken a lead in their industries by focusing on these customer-driven capabilities.
Look at Singapore’s Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB), which manages savings and pensions for nationals and permanent residents. It’s reimagining its digital offerings to provide even better service to members. As part of its digital transformation journey with Accenture, the CPFB developed a new website, using a mobile-first design approach. As what Boo Beng mentioned earlier, most people can’t leave their mobile phones. When customers log in, they can access personalised dashboards on retirement, housing, and healthcare – all organised thematically so they’re easy to navigate.
To make the overall digital experience more delightful and easier to understand, the CPFB incorporated graphical elements like charts and illustrations, along with just-in-time prompts to guide customers to take steps to plan for their retirements, and tailored advice to specific customer segments. To learn more about CPFB’s story, listen to our podcast.
How to get started
Your team shouldn't have to pore over spreadsheets to discover trends that drive the next innovations in customer-centric marketing. Lighten the load for your marketers with automation that accelerates speed to value and generates powerful insights. To learn more about how you can start decluttering your marketing today, talk to us or visit our website.
Good insights Abhishek Kahol