How to realize value from Marketing Automation in 2023 - Part 2

When I started this 2-part series I intended for it to be complete well before the start of 2023. Best laid plans...

I went on a trip to see family almost immediately after publishing the first part, and then on my return some existing projects kicked into high gear. Just like that - 2 months disappeared on me!

That is exactly why you can't afford to wait on your 2023 goals for Marketing Automation. In a blink of an eye, with existing projects and other rhythm of business and life needs, 2023 will be half-way over.

Will you be where you need to be?

If you read Part 1, you'll know the first part of getting where you need to be is proactive planning for user adoption and upskilling by addressing the data model disconnect that exists at most organizations. If you haven't read Part 1 yet - go and read that first!

Once you've done that, you can start to think about the strategic items I mentioned in Part 1, as well as a few others:

• Integrations and enrichments
• New channels and touchpoints
• Full-funnel experience optimization
• Attribution and Optimization approach
• AI-augmentation and Digital Twins of Customers
• Response to Privacy Rules and Preferences

However, to do so effectively, you need to press hold on the "new feature" evaluation approach that those categories imply, and start through the lens of Experience.

For Customers, Marketing Automation is The "Getting to Know You" Experience

Your customers don't care if you invested in a trendy new feature, or if you have really fantastic data enrichment that tells you exactly what their purchase intent is.

They care if you are sharing information and offers appropriately with them.

Working in professional services it has been interesting to see the evolution in other industries in this area.

Professional services relationship building and deal-closing is all about "getting to know you". I have to make sure that information about my firm and what it offers is:

• Discoverable before you are looking for us - and even before you are looking for the types of services we offer.
• Responsively shared at the very least, if not proactively shared.
• Tailored specifically to you and your needs that I should know about.
• Transparent about our services and expertise.
• Insightful about our offering areas and related trends.
• Contextualized in the broader industry, partner and provider context.

In the professional services path-to-purchase you are buying into the concept of me - either my direct expertise or that you can trust me to bring a team with the required expertise.

Therefore I have always had to think about the experience I am providing as a prospective client is "getting to know me".

Did they see me or my colleagues at the right provider conference? Did I update them on the timeline for our proposal before they asked for it? Did I ensure the proposal started with feedback of what I heard their need was? Did they trust that I was accurately representing the depth of our expertise? Did I provide a new perspective on something they have been considering? Do they see that I am connected into the area I claim to be an expert in?

Ultimately, I'm offering an "Experience of Working with Me" when I share information about my firm and our offerings. It doesn't matter if we have the shiniest slides and the most complete set of offerings in the industry. If I send them 2 weeks after I said I would and misspell the name of the client or their organization then I'm not getting that deal.

Working with Technology Marketers and Sellers, I saw this shift over the past 10 years too.

From the product marketing approach of leading with features and functions (email blasts around launch and events with generic offers to drive purchase), to the solution marketing approach aligned to challenger sales and marketing (educational webinars and nurture tracks for thought leadership pieces with segmented offers to drive loyalty), to the platform marketing approach that is more focused on being responsive to the customer experience (try it out for yourself in your own time and we'll look for usage signals for when to contact you with a personalized offer to enhance the relationship).

These same changes have been happening in other industries too, just at different rates - and a whole industry doesn't move at the same pace either! Some Technology Marketers are still just sending email blasts, but using better intent data to do it; whereas some Financial Services marketers are using AI to enable personalized conversational marketing at scale.

What does this mean for Marketing Automation in 2023?

To achieve value from Marketing Automation in 2023 you don't need to invest in all the trendy new tech. You need to identify how your customers want to "get to know you", find the gaps in that, and prioritize technology purchases, or existing technology configurations that close those gaps.

In other words, you are responsible for coordinating your organization's side of the "getting to know you" conversation.

Isn't that somebody else's job though? If you're in Marketing Automation you may think your job is to drive demand and revenue. Doesn't Brand Marketing have responsibility for awareness and perception? And aren't Sales and Service teams the ones meant to be having conversations?

Let's consider those questions through this analogy. Your brand marketer, your Sales and Service lead, and you are set to have dinner with a customer at an event. Your brand marketer made the reservations, gives the customer some great swag at the entrance to the restaurant, but then has to get back to the event booth. You get the customer to your table and exchange some pleasantries. Your Sales and Service lead arrives late, but strikes up immediate rapport with the customer, and starts telling a fantastic story. Unfortunately, before they can transition to the business conversation they get an urgent call from another customer that they have to attend to. You're the one left sitting with the customer. They look at you intently, waiting for you to continue the conversation...

Just like that analogy, other colleagues have key responsibilities in customer relationship building - but you, as the one responsible for Marketing Automation, have to co-ordinate the overall conversation so there are no unpleasant gaps.

Tips for leading a rewarding conversation (with MarTech)

There are lots of articles about how to lead a rewarding conversation. I like this one as a way to understand MarTech's role in coordinating customer conversations.

1. Use Effective and Active Listening - i.e. optimize outreach using data, including getting the right integrations and enrichments set-up in 2023. Just as you look for non-verbal cues in a real conversation, look for implicit data signals. Active listeners don't just wait for a gap in conversation and then make their point - they reflect back and ask clarifying questions. Your use of data should enable that in your outreach.
2. Be Positive and Show Enthusiasm for the Conversation - i.e. full-funnel optimization including new channels and touchpoints plus potential AI augmentation in 2023. For your customers, every interaction with your organization is part of the conversation. They are much less accepting of siloes than you are. If they start a discussion on web chat but have to stop, they may appreciate a follow-up email with the next logical piece of information. In the context of modern CX, not sending something could suggest a lack of interest in them.
3. Responsively Regulate the Flow of Conversation - i.e. Response to privacy rules and preferences in 2023. In relation to the example above, if they don't respond to the cross-channel outreach, don't keep trying to reach them in that new channel, or in other channels about the same event. You showed interest, they didn't bite, don't force it or it will start to feel insensitive.
4. Evolve the topics of discussion - i.e. Digital Twins and other forms of insight about next best topic (as well as offer) in 2023. Going off on topical tangents is likely to be off-putting. But only sharing on one subject is boring. You've got to use data and insight to know when and how to mix it up as the conversation progresses, and then content automation to have the right topics available to share.
5. Use Reciprocal Disclosure - i.e. Attribution and Optimization. Don't over-disclose or under-disclose in a conversation - you want to match the level of information the other participant has shared with you. That means having sophisticated attribution models so you're not just jumping straight to "buy, buy, buy" but can attribute the steps along the way and optimize your next disclosure (or offer) to them.

Its not the Tech, its how you use it

Hopefully both parts of this series have made it clear that its not just the right MarTech, its how you use it that will determine your value realization from Marketing Automation in 2023.

MarTech Providers are not always best placed (or incented) to help with that - but consulting partners are.

So if you would like to "get to know more" about what that could look like, reach out to me or the team at Avanade X!