The recently released 2016 Digital Trends report by Adobe surveyed 7,000 professionals on digital trends and the evolution of marketing and loyalty solutions within their industries and brands. Among some key findings from the report are:
-
- Customer targeting and personalization is the No. 1 top priorities for brands in 2016 (31%).
-
- The top three most exciting organizational opportunities revolve around customer experience.
-
- The overall most exciting opportunity in the next five years is data-driven personalization (21%).
-
- Marketing automation is the most under-valued capability to drive customer experience (18%).
-
- An incredible 53% say data driven marketing is the top priority for their business this year.
-
- 38% of respondents believe omnichannel personalization will become reality in 2016.
Q: What do these findings tell you about the state of marketing with regard to customer experience? We caught up with Vaclav Shatillo, Manager of Client Insights & Strategy for Clutch to delve deeper into these findings. Vaclav strategically advises an array of brands, including Crabtree & Evelyn, Meineke and Rawlings, on their loyalty marketing and customer strategies, which are largely data-driven via cross-channel customer synthesis.
VS: This report largely echoes what we’re seeing across various industries. While most brands confirm they understand exceptional experience drive success with today’s consumers, many of these businesses continue to take a ‘wait and see’ approach despite the influx of technology advancements with marketing automation and customer personalization. Given this, select brands in almost every industry have identified the opportunity for their business and are pouncing on this innovation to gain a exceptional competitive advantages. These brands are synthesizing their cross-channel data sources to identify and understand their customers in order to deliver them customer-tailored experiences across a spectrum of channels.
Q: Given the customer marketing technology advancements, does it surprise you one in five marketing professionals feel that achieving cross-channel personalization is five years out?
VS: It is somewhat surprising given the pace of advancement today and the fact that nearly every brand today has a competitor who is way ahead of the curve in terms of personalized marketing, consumer engagement and customer intelligence innovation. Even industries out of the marketing mainstream have leaders that are pioneering personalization as a path to earn genuine loyalty. For example, Meineke is doing this in the automotive service space and Wizard World in the pop culture event industry. Neither of those industries are generally top of mind when it comes to those that are pushing the customer experience envelope.
The point is this is a reality in most industries; brands just have to pay attention to see it. To wait five years though is going to leave those businesses in a cloud of dust.
Q: Why do you think the priorities for most companies revolve squarely around customer experience?
VS: It’s out of necessity. Your customers now expect and even demand experiences that fit their behaviors and interests. These customers know that the average brand has the data to deliver this from their interactions with in-store POS systems, ecommerce networks, social accounts, mobile applications, etc. They simply become frustrated when brands opt to ignore delivery of this level of experience due to technology ignorance or apathy. Those brands that embrace the data driven customer marketing advancements are getting rewarded with genuine customer loyalty and evangelism.
The most frustrating part of it all is that delivering on this is not all that difficult. Too many brands get duped into thinking its some sort of Herculean undertaking, but the way the technology is structured today they have their POS system, ecommerce network, social accounts, mobile app and more integrated into a single-source customer data hub to identify and understand their customers to deliver them individually personalized experiences.
View Original Article