HOW TO UNLOCK THE TRUE VALUE OF MARKETING AUTOMATION

We have entered a new world where over 50% of the world’s population are active users of social media. This brings a scope of over 4 Billion possible customers for different businesses and industries.

But it is not only for customers that digital platforms mean a big shift. Marketers have also adopted digital solutions and martech has quickly become the marketers’ best friend in managing meaningful and personal engagements with customers across a variety of channels.

To unlock growth and be successful in this new digital world, mastering marketing automation and customer journey orchestration is truly a must. Furthermore, we have only seen the beginning of this transformation. Digitalization is still used only in a fraction of the ways it could be in the way we communicate and interact with customers.

Through leading and overseeing multiple digital transformations and understanding what core pain points our clients are facing we see the value Marketing Automation transformation can bring. Adding these insights with our expertise, we have developed a framework to help organizations with this transformation. We will go through some of these learnings below.

THE KEY DIMENSIONS TO SUCCEED – MUCH MORE THAN JUST TECH

Marketing automation is about capturing opportunities and leads and then nurturing them with personalised content. This needs to be done throughout the customer journey and across different channels. But is it that simple? Not really. To be able to do so, we need to widen the perspective to more than just tech. Let’s discuss why we believe this is such a transcending change for many organizations.

• Targeting & personalisation

Targeting & personalisation is generally the end goal with marketing automation and expectations from customers are high. Personalisation is about sending the right message to a customer through the right channel at the right time, and preferably embed this in the customer experience. It is about giving an experience that is tailored to different types of customers with different needs. Customers receive huge amounts of information each day about different deals and offerings which can be overwhelming. By sending recommendations and information relevant to the customer, we increase chance of a more positive experience. This, of course, requires data about the customer and it also puts pressure on the channel strategy.

• Channel Strategy

Today we live in an omni-channel world with multiple ways to interact with companies and their brands, products and services. If these touchpoints are not aligned, if we get different messages and promises depending on what channel we use, we end up with an in-coherent brand experience. Therefore, aligning the channel strategy with marketing automation transformation is vital.

• Data & data ethics

Your data & data ethics are where all marketing automation efforts start and end. There is an overwhelming amount of data existing yet unavailable if not unlocking the source (may it be in legacy systems etc.). In additional there are multiple key touchpoints within the customer journey where data should be gathered to reveal valuable insights. Understanding what data should be gathered and how requires research and strict prioritisation to be able to identify and collect data that generates true value. Data is key to make strategic decisions, to work in a proactive and efficient manner, as well as truly achieving data-driven customer-centricity.

• Data-driven customer centricity

Data-driven customer centricity is around organizational change. To have full use of the tools the behaviour in the organization needs to change. The customer needs to be on the top of mind, always. The utilisation of data can enable customer centricity and support the tracking of this initiative. Goes without saying the collection, usage and storage of date needs to be done in an ethical manner that is in line with customers values and local laws.

• Technology & automation level

If data and insights are the electricity flowing through your marketing automation system, the technology & automation level is the infrastructure where you build your capabilities upon, your control tower, your artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, your next best actions and your prioritizations. Without good support of technology, it is not possible to succeed with marketing automation.

• People & collaboration

But we cannot stop here. Without the correct processes and tools to collect, store and manage available information, we become blind to marketing initiatives. The right people & collaboration within an organization are needed not to lose efficiency. Firms must acquire the right competence and team structure to support marketing automation activities. For data to be at the core of what you do and to become truly customer centric with a personalised offering, your organization will need the right people. Employees with knowledge about AI, omnichannel strategies and more, will be needed and the organization needs to support collaboration rather than hinder it with siloed structure.

• Content & content management

At the end of the day, how do you manage content in a digital world of personalisation with many parallel channels such as mobile app, web and with an increasing amount of content being generated? Efficiently being able to smartly reuse content and match it to different channels is key.

We at Capgemini Invent believe that to become a true leader in marketing automation all of the dimensions, need to be tackled. Yet, you do not need to become a leader in every dimension, the key is to identify where you need to improve.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOUR COMPANY?

Embarking on the Marketing Automation journey leads us to multiple opportunities but also challenges. It doesn’t mean that you need to do all things at once, but you should have a clear path forward to ensure you take the steps that will bring your organization to the next level. To have an impactful customer engagement, simplicity should be applied from the beginning of this transformation journey across all these 7 dimensions. Doing a temperature check on your marketing transformation initiatives, from time to another, is a good way to ensure you are on the right path and are showing progress.

For more, reach out and stay tuned!

Authors

	Peter Rosenberg Director Brand and Content Capgemini Invent Sweden & Finland
	Hanna Kauppi Senior Consultant Brand and Content Capgemini Invent Sweden & Finland
	Frida Cedergardh Consultant Brand and Content Capgemini Invent Sweden & Finland