Avi Dan authored an article featured in AdAge titled, The New Normal for CMO's - click here. Based upon the blog comments he received, there were mixed sentiments on what people thought. Regardless, customer engagement is a key takeaway from this article.
Ideal customer engagement today would be best defined as the appropriate timing of relevant messages that are unique to each individual consumer - an aspirational tone from past and current CRM efforts. Beyond that though, there are various ways to engage today. From social media marketing, traditional advertisements to other engagement strategies such as meetings and events, the one thing we know based upon past experiences is that everyone is wired differently. Such is the case, having a one-size-fits-all strategy is a thing of the past, now is the time to truly adopt integrated strategies that better connect organizations with their customers (past, present and future) for more effective outcomes that better support and align to business objectives.
There's an obvious shift in the media mix more so now than ever; and that will continue to further evolve moving forward. We've moved on and evolved our preferences, as consumers (whether B2B or B2C), from an engagement standpoint. Digital tactics, both web 1.0 and 2.0, are increasing in their roles as traditional media plays less of a dominant one; although still critical to varying degrees depending on a variety of variables such as markets and customer types. However, the first-level of engagement evolution, specifically websites and email marketing, have saturated and overwhelmed many customers. For the most part, we've managed these new media platforms with a traditional approach. Analytics needs to and will be key way in how these and other contemporary channels integrate with traditional formats to increase relevance, conversion rates, advocacy and other key performance indicators included in a robust lifetime value model.
The CMO's main responsibility has always been to focus on market needs and identifying how the organization best addresses these through product and service offerings. However, to remain effective in a rapidly changing set of markets, CMO's have to work in a more latitudinal way. Latitudinal from the sense that while identifying effective strategies that support business objectives remain a core function, they also need to better ground their evaluations and expectations of their business plans and priorities based upon sensible tactical executions. Considering the many changes and shifts in the market, identifying best-practices and keeping a keen eye on their customers needs and preferences (at the individual level) will better ensure the continued level of competitive differentiation, customer demand and market presence required to be successful.
