Couldn’t make the MIMA event last week on Predictive Marketing?

Have no fears, the recap is here!

If you didn’t make it to the MIMA event last week at the Microsoft Technology Center, not only did you miss a sneak peek into Microsoft’s newest innovations in customer experience and interaction, you also missed an incredible presentation by CMO of Lead Enterprise Marketing of Microsoft, Jeff Marcoux.  But, have no fear, we’ve got the recap and five major take-aways that you’ll want to write down and start implementing in your market.

  • Customer-centric personalization is here!  The power of the people is displacing brand-centric marketing strategies with customer-centric personalization. This means we now have to consider that every touch point with a customer is an experience, and that every experience is marketing. When someone is talking about your product, that’s marketing.  When someone is buying your product, that’s marketing.  When someone interacts with your product, that’s marketing. The more personalized we can make the experiences, the better we can understand our customers and what they’ll do next. The path ahead is to empower every person and organization to do more; to be more. But there are a still a few hurdles to get there – one of which is data.

 

  • Digital complexity – it’s holding us back!  We can all agree we have enough tools that generate data to help us better understand our customer. In fact, most of us have more data then we know what to do with. But do we know how to use it? Often we have too many tools, too many silos, and too much data. “The biggest challenges with personalization are gaining insight quickly enough (40%), having enough data (39%) and, inaccurate data (38%).” – Forrester, 2014.  A good place to start is to ask the right questions, get the insights and then optimize the data.

 

  • Use analytics for what to do next.  Data and analytics shouldn’t be used to analyze what happened; it should be analyzed for what we do next. Instead of asking, “What happened?” ask, “How can we make it happen?” Use the data to enrich your processes and create a better customer experience. Look at what the data tells you about what your customer will do next and enhance that experience.

 

  • If data is the key to customer experience, then predictive marketing is the lock.  The key to creating customer centric personalization is gaining insight into the right data to unlock and predict what your customers need. It starts with putting your customer at the center of your brand and listening to what our customers are saying. We often fall into the “saying versus doing” trap when we should be using predictive marketing to help our customer connect with their passion. By better understanding how to use your data and create a more positive experience with your brand, ye’ll see a higher return on the brand.

 

  • Creating a better experience for your consumer.There are four keys to creating a better experience with your marketing: customer-centered, personalized, integrated and optimized. Put your customer at the center to make your marketing valuable to the consumer and help them move along the customer lifecycle.  Make every piece of content personalized to your customer – show them what they need before they need it. Develop an integrated approach so your content works together on all channels, including broadcast, digital, social and print. Lastly, optimize your marketing to work for you to help achieve your goals.

 

Don’t miss the September MIMA event, We Are All Digital Startups Now with Don Smithmier and Jim Cuene from GoKart Labs on September 16 at the Southern Theatre in Minneapolis!  Visit the MIMA website to learn more and to register.

Written by MIMA Committee Members Lyndsey Danberry and Andrew Tewksbury