Handling Data-Driven Marketing Challenges Now and in the Future

In mar­ket­ing, data and the insights it pro­vides are often the key to shap­ing a cus­tomer expe­ri­ence that brings cus­tomers back again and again. For cus­tomer-cen­tric com­pa­nies, data col­lec­tion and analy­sis are vital. Com­pa­nies rely on data from a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent sources and use a lot of tech­nolo­gies to gain insight into their cus­tomers and guide them along the cus­tomer jour­ney. Data acqui­si­tion and some poten­tial chal­lenges for data-dri­ven mar­keters have recent­ly been fre­quent top­ics of dis­cus­sion in our exclu­sive con­tent on CMO.com. Read on for some valu­able insights you can put into prac­tice today to increase your company’s mar­ket­ing effectiveness.

John Gould­ing, glob­al prod­uct direc­tor at Media iQ, touched on the chal­lenges many com­pa­nies will face if the Gen­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion (GDPR) rais­es the stakes in 2018 by clas­si­fy­ing cook­ies as per­son­al data. Gould­ing encour­ages busi­ness­es to take this as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore more “inno­v­a­tive types of data and, ulti­mate­ly, employ a more diverse data strat­e­gy.” Busi­ness­es will have to find ways to gain con­sent for online data cap­ture and cre­ate an obvi­ous mutu­al ben­e­fit exchange so that cus­tomers will want to opt in.

Pierre Moulin, glob­al head of prod­ucts and strate­gic mar­ket­ing for French bank BNP Paribas, spoke recent­ly with CMO.com about his new role and the company’s evolv­ing organ­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture. He touched on the role of data in the com­pa­ny and its approach to be as inno­v­a­tive as pos­si­ble with it. BNP Paribas is com­bin­ing inter­nal and exter­nal data sources to “build some form of pre­dic­tive aspect in how [they] present prod­ucts to dif­fer­ent client seg­ments.” Moulin men­tioned that the types of data ini­tia­tives they’re pur­su­ing serve as a source of inspi­ra­tion for the company.

Cus­tomer lead­er­ship pio­neer and author Thomas Bar­ta shared some impor­tant insights to help CMOs draw real learn­ings from big data. Most of a company’s big data is gen­er­at­ed as a byprod­uct of oth­er activ­i­ties, such as a “company’s rou­tine oper­a­tions or con­sumers’ social media con­ver­sa­tions,” and not specif­i­cal­ly for insight pur­pos­es. Still, big data insights are impor­tant, and accord­ing to Bar­ta, they’re pri­mar­i­ly a lead­er­ship chal­lenge rather than a tech­ni­cal one.

In a recent inter­view with CMO.com, Eylard Wurpel, chief mar­ket­ing offi­cer for Nether­lands-based hol­i­day homes rental com­pa­ny Belvil­la, shared how impor­tant cus­tomer think­ing is to the heart of his company’s mar­ket­ing approach. With so many touch­points across a com­pa­ny, it’s impor­tant for every­one in the com­pa­ny to care about the cus­tomer con­ver­sa­tion. Belvil­la focus­es large­ly on con­tent mar­ket­ing and inspir­ing its cus­tomers, as well as being an author­i­ty on cus­tomer experience.

David Kaganovsky, world­wide CIO of Maxus, dis­cussed the role of tech­nol­o­gy in a marketer’s tool­box and shared some tips for avoid­ing bad tech. Tech­nol­o­gy con­tin­ues to impact our per­son­al and work­ing lives, and it makes sense for a com­pa­ny to adopt the tech­nolo­gies in which their cus­tomers are most like­ly to be present. In fact, stay­ing ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion requires adopt­ing tech­nol­o­gy that makes a com­pa­ny “bet­ter and more effi­cient.” Kaganovsky sug­gests busi­ness­es imple­ment an effec­tive frame­work for eval­u­at­ing avail­able tech­nolo­gies and their suit­abil­i­ty, as well as find­ing the right part­ners to help guide deci­sion making.

We hope you gain some valu­able tips and strate­gies through our exclu­sive con­tent on CMO.com. Please let us know what you think.