Digital Transformation and Customer-Driven Marketing

Tech­nol­o­gy is every­where, and it con­tin­ues to evolve at a rapid pace. As con­sumers learn to adapt to new and inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies, CMOs are faced with the chal­lenge of keep­ing up with chang­ing cus­tomer expec­ta­tions. Sev­er­al of our con­trib­u­tors on CMO.com have touched on the impor­tance of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion and a company’s need to embrace tech­nol­o­gy to meet cus­tomers where they are.

Jonathan Sim­mons, chief strat­e­gy offi­cer at Zone, offered some insight into how com­pa­nies can approach dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion giv­en an unpre­dictable future. He encour­ages busi­ness­es to build a team and cul­ture that is flex­i­ble and able to adapt in a rapid­ly chang­ing world. Cre­at­ing a cul­ture that embraces change will pre­pare a com­pa­ny for what­ev­er the future brings. Sim­i­lar­ly, Sim­mons believes com­pa­nies should devel­op tech­nol­o­gy that meets cus­tomers’ needs in the here and now while avoid­ing depen­den­cy on sys­tems that can’t quick­ly change or adapt.

Rob McLaugh­lin, head of dig­i­tal ana­lyt­ics at Sky U.K., recent­ly spoke with CMO.com about the ben­e­fits of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion and devel­op­ing a com­plete or “omnichan­nel” view of the cus­tomer. McLaughlin’s team oper­ates from the belief that “to under­stand the cus­tomer, [a com­pa­ny needs] to see their behav­iour at all touch points with our organ­i­sa­tion.” Not­ing the impor­tance of avoid­ing silos of infor­ma­tion, McLaugh­lin sees his team’s goal as devel­op­ing a com­bined view of the cus­tomer, util­is­ing dig­i­tal data that works along­side offline data to give a more com­plete view of cus­tomer and their needs.

Jamie Matthews, CEO of Ini­tials, dis­cussed the increas­ing­ly chal­leng­ing role of the CMO. Today’s CMOs are expect­ed to jug­gle a vari­ety of skills and respon­si­bil­i­ties while main­tain­ing a healthy focus on growth and inno­va­tion. The accel­er­a­tion of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion with­in many com­pa­nies leaves CMOs with a mul­ti­tude of chan­nels to man­age. As cus­tomers con­tin­ue to adapt to increas­ing tech­no­log­i­cal change, CMOs “are under enor­mous pres­sure to keep pace in order to remain rel­e­vant and effective.”

Chris Wor­le, dig­i­tal strat­e­gy direc­tor of Har­g­reaves Lans­down, recent­ly sat down with CMO.com to talk about the cus­tomer jour­ney. World described the need for mar­ket­ing teams to see, mea­sure, and gain insight from each cus­tomer inter­ac­tion. Dig­i­tal, of course, plays a major role in this because cus­tomers judge brands based on the qual­i­ty of their favourite dig­i­tal experiences.

In the midst of all the talk about dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, Tama­ra Lohan, founder and CTO of Mr & Mrs Smith, recent­ly shared with CMO.com some of the insights from her ses­sion at Adobe Sum­mit EMEA 2017 called, “Does Every­thing Have to Be Dig­i­tal?” For brands with DNA firm­ly root­ed in the offline world, Lohan dis­cussed the impor­tance of mix­ing the dig­i­tal with the phys­i­cal world. Brands will find it dif­fi­cult to touch cus­tomers if all they have is a web­site and dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing because cus­tomers often want to inter­act with some­thing they can touch. Lohan reminds brands of the need to touch cus­tomers in a vari­ety of ways, both dig­i­tal and physical.

We invite you to learn from some of today’s top thought lead­ers in dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing through our exclu­sive con­tent on CMO.com. Please let us know what you think.