Tools for Understanding Customers and Driving Revenue

New dis­cov­er­ies in sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy are con­stant­ly giv­ing mar­keters a much-need­ed boost by mak­ing avail­able tools that help mar­keters bet­ter under­stand their cus­tomers, the jour­ney they’re on, and how to cre­ate expe­ri­ences that will keep them com­ing back. Cus­tomers are always at the cen­ter of any effec­tive mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, but sev­er­al of our recent CMO.com con­trib­u­tors dis­cussed some of the tools they use to bet­ter under­stand their cus­tomers and cre­ate expe­ri­ences that dri­ve revenue.

Andrew Watts, found­ing part­ner of KHWS, dis­cussed solu­tions for mar­keters fac­ing the chal­lenges of track­ing con­sumer behav­iour online. CMOs are chal­lenged with the task of clos­ing “the gap between brand expe­ri­ence and sales expe­ri­ence,” which helps them to dri­ve online rev­enue. Watts went on to share some of the “cost-effec­tive, tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven tech­niques that mar­keters can use to under­stand the pur­chase process,” such as FMRI scan­ners and wear­able tech. Draw­ing on a foun­da­tion of behav­iour­al sci­ence, Watts encour­ages brands to har­ness “tech­nol­o­gy and cre­ativ­i­ty to pro­vide shop­pers with a Brand Com­merce experience.”

Chris­t­ian Ward, head of media and mar­ket­ing at Sty­lus, dis­cussed the con­cept of “third spaces,” a term inspired by the soci­o­log­i­cal term, “Third Places,” which are the loca­tions that peo­ple vis­it between home and work. Ward described these phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al third spaces as cre­at­ing untapped oppor­tu­ni­ties for mar­keters in any indus­try. Brands are encour­aged to iden­ti­fy these spaces and tar­get their mar­ket­ing mes­sages to con­sumers in these spaces.

Cather­ine New­man, chief mar­ket­ing offi­cer for 200-year-old news­pa­per the_ Times_, recent­ly sat down with CMO.com to dis­cuss how the news­pa­per is chang­ing in today’s mobile-dom­i­nat­ed mar­ket. Part of its strat­e­gy is learn­ing what it gets some­one to read the con­tent pro­vid­ed by the_ Times_. What caus­es some­one to sub­scribe? “What is it that cre­ates sus­tained behav­iour­al change, and what makes some­one a Times read­er?” The Times strives to under­stand the psy­chol­o­gy of its read­ers in order to stay rel­e­vant and pro­vide con­tent read­ers want.

Har­vey Cos­sell, head of strat­e­gy for We Are Social, dis­cussed the poten­tial role that livestream­ing could play in your brand’s mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. Livestream­ing offers to immerse the view­er into an expe­ri­ence that takes them deep­er than sim­ple text or still images. In fact, view­ers feel more involved with the con­tent because the expe­ri­ence is occur­ring in the moment. Because our brains process video 60,000 times faster than text, livestream­ing gives mar­keters the abil­i­ty to cre­ate con­tent that is more invit­ing and eas­i­er to engage with.

Klaus Som­mer Paulsen, CEO, cre­ative direc­tor, and founder of Adven­ture­LAB, out­lined some key insights for brands to cre­ate the next great brand adven­ture for their cus­tomers. Your goal, Paulsen says, is to “a mem­o­rable, share­able expe­ri­ence” for your cus­tomers. An adven­ture includes an expe­ri­ence that removes cus­tomer from their com­fort zones, expos­es them to poten­tial risk, and taps into their emo­tions. Paulsen addressed sev­er­al ques­tions brand adven­ture cre­ators need to ask themselves.

We invite you to engage with our exclu­sive con­tent on CMO.com. Please let us know what you think.