How has your approach to customer engagement/retention/loyalty changed due to new MarTech tools and solutions?
We have a balance. Face to face with customers is still important. But we are able to reach out to a wider audience with digital tools. And the metrics from digital helps us get a better understanding of our customers behaviours.
With all the new MarTech tools and solutions now available, what’s one of the key pitfalls to avoid in the procurement process?
With the many different tools available in the market, it can get very confusing and lost in what you need. The key pitfall to avoid is to be too impulsive in purchasing a fancy tool without first having clarity of the business goals and how the tool will support the goals.
How have you best managed to integrate legacy systems with new MarTech solutions?
I can’t say we are there yet, but we are making progress. I think it is most important to keep the business informed about the possibilities. Once the managements see the value, things will get done easier, and different stakeholders (like IT, Sales) will work together as a team to make the necessary process and system changes.
What MarTech vendors have impressed you with their solutions and understanding of true business needs and challenges?
We have used a few Analytics Tools which have helped us get better visibility of our business – such as DOMO and Qualtrics.
How has your organisation / team dealt with the challenge of the marketing industry and wider digital world evolving at such a fast pace?
We are forming a Digital Committee and establishing a Governance process to ensure we have a strategic approach to develop a Digital Framework for our company. For a global company like Emerson, we need to balance the efficiency of a centralized system with the different digital tools used by different markets.
Currently, what are you primarily looking for in your digital marketing efforts? Awareness or engagement? Why?
Being a B2B company, we are usually looking for a targeted audience. So, using digital marketing helps us grow our awareness in our targeted communities. And that is where we spend more of our efforts. We are starting to come up with more engagement campaigns that can help generate tangible results for the business.
What is your key takeaway piece of advice that you would give when speaking to others on how to evaluate and select a MarTech stack?
Being in Asia, it is important to identify if the tool is applicable across different regions. The other important thing to ensure is the ease of the integration with existing systems the company is already using. We often add new tools on top of another and end up doing more as there is multiple data entries required.
How did your MarTech journey begin? Please let us know your top 3 findings and discoveries.
Having grown my career in Marketing, my job responsibilities have morphed to include Digital Marketing over time. I have been on this journey for 3 years. My top 3 findings on MarTech are –
- To closely connect MarTech with the Business Result
- To have close engagements with the stakeholders
- To have courage to try new things that have not been done before
For you and your team, which is currently recognised as the larger challenge – MarTech integration or MarTech strategy?
I would lean towards MarTech Integration being the larger challenge. We are always having to balance with the financial performance of the business, so the MarTech wish list will only get fulfilled over time when there is funding available.
Have you mainly chosen to adopt established MarTech or have you also looked into the emerging opportunities? Which?
I would say a mix. We use established ones like SalesForce, Eloqua.. and are experimenting with Social Media Analytics like Sysomos to help us optimize our messaging across different channels.
Which MarTech brands have you found have / are close to best meeting your expectations when it comes to customer experience? Let us know of any brands which have exceeded expectations.
I am a fan of Eloqua as a Marketing Automation Tool.
What do you predict as being the top MarTech trends for 2020?
Analytics or AI tools which can give smart recommendations on business decisions would be popular. There are a lot of analytics tools that are showing many kinds of data, but we still have to interpret the data and use our judgement to make business decisions.
