What are the key priorities for a MarTech stack optimisation strategy to achieve?
– Improve personalised customer experience.
What would your company use AI the most for?
– Develop data-led marketing campaigns.
What are the major roadblocks in trialling the new innovations in marketing technologies?
– Not able to build a business case to release funding.
What are some of the significant changes to your customer outreach and retention strategies and how has it impacted the growth plan for upcoming years?
– We are focussing on how we connect channels, implement proper lead scoring and relevant actions and nurture prospects beyond email. We are taking a more strategic approach to growing particular products across our entire courseware range in our university.
At your organisation what tasks in marketing are good to automate and what tasks still need a human touch?
– Automate simple interactions to help guide prospects to key information early in the funnel. Complex interactions based on individual circumstances for support and closing/converting high value prospects require human touch.
How do you balance experimenting with new technologies vs investing in current technologies that you already utilise?
– 75% existing stack, 25% time/budget on exploring new tech.
How do you see the skillsets needed for the marketing profession changing?
– More analytical and data skills required, but creative skills and customer experiences are still key to building long term brand affinity.
With more consumers being conscious of their data being shared, how do you overcome the growing concern?
– Provide full transparency and control for customer, provide clarity on what value consumers will receive for providing access to data.
Currently, what are you primarily looking for in your digital marketing efforts? Awareness or engagement? Why?
– Engagement – we don’t have an awareness problem, at least not on the master brand level.
When planning a marketing budget, what are the top 3 concerns one should watch out for post COVID-19?
– Consideration on insourcing and outsourcing to balance risk.
– Apportioning the right budget for innovation to try new things.
– More contingency built in to pivot where needed.
What will be the next evolution in marketing technology that we can expect in the coming years?
– Customer Data Platforms to manage data and unify data, 1st party data whilst managing consent and security, use of AI and content intelligence to manage need for personalised comms at scale, virtual and immersive creative experiences to build brand and engagement.
What are the key challenges when it comes to implementing Chatbots for the first time?
– Finding the right use case and ensuring the experience is a good one for customers.
What is the best use of technology you have seen during this time of crisis?
– Scaling of virtual and hybrid events and experiences.
What is the scope of using AI in marketing mix modelling?
– Very nascent at present, needs clear strategy on where is right place to use.
How could a marketer start utilising the Metaverse?
– Very early, don’t see a practical use at present in real terms – likely be used in events and to promote building communities of customers and brands with common interests.
With the advancement of AR & VR, how do you see these being utilised in digital storytelling?
– Immersive experiences to connect customers to real life stories that impact them or learn something complex that is part of their path to purchase or connect with brands.
Do you think people take influencer posts with a pinch of salt?
– Yes, they know this is paid promotion and are cynical. we would rather use micro influencer strategy or student ambassadors for greater authenticity.
How do you foresee the role of gamification across industries?
– Gamification has many use cases; in the Education industry we are trialling using it to help students find their perfect career in a fun and engaging way.
What are the roadblocks in implementing gamification? –
Resources required to build compelling and tailored game experiences to our brand.
How much of your marketing is data driven?
– Less than 25%
As mobile and internet use rapidly expands; how do you track customer behaviour change?
– Market and user research and journey mapping.
What challenges do you see in processing data coming from different sources? How to overcome?
– Data governance and ownership, and integration challenges.
Is there a way to use the data dynamically while creating a seamless physical and digital customer experience?
– Most data only have fleeing value to be actioned in the moment or shortly after it is captured. We need to unify data on customer interactions across channels and make this actionable for experiences to be improved across channels.
What data enrichment strategies can you suggest that work effectively from your experience?
– Use of 2nd and 3rd party data enrichment for targeting.
What is the one marketing platform / app / solution you can’t live without? Why?
– Swoogo for our virtual events has been pivotal to keep our engagement running during COVID-19.
What are your views on having a single stack? (e.g. Google or Adobe vs a mix of best stacks for each function)
– Google stack for us for simplicity.
What’s the best approach/tools to understand customer pain points? Especially when the survey response rate is low.
– Qualtrix.
What are the best social listening tools and strategies?
– Sprout social.
How do you keep abreast of all the latest MarTech out there?
– Numerous blogs and LinkedIn groups.
How do you connect, engage and build a persistent relationship with your customers?
– Clear journey mapping and data management practices.
How do you tackle department silos when it comes to looking into CX proactively?
– Common KPIs and agreed data governance framework.
To build experiences that convert, personalisation is key. How important is segmentation to your personalization strategy? What other key components do you believe contributes towards conversion?
– Creating valuable and helpful interactions based on where a customer is in their journey.
