Marketing technologists today contend with a problem of plenty. Most marketing environments that enable and execute marketing today are a cluster of tools, all claiming to do similar functions, yet poorly integrated, needing their own data and technology support and ultimately causing operational inefficiencies and redundant spend.
In this crowded environment, it is easy to lose track of why these tools were procured in the first place. The path to marketing nirvana is based on the simple premise that brands that provide a compelling user experience that is brought to life using first party data (data collected by channels owned by the brand, like the site, app and social media) will be the ones that retain customer consent and loyalty, the holy grail to the brand’s profitable growth.
The key to unlocking this holy grail is to focus on building a set of enabling capabilities that will ultimately help the marketer monetize their brand’s first party data and prioritize where to make and retain their investments…
I call these enabling capabilities Data CHOPS.
Collect
The data collection capability includes both
- the timely transfer of customer data through integrations between a brand’s channels and its customer database
- and the discipline around ensuring that the data flowing through these integrations is customer consented and actionable from the standpoint of improving customer experience
Harmonize
The data harmonization capability includes both resolving identity and managing segmentation of your customers.
Once first party data is collected, it needs to be harmonized and resolved against the various identity levels that customers interact with a brand and expect their preferences and consent to be applied against.
The next step in the process is to segment customers based on common needs, so that the interactions with those segments can be tailored to improve experience. Typically, segmentation strategies revolve around demographic, behavioral and geographic criteria.
Orchestrate
Orchestration refers to the brand’s capability to
- schedule and automate sophisticated cross channel interactions that deliver a superior customer experience
- react real-time to customer actions with next best offers that are relevant to the customer and have high propensity for acceptance
Personalize
Personalization refers to the capability to tailor the brand’s interactions by learning from a customer’s current and past preferences and providing a richer and more meaningful experience. A good example of personalization is a product recommendation feature that shows the customer products similar to the ones that a customer has shown prior interest in.
Synchronize
This capability ensures that learnings from customer interactions in one channel or tool are synchronized across all others. This capability ensures that omni channel customer experience is consistent and uniform and allows for seamless commerce. This capability also provides marketers the ability to track and report on performance – both at the segment and the tactic levels and identify areas where they need to either ramp up or down their investments.
The Data CHOPS framework provides marketers with a way to inventory their tools and investments, map their tool’s proven features against these capabilities, identify redundancies, review and re-align their investments, and ultimately improve marketing efficiency and the maturity of a brand’s interactions with its customers.
