With the marketing landscape in constant flux, marketers face growing challenges to break through the noise and deliver messages effectively. They want to leverage AI to boost efficiency, while delivering personalized experiences throughout the customer lifecycle that improve results. However, many marketers still struggle with execution – including how to effectively measure ROI and quickly act on customer insights. This leads to a reliance on short-term acquisition tactics rather than a robust strategy designed to meet long-term business goals.
To help address these challenges, below are three valuable takeaways for marketers looking to close the strategy-execution gap based on a recent survey conducted by Acoustic. While many marketers believe they have a mature customer engagement and retention strategy in place, the data tells a different story.
Technology investments won’t solve process and collaboration issues alone
According to the survey, 52.4% of marketers invest in tools and technology, while 59% enhance cross-team collaboration to address marketing challenges. However, without operational alignment, data and workflow inefficiencies persist.
Technology investments alone won’t solve these challenges – there isn’t one marketing platform that is the solution. Instead, marketing leaders should invest in platforms that emphasize process integration and usability for stronger adoption and retention. Investing in professional services and continuous education can also boost results. Each marketer needs to be armed with the skills to work more efficiently, leading to more successful campaigns and meaningful customer engagement.
AI, personalization, and data activation are the next battlegrounds
AI and personalization are some of the top cited missing platform features, along with marketers lacking the foundational data infrastructure to execute effectively.
AI is a driver of automated decisioning and customer journey orchestration. It can help analyze audience data to determine where customers are in their journey, how to effectively engage or re-engage them, and what content, offers, or products will interest them at a specific moment in time. These are the actionable insights gleaned from AI features that will help marketers reach their goals while saving time and resources. The winning platforms will deliver more effective, actionable insights when they combine AI capabilities with a strong foundation for unified customer data, since AI-powered insights are as good as the data that fuels them.
Real-time decision-making is misunderstood – automation is not intelligence
Among marketers, 43.8% report struggling with real-time triggers and 36.2% find predictive behavioral attributes difficult to act on. This data shows that marketers may have automation in place but struggle with the insights to make real-time decisions across channels. In addition, many marketers think they have real-time decisioning, but their challenges suggest they only have basic triggered automation.
Marketers must look beyond basic methods to stay competitive. And generic, one-size-fits-all marketing is not enough to capture (and maintain) attention. Behavioral analytics enable brands to deepen connections by understanding the nuances of customer behavior in real time and predicting how these behaviors may change. With this data, marketers can personalize their campaigns, improve segmentation and targeting, and gain visibility into customers at every touchpoint. This can lead to higher engagement rates, enabling marketers to demonstrate ROI from their campaigns.
Why it matters
Marketers are tasked with delivering highly personalized and relevant experiences to their customers, but too many lack the necessary tools and skills to do so. To bridge the strategy-execution gap, marketers must make informed, real-time decisions that truly connect with their audiences’ needs in the moment. By understanding how strategic vision and execution are misaligned, marketers can take the necessary steps to propel their customer engagement strategies forward, meeting today’s business goals while building loyalty that lasts.