By R. Chandra Mouli
The average tenure of CMOs and those in roles such as CDO and CIO is just three years. Not that they wish to jump jobs, not that they cannot perform. What takes its toll is ever-evolving market dynamics, rapid transformation in technology, and the constant need to second-guess consumer preferences.
What task does this tribe perform? They engage customers, motivate them to purchase a product or service, and find new technologies to find new prospects. Their life would be a lot easier, whether in a large enterprise, mid-size company or SME, if they could identify the right solution for marketing automation – one that enhances customer experience and co-exists in the complex world of AI and Big Data, Web3, and IoT.
Gripped by FOMO and rightly concerned about making a significant capital investment, many CDOs and CMOs take the safe route of installing a basic martech solution, something equivalent to insuring your car against third-party risk instead of a comprehensive policy.
How can martech help?
When I say martech, what would be the quadrants in a full stack?
First and foremost, a true-blue solution must have an in-built Customer Data Platform (CDP). Take away the CDP, what you have is a car with a chassis, steering wheel, engine, and four wheels, but no roof and cabin to house the passengers. All the data one collects about a customer or prospect is stored in the CDP and gets enriched during interactions, including campaign responses.
Data enrichment
Examples of enrichment: Customer preference to respond either to an SMS or email and preferred time to open the message such as morning or late afternoon. Such behavioural attributes can be personalised to millions of customers since AI embedded in the solution records individual reactions and gets fine-tuned with each engagement.
Omnichannel presence
The second quadrant is omnichannel orchestration. The martech solution must be capable of delivering communication through SMS, email, and social media and this journey must be automated, responsive and seamless.
Multi-level hierarchy
Next comes multi-level hierarchy: A boon to conglomerates that wish to ring-fence customer data across multiple companies, geographies, or muti-brands under one entity, with a high likelihood of customers migrating between products and services. Let’s take an educator offering a range of courses under different brand names, and to a diverse audience. A multi-level hierarchy within the same platform is designed to restrict access to data, wherein the campaign teams of say Data Science or DevOps do not have visibility of customer data of other courses, while at the CMO level viewing is permitted for monitoring and taking corrective action.
Beyond tech courses, let us assume different entities within the group offer programmes as varied as chartered accountancy training, IAS exam coaching, UPSC and Bank exams and personality development programmes.
Surely the IAS aspirant can be approached for personality development, and a participant in a CA program may wish to learn ChatGPT or Cyber Security. The in-built interoperability enables cross-selling, and it is easy to see why the candidate is likely to accept a new and divergent course of study when a pitch is made with personalised content, given the comfort of the group umbrella, and a special price for a family member.
Visitor tracking
Quadrant four is a game changer, a future-ready technology accessible in the present, yet many are quick enough to dismiss the feature, based on inadequate knowledge of privacy laws. Simply stated, this is a website visitor tracker which can retarget visitors. Technology for tracking until now has been dependent on the visitor accepting cookies. What’s new is the capability to identify their web browser, on the basis of the device being used, even if cookies are not accepted.
Why is this feature critical? Take a situation where a visitor has viewed the site and exited without taking any definitive steps such as filling out a “Contact Us” form or has abandoned the purchase process midway. When the visitor returns a few hours later, or the next day or in the future – the tracker (a one-line software development kit or SDK) will recognise the device and now the pop-up can be a strategic message that propels conversion. Something like: “Hi, welcome back, would you like to know more about a specific service, we have a special offer for you” (based on the surfing footprint captured by the SDK).
What about privacy? The answer is when a visitor enters your web property, you have every right to know who he or she is. There is no law that forbids identity resolution or sending a notification even if cookies are not accepted. Third Party Cookies are slated to disappear soon, and you can imagine how valuable this technology will become then.
Now that we have reviewed the four quadrants in a well-rounded martech solution, we will examine the prevailing lacuna in the market. Most companies that have made a quantum leap from legacy to digital did so without much of a plan – something like – here is a promising technology that enhances SMS communication, let’s buy it. Next comes a social media tool, and soon you have several “Point Solutions” to manage customer engagement across channels and devices, resulting in multiple identities for a single prospect or customer, and the complexity and cost of integrating an array of solutions.
Why do companies procure a solution which is neither scalable nor has a 360-degree scope? The reasons for this, from my own observations:
- Any new offering, even pitched as PoC or free-trial by the seller, is considered extra work or feared to disprove existing beliefs.
- The ongoing tussle between departments where you have the digital team raring to go, you have the ERP or IT team playing Dr. No, a situation often witnessed with woe by those in pre-sales and sales.
- Compounding the problem are run-of-the-mill providers offering plain vanilla solutions that are glorified mailing systems that will not work unless you install connectors to bridge the gaps, hitch to an external CDP or switch to a cloud service they insist on.
As a result of such misadventures, and most companies being price conscious, the choice often leans towards a cheaper option, and the unknown, unseen, immeasurable outcome is opportunity loss.
Amid this backdrop, if you are serving in an enterprise that is keen to complete the cycle of prospect – awareness – engagement – conversion, and if you are a sincere buyer, here is my suggestion:
Look for a comprehensive SaaS platform, a cloud or hybrid solution that connects any data source to almost any touch point. Examples of data sources: CRM, Website, App, Location Sensors, Call Center or eShop.
Touchpoints can be email and messaging channels such as Whatsapp and SMS. Digital assistants such as chatbots. QR codes, Paid Ads. The faster you connect the above, the quicker will be the uplift in digital-led revenues.
What are the verticals that can benefit from a full-stack solution? Ideally B2C and D2C, including BFSI, telecom, fashion and retail, real estate, healthcare, hospitality industry, aviation, entertainment (OTT especially) and education.
Sales need not be the only goal for deploying a martech solution – the data analytics capability in the solution can be put to good use – for example, a public utility such as a power distribution company that has detailed information on their own customers can do the following: Analyse usage trends and peak demand cycles; Communicate energy saving tips and safety measures; Nudge institutional customers to explore solar power to reduce the load on the traditional grid.
Also read: Privacy rules make econometrics-powered marketing analytics model popular
Some SaaS success stories: A martech platform currently serving a bank has delivered an 18 percent incremental increase in annual revenue by activating multiple digital streams, which, if analysed conversely, is mega savings in people and offline marketing costs. Another did wonders for a mobile device manufacturer by identifying unique customer segments and enabling significant reduction in campaign and communication costs, by recommending relevant channels to target a specific customer cohort. And lastly, a SaaS case study is in telecom where the right solution resulted in the win back of lost customers and conversion from prepaid to postpaid.
On the client side, a leading financial services company generates sales of Rs 400 crore a month by selling loan products purely online – they have no plan to increase their physical footprint as they believe virtual sales is the way to go. For this, they have in place a well-mapped digital journey and the right technology tools.
If you are an MD, CEO, CMO, CDO, CTO or CIO reading this, my advice would be to review the shortlisted solution in the context of your own Use Cases and long-term objectives. Avoid the temptation to initiate PoCs with many, take the decision to invest in One, after a thorough evaluation.
Don’t worry, be happy. You are all set to last longer and achieve phenomenal success in your current role!
(The writer is a former journalist and advertising professional, now serving as advisor to new-age technology firms. Views expressed are his own).