Tag Archives: marketing

4 Benefits of a MarTech Stack Ecosystem

Marketing departments will soon manage their technology stack like eco-systems of connected apps. This finally brings them agility, efficiency, resiliency and more revenue.

The marketing technology landscape is becoming ever more crowded. Last year the number of MarTech vendors grew by 18 different tools on average.

Working with a myriad of different tools is no recent development. Internal black markets for apps have always existed below the counter, but managers have tried to prevent individuals taking matters into their own hands.

But with the explosive growth in the number of apps and the need for agility, managers cannot ignore the cry for freedom any longer.

Marketing managers fear losing consolidated insights and reports… but they don’t need to be. There is a way to facilitate MarTech moonshiners, making them work for you instead of against you.

Integrate your marketing technology stack with… yet more apps. Apps like Zapier and IFTTT tie all other tools together, allowing for MarTech stacks to behave like ecosystems. Teams or business units will be free to select the tools they like and use them for any project, for any duration.

Management reports drawn from multiple data sources can be created using Boardview.io.

You can build your own castle from numerous ‘Lego bricks’ while remaining in control, as Google is doing running ‘microservices’. Matt Miller argues that, as an alternative for building big software platforms, software development teams now move to building ‘microservices’, i.e. “small, loosely coupled and composable autonomous pieces”. Sounds like an ecosystem to me.

4 Benefits of an integrated marketing technology stack

The result of managing your MarTech stack like an ecosystem? Increased agility, efficiency and resiliency.

Agility - Take away the need for expensive change management projects by effortlessly pulling reports from different data sources.

Efficiency - Teams will only select apps that serve their purpose best and leave other apps be, so you don’t waste money on what you don’t use.

Resiliency - The dispersion of apps across teams allow for seamless scaling. Meanwhile there is no single point of failure, limiting downtime

…which, in the end, results in more revenue.

Why not grab yourself one of those apps you always wanted? Go for it.

Why Dutch insurance company Centraal Beheer Achmea uses Paragon

Organizing your marketing operations is complex and time consuming. Especially for strong brands for whom consistence in cross marketing channels is essential. Paragon helps to streamline  marketing processes, so they can be simplified and costs and time can be reduced while quality goes up.

One of their customers is the Dutch insurance company Centraal Beheer Achmea. They asked Paragon to help align their marketing and sales. Jorrit Drieënhuizen, account manager at Centraal Beheer Achmea, tells you why.

Big data, analyze, get personal and win

Big Data is the magic word now-a-days in marketing and sales. Gather everything you can and benefit from all the knowledge we gain about our customers. But do we? How do we manage the avalanche of information we gather? According to a recent survey by SAS and SourceMedia 21 percent of the respondents say they didn’t know enough about it, 15 percent don’t understand the benefits of big data and 9 percent say they lack data quality in existing systems. Some believe that the more intel you gather the greater the benefits, but it’s not how much you gather, but it matters what you gather, says MultiChannel Merchant (MCM)  in their executive summary about Big Data and Database marketing.

The meaning of big data can be tough to decipher. You need to start to remember that data is not about numbers but about customers, says MCM. Your customer is supplying you with huge amounts of very useful information, so called first grade information. Think of email addresses order histories, click rates etc.

When this information is integrated with inventory information, revenue management systems and buying history, you will be able to create  customer-specific offers that will not only create a personalized message that reflects shopping habits and preference, but can also help business goals and increase revenue.

The road to the big data success is not about shifting through piles and piles of data. The focus should be on returning customers, the frequency of their purchases and their behavior patterns.

Get to know your customer

Once that is set, look at that data to uncover new insights about these specific visitors. This can help you generate ideas that will increase engagement about your brand, the products you sell and your website as a whole.

The best thing to do with the enormous amount of data, is to figure out what matters most to your organization. With all that information, create an aggregate data source that is fed by your best analytics. Decide also whether it’s best to use technology or a person to compile all this data sets.

Another important thing is to store all the data in one place. So everyone has access to the same source and uses the most up-to-date data. It needs to become the one true data source.

Take a small piece

And look at just a small piece of the pie. When homing in on a specific aspect of big data it might produce it’s best results. For example: big data might reveal that for some reason visitors in a specific region could be more prone to abandon their cart. But by examining the data further, you could learn that it could be because they live in a closer proximity to a traditional brick-and-mortar store than the rest of your visitors, or they prefer different payment options or generally do not hit the free shipping threshold offered.

It’s also important to get data in real time, so quick decisions can be made. You can easily identify what is working and what not. It makes it easy to tweak your operations.

Big data is important for the entire organization. Not only can it be used to boost sales, but your marketing department can use it to identify and engage your customers on specific grounds. Big data makes it possible to personal address your customer.

Big data is not just about harnessing information to boost an online sales experience; it can be used for catalogs and in store. A detailed understanding of what’s going on in your company can help managers forecast staffing needs, address customer service issues and evaluate how things like merchandising, promotions and product placement impact sales conversions. This intelligence not only leads to better and more profitable decisions in individual stores; it can also help merchants measure brick-and-mortar performance within the context of broader multichannel strategies.

Marketing advantage

With big data technology, marketers now have the tools to identify every visitor to an ecommerce site, as well as the ability to see exactly which mouse click got them there. This new tactic is also allowing marketers to deploy their messages in a much more personalized manner.

And people like that. A recent survey has found that customer-centric marketing—the ability to  engage consumers in one-to-one conversations across the customer lifecycle and all touch points—increases buyer readiness, engagement and sales activity.

According to the research study of 1,100 consumers, 40% of respondents claim they buy more from retailers that comprehensively personalize the shopping experience across channels. Results revealed that consumers increasingly reward customer-obsessed retailers. Nearly 60% of  consumers indicated that personalized product recommendations make it easier to find the products they are most interested in and provide a valuable service. More than half of consumers state website recommendations and emails personalized based on their past browsing and  shopping behavior is desirable to receive.

Simply put, concludes MCM, when big data is implemented across the channels, retailers realize 100% increase in purchase frequency, a 50% increase in average order value and a 25% increase in conversion of cart abandoners to buyers.

This Executive Summary was published before on MultiChannel Merchant

20 Marketing statistics that wil drive 2014

The year 2013 is slowly coming to an end. Christmas and New Year are just around the corner. Time to look back, but we won’t do that. We look forward. What to expect in 2014 in marketing?

The people from WebDAM  created this infographic with the latest predictions and newest trends.

Big Data Marketing

Fred van Westerop, districtmanager Northern Europe at Teradata, talks about Big Data Marketing.

IBM Survey Identifies Key Attributes of Leading Marketers

here. The 2013 survey included more than 500 marketing professionals worldwide from more than 15 industries.

As you might expect, the top marketing challenges identified by survey respondents were:

  • Acquiring new customers (42%)
    • Retaining existing customers and improving loyalty and satisfaction (35%)
    • Creating consistent, relevant and positive customer experiences across channels (34%)
    • Understanding social media and using social channels effectively (34%)

In analyzing the survey results, IBM identified a group of “Leading Marketers” based on their ownership of the customer experience across channels and their use of marketing technologies. As a group, the Leading Marketers delivered superior financial performance than “all other marketers” on three financial measures.

  • 3-yr Gross Profit Growth – Leading Marketers 1.8x higher
  • 3-yr Net Income Growth – Leading Marketers 3.4x higher
  • 3-yr Stock Price Growth – Leading Marketers 2.4x higher

IBM identified numerous differences between Leading Marketers and all other marketers, and the table below shows just some of the major differences revealed by the survey responses.

BLog Post 78 - Table 1

I would suggest that one of the most important differences between Leading Marketers and other firms is that Leading Marketers take a broader view of marketing responsibilities. For example, the IBM survey asked participants to rate the effectiveness of their marketing organization in performing across all 4P’s of the marketing mix. The table below shows the percentages of Leading Marketers and all other marketers who rated themselves as highly effective across the 4P’s. Notice that the least difference between Leading Marketers and all other marketers is in the area of promotion.

Blog Post 78 - Table 2

In an earlier post, I argued that marketers must focus on all components of the marketing mix if they want to reclaim their strategic role in the C-suite. The results of the IBM survey demonstrate the importance of taking a more holistic view of marketing’s role in the enterprise.

Beauty is nothing without brains

There are lots and lots of funny ads to find on the net. Were not gonna show you all, because not all of them are that good. But it shows you dont have to take yourself to seriously as a brand. Not even the big guys do, as Mercedes demonstrates.

Is your marketing ready to go glocal?

In today’s world you don’t have to travel to conquer the world. All you need is a computer and the world is at your feet. Local businesses are just as capable to go global as large multinationals.” In today’s digitized business ecosystem, the local business can convert into a successful venture with customers and operations all over the world, and the global business can grow into a larger-reaching enterprise with efficient logistics and a strong brand”, says consultingfirm Frost & Sullivan in their whitepaper on ‘Glocal Marketing’.

To a business with an engaging product, geographic boundaries are no longer an obstacle in identifying and reaching prospects and closing sales. Increasing global access to the Internet; online social media networks; and multiple device types such as smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles, are offering customers new means to collect information and make purchases, and providing companies large and small with more developed channels to bring their product to market. Yet the benefits of these technological advancements afford the globalizing company with unique marketing challenges and unforeseen process pitfalls. Marketers must be prepared to address increased workflow complexity, campaign management across multiple borders and channels, and variations in multicultural communication.

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The best marketingprank ever?

Theres a new movie coming out. Carrie, maybe youve heard of it. Its a remake of the 1976 movie and based on a book, written by Stephen King. Must be a scary one, right?

So, Halloween is coming up and you want to promote your movie. Wat do you do? Being very creative, watch this movie and watch one of the best marketingpranks

Does money make your marketing?

Does money guarantee good marketing? Ask this man. Gleb Budman bootstrapped Backblaze to profitability without spending on marketing. He dreamed of having a real marketing budget to grow faster. Faced suddenly with $1 million to spend, things didnt turn out quite the way he expected. Learn lessons from his bruises that you can apply whether you have a marketing budget or not.