Tag Archives: WCM

How to Deliver Consistent Onmichannel Customer Experiences

I recently read somewhere that you know when a concept or practice or a technology application is new when you can’t find one unanimous way to spell it. For example, not that long ago, we would see EcommerceeCommerce, and e-commerce all used with near-equal frequency.

Today, omnichannel (or omni-channel or omni channel) has become a hot buzzword in business, marketing, and technology circles. The concept first gained attention in the retail sector, as retailers sought to link offline, in-store shopping activities and online shopping. During the past twelve months, many marketing pundits have expanded the concept and now use it to describe an approach to marketing that applies to many types of enterprises.

The term omni derives from the Latin word omnis, which means “all” or “universal.” As used today, omnichannel marketing usually means providing consistent, personalized, and contextually appropriate messages and customer experiences on all relevant communication channels and devices.

Some experts contend that true omnichannel marketing requires companies to capture customer interactions in all channels and then make the interaction data useable by allcommunication channels and platforms on a near real-time basis. For example, when a customer or prospect visits a website, the website needs to be “aware” that the customer/prospect just interacted with the brand on the company’s Facebook page.

The ultimate objective of omnichannel marketing is to tell a continuous story and provide a seamless experience that plays out whenever and wherever a customer interacts with a brand.

Few, if any, companies have achieved this level of omnichannel integration, but ominchannel marketing is clearly becoming an important priority for many enterprises.

Decoding Marketing Technology Terms and Acronyms

Today’s marketing technology landscape is filled with confusing terms and three-letter acronyms. Over the past two decades, the number of marketing technologies has grown dramatically, and companies have attempted to create competitive differentiation by using distinctive terms to describe their solutions. The result is an array of marketing technology terms and acronyms that provide little help to marketers who are looking for solutions to important business challenges. Below are my definitions of five important marketing technologies and their acronyms.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) — A software system that enables companies to efficiently catalog, store, retrieve, and repurpose content assets that exist in the form of computer files. The core feature of a DAM system is a centralized repository, or library, containing an organization’s content assets that have been cataloged in a way to facilitate search and retrieval. DAM systems will also typically enable the automation of workflows relating to the creation, approval, and versioning of content assets.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) — The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) defines enterprise content management as, the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. On the surface, therefore, ECM sounds a lot like DAM, but there are significant differences. Read More