The role of marketing has changed dramatically in recent years. Marketers’ scope of work has expanded from just running ads and generating leads. In my recent posts, I discussed how CMOs and their marketing teams own organizational growth and are expected to manage customer churn. The marketing tech stack is now owned and run by marketers and not the IT team. These are just a few ways in which marketing’s avatar is evolving.

The lines are blurred…

The line between Customer Experience (CX) and marketing is already blurring. CX is no longer a siloed function. For companies to grow, their CX strategy needs to be deeply intertwined with everything the organization plans and executes across functional areas, including marketing. But of all the departments, CX has a special place in marketing.

Historically, marketers have always cared about customer behavior for their campaigns. But now more than ever, the marketing function is in the process of understanding, influencing, and changing the customer perceptions, which traditionally was seen as a CX responsibility.

So, what’s changing?

The difference now is that CMOs and their teams’ scope has expanded from lead generation to delivering a consistent and seamless experience, from acquisition to conversion to growth to advocacy. Marketers are beginning to support customer journeys, similar to what CX used to do. This new reality shift means that marketers need to have the right message ready for customers, no matter the channel and no matter the time. And, customer needs are changing fast too. This means that marketing needs to capture, analyze and deliver against these new expectations.

How Can Marketing Own CX?

It’s crucial for marketers to be mindful of the customer experience, and be active in helping improve it. Here’s what marketing can do to optimize the CX.

1. Start with the Customer: The Persona and The Journey

   The first step in owning CX is to start with a deep understanding of the customer profile.

   This has two key parts:

   • Start by understanding who your ideal customer persona is and what their needs are. When organizations understand their target persona they can leverage the needs of these personas to drive best-in-class messaging, content, and campaigns.
   • Once marketing understands these personas in-depth, the next step is to identify all the touch-points customers have with your brand. This is the journey a customer, prospect, or ex-customer takes with your service, brand, or product. Imagine these touch points as a visual storyline of every engagement with the brand. For example, a journey map may include how the customer first heard of you through social media or brand advertising, interactions with the product in a store, their behavior on the website, sales interactions, after-sales support over a period of time, and so on.

   

   Outlining your current steps, touchpoints or processes helps to visualize what the customer is experiencing in real-time and may unveil common pain points that need to be addressed. The ability to establish empathy for your customers and identify how they’re feeling at every turn is what makes customer journey mapping powerful.

   Through this exercise, you’ll also be able to connect with new buyers, existing customers, and past ones. Marketers can engage with all of them at every stage with the relevant messaging to reduce friction and provide relevant and personalized content. This not only improves customer experience, but it also helps move more customers or prospects down the funnel to sales, repeat sales, and advocacy.

2. Build Trust with a Robust Content Strategy

   Once the journey is mapped, marketers need to build a thorough and deliberate content strategy that addresses all the good and bad points across the journey. This strategy should be persona and touch point specific, not a one size fits all.

   Start with a content strategy that is grounded in the very purpose of content marketing – creating and adding value to customers. Don’t hard sell. Rather provide a solution to a problem or offer value in the form of information. If you put out the most relevant content for your new, current and past customers depending on the persona and the touch points, it builds relevance and trust. This trust then creates repeat visits, be it in-store or online. This triggers repeat purchases and loyalty.

3. Double Down on Your Biggest Asset: Social Media

   Social Media is an interesting channel that functions as a marketing platform and a customer service medium. But, social media accounts are owned by marketing in most companies. So why cannot CX become part of marketing’s ownership?

   When marketers own CX on social media, they can enhance the customer experience by responding quickly to questions and starting the conversation. They can use it promote content, communicate service enhancements, new products or product features, and loyalty rewards to eligible users. When done right your customers become defacto promotors who rave about your brand. This success then gets noticed by your prospects and is likely to increase your overall customer base.

   Marketers can also run integrated campaigns between email, search, and social. These can be designed in such a way that markets layout a series of personalized connects with each persona and their specific journey touch points. Using this approach marketers can share the right content and engage with the right prospects on the right channel at the right time. This strategy is a great way to move prospects and customers down the funnel to closure.

Wrapping up

When marketers own the CX, they have an opportunity to create a new customer base, increase stickiness with current customers – moving them towards loyalty and advocacy.

With the connected digital ecosystem, there’s no better time than now for CMOs and their marketing teams to own customer experience. This is the golden era where marketing can own the end-to-end customer journey, from acquisition to repeat customer to a loyal advocate.

This article is a continuation of the one I wrote on how CMOs and their marketing team can drive organizational growth.

As Marketing takes charge of growth, an important aspect of the business to understand and manage is your client churn.

A common question here is: why should marketers care about churn, isn’t it customer service or leadership’s responsibility? – Wrong!

Don’t Keep Filling a Leaky Bucket

Lost customers impact business sustainability, and result in multifold cost incurred to get new ones. While this increases marketing budget, just covering the gap is not growth.

Thus, it is only fair that when Marketing is tasked with bringing in new customers, they should have a say in retention too. At the very least, Marketing should influence retention along with other groups such as customer-facing teams and Sales.

Types of Churn

Generally, churn can be of two types- customer churn and revenue churn.

Assume you have two customers: Customer A generates $1,000/mo. revenue and Customer B produces $5,000/mo. Your total revenue is $6,000/mo. Assume you lose Customer A. Your customer churn is high at 50%. But if you look at the dollar/revenue churn, you are at 17%, a fairly small number. You still have $5k MRR (monthly recurring revenue) from Customer B. Congratulations!

Now, if you lose Customer B, your customer churn is still 50%, but the dollar churn is 83%. This number is big enough to give you sleepless nights.

Imagine if you did lose Customer A (at $1k/mo. revenue), but you grew Customer B by $2,000/mo. – the total revenue now is $7k/mo. In this scenario, the revenue churn is actually negative. This is good news.

Negative Churn Formula

Negative churn is a powerful metric to measure your success despite the loss. A negative churn is a positive thing, and for this to happen, your additional revenue from any existing customer should be greater than the revenue lost from churn.

Marketing can Control Churn

Marketing has a lot of control over churn reduction and on expanding revenue from current customers. In fact, Marketing can help the customer-facing team and the leadership reduces churn. What is required is a deliberate strategy.

Appropriate short and long-term nurture strategies such as content marketing and ABM (Account-Based Marketing) can help reduce churn. Marketing teams can plan and implement custom programs to the key accounts and promote the benefits of the products/services they signed up for – in a way influence why they should stay with you. Marketing can promote product features and how the product is different from competition to attract new customers. Assets such as case studies, white papers, product videos, testimonials from current customers, and other thought leadership content can help build a positive image with your current and future customers. Who does not want to be associated with a company that is making other firms in their industry successful, right?

Other strategic initiatives could include webinars, social media, Q&As, blogs, meet-the-expert events, etc. In the post-pandemic business world, all these can be executed virtually with lower costs than large scale off-line events. You can now spending your marketing budget on customer retention and revenue growth effectively.

Conclusion

Your customers want to know that they have made the right decision in hiring you to help them grow. Marketing as the growth driver and one with customer insights have all the ammunition to manage churn. Thus, marketing should contribute towards and run churn management programs in conjunction with other teams such as Customer Care, Sales, and Account Management. The collective customer insights from all these teams are priceless and can help build a robust churn management strategy.

According to Mckinsey, 83% of Global CEOs say that marketing can be a significant growth driver in their organization. This is great news for the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs).

But don’t pop the champagne bottle just yet! Only 23% of CEOs feel that marketing is delivering on that plan. Ouch!

Like it or not, the responsibility to fix this is squarely on us marketers.

So how do marketers drive growth?

It starts by (1) recognizing that the role of marketing has indeed changed and (2) taking on accountability for the entire customer journey.

Let’s deep dive into these two areas.

Consumers Have Redefined Marketers’ Role

During the pandemic, offline interactions and transactions moved to digital touchpoints at a shocking pace. And there are no signs of this abating.

As a result, we are in the midst of a new era of consumer expectations. To cater to this demand, large and small companies have already moved, or are fast-moving, to digital experiences for their customers.

This change is forced upon us by consumer behavior. Given marketing’s close proximity to the consumer, the impact on it is also most widely felt. As a result, the role of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and their teams is changing fast.

80% of respondents to the 2021 CMO Spend Survey by Gartner indicated that they are solely responsible or play a leading role in their company’s digital business transformation strategy. According to another report from Capgemini Research Institute, CMOs’ responsibilities are shifting. Approximately 76% are now responsible for contributing to business growth and 74% for data and technology.

These new-age demands of a CMO and her team are a far cry from the traditional roles. A CMO needs to get into the driver’s seat and orchestrate the change, many times with the risk of ruffling feathers of other C-suite leaders.

Additionally, to deliver to the consumer expectations in an always-connected world, marketers need to own the end-to-end consumer journey, from the first touch to loyalty and advocacy. Thus, CMO and her teams’ concerns need to shift from just marketing to the challenges of orchestrating customer-centric complex journeys.

This brings me to my second point about what marketing needs to own and is accountable for.

Accountability: Kill “Lead-Gratification”

To be successful, CMOs need to go to the heart of the organization to expand the role marketing plays. To do so, they need to free the organization and the marketing department of what I call the “lead-gratification” culture.

In this culture, marketing thrives on the lead volume from in-bound and out-bound tactics. Marketing hits its lead targets based on some qualifying criteria like industry type, title, or some other parameters. From here on out sales chases these leads. The CRM systems get updated regularly with the lead or contact status.

On the surface, the performance looks great. But a look under the hood will show that despite the hefty marketing spends and the volume of leads, there isn’t enough revenue coming in to keep the business afloat in the long run, i.e. the lead-to-customer rates are not optimal.

Unfortunately, this culture not only plagues the marketing and sales teams, but also the leadership. When the growth conversations about revenue, profits, customer satisfaction, and retention are missing in the leadership meetings or in the boardroom, it is an organizational issue. This culture has to change.

Why Should CMO’s be Accountable for this Cultural Change?

In the digital ecosystem that consumers now buy-in, marketing has become less about empowering sales with leads and some collateral to chase these leads. Marketing, now more than ever, is about working together with sales, product, finance, customer success, and offline teams to define the consumer journey touchpoints and tackle real customer pain points. Marketing can now own and demonstrate success to help educate, guide, and navigate the consumer through the entire buying process.

To be the growth drivers, the CMO and her team need to go beyond just marketing-related metrics such as branding, engagement and leads. Marketing needs to own business metrics that offer insights into the company’s performance and marketing’s impact on the overall business. All KPIs—such as customer experience, churn, customer lifetime value, recurring revenue, and customer retention—need to be the metrics that marketing owns. This is the only way marketers can meet the demands of the CEO and become the growth drivers.

Conclusion:

The pandemic-driven behaviors changed customers’ engagement with brands. This forced firms to relook at how each function added value to the customer and the organization. Marketing was no exception.

To adapt to the new reality and be agile, CEOs and the rest of the C-suite need to accept that the scope of marketing has already expanded. Marketing can no longer be a cost center but needs to be treated as a growth driver.

These times offer great opportunities to CMOs and marketers to grab the reins and drive organizational growth. This is not going to be easy as it starts with changing the core culture within the firm and the marketing teams. It is incumbent upon marketers to ensure that the growth conversations keep happening in the leadership meetings and the boardroom and it is marketing that leads from the front.

1. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/marketings-moment-is-now-the-c-suite-partnership-to-deliver-on-growth

2. https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2021/oct/12/three-quarters-of-cmos-are-contributing-to-business-growth/

Marketers, are you ready for marketing’s new normal?

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on marketing globally. As businesses rebound, marketers are required to know the pulse of their consumers. Marketers will need to think differently from the past to respond to the new demands of the consumer.

What follows are the three macro trends that will impact marketing worldwide. Marketing Tips provided can be a great starting point to tackle these challenges. Geographic, economic, and cultural micro trends may evolve, and influence marketing as the world comes out of COVID. But the trends discussed here will continue to be some of the main influencers. Thus, their implications for marketers warrant careful consideration and thoughtful action.

Trend #1: Digital Adoption

COVID-19 fast tracked digital adoption across the world and across industries. People in unprecedented proportions shifted to digital channels.

Overnight, the traditional model of in-office work went online. Face-to-face meetings became Google Meet or Zoom meetings. Kids were catapulted from in-class learning to online. Traditionally off-line events and conferences, from SMX to MarTech to Adobe to Forrester, went virtual. Shoppers chose online ordering to an in-shop experience.

As consumers went online in record proportions, companies and industries responded. Many firms leveraged digital platforms and tools to efficiently manage their business and internal processes. Slack and Microsoft Teams saw a significant jump in usage. At Position², our internal communication and campaign management platform Arena helped with mass communication, project management and digital campaign performance management. Arena bridged the gap between our global clients and teams.

Many companies created digital and digitally-enabled offerings in 2020 to support their service and product portfolio. According to one Mckinsey report, globally there is an average of a seven- to 10-year jump in the rate at which companies were developing these products and services.

The ease of use of digital platforms, the efficiencies driven, and the collaboration enabled will only evolve. As a result, digital adoption will only increase in the future. Therefore, it is fair to say that the digital or digitally driven ecosystem of interconnected technologies is here to stay. Companies and their leaders need to adapt to this phenomenon to stay ahead and thrive.

Marketing 2021 Tip

As marketers, you will need to identify platforms and technologies that will help you build digitally-enabled client experiences and workplace ecosystems. You will need to start moving some, if not all, of your offline experiences online.

The questions to answer are: How can I engage my customers, partners, and vendors digitally for the next six to nine months as the world slowly limps back to normal? Think about all the touchpoints that can go digital. Which touchpoints are impactful and easy to implement digitally? What are the measurable and scalable digital initiatives I can conquer quickly? Your answers to these questions will pave the way to a digitally enabled experience that supports your organization and your goals.

Trend #2: Shifting Consumer Behavior

The pandemic has disrupted old consumer behaviors. Loyalty towards brands was quickly replaced with the economics of shopping and ease of access. Essentials and value are now driving consumer buying. Consumption on digital devices offered a fast and safe alternative buying that could be accessed from the comfort of homes. These new shopping behaviors are here to stay. Similarly, the adoption of video chat and messaging apps, and Social Media has gone up. A study by PWC shows that greater than 75% of those surveyed said that they would continue with these behaviors in the future.

Thanks to the ubiquitousness of mobile phones, wifi, and mobile data, post-COVID consumers dictate the what, how, and when of purchases or interactions. Micro-events and in-the-moment interface with a brand will help increase affiliation and loyalty. But brands are no longer in the driver’s seat.

The rise of apps, the ease of ordering online, and the simplicity of digital content interaction will make online consumption the norm. To cater to this behavioral shift, companies will need to increase their presence online and offer a much better experience.

In the technology driven hyper connected consumer world, the desire to buy from you is directly proportional to positive reviews and influencers’ recommendations.

Brands that can connect their product or service to a consumer’s need will win. If consumers have had a bad experience with your brand, the news will spread like wildfire, impacting a large chunk of your sales.

Marketing 2021 Tip

To ensure consumer centricity, brands will need to personalize the experience or product. Experiential and personalized marketing will be very powerful in 2021. This type of marketing can be delivered via your website, social channels, or even through an app. It can also leverage AR. For example, you can offer the consumer a product experience without even having them to step into the store. This is what L’Oréal and Timberland did with their make-up and accessories respectively. You can also use AR or VR in B2B to train your sales or clients with interactive products. This technology can help conduct virtual immersive events.

Personalized experiences can also be delivered via email. By combining first-party and third-party data you can build an ideal customer profile (ICP) with detailed behaviors, interests, and in-market needs. You then build an online engagement strategy with a series of emails, custom content or targeted ads relevant to them. You can also deliver a highly personal, 1 on 1 experience to consumers via online chat.

The bottom line: personalized experience is a prerequisite. Organizations need to shift from brand centricity (self-obsessed) to customer centricity.

Trend #3: Marketing Technology

No surprise that technology is playing a huge role in marketing today. The rise of marketing technology is going to be exponentially greater in the future.

With cloud and computing power becoming easily accessible and cost-effective by the day, technology will be an efficient and effective way to run marketing, be it online or offline. The fact that there are over 8,000 marketing solutions available is a testament to that.

With technology, companies can now accelerate and optimize every consumer touch point. These range from e-commerce purchases to online-brand interactions to simple content consumption. Furthermore, complex multi-channel and multi-dimensional customer relationships are becoming easier to manage.

Marketing 2021 Tip

As you look at the many ways to add to your marketing technologies, your tech stack can become complex and difficult to manage. But the manageability of the stack is what will help marketers thrive. By focusing on tech stack governance, you will increase interconnectedness and decrease redundancy-driven wastage.

Along with the tech stack governance, marketers need to think of accurate data integration and insights. Connecting various data pipes can be daunting. But accomplishing this enables you to run synchronized activities across channels. This can propel the brand and consumer loyalty forward. Strong interactive data visuals enable you to dig right into the problem. Thus, integration and solid data science that can feed intelligence into this data are critical for a marketing manager or a CMO to win.

In Conclusion

2021 will be the year of transformation. For marketers, the changes to consumer behavior have already been set in motion with large-scale digital adoption. Thus, it is safe to say that consumers are already on the fast track towards a digital-led lifestyle.

The resulting changes in consumer behaviors will only evolve and are here to stay. The trends discussed here will continue to shape the next normal and will impact marketing for years. With foresight, innovation, and consumer centricity, brands and marketers can find enduring success.