We are in the midst of a tsunami of data but, thanks to analytics, all businesses are now able to hone ever-deeper insights from Big Data. Bernard Marr shows how this works, providing you have a clear strategy about the role of data in marketing, which is essential for businesses of all sizes to move forward and keep ahead of competitors.
Businesses need to ensure they have a clear understanding of their aims and objectives, their customers, the data they are collecting and the interactions customers have with their business. With all these elements in place, brands that operate in Singapore – the gateway to Asia – can begin to build truly effective data driven campaigns.
How do sales and marketing teams – which often follow different paths – successfully pull together in a data-driven approach to revenue growth? Robert Howells says they need to think differently – looking at ‘account-based growth’ rather than ‘account-based marketing’ or ‘key account sales’. Follow his five strategies for success.
There’s an element of chance with every marketing campaign, but the more a business knows about its target audience, the better the chance of resonating with consumers . . . which is why researching your market is so important.
Today, marketers have more than 120 different ways to communicate with their customers and prospects through a vast array of digital and analogue channels, which all purport to add value to the customer relationship. So, we should use them all – right? Er . . . wrong!
With the vast number of mobile devices in Scandinavia, alongside the huge appetite for online shopping, the Nordic region presents massive opportunities for internet marketers who are prepared to go the extra mile when creating digital marketing campaigns.
This era of multi-channel marketing and customer engagement means many small and mid-size businesses feel pressured to establish a presence anywhere and everywhere. Is this a bad thing?
The firm said the new recruits will be join its UK Risk Assurance team within the next four years and cover all industry sectors across the country. As well as cybersecurity and privacy threats, the beefed up team will cover data management, business systems and IT risks.
More than 600 jobs will be filled by external hires, while over 400 will be transferred from other PwC sites. The firm will also be recruiting at least 200 data and tech graduates.
PwC UK head of assurance Hemione Hudson said: “Business models that have served clients well for decades are being disrupted or destroyed due to the speed of digital disruption, the increase of regulatory scrutiny on technology risks and the escalation of cyber threat, requiring us to respond and build a strong team of specialists.”
Although there have fewer ‘car crash’ breaches following last October’s hack on TalkTalk, there is obviously a great deal of nervousness in the market.
PwC risk assurance partner Marc Bena added: “Our clients and their customers want to know that their technology is innovative and pushing boundaries whilst being safe and delivering what is expected. We have a duty to continue to build a team of technology experts able to help our clients do business with confidence.”
It was all part of a personalised campaign by Cheil Worldwide for the local education network.
The aim was to tell hard-studying students that their lives mean more than mere grades, through the ‘Healing Exam’ campaign. On the day of the Korean SAT – which is a major exam to determine which students will progress to college – the short film was revealed on YouTube (click English subtitles below the video). It first shows students in a classroom taking an exam then, one by one, crying over what is written on the paper.
Cheil teamed up with EBS, South Korea’s education broadcasting TV network, to encourage students by telling them that they are already perfect no matter what grade they get – with the help of letters from their parents included in the exam paper.
Usually starting at the age of five, pupils’ educational efforts are judged on this one day; the day of the SAT, making students in Korea very anxious. South Korea is ranked the lowest in students’ life satisfaction index among OECD nations as they suffer from stress and depression.
To embark on the personalised campaign to boost students’ self-esteem, Cheil secretly contacted students’ parents to write a letter to their son/daughter. The contents of the letters were inserted into each student’s exam paper as a personalised article, for the students to read and then write a reply.
Some of the messages from parents were, ‘It breaks my heart to see you come home late at night exhausted’, ‘You have done your best, so never regret’, ‘We’ll always be here for you’, ‘From your loving mom and dad’. The film’s total views exceeded seven million in just two days.
After the exam, schools held exhibitions where the exam papers and answers written by the students were displayed. The trend of the healing exam spread across to other schools, where teachers sent messages of encouragement to students. Further extending the campaign, EBS added the related documentary video to a programme on the topic of school education and also review the team treehouse or pluralsight comparison for those who were insecure on what to study next.
Sungjun Park, creative director of Cheil Worldwide, said: “The Healing Exam project is about curing the stress caused by exams. We wanted to send a message to students who learn how to grade themselves even before they learn to love themselves, to cherish their lives more and realise that their lives cannot be judged by scores.
Sungwook Chung, chief producer of EBS, added: “I hope that students of South Korea realise the preciousness of family is more important than test scores and feel warm-hearted.”
Marketers ‘still largely connecting via a single touch-point’ says report.
An omni-channel approach by shoppers is becoming the norm in the UK, but the vast majority of companies are failing to connect with customers seamlessly across multiple touch-points. So says findings from consumer analysis and data marketing specialist GI Insight, whose report also points to the growing importance of tying real-time online interactions to existing consumer relationships – and the need to use customer data to do so.
The survey of 1,000 UK consumers (balanced by age, gender, region and social class) reveals many consumers take an approach to shopping that involves multiple channels, as 71% of customer journeys today begin online while 18% start with a visit to a shop. However, they often end elsewhere, with 42% typically buying via the web and 31% purchasing in a shop, leaving roughly a quarter who don’t see themselves as having any one ‘usual’ purchasing channel at all – indicating that the buying journey of a UK shopper is often a complex one that involves more than one medium.
The research report, entitled The Omni-channel Imperative, also reveals that UK consumers would be heavily influenced by follow-up communications from brands in response to web browsing – which are often sent in real time – as 78% say a personalised message following a website visit would make them more likely to buy. However, 43% stipulate they would only do so if they had a prior relationship with that brand such as membership in a loyalty scheme.
Nonetheless, according to the findings, few companies are successfully executing an omni-channel marketing strategy – ie. a true customer-centric approach that involves seamless contact across disparate channels. The research indicates too few consumers either receive or respond to coordinated interactions across multiple touch-points, as only a small proportion reported that contact via combinations of channels led to a purchase in the last six months:
The good news for omni-channel marketers is they have had better success with the digitally-active 25-34 age group, as a higher percentage purchased after being contacted across multiple channels:
Andy Wood (pictured), GI Insight’s managing director, said: “The survey shows that consumers start on one channel – usually the web – but don’t necessarily stay or end up there. Often those that start online end up in-store and vice versa. They might also receive offers or do research through other channels – such as smartphones or tablets – along the way. The results indicate clearly that the vast majority of consumers would welcome genuine efforts by companies to take a customer-centric approach that matches their own omni-channel habits.”
He adds: “Unfortunately, the research also reveals that far too few companies are successfully implementing a true omni-channel strategy – either they are not really using multiple channels to reach consumers or they are not employing customer data to craft coordinated, relevant communications that hit consumers via a range of media at different points in their buying journey. On the plus side, this indicates there are opportunities to gain a competitive edge for those that do execute effectively across all touch-points – especially with digitally active younger consumers.”
Wood concludes: “The key today is for brands to harness both long-term offline data, such as transaction records, and real-time online data to achieve a true 360˚single customer view. This then gives a business the consumer insight necessary to provide an informed, coordinated and consistent customer experience that transcends individual channels – which can otherwise languish as unconnected silos. What’s more, tapping into both offline and online data enables your company to react fast and win over consumers as and when they’re making buying decisions.”