Our always-connected lifestyles mean that the modern-day consumer expects to be able to engage fully with brands online. From sharing, liking and retweeting posts to watching videos about products and services, customers and potential customers want to know more about the firms from which they’re buying.
Yet at the same time, these same customers expect their own data to be kept safe and secure; something that many organisations struggle with, thanks to the potential for breaches in security. This means that companies must strive to not only deliver a completely personalised customer experience but must simultaneously allow those customers to have their say about the way in which any accumulated data about them is stored and disseminated.
Overall customer experience is an important aspect of marketing, yet far too many CMOs still fail to evaluate that aspect of the buying process. Key metrics are in place to cover many aspects of the business, yet customer experience and lifetime value are rarely considered, even though they are crucial to long-term success.
Marketing teams are investing heavily in analytics in an attempt to drill down deeper into consumer behaviours and to assess the overall value of a business. Yet, even so, many analysts are caught up in the minutiae of formatting and controlling that data, without fully understanding the insights that it can uncover.
Automation and AI are also becoming increasingly common in marketing disciplines. Algorithms can react according to the behaviour of a customer, directing them to products or services that may be of interest. These systems can capture their attention with targeted adverts and even with personalised text messages in some cases.
And let’s not forget videos. Consumers love to watch videos, but as our attention spans grow ever shorter, so too video marketing is having to respond with short, sharp messages that drive a point home quickly, before the viewer has time to move on.
All of these factors mean that marketing teams are having to broaden their reach and diversify. It’s no longer practical, or desirable, for team members to specialise in just one area of marketing. Today’s marketing analysts need to embrace a plethora of skills and business managers need to understand this fact and work towards enabling their teams to develop their competencies.
So, the modern marketing analyst requires many more skills and talents than in the past as the digital world continues to evolve. It’s no longer enough to rely on great business acumen or on technical ability. And whereas in the past, marketing analysts were able to closet themselves away from the rest of the team, in the digital era, the ability to communicate effectively is absolutely essential.
Businesses need to provide appropriate support to their marketing teams, ensuring that everyone receives the necessary training to develop and grow to accommodate the changes that are taking place, both internally and externally.
Rapid advances in technology may be creating challenges that keep management teams awake at night, but this introduces new opportunities too. Get in touch with us at RC&A to find out how we can help.
