This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
New Tools and Technologies
The marketing technology landscape includes analytics, experimentation, marketing automation, and targeting and personalization, among other tools. But learning these tools, and using them on a daily basis, can max out a marketer’s ability to take full advantage of them, even when they’re fundamental to the job. As tools and technologies evolve, so must a marketer’s ability to learn new features and functionality of the tools they’ve already deployed, as well as the new tools coming into the marketplace.
To take advantage of this new digital reality, think about how you can use these tools to transform processes, rather than as just another interface to log in to in order to get work done. Move your thinking to a higher level. For example, consider these questions:
- How can you evolve traditional rote tactics into insight-driven marketing via analytics?
- How can you shift from one-and-done programs to continuous marketing optimization via experimentation?
- How can you eliminate inconsistent follow-up by adopting programmatic lead nurturing via marketing automation?
- How can you move from a single, generalized campaign message to targeted, personalized content across platforms, channels, and devices?
You’ll get the answers to these questions in the chapters to come. Taken as a whole, these new technologies enable B2B marketers to gain insight into their buyers’ behavior, test what content and experiences visitors prefer, automate engaging campaigns to nurture potential buyer interest, and deliver the right message to the right buyer at the right time in the buyer’s journey. Let’s take a closer look at these technologies before we dive into them in the following chapters.
Analytics
Analytics comprises the wealth of data you’ve accumulated or sourced about your visitors, prospects, and customers, including web analytics, marketing analytics (campaign ROI as well as revenue attribution), and customer analytics. New to the game is predictive analytics, which takes thousands of buying signals to understand a prospect’s propensity to purchase. All of this data adds up to nothing without the right people to process it, translate it, and use it to tell a story about what is happening, why it’s happening, and what to do about it.
Experimentation and Optimization
Capturing visitor preferences through experimentation tools and techniques enables companies to optimize the user experience on their website, with a product, and through various channels and platforms used for campaigns, such as e-mail and online advertising. In addition to digital testing, there are also survey methods, focus groups, and other means of experimentation to help you understand what experiences your audiences prefer.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation enables closer relationships with potential buyers by automating the creation of marketing campaigns and tracking results across several channels, including paid search, social media, events and webinars, and the corporate website, which helps marketers to better understand buyer behavior and content preferences, as well as better track marketing return on investment.
Targeting and Personalization
Creating a more targeted, relevant experience for your prospects and customers will win you higher content consumption rates, a better brand reputation, and, most important, higher conversion rates. Effective targeting and personalization can garner long-term customer loyalty and higher customer lifetime values.