10 Crucial Questions. to Ask Yourself When Considering a Marketing Intelligence Platform

Transcription

1 10 Crucial Questions to Ask Yourself When Considering a Marketing Intelligence Platform

2 Introduction Marketing experts have long recognized the importance of customer insights to their strategic and tactical decision-making. As the availability and diversity of customer information and analytics increases, many marketing leaders position customer profiling and data at the center of their decision-making. According to a McKinsey, AMA, and Duke-sponsored 2012 CMO Highlights and Insights survey of more than 3,000 leading marketers, the percentage of total marketing spend devoted to analytics is expected to grow by almost 70% over the next three years. Source: CMOSurvey.org August 2012 Highlights and Insights Leading pundits have predicted a new era of marketing intelligence one in which deep customer insight drives revolutionary improvement in marketing effectiveness, ROI, and customer lifetime value. Unfortunately, these sunny prognostications don t reflect the reality within most marketing organizations. The same survey of top marketers found that while interest and spending on data and analytics is expected to continue growing rapidly, 65% of marketing project decisions are still being made without the aid of marketing analytics. 2

3 Source: CMOSurvey.org August 2012 Highlights and Insights Perhaps it s no surprise, then, that less than 8% of the surveyed marketers reported that marketing analytics contribute very highly to their companies performance. There is a clear gap between the promise of empowerment via marketing intelligence and the world in which most marketers must operate. This gap results in large part because of the following factors: There exists a clear gap between the promise of empowerment via marketing intelligence & the world in which most marketers must operate. Multiple Data Sets: Most marketers still contend with multiple data sets one for store transactions, one for the program, one for social, etc. Cumbersome Tools: Many analytics tools are very difficult to use and require the involvement of the IT department. Past-Focused Results: The vast majority of analytics tools are focused on the past on discerning what has happened and positing why. Only a few tools accurately predict future behavior, and fewer still combine predictive insight with prescriptive recommendations. Lack of Functionality: Many so-called marketing intelligence platforms came from developers outside the marketing industry, so their tools fail to address marketers needs. The essential elements of a robust marketing platform can be difficult to pinpoint as data management, and predictive and prescriptive analytics are highly specialized, technical disciplines. 3

4 Marketing intelligence describes the information necessary to plan and deliver a truly customercentered marketing program. Defining Marketing Intelligence Marketing intelligence describes the information necessary to plan and deliver a truly customer-centered marketing program. The tool(s) used to help deliver marketing intelligence to brand leaders are part of the marketing intelligence platform. True marketing intelligence empowers a five-component value chain that begins with a 360 o customer view and ends with improved ROI and customer lifetime value. A highly accurate, holistic view of the customer and her behavior empowers Fact-based customer segmentation that informs Predictive and prescriptive consumer insight that enables Enhanced effectiveness of marketing tools and tactics that results in Improved marketing ROI and customer lifetime value. In order to gain maximum value from the investment, a company should select the platform that best aligns the marketing intelligence chain with their internal business objectives. ROI will benefit the most when each stage of the value chain fully delivers on its promise. The Checklist: Ten Questions Crucial to a Marketing Intelligence Platform To optimize marketing intelligence tools and data, a company can either build their own platform or purchase a third party solution. For a highly select set of companies with extremely stringent internal system requirements (for example, government agencies and financial institutions), a homegrown, custom solution might be necessary. But for most organizations, implementing a third party marketing intelligence platform will be the best approach. Further, until recently, these solutions were all on-premise today, cloud-based selections deliver all the benefits without the infrastructure burden. For most companies, using a third party marketing intelligence platform makes more sense. While every company has unique requirements, most marketers will find useful the following list: Will the platform consolidate all marketing data sets ( , campaign, web analytics, etc.)? Can the platform clean and standardize the combined data and ensure its integrity? Can it deliver an accurate, fact-based segmentation based upon a long-term view of the customer? 4

5 Can the platform evolve that segmentation over time to reflect changes in actual behavior? Will it drive predictive behavioral insights? Does the platform make concrete prescriptive recommendations to drive better decisions? Is it a flexible platform that enhances the effectiveness of existing marketing tools and solutions? Is the platform easily usable for BOTH marketing generalists and tactical specialists? Is it a cloud-based solution versus an on-premise software offering? Are there strong references that can report tangible benefits? Job number one of a marketing intelligence platform is to deliver a 360 o customer view. It must pull all customer data into a single environment. 1. Will the platform consolidate all marketing data sets? Job number one of any marketing intelligence platform is to deliver a 360 o customer view. To do so, it must draw all of the customer data into a single environment only by consolidating their information can companies truly understand consumer behavior and determine how various marketing tactics contribute to a sale. Most organizations have many marketing data sets to aggregate, which may include , web analytics, e-store, call center, campaign, product history, brand strength, personas, and ad interaction data, to name just a few. A company should initially define all of their available customer data sets, and ensure that the platform can aggregate ALL of them into a single customer view. Not some. Not most. All. Because if the data are worth collecting, they should be a part of the overall 360 o customer view. 2. Can the platform clean and standardize the combined data and ensure its integrity? Accurate customer analysis demands accurate marketing data. When aggregating customer data from multiple sources, there are bound to be inconsistencies. Redundancies, invalid entries, and outdated information in data will lead to skewed results and less effective decision-making. Cleaning and standardizing customer data will improve the quality of analysis and ultimately, the efficacy of initiatives. Make sure that the platform can: Clean all data files, removing old, incorrect, and invalid records De-Dupe files so as to maximize actionable insight Standardize names and addresses across data sources Correct misspelled and outdated records Collect or Household records according to specific business rules Enhance customer profiles with third-party data where desired Comprehensive, clean, and accurate customer data can create the precise, 360 o customer view central to the marketing intelligence value chain. 5

6 The right tool should empower with a comprehensive customer segmentation based on both the customer s most recent behaviors as well as long-term patterns. 3. Can it deliver an accurate, fact-based segmentation based upon a long-term view of the customer? A combined data warehouse is essential for marketing intelligence, but intelligent marketing demands more. A platform needs to have the tools and mathematics to deliver fact-based behavioral segmentation. Further, that segmentation needs to be based on more than a moment-in-time or short-term behavioral observation. Segmentation has long helped marketers understand their customers and meet their needs. But current, fact-based customer segmentation represents a quantum leap from the generally crude, hunch- and self-reported-behavior segmentation approaches on which most marketers currently rely. The right tool should empower with a comprehensive customer segmentation based on both the customer s most recent behaviors as well as long-term patterns. Establishing this segmentation will inform accurate marketing decisions, and ultimately, increased ROI and lasting value. By dynamically refining customer segments, a marketing platform can help a company take the actions that are most likely to motivate purchase and loyalty in the ever-changing consumer environment. 4. Can the platform evolve that segmentation over time to reflect changes in customer behaviors? Where 20 years ago a company could rely upon the same informed segmentation approach for many years, the challenges of today s economy and the advent of digital everything are upending customer behavior at a remarkable pace. Companies that want to stay abreast of consumer trends and expanding market spaces need updated, reliable segmentation that can keep the pace. Rather than relying upon a static view of customer segments, a platform should utilize the most current available data to evaluate segments based on the latest observed behaviors. By dynamically refining customer segments, a marketing platform can help a company take the actions that are most likely to motivate purchase and loyalty in the ever-changing consumer environment. 5. Will it drive predictive behavioral insights? Countless surveys and studies confirm that most marketing analytics are focused on past behaviors. While understanding what s worked has value, informed guidance on what to do next can give marketers a crucial advantage. On its most elemental level, predictive behavioral insight relates to propensity modeling and natural clustering of likely next behaviors. A platform s predictive data should help answer questions such as: What is the likelihood that a given customer or prospect will buy now? When is it most likely that a customer or prospect will buy next? Which item(s) are they likely to be the most interested in for their next purchase? Companies should look carefully at a platform s methodology for this feature, as a high degree of predictive accuracy is absolutely essential to deriving maximum value from marketing intelligence. 6

7 6. Does the platform make concrete prescriptive recommendations to drive better decisions? Predictive behavioral insights are one of the most significant benefits of a marketing intelligence platform. The ability to gauge with some accuracy where to focus marketing resources and efforts can greatly increase the overall efficiency and value of strategic initiatives. Prescriptive recommendations close the value loop; they connect predictive analyses to concrete ways to capitalize on them. However, some platforms even go beyond predictive analysis to provide prescriptive insights. Rather than merely providing predictive data, these platforms recommend actions as well as define the actions likely sales and profit impact. Delivering this data can help companies act more quickly and efficiently on crucial market information. Prescriptive recommendations close the value loop; they connect predictive analyses to concrete ways to capitalize on them. They make it much easier to realize the value of marketing intelligence, and they can improve speed to action by providing informed options to evaluate. Prescriptive recommendations help define best-choice decisions on many fronts, including: Marketing resource allocation by platform Recommended spending by customer segment Optimized offer target, size, and structure User tagging by segment Timing and frequency of marketing communications The right marketing intelligence platform should enhance the value of existing marketing tools. 7. Is it a flexible platform that enhances the effectiveness of existing marketing tools and solutions? Most organizations already have tools to provide delivery, a CRM experience, web analytics, a secure purchase process, and more. Companies invest enormous resources in setting up, managing, and training for such tools a process that can take people years of IT time, hiring of experts in these platforms, and large training budgets. The right marketing intelligence platform will improve the effectiveness of tools already in use, not try to replace them. It should enhance the value of the investment in those tools. On the same front, selecting a marketing intelligence platform also facilitates standardization of internal information, provided the platform is sufficiently accommodating. A company should aim to make all information consumable by the platform itself, as well as by any internal and third party applications. 7

8 For example, a platform that empowers Salesforce instances with comprehensive data, predictions, and prescriptions can drive optimized performance for both high volume marketers AND selling organizations. This helps empower business across functional areas and brings an end to departmental information silos. Some platforms try to replace existing tactical toolsets while others work with some tools but not all. Companies stand to benefit most from a solution designed to work with at a minimum every tool the company utilizes. Further, the flexibility to work with virtually any tool allows companies to refine their toolsets over time without obfuscating their data. 8. Is the platform easily usable for BOTH marketing generalists and tactical specialists? The potential output of a marketing intelligence solution is important, but great usability is arguably just as critical. Many organizations have expensive resources such as intranets, internal social software, CRM platforms, and sales management tools that are barely used. A primary cause of this lost potential is that the platforms themselves are cumbersome, complicated, and don t integrate or work cohesively. More people are willing to use a tool that offers an intuitive and user-friendly front-end experience. When a platform makes it relatively easy to base informed decisions upon real analytics, people are much less likely to opt for flying blind. When considering usability, a company should consider the needs of both marketing generalists and tactical specialists. The marketing generalist a CMO, VP, Director of Marketing, or Brand Manager needs macro-level perspective along with the opportunity to drill down. By contrast, the tactical specialist probably needs a great deal more micro granularity from a tool. When analyzing the interface for a diverse range of users, one should consider: Is the interface well defined, easy to use, and flexible? Does it offer data visualization to help surface important insights? Are the tools to isolate segments easy to use? Can it drill down into data according to user-set parameters? Does it enable both moment in time analysis and trending? Additionally, companies should be wary of screenshots -- many platforms create dummy demo environments that make their products look more developed than they actually are. 8

9 9. Is it a cloud-based solution versus an on-premise software? There are a few companies that may need to use an on-premise software solution for internal reasons, but for the VAST majority of companies and marketing organizations, cloud-based platforms offer many compelling advantages: Simple and rapid deployment with minimal IT team involvement Annuity-based subscription payment model that reduces initial cost outlays, spreading the cost out more affordably Automatic software updates provide increased security and allow companies to capitalize on the newest features of the software as soon as they become available When evaluating solutions, companies should look for cloud-based offerings unless there are VERY strict internal prohibitions against web-based data services. Not all such platforms offer the same level of security so companies should ensure that a cloud solution meets or exceeds company security standards. 10. Are there strong references that can report tangible benefits? One of the best indicators that a solution will work for a particular company is its efficacy in similar, real-world situations. Marketing intelligence platforms are so integral to the future of marketing effectiveness that it makes sense for people to do the research before selecting a platform. Smart companies will go beyond examining the vendor s track record and client list to speak with several levels of user, or request a demo of references deployments. For some companies, an ROI calculation will provide confirmation, or at least assurance, of potential value. One of the best indicators that a solution will work for a particular business is its efficacy in similar, realworld situations. Conclusions Marketing intelligence plays an essential part of marketing s future and the right platform can unlock its full potential. Getting through the pre-sales hype is crucial to selecting the platform that will be most valuable to a business. A rational evaluation approach and methodical execution will help businesses derive the most value from their investment. We hope this white paper assists companies in making this complicated purchase. As with any business decision, knowing what questions to ask can make the process less difficult and uncertain. 9

10 About AgilOne Retail marketing leaders founded AgilOne out of a need for better analytical tools that could handle data from disparate sources an ever-growing problem in the world of mobile, social, and multi-channel marketing. AgilOne s thesis states that the companies who can effectively understand, process and take value from their data gain a sizable competitive advantage. However, the amount of data, number of internal and external sources, and the real-time nature of the data can be more complex than the capabilities of internal tools that analyze it. AgilOne addresses this challenge. AgilOne provides cloud-based predictive marketing intelligence to help companies maximize the effectivess of marketing spend. These tools increase customer lifetime value by helping marketers understand behavior across all channels and use this intelligence to make marketing more effective. AgilOne s strength and approach come from deep experience and domain expertise with strategy consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company, advanced degrees in analytical disciplines, and executive marketing roles at leading retailers including Best Buy, Salesforce.com, and Omniture. More Information For more information about AgilOne, contact the company at info@agilone.com or (877) AgilOne, Inc N Shoreline Blvd. Suite #250 Mountain View, CA