How Personalized Data Helps CMOs Drive Marketing Performance

Chief marketing officers (CMOs) have faced an uphill battle delivering premium customer experiences while driving business in the last year. Not only do they have to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation and change, they also have to measure the impact their marketing efforts have on customer experience and acquisition. Only 29% of global marketing leaders said they were satisfied with their ability to measure marketing ROI and attribution last year. 

For the metrics they seek, CMOs are turning to personalized data to uncover new opportunities for customer growth and acquisition. These insights can help capture the attention of C-suite peers and reaffirm marketing’s position as the leader in customer experience.

As we move into 2021, CMOs should keep the following points in mind to maximize customer engagement and drive marketing performance.

Choose the right metrics to measure performance

In our most recent State of Marketing Report, 84% of customers said the experience a company provides is just as important as the product itself. Marketers have to focus not only on the product or service, but also the end-to-end customer journey. As the business landscape becomes increasingly digital, marketing leaders must rethink the customer experience and how they measure its effectiveness.

Luckily, CMOs are up to the challenge. Seventy-nine percent of them said they lead customer experience initiatives across their organization. This means more marketing leaders are looking at the entire customer lifecycle to understand how marketing can drive better business results.

“Over the past decade, performance measurement has gotten increasingly sophisticated, especially with the advent of digital marketing,” said Rodney Hutton, CMO of Ethan Allen. “Now, it starts a lot sooner in the journey. It involves understanding intent and being able to influence intent early in the purchase cycle.”

Understanding how to use personalized data throughout the customer journey is key to smarter decision making. While customer satisfaction remains the most-tracked customer service key performance indicator (KPI), it only measures results at the end of the interaction.

Forty-eight percent of marketers now also track lifetime customer value, a stronger measure to gauge if they’re effectively engaging customers and providing the experiences they expect. By including lifetime customer value as a metric, marketing leaders can measure performance and effectiveness at every step.

Personalized experiences must happen across channels

Marketing leaders also need to consider not only how customers are engaging with their business, but where they are engaging. 

2020’s rapid shift online gave customers a wide variety of digital channels to choose from. According to our third State of the Connected Customer Report, 71% of customers have used multiple channels to start and complete a transaction.

“The consumer has an expectation of choice,” Hutton said. “The consumer decides which medium they want to communicate through and what content they want to receive.”

For marketers, a need for innovation around personalized data is a must to drive business success. 

“[Businesses must evolve] beyond the age of personalization and enter an age of personal commerce, where consumers co-curate their experiences with brands to reflect their preferences at any given moment,” said Sherene Hilal, senior vice president of product marketing and business operations at Bluecore.

To curate these personalized experiences, marketers need access to personalized data for insight into individual customer engagement. Businesses can use information such as the content a customer has engaged with and which products they’ve purchased to help the customer decide what they should do next.

“This is not just a matter of brands meeting consumers where they are; it’s about brands telling them what they want, when they want it,” Hilal said.

Marketers must now track customer engagement across multiple channels to get the most accurate customer view. This valuable information gives CMOs and marketing leaders the personalized data they need to optimize their efforts across channels to deliver a customized experience.

Connected data is crucial for marketing performance

Of course, none of this can happen if your data is disconnected. It has never been more important to put data at the forefront of your marketing efforts and start using insights to make smarter decisions about your customers.

“Go beyond traditional thinking that the ‘customer is always right,'” said Managing Director at Accenture Salesforce Business Surya Kiran. “Instead, consider that the customer is always ready — for new products, services, and experiences. The question (then) is, are you ready to provide them?”

An integrated platform allows companies to engage with their customers in new ways. A single source of truth brings your teams together, ensuring marketing, sales, and service have a complete 360-degree view of the customer. As a result, you can deliver a fully personalized and seamless experience.

Connected data doesn’t just benefit you internally, either. Nearly 54% of customers we surveyed said they feel like they’re interacting with siloed departments rather than a unified business. A disjointed experience can leave customers dissatisfied and less likely to return.

“It is extremely powerful to collect the data that allows you to read the tea leaves and interpret the purchase intent,” said Hutton. “You’re then able to subtly push the consumer over the edge in favor of your product.”

How is your business using personalized data to create innovative customer experiences? Connect your data to capture a holistic picture of your customers to boost marketing performance. As digital transformation continues at breakneck speed, adaptation and personalization are key to success.

This post is part of our Moment Makers series, which takes a deep dive into how marketers use technology to build data-driven customer experiences that feel natural, relevant, and right on time.

Marketing Cloud offers solutions for digital marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, customer journey mapping, marketing analytics, marketing automation, and B2B marketing to help you personalize customer communications across every digital touchpoint — from anywhere.