2015: The Year of the Customer Journey
By Lynn Vojvodich
We are entering the year of the customer journey.
Marketing has always been about customers, but 2015 marks a turning point. For the first time, marketers have access to the data and technical tools to engage with customers in sophisticated 1:1 journeys, placing the customer at the center of everything we do.
As marketers we must commit to harnessing the power of these tools, leveraging multiple touchpoints, and gleaning insights to create highly personalized journeys that delight customers and make for truly awesome marketing.
Here are four ways embark on customer journeys — and start 2015 off right.
1. Connect to Your Customers Through Multiple Channels and Touchpoints
Our 2015 State of Marketing Report suggests that this is the year marketers will truly bank on mobile and social, even as email marketing remains core to their business.
Make 2015 the year you integrate mobile into every marketing campaign, and leverage new capabilities like location-based content and mobile loyalty programs. Test out new social channels to see what works best for your target audience, and re-engage with prospects and customers in new ways using email. Consider, also, opportunities for 1:1 interaction with in-app messages. Connected devices and products are the latest frontier in customer engagement.
2. Integrate Touchpoints into a Cohesive Customer Journey
Today’s technology allows marketers to craft highly personalized customer journeys that create a cohesive experience across multiple touchpoints. Every email, website visit, or mobile app tap is an opportunity to deliver value in context and to tailor interactions to individual customers. It’s about creating moments of delight and moving your customers forward in their journey.
Imagine a customer entering a retail store. An app on her mobile device alerts her that the cashmere sweater in her online wishlist is currently 50% off — and the store has her size in stock. Delivering the right message at the right time adds value to her experience, deepens her relationship with the brand, and helps push her closer to a sale.
3. Extend that Customer Journey Across Your Company
Brands have an imperative to create a unified, effortless experience across all customer interactions — not just in marketing, but also in organizations like sales and customer service. A cohesive brand experience calls for organizational alignment and technologies that enable a single, 360-degree view of each customer. Your customers don’t care if they’re talking to a service agent or a sales rep; they expect your company to be as informed about them, as they are about you.
At Salesforce, we aim to deliver marketing so good that it’s customer service, and customer service so good that it’s marketing. The payoff is huge. Just think about the positive word-of-mouth marketing that comes from a stellar service experience — and it all stems from pivoting the entire company around our customers.
4. Know Your Customer Like Never Before
With everyone and everything becoming connected, marketers have unprecedented opportunities to collect data about customer behavior. The trick is turning that data into actionable insights that can provide a better customer experience and drive business success. Improvements in data science technology are helping to find the most efficient and compelling pathways to successful customer journeys.
With social media listening tools, we can see in real time how customers are responding to an event or a product launch. Marketing automation allows us to run A/B tests that provide insight into the content our prospects find most engaging. The latest marketing analytics let us gauge the business impact of every campaign we undertake — right from our phones. And predictive intelligence can help us optimize engagement across the customer journey.
In 2015, marketing will mean delighting every customer — and building true brand loyalty. For the first time, we have the tools and insights to create value for every customer, across every touchpoint, throughout the entire business. In doing so, we can deliver the cohesive, highly personalized experiences that today’s customers expect. Welcome to the year of the customer journey.
Lynn Vojvodich is EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce.
Learn more about the future of marketing with our new 2015 State of Marketing report.
Originally published at blogs.salesforce.com.
