CRM Talks #8 with Ntsako Mokwena

Ntsako Mokwena, global relationship marketing and thought leader, is sharing the importance of the “relationship word” in CRM terminology, four common mistakes that can be made when working in this field and her thoughts on the future of CRM, including how AI, omnichannel strategies, and MarTech stack development are shaping the industry.

Welcome to the latest episode of CRM Talks!

We are thrilled to have Ntsako Mokwena as our next incredible guest, global relationship marketing, and thought leader with a wealth of experience in top companies like DICE, Uber, and Accenture.

In this episode, Ntsako shares the importance of the “relationship word” in CRM terminology, four common mistakes that can be made when working in this field, and her thoughts on the future of CRM, including how AI, omnichannel strategies, and MarTech stack development are shaping the industry.

Could you provide your definition of CRM?

CRM, which I’m increasingly referring to as Relationship Marketing to highlight the word relationship and draw a distinction from a transactional arrangement — is a powerful tool that enables a brand to shape its customer experience and tell its brand story. Without this — customers are left to form their own perception of a brand based on their interaction with its other touchpoints, which would be limited.

It is, therefore, an intentional, ongoing orchestration by a brand to move customers through predefined product/service milestones that have been tested and proven to pave the way to repeat purchases and retention. These steps that pave the “yellow brick road,” if you will, help customers answer the question “what next” as they journey with the brand. This happens through one or (preferably) more direct-to-consumer channels such as email, push notifications, web push, in-app cards/activity feed, SMS, and Whatsapp.

CRM is also responsible for quickly highlighting a brand’s value to a new user upon signup, educating them on how to use the core features of the product, and nudging them frequently in order to establish a habit of returning to discover more that the brand has to offer, to replenish or to perform other High-Value Actions (HVAs). High-value actions are those that have high downstream conversion potential. For example, for an e-commerce site, wishlisting is an action that can drive sales further down the line when that item goes on sale.

Why is it necessary for companies to implement CRM?

Any company that is investing in acquisition but doesn’t have a sound Relationship Marketing strategy in place is essentially pouring money into a leaking bucket.

It’s quite expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. CRM allows you to use a relatively inexpensive channel to help customers form habits with your produce/service that ultimately lead to repeat purchase & loyalty.

Which CRM key metrics do you use?

Outside of campaign-level reporting, we track metrics that we can link directly to desired business outcomes and goals and help us demonstrate value such as CRM-influenced:

• App/web traffic
• Incremental revenue
• Completion rate of CRM driven High value actions

What are common mistakes made when working with CRM?

• Using conversion windows that have not been tested therefore potentially under-reporting on the impact of campaigns
• Using technology that is not fit for purpose — that fails to truly bring use cases to life.
• Measuring the wrong thing or reporting tactical metrics that fail to demonstrate the value of CRM at an organisational level e.g. only reporting on campaign level performance impressions, opens, clicks
• Not having the optimal mix of capabilities to deliver sophisticated campaigns. For example, Automations, Data Analytics/Engineering are some that are often missing from CRM teams.

How do you envision the future of CRM?

Most organisations are finding ways to opmitise marketing spend. There’s already a convergence of owned & paid channels in marketing strategies to achieve this. I see this trend accelerating with more and more ESPs starting to offer seamless plug and play Tiktok and Meta integrations.

AI is another interesting development that will be leveraged to drive efficiencies for CRM-adjacent capabilities e.g. Copy + Creative.

Extension of marketing tech stacks to enable sophisticated in-app experiences.

Author: Anna Ambrozevich