Rethinking Marketing: Creating Compelling Customer Experiences with Data, Technology and Science [Infographic]
Time flies. Given how fast marketing is changing it almost feels as if time is literally flying. Thankfully, it’s not; that would be pretty weird. Still, between huge steps in the impact of data analytics (i.e., machine learning, big data, artificial intelligence, etc.) and the omnipresence of marketing technologies, marketers have to feel as if the scope of their roles are different than they were even just a few years ago.
The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same
Even as all of this has changed, what I’ve noticed is that marketers still have many of the same questions they did years ago. Marketers are still challenged to find the best ways to get the most out of these technologies. They remain unsure of how to use the data they have to inform actionable and impactful next steps. Most of all, many marketers have questions about how to bring data and technology together to best create experiences that achieve their goals (e.g. generating leads, targeting prospects, promoting the right content, choosing the right platforms, etc.). Successfully addressing this last challenge is not trivial but, if you are using the right approach, it doesn’t have to be impossible either.
A few years ago I wrote an article entitled, “The New Marketing: Using the Scientific Method for Marketing Success”. In it, I suggest how marketers might use the scientific method, a proven way to methodically achieving success, to add an experimental approach to their campaigns. By doing so, they would identify means of achieving repeatable successes that would ultimately lead to them realizing their goals. Unfortunately, what I didn’t include then was a roadmap.
Here’s the thing. The Scientific Method as a means of approaching marketing is novel only in the sense that most marketers aren’t doing it. Ideas like lean marketing and agile marketing certainly cover many of the same concepts as the scientific method. What marketers find even when considering those concepts, however, is there still isn’t much in the way of guidance. You’re left to figure it out yourself — much as I left you in my previous writeup.
Iteration is the Source of Innovation
There’s an old adage from the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, which states, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” and so it is with innovation. Innovation in the marketing sense implies discovering repeatable methods for creating dynamic customer experiences that achieve your goals. The scientific method, with its experimental, iterative approach to discovery is the prescription for the marketer’s challenge I described above.
What I’ve done with this update to the older scientific method post is provide a much more detailed representation of what marketers should expect in terms of the relationships between data, technology and the customer experience as they go through the phases of the scientific method. There’s a lot there but with the path laid out, I hope you’ll find the journey seems less fraught.
Talib Morgan is the founder of Analegy, a marketing consulting company, where he advises marketers on developing strategies that rely on intelligent experimentation, marketing technology and data analytics to elevate their marketing performance — leading to customer experiences that drive sales and exceed expectations.
