But they don’t take full advantage of digital signals customers provide. These solutions can help companies consolidate and streamline data, manage segmentation, organize workflow, and improve customer relationships. This is a challenge that has continued to plague marketers, despite the promise of solutions such as customer-relationship management (CRM), master-data management (MDM), and marketing-resource management (MRM). Going back to Jane, do marketers target her as a mom, a yoga enthusiast, or a homeowner? What happens when tests are running against all three segments? Is she part of a new microsegment that combines attributes and signals across all three segments? When they do try to scale, they smack against the challenge of understanding what to prioritize. Customer data platform: Solving the ongoing challenge of true personalizationĬompanies regularly experiment with testing the impact of varied customer experiences, but they do it in isolation. It can boost total sales by 15 to 20 percent, and digital sales even more while significantly improving the ROI on marketing spend across marketing channels: from websites and mobile apps to-in the not-too-distant future-VR headsets and connected cars.

Such data-activated marketing based on a person’s real-time needs, interests, and behaviors represents an important part of the new horizon of growth. What began as a simple task of buying yoga pants ended up being a much more engaged experience. Though she has never bought such items at this retailer, Jane takes advantage of the offer and purchases a new sports bag. One week later, she receives an iPhone message nudging her to use the store’s mobile app to unlock a 15 percent one-day discount on workout equipment. Intrigued, she clicks the link and watches a video about raising healthy kids. But here’s what this example looks like when we activate Jane’s data: Three days after her online purchase, the retailer sends Jane a health-themed email. With the exception of a follow-up email, most interactions with the customer stop there.

Digital activation campaign