Are you optimizing the Marketing ecosystem?

The pressure to deliver on KPIs, revenue, and growth goals are constant challenges marketing and business development teams face. With an ever-changing landscape of buyer preferences, intent, and channels, taking a broader and more in-depth approach to how we look at the entire marketing ecosystem can help optimize the process.  

A Macro Look at Marketing Goes Beyond a Winning Campaign

What exactly is the marketing ecosystem? It takes on several definitions: One way it’s defined is by the types of marketing used – like paid media, content, brand strategy, and creative. A macro approach looks at the system through a wider lens and includes data intelligence, insights, analytics, and technology platforms. The ecosystem is built on layers of capabilities and practices that, for analogy purpose, function like the left and right side of the brain. The left, the analytical side, defines who your audience is, what they want, and where they are. The right, the artistic side, implements creative and tactical elements that are the voice of the message. When considered as a whole, the left-brain/right-brain ecosystem leverages data, analytical modeling, and integrated technology with innovative and captivating creative that peaks customer imagination and exceeds expectations.   

The left side of the ecosystem can be thought of as an end-to-end audience orchestration engine that powers a customer’s journey through Acquisition, Activation, Retention, and Loyalty. How? 1) Through collecting and synthesizing data and insights; 2) designing analytic models to determine audiences, developing relevant, mutually beneficial customer experiences that establish trust and transparency and create a deeper understanding of a customer’s needs, motivations, and intent; and 3) leverage technology to collect, store, analyze, identify, and distribute information.

At the foundation of the marketing ecosystem lies data. It’s no surprise according to a recent report from The CMO Council, 91% of marketers globally say direct access to customer data is a critical competitive advantage, but only 11% say that data is readily accessible to them.  Too often, marketing, business development, and IT teams forgo a unified approach to collecting and reporting data to reach company-wide goals.  55% of the respondents cited the lack of systems that connect data silos and boost accessibility to be what’s holding marketing back from realizing its full data potential. * Accessible, clean, and insightful data is a critical starting point within the marketing ecosystem and along the customer journey, and provides the foundation for analytics to do their work.

Successful campaigns and long tail customer journeys intersect two sides of the marketing ecosystem:  Data, strategic insights, experiences and martech, with a suite of creative services from agencies, graphic designers, copywriters, and wordsmiths to deliver ROI. Creating innovative, ‘wow’ factor programs are ineffective if they aren’t reaching the right audience with relevant messaging. Think of the left side as the engine that powers the car. What good is a shiny new Porsche if there isn’t a working engine and its myriad of parts under the hood?

Building a marketing ecosystem that combines a left-brain / right-brain approach matches your data intelligence to your creative, leverages analytical modeling, and integrates the most suitable technology platforms, is the path that drives ROI.  When you know your audience, and identify where they are coming from, you take the guessing out of formulating strategies and designing experiences that optimize customer journeys.