Engage all areas of the marketing brain to improve the CX

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, and in recent months, in particular, digital channels and capabilities have been critical to success. Organisations need to engage all three areas of the corporate brain: customer intelligence, human intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Marketers need customer intelligence not only to meet the needs of customers but also to build credibility internally and prove the worth of their work. For too long, marketers have battled with the stigma that they could not quantitatively define and prove the value of their efforts and their impact on the company’s revenues.

Customer intelligence delivers several important outcomes to this end. It helps marketers to plan and measure ROI, to discover which segments and channels are most effective, and to attribute success appropriately to those aspects of media and marketing that are working the best.

And of course, marketers need to be able to engage with data and to use that data and turn it into action.

Human intelligence leverages the work of empowered teams who have been provided with the necessary access to data. The actionable insights of this team, and subsequent decisions made, are essential for any organisation that wants to build a culture of innovation. 

In the past, this might have been enough. But not anymore.

Lifting the bar

The emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning has lifted the competitive bar. Without these, brands lack that cutting-edge technological advantage. That means they will struggle to keep up with the competitors who are leveraging this technology to better meet customer needs and as a result, pulling further ahead.

Many marketers now have a basic understanding of where AI can be immediately applied. Personalisation, for instance, is improved by AI by ensuring customers receive the most appropriate content, and by optimising the cadence of communication.

AI enables recommendations both for the marketers, in terms of suggesting the next best action they can deploy, and for customers in terms of product recommendations, cross-selling and up-selling.

Each of these three types of marketing intelligence are necessary for success, but none in isolation is sufficient. Likewise, it is important to understand that these all intersect and need to be treated systematically, rather than considered in isolation.

Crowded house

The Martech space is replete with thousands of vendors, offering both broad and specialised point solutions. Many of the tools come with varying levels of capability and often with significant amounts of overlap.

And the complexity of these environments creates their own challenges.

But what does this mean for marketers who rely on these platforms to deliver game-changing improvements in customer experience?

The starting proposition is that you cannot improve what you cannot measure. You need to be able to gather data in order to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, you need the ability to augment your intuitive sense of what is the right way forward with evidence, and you need to be able to make those decisions in real-time to accelerate delivery by responding appropriately, in the moment to the customer’s needs.

Customer intelligence, human intelligence, and artificial intelligence work in unison – in a virtuous cycle – to deliver the best outcomes.

To learn more about the three areas of the corporate brain, watch the recording of the webinar Why AI will power Customer Experience in the world after COVID-19.