Aligning Customer Experience, Marketing Automation and Data Strategy

In today's hyper-competitive landscape, a few companies are hot on the path to delivering exceptional customer experience yet most are still struggling to provide a consistent experience within individual business areas, let alone across them.  The gap between a well-defined customer experience (CX) strategy and its successful execution through data, service and marketing automation platforms is still proving extremely challenging for many companies, especially those with a large number of legacy systems. The disconnect primarily stems from a lack of alignment between CX goals, the capabilities of the company's platforms / team, and, critically, a robust customer data strategy.

This article explores the critical link between these three elements and offers strategies for “bridging the gap” to achieve true personalisation and effective customer experience, otherwise known as Platform Strategy.

The Customer Experience Strategy: more than just a feeling

A strong CX strategy isn't just about creating a “brand affinity" between customers and companies.  It's a holistic approach, encompassing every touchpoint a customer has with you. This requires a deep understanding of your target audience – their needs, preferences, pain points, and journey stages.  Your strategy should clearly define:

• Key customer personas / segments: Detailed profiles of your ideal customers
• Customer journey maps: Visual representations of how customers interact with your brand and how they move through each stage and or journey
• Desired outcomes: What actions do you want customers to take? (e.g., purchase, subscribe, become brand advocates)
• Key performance indicators (KPIs): Metrics to track the success of your CX initiatives
• Marketing automation platform/s: The engine, not the destination. 

Marketing automation platforms are powerful tools, but they are only as effective as the strategy (+ data) driving them and the experience / skills of the team holding the keys. Selecting the right platform by ensuring it aligns with your CX goals while also possessing the necessary functionalities (e.g., email marketing, CRM integration, personalisation features, analytics dashboards) is a crucial step.  Common pitfalls include:

• Choosing a platform based solely on features, not strategic alignment: A platform with extensive features you won't use is a waste of resources
• Lack of integration with other systems: Data silos hinder a unified customer view and thus reduce a companies ability to provide great customer experiences
• Insufficient training and support: Your team needs the skills to use the platform effectively, otherwise there will be no ROI from the new platform
• Customer Data: The Foundation of Customer Experience, Personalisation and a solid Platform Strategy - we define this as Data Strategy.

A robust customer data strategy is the bedrock of successful CX execution.  It involves:

• Data collection: Gathering relevant customer data from various sources (website, CRM, service centres and Point of Sale) - read more about our take on this
• Data integration: Combining data from different sources into a unified view of each customer
• Data governance: Establishing clear policies for data privacy, security, and usage
• Data analysis: Using data to understand customer behaviour, identify trends, and personalise interactions.

Bridging the Gap: a practical approach

To effectively bridge the gap, consider the following:

1. Develop a clear and comprehensive CX strategy before selecting a marketing automation platform
2. Platform selection based on strategic needs: Choose a platform that aligns with your CX goals and the needs / requirements of both your customers and your business
3. A strong Data Strategy - integration and unification: Ensure all relevant data is available (not necessarily all stored) in a central repository
4. Create a democratised, accessible and harmonised view of your customers
5. Give the right access to the right people, to drive great customer experience across your company
6. Personalisation through automation: Leverage your chosen platforms capabilities to personalise customer interactions based on data insights.  Helping to improve CX, give customers what they want when they need it, helping drive business outcomes
7. Continuous monitoring and optimisation: Regularly track KPIs and make adjustments to optimise your CX strategy and platform execution (which is now possible with a complete 360 view)

Bridge built: wrapping things up

Achieving a seamless Platform Strategy is to create cohesive alignment between customer experience strategy, marketing automation, and customer data strategy with the right skills in your teams to manage it all.  It requires careful planning, execution, and ongoing optimisation. By focusing on these interconnected elements, businesses can provide truly personalised experiences that drive customer loyalty and business growth.  Ignoring this integration, however, will lead to suboptimal results, wasted resources and a company that, to its customers, feels like it operates in many disconnected silos.

carbonx can help your company be at the forefront of these strategies and platform decisions. Our mission is to help our customers provide exceptional experiences for their customers by implementing sustainable technology stacks. If you need help with the technology you have or are considering, or the strategy for using that tech - please feel free to contact us here.