What B2C Marketers are looking for

Working at the pointy end of our client engagement team I find that B2C marketers, across industries, are aligned on what they are looking for from their marketing technology partners. In this blog, I am going to break down some of the common questions I get asked when I am chatting to B2C marketers that are looking to solve problems and deliver on their KPIs.

There are four common themes that rear up in some shape or form on any discovery or demo call and I will break down each in depth through the blog. As a start, in broad terms, they revolve around data, automation, integrations and ROI.

These topics vary from industry to industry, but surprisingly the problems faced by a publisher can echo those faced by an eCommerce brand and the needs of a financial provider can mirror those of a sports betting and gaming brand and so on. Different industry languages are used but often the challenges faced by CMOs, CRM Managers, eCommerce Managers, and Digital Marketers in these industries stem from or are solved in very similar ways. 

Actionable Data:

The number one problem I am asked to help brands with is data. It is a big-ticket, broad term and can cover the full spectrum of a business’ functions. From a marketing perspective, the questions and problems with data usually fall into a few common categories. 

I do not have control of my data

This is a common problem across brands and verticals. Siloed data is a headache for marketing teams at the front end of customer engagement. Data needs to be usable and commonly it is not. I talk about actionable data at Xtremepush. And the common question I ask marketers is what pieces of information on a known or unknown customer do you need to effectively execute messaging to that customer? Once I have that understanding and we can cut through the noise and narrow in how best to store, sort and action these relevant data points.

Identity matching

How do I, as a marketer, consolidate a customer’s multiple touchpoints down to a single customer view so that I know how they are interacting with my brand?

At Xtremepush we look at building a single customer view that is geared towards engagement. It is ‘a’ single customer view rather than ‘the’ single customer view. A small point but an important one.

An example of how I conceptualize this is looking at how a customer’s experience is made consistent by understanding their behavior across the digital space. If they are on an app is the brand experience the same as when they then move to the website? Do we know if they are heavy users of the website but only using the app every now and then?

Layering known behavior with known data points is the exact problem I am asked about and one that we solve at Xtremepush. Match and store profiles through smart technology like web SDKs, permission centers, opt-ins, subscription collection and engage one-to-one with a customer you know. This is ‘a’ view of the customer but one that is usable and relevant to marketing teams.

Permission and privacy

This hugely relevant topic is one that marketers are being pounded with at the moment and in these blogs we cover the ins and outs of the changing privacy landscape, the death of the 3rd party cookie and permission-led marketing practices. All great reads in and of themselves, helping marketers to navigate the ever-evolving privacy and permissions landscape.

Simplified Automation:

Marketers talk to us about working smart and working in a way that is scalable and repeatable. The common thread here is that the pressure on the marketing team is heightened by budget constraints, small teams, big goals, and lack of support from other business functions. That’s a horror snapshot but I see it even in the most well-equipped and supported marketing team time and time again.

Finding tech partners that have the machine smarts to automate, orchestrate and replicate revenue-generating campaigns is so important. At Xtremepush we approach this in two ways. 

Automation through our technology

This can be through our workflow builder, smart audience segmentation engine, and campaign builders which are available for all channels. Automating key channels like email, push notifications, onsite messages and SMS is all aimed at giving time back to marketing teams to look at branding and content. 

Being a Saas-based platform

It’s all about service. Xtremepush is a platform that really leans into our customers from a support perspective. The best tech in the world is useless if the expertise is not on hand to learn your unique business needs, share best industry practices with you and tap into key industry trends to keep your brand at the cutting edge.

Fast Integration and Time-to-Value:

This topic varies a lot from industry to industry. Some verticals I work with like Sports Betting and Gaming and the Finance vertical have access to large IT and dev teams that can both add or remove time to deployment. Within the eCommerce and hospitality and travel space, I find marketers wear multiple hats as technical leads and marketing gurus rolled into one.

Regardless of where a marketing team falls in the tech capacity spectrum the most common question I get is ‘how fast is this to stand up?’.

Having a martech platform that takes a specialist deployment and is not replicable across brands, at scale, is one of the biggest challenges in the industry for marketing teams when deciding on platform partners. 

There are a number of things that marketers can look to as signposts that the integration and technical setup of any particular platform will deliver results for you.

A core question to ask when you have a demo from a new business sales rep like me is how fast have these channels and programs been set up before with similar customers? And what are the potential roadblocks internally and externally to implementation? What does the partner offer in the way of onboarding support and ongoing technical support? Is the platform an open API environment? Does it have out-of-the-box or custom integrations with your other third-party systems? Are they a Google Tag Manager partner? 

My advice is to choose a vendor that’s ready and willing to lean in and offer guidance on the most appropriate setup. Go through the above questions (at the right stage in the decision-making process!) and get the answers needed from your side. Look for a platform partner that is honest in the work required from both sides.

Speed to deployment usually comes down to identifying the right internal resources and timeframes needed for the integration and having a partner that can walk you through an integration step by step. 

ROI

Probably the number one consideration for all marketing managers is how does a new tech partner deliver ROI and how quickly? The common thread I see across industries is restricted budgets, small teams, and competing priorities.

Helping marketers solve these core problems is one of our main roles on the new business sales team. I talk about metrics that matter whether that is lifetime value, NPS, customer loyalty, and internal time and costs savings, and then tie that back to marketing budgets that deliver results.

Achieving ROI means finding a partner that understands your unique business needs. No two brands are the same and ROI can look vastly different from brand to brand. Typically if the three points above on data, automation, and integration are addressed then the ROI part will fall into place. 

Conclusion

Overall there are some common pain points I am asked to help solve by B2C marketing teams. Finding a partner that will work with you hand in hand to understand your unique business needs, lean in to provide useful solutions and a partner that has the technology ownership and know how to be agile and scalable is all-important.

If you want to learn more about how we do this at Xtremepush, contact us today.