Rohit Srivastav, Head-Digital Marketing, CleverTap

The evolution of marketers in general and marketing owners, in particular, has been both rapid and interesting. The dawn of the digital age saw marketing move from vague, intangible objectives to more tangible and measurable result driven marketing. Marketers started calculating RoI for channels, leads, acquisition costs, social media reach and more, in numbers and not just ballparks.

No matter how recent this change may sound but it still is past and a new wave of marketers with a new charter on their hands, have risen up again to introduce the world to a breed of marketers who not just look at data in hindsight but are driven by data both in the present and predictive in nature.

Today, marketing has become the profit center and is pivotal in the development and execution of key strategic initiatives that drive significant business value and define the future of any business. Market­ing is trusted with deliver­ing not just relevant but highly-contextual and timely user-experiences throughout the entirety of the customer engage­ment journey and in­crease the top-line revenue as a result of it.

The challenges are out there and they have caused this tectonic shift in the approach of the new age marketers. In order to combat the challenge of delivering hyper-contextual experiences in a timely manner, marketers need to capture the data that truly matters.

It's not just about capturing all the information you can collect, it is also about identifying what data should be captured and operationalized to create a centralized view of the customer enriched enough to carve out a personalized experience for them.

The task obviously doesn't end there. In fact, it actually begins there. The data that is collected is used as the basis for creating small, even micro-segments of users to tai­lor offers and messaging to the users, thus personaliz­ing the experience and lowering the cost vis-a-vis indiscriminate mass marketing. Achieving this is a two-part approach in itself. You need to make real-time data-driven mar­keting decisions abstracting useful customer insights from the avail­able data to identify the segments of users fit for every marketing effort or campaign.

Real-time and data-driven decision making is not just about providing relevant offers to users but is an overarching influence on the overall marketing approach. Predicting future actions of the users with available data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to move users across the user journey of acquisition to engagement to retention to re-install and also assuring a faster monetization by increasing the favorable outcomes and reducing the unfavorable ones, is something that a data-driven approach to marketing is delivering to practising marketers right now.

These engagements with users are tailored not just on the top-level, first-name basis but are hyper-contextual based on their buying history, preferences, frequently, location and much more. The communication message and channels are coordinated like a well-oiled machine enabling to interchange the channels of communication as per the wishes of the user.

Achieving such a level of automa­tion with granular personalization is an impressive feat and also a collabo­ration of many different stakeholders within the marketing team. It requires a team that can not only understands data but also use it effectively. The vi­tal metrics, ROI and KPIs have to be monitored continuously.

Lastly, all of these stand the test of time not just by successful implementation and execution but also, continuous innovation. Think about the possible touch-points with which your customers interact and all the data your customers create through these interactions. Generate ideas for making all those moments enriched and personalized for a delightful user experience. Explore the ways that help you understand your customer better and how your company shapes your customer’s experience of your brand and better them. Invest in technologies that map back to the strategic goals and initiatives of the business.

The world has moved ahead from batch-personalization methods and one experience fits all concepts. The new-age, data-driven marketer needs to create an ecosystem that works on the principles mentioned above and as a result, be able to capture relevant mobile moments and create differentiated customer experiences that will create long-term customer value and brand loyalty.