The community of Customer Experience (CX) marketers converged at the Oracle MME 2017 last month. Here’s what every marketer should be aware of– just in case you missed it.
Oracle Modern Marketing Experience may have concluded on April 27. However, the aftermath of all the marketing insights from CX Heroes and the Modern Marketers continue to bake in “Factory of Martech Thoughts” here at MarTech Series. I see innovation and inspiration within marketing shaping up the way marketers bring brand experience at every actionable touch point for customers.
Here are 10 take away insights from Oracle MME 2017 that prove CX would be the kick-ass trend of the year for marketers to not just focus on, but also excel with superlative expertise in doing so.
Content is King — Consistent Delivery Makes You Invincible
Every company has a brand persona. But do customers know about it? Oracle MME 2017 showed the way how marketers need to focus on creating brand personas using creative experiences for every customer. While content remains the core for any form of engagement across marketing channels, the mode of delivery is what gives content the edge to “impress and excite”.
Oracle MME witnessed invaluable discussion around the legacy of Email marketing and the changing dynamics of social media marketing within B2B sphere. Together with email and messaging platforms, video streaming will be the top delivery model for personalized content in 2017.
The way marketers adopt, deploy and use technology to accelerate their campaigns has changed remarkably over the course of a decade. By 2020, customers would go from screen engagements to ‘No-screen’ engagements! While most B2B marketers are going Mobile First with their strategies, Mobile-Only interactions would be something that promises to have a far-reaching impact on customer experience than ever before. The absolute truth!
CX Heroes like Jay Baer identified the importance of content creation and measuring the effectiveness to eliminate elements that don’t perform.
Know your Customer – Build a CX Relationship, Not Sales Relationship
Jennifer Renaud, CMO at Oracle Marketing Cloud, identified the reason to build the right experience for customers. True customer-centric platforms enable marketers to engage with customers using skills they know best—communication, creativity and brand advocacy.
“Think hard before you make a commitment; when you make it, see it through…” – Sir Robert Swan
Knowing the customer across a ny and every channel depends on how marketers use data and marketing technologies. After all, the success lies in transformation and adoption of dramatic CX that deliver true value to enterprise bottom line. Agreed?
Automatic is Quaint — Time to Show Auto-Magic!
Oracle MME showed why automation in marketing and sales seemingly needs a quick “Eureka” moment for connecting with customers in person. Of course, CRMs driving automated email marketing campaigns have no connection to customer’s allegiance to a particular brand. From customer discovery to offering valuable insights on the product service, marketers at Oracle MME were awed by Auto-Magic innovations within martech.
Recommended Read: Interview with Cory Treffiletti, VP Marketing & Partner Solutions – Oracle Data Cloud
Auto-magic technology within automation stack not only connects customers to the right solution but also auto-corrects any identity mistake that sneaks into campaigns by virtue of lack of customer detail.
Let Customers Do — Marketers Just need to Follow
Customers today are hyper-connected, smarter and more vocal about their preferences. As trends reveal, customers would share their preferences with marketers even if it means letting them breach into privacy (though, the marquee CX proves that modern marketers are aware of drawing the lines). Yes, customers no longer run after the perfect products, rather it’s the service and the experience they want to pay for.
AI Plus ABM – How Long can it Wait
Targeted account profiling is what leads me to ABM and AI. From finding the right content to helping marketers trace the aptest image for their customers, artificial intelligence embedded into marketing technologies will play the much greater role than projected initially. Be it on Cloud or in SaaS, AI/ML algorithms help marketers turn insights into meaningful actions with hyper-contextualized campaigns.
Let’s wait and watch how AI penetrates deeper into marketing and advertising technologies.
Heroic Marketing is About Treating Your Customer Right
Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle Corporation, addressed the CX Heroes and Modern Marketers on why customers no longer wait for things to happen to them. They are the innovators and the disruptors themselves. If you don’t treat the customer right, stay prepared to lose billion dollar deals overnight!
The difference between winning and losing in business is how you treat customers. The one who treats the customer right is the CX Winner. Oracle, by organizing the event for CX Heroes, proves how they intend to collaborate with their partners and customers for a better technology adoption.
Customer Data is Marketer’s Currency—The More You Share, Bigger You Grow
CX is creating campaigns made by giving attention to detail and delivering empathy to the buyer. How you do it? By focusing on customer data! Do you let the customer choose their own PoS, or deliver the product variations based on their preferences, or even letting them read through minute nuances in the description in their language of choice?
Take all that data out and let CX be the prime focus of using them within campaigns.
Jay Baer Key Note Session
Well, all that depends on how customer data grows within marketing campaigns.
As Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, says – “Become your own Customer’s Favorite Choice.”
CX—The Convergence of Marketing and Advertising Technologies
Data-driven advertising and marketing campaigns are essential to survival in 2017. Be it for B2C or B2B, marketers need to be on top of the mind of their customers… speaking the same tone of engagement across channels.
In the pre-event interview series with us, Aaron Dun, Sr. Vice President Marketing – SnapApp, said —
We need to think about more ways to create a conversation. Imagine a video that watchers can actually interact with, and structure the message based on how you respond to certain questions? It encourages the kind of engaging experience that standard video just isn’t providing.
Programmatic remains the hottest topic for CX inclusions. However, live streaming videos like the one Brightcove offers do make more sense as a CX element than opting for non-contextual videos playing alongside branded content.
Customers want to know — “Who Am I”?
Allen Pogorzelski, VP of Marketing, Openprise, highlights the need to focus on moving away from “Spray and pray” marketing and deliver customer-direct experiences. He says, “Knowing who I am and what I need right now as a prospect is the only thing stopping me from meeting your unsubscribe page.”
Alicia Esposito, Content Strategist, Demand Gen Report, points out research studies that show why buyers are looking out for content created with a high level of personalization.
Higher the level of personalization, better are the chances that customers will make an informed buying decision.
CX is for All
Oracle MME 2017 proves why CX is as much important for global enterprises as it is for local SMBs with smaller accounts. The CX Cloud for Midsize offered at a much lower cost of IT deployment delivers the same kind of results as CPQ Cloud for e-commerce companies.
While it’s still true that many enterprise customers fail to churn ROI from their martech investments due to challenges related to adoption and expertise, Oracle MME threw open hints to marketers on how organizational change will be key to delivering flawless CX.
Keeping customers at the center, marketers should build real martech platforms and not products that evangelize and educate customers about their true identity within a marketplace.
Should You Be there at Oracle MME Next Year!
Going by the action that I witnessed this year in Las Vegas, Oracle is going not just one, but a hundred steps higher, with each of its MME editions. In an interview with us, Jason Oates, Chief Business Officer, LiveIntent rightly says —
Oracle MME is a reflection of Oracle’s reputation: brilliant insight, great design, and exemplary thought leadership. Oracle is one of our favorite partners, and Oracle MME is always a great opportunity to meet with our customers. One of the huge advantages of MME is that most attendees understand the value of people based marketing, so we can have higher level conversations.
Shayne J. Barretto, COO and Co-Founder says, “Oracle Modern Marketing Experience at Las Vegas is a meticulously organized event featuring a great panel of speakers and fantastic KeyNotes!”