3 Scary Issues Plaguing Your Cross-Channel Campaigns
In the Halloween horror movie franchise, part of what amps the fear factor is that no matter how fast everyone else is running, Michael Myers (the villain) is always slowly and steadily walking down his victims. B2B marketing can feel like Halloween sometimes in that while you’re running full-stop to create cross-channel success, there is always some evil issue ever-seeking to put an untimely end to your hard work. Consider this blog the wooden stake to the vampire-like issues sucking the life out of your campaigns. Below, we’ll bring each monster into the light and give you the weapons you need to put an end to their evil ways once and for all.
Monster #1 — Invisible Data
If you can’t see your data, you don’t know what state it is in. You don’t know how complete or incomplete it is. You don’t know if it’s empowering you to produce killer campaigns or is the killer sabotaging your campaign results. You don’t know if your segments are under- or over-performing. You don’t know if you’ve reached everyone in your Total Addressable Market (TAM) or if you’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg. Driving your B2B marketing machine while data blind is like driving a car without brakes into a minefield while blind drunk; it’s a hot mess waiting to happen.
Antidote: Cloak Your Martech Stack in Data Visibility
The ultimate visibility cloak for data throughout your enterprise is a clever little app called a Customer Data Platform (CDP). A tool that is as economic as it is effective, a CDP empowers you to view your data on a micro (segment) or macro (big picture) level via a central dashboard. CDPs also ensure that you are able to measure and confirm in real-time the quality of your data. This allows you to confidently send campaigns knowing the data you populated them with is clean, complete, standardized, enriched and ready to roll. The best CDPs feature integrations with top tier, third party data brokers, like ZoomInfo, so you can compare your lists with your TAM and know for certain if you are reaching every prospect you could and should.
Monster #2 — Incredible Shrinking Content Budget
According to MarketingCharts.com, 47 percent of CMOs report that a lack of budget is the number one problem holding them back from developing more effective content. Meeting your target market’s insatiable need for a steady stream of engaging content can feel a bit like feeding Audrey Junior in Little Shop of Horrors. You type until your fingers bleed and as soon as you put it out there, they need more. What’s more, nowadays savvy marketing ops pros are fully expected to be Account Based Marketing (ABM) masters, who are skilled at serving prospects a steady stream of highly personalized content.
Antidote: Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose
Who knew that the Earth Day slogan from 1986 would be the answer to your 21st century marketing issues? If a tight budget is your nemesis, then a Content Automation Tool (CAT) is the answer to all your woes. This innovative martech wonder seamlessly integrates into your stack, where it perpetually scans all connected data sources throughout your company. It finds and pulls relevant content for your campaigns, plugs it into the appropriate template (email, SMS, RSS, etc.), and sends it automatically or on-demand. If you’ve ever wondered how big (and small) companies are able to send personalized campaigns across a variety of channels to thousands of people on their lists, a CAT is their secret.
Monster #3 — Franken-Stack
According to Martech stack guru, Scott Brinker, “Some research estimates that the average organization uses a staggering 91 different martech tools. The problem is that adding more point solutions is like trying to run at the speed of light: you’re trying to go faster, but the faster you get, the heavier you are and the harder it is to accelerate.” The reduced speed problem caused by too much martech is often the result of poor integrations that require a monotonous load of multiple manual steps in order for everything to work correctly, hence the term franken-stack.
Antidote: Optimize Your Stack
It can be difficult not to get bedazzled by the promises that many martech tools make. However, before the more is more monster takes hold of your stack, step back and consider whether the tool you are being hypnotized by is in line with your current goals and strategy. If it’s not, don’t add it.
If the monster already has your stack, there are several things you can do to free yourself from its strangling grip. First, take a comprehensive inventory of your stack. Note which tools you are actually using and which ones are simply taking up space. Next, take a look at how the tools you are using are integrated. Is data flowing smoothly from one app or system to another? Are there redundancies? How many manual steps are needed to run key processes? Lastly, consider connecting all of your tools through an integration platform that enables you to streamline processes. A good integration platform provides the skeleton and connective tissue (integrations) that empower the apps in your stack to operate with utmost efficiency. It also frees your people from the tyranny of manual processes.