On the second day of Web Summit 2022, Wednesday, November 2, the Webmecanik team attended the conference on technology serving marketing strategy. After digital and legal risks, here is what we took away from this discussion.
Who are the speakers?
Three renowned speakers took part in this highly instructive discussion on technology serving companies’ marketing strategy:
- Scott Ernst heads Drift, software that enables the implementation of chatbots, these instant messaging windows that help the consumer directly reach a company’s after-sales service.
- Jamie Domenici oversees marketing operations at GoTo, a software vendor offering solutions that enable relationships between businesses and their customers through various platforms. She also worked for Salesforce for 10 years.
- To host this discussion, journalist Olivia Morley from Adweek shared her expertise on marketing, advertising, and media agencies.
Technology and the customer journey
Technology has become essential to bridge the gap between user experiences of the past – when customers went to stores in person – and the digital customer journeys of the future. As buyers continue to gravitate toward digital and self-service sales channels, marketers must rely on artificial intelligence and other technologies to deliver seamless online experiences and engage meaningfully with prospects and customers.
This Web Summit session highlighted the importance of technology for companies seeking to future-proof their marketing strategy. The three experts also explained how to maintain hyper-personalization at scale for customers.
In short, the more technology serves the customer, the more naturally marketing strategy and customer acquisition fall into place.
The need for a perfect online customer experience
How can this requirement be met?
“Marketing managers or marketing directors have been even more challenged since the pandemic, which increased the need for a perfect online customer experience.” the speakers emphasize. 2020 was indeed a pivotal year in the world of technology, and the pandemic disrupted purchasing experiences. Companies had to adapt at lightning speed to acquire and/or retain their customers. Faced with this new offering, customers became much more demanding and no longer waste time on a website if the service does not measure up. The customer journey therefore has to be completely rethought.
Also read: how to deal with the software trust crisis
Does the consumer appreciate the company’s investment in technology?
The best is the enemy of the good. The experts explained that in response to this new consumer demand, companies tended to equip themselves with many tools, which is not necessarily a good idea: “Too much technology complicates the customer journey; the marketer must encourage the prospect to move quickly to purchase, because there is so much time and so many possible scenarios that could cause the lead to be lost.” It should be noted that time is crucial, and the lead must not be lost by asking them to go through too many steps before the actual conversion.
As consumer behavior demands a flawless experience, marketers must simplify the value proposition.
Small and medium-sized businesses have started this work without sometimes going all the way through the process. Jamie Domenici, Chief Marketing Officer at GoTo, says: “Sometimes there is an issue with the credit card and customers give up.” A technical solution to retain the prospect must then absolutely be implemented to encourage the prospect to try again and get past the technical bug.
Scott Ernst, CEO of Drift, adds: “Teams have invested so much in the different marketing, sales, service, and loyalty departments by coordinating all these systems together and all the stages of the user journey, that we think the customer must say: ‘My God, that was amazing!’ But actually no, for them it’s just okay, it’s good.”
Customers have become so used to an extremely easy and intuitive purchasing experience that the efforts made by the company are not necessarily recognized. A smooth customer journey is now the norm for all users.
Should you invest differently in technology if you are a B2B company?
With regard to the B2B sector, customers expect the same level of customer journey as in B2C. Expectations are the same. The speakers explain: “We are spending more money duplicating tools and processes inconsistently, even though consumers want a VIP experience.”
Even if you are a B2B company, having a marketing automation platform, a CRM, and people available to reach as many customers as possible is just as necessary as if you were a B2C company. It is important to invest in the same tools to reach the same level of service and high standards required by the customer.
An equal relationship with the customer
Understanding our customers without technology seems quite difficult today when you are industrializing and growing your business. The dream is to have a complete customer journey covered by appropriate tools and content.
To do this, the three speakers recommend automatically qualifying prospects throughout the customer journey. Scott Ernst specifies: “As in human relationships, the relationship with the customer must be on an equal footing. Apologize when you have made a mistake, congratulate when there is good news, engage sincerely whenever you can. We are now talking about technology for the right moment, the right place, and the right message.”
Companies can still get started
Technology is becoming essential for all companies
Your company has not invested enough in technology and you think it is too late? No, it is never too late for companies to get started, and you can make up for lost time. The figures presented during this session confirm it: 76% of marketers believe it is crucial to invest in technology in business, and 40% say that we are only at the beginning of this transition.
“It is time to embrace technology” states Scott Ernst.
Teams that collaborate thanks to technology
“Marketing and sales should be the best friends in the world” according to Jamie Domenici. This is not just about marketing automation; it is a partnership with sales, IT, legal. It is important to respect the company’s entire environment; we are talking about saving the company’s budget, increasing revenue, performance, and support for teams… The three experts conclude this conference by recalling this essential notion: “Customer experience is not opposed to technology.”
Marketing strategies have undergone a real transformation over time, and new technologies that are easy to implement make it possible to adapt to customer requirements. To learn more, discover our marketing automation and CRM software, and all our training courses to help you integrate them into your tools.
