Professor of Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence
Professor of Marketing
More than 100 years ago, American businessman John Wannamaker said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
A century on, many marketing professionals still find themselves in exactly the same position. They understand their marketplaces in broad terms, create brilliant campaigns… yet can’t drill down, touchpoint by touchpoint, to understand the full effects of their efforts.
Yet we live in an age where digital marketing and customer management tools can transform marketing spend, impact and results – and give marketers complete 360 visibility of customer behaviour at every stage of their journey.
So if you’re amongst the many marketers that still think of “digital” as making social media part of the mix... or checking in with Google Analytics to see how customers are using their website... then there is a whole new landscape to discover.
Creating holistic, integrated marketing systems
Most marketing professionals are already using a range of digital tools. Very few, however, are able to exploit these resources to their full potential. And even fewer have integrated all their systems into one high-performing, ultra-connected marketing machine.
This piecemeal approach can make it difficult for marketers to:
Professor of Marketing at Vlerick, Philippe Baecke, says: “The role of marketing is evolving fast. And for marketers who want to future-proof their operations, it’s extremely important to re-evaluate the role of digital.
“There are multiple technologies available to marketers – from tools that help to map out the customer journey, CRMs, customer data platforms (CDPs), through to technologies including automation and AI.
“A future-ready marketing function leverages and connects all of these resources to give them a single view of a customer – and automate highly personalised interactions across the customer journey.”
Selecting the most relevant tools
Professor Andreas Munzel adds that understanding which digital tools to use is important. “Different organisations and different sectors benefit from using different technologies. So it’s important to understand which are most relevant to your organisation.
“It’s also critical to understand how technologies like automation and AI can make marketing efforts more meaningful. For example, in a digitally integrated marketing system, segmentation can be highly granular. Analytics and AI can identify different types of customer behaviour – and AI can then, for example, automatically generate personalised ads to serve to each type of customer.”
Within a system like this, AB testing can be automated – and AI can automatically learn, refine and improve targeting – so that each customer gets the right message at the right time.
Andreas continues: “This kind of marketing automation means that everything can be fine-tuned and personalised for each customer – and you can quickly understand what customers need and are responding to.”
Delivering seamless personalisation
Philippe adds: “Integration means that you get a holistic view of customers – and a single face of the customer, no matter where they are in their journey, or which channel they’re using.
“And this matches what customers want. They want consistency as they hop from one channel to the other – with no contradiction or confusion.”
Andreas says: “When we go to the hairdresser or our favourite restaurant, the people there remember us. The hairdresser will remember details about us and ask us about our holidays. The waiter will know what we like and be able to make recommendations.
“What systematic digital integration does is give marketers the ability to deliver this precise, personalised interaction, at massive scale.
“It makes customers feel more valued – and it gives us opportunities as marketers to automate appropriate cross-selling and upselling.”
Involving the right people
“Future-fit marketing teams will always need creativity and empathy as part of their skillset,” says Philippe. But they’ll also need sharp analytical skills. And they’ll need to work very closely with their colleagues in IT.
“In some organisations, it can be difficult for marketers and IT colleagues to collaborate because they just don’t speak the same language,” he says, “However, digitally integrated marketers need to be able to work in close collaboration with IT. It’s about developing a data-driven mindset and culture.”
So how do you get started?
Understanding data, selecting the right tools and delivering a transformation of the marketing function is completely achievable – with the right support.
One way of getting started is through our four-day, intensive Digital Marketing programme – led by Philippe and Andreas.
Participants learn to identify the tools that best support them to achieve their goals – and discover how to leverage digital technologies, data, automation and AI to gain complete visibility of customers throughout their journey.
They learn how to collaborate with IT and analytical colleagues – and they create a roadmap to digital integration. Which means that unlike Mr Wannamaker, their organisations will be able to drive competitive advantage with every cent invested in marketing.
Eager to know more? Discover our programme 'Digital Marketing' and learn to create future-proof, technology- enabled digital marketing strategies.