Sales is no longer a door-to-door business; you don’t get to ring the doorbell and tell customers they need you anymore. Now, they’re coming to your door, and if they don’t like what they see, they move on. So, how do you ensure they see the value in what you offer?
You have to understand their expectations not just of your offerings, but of their entire experience with your brand — from discovery to customer care. That means that “sales” can no longer stand apart from “marketing” or “service.” These silos must converge and create a continuous, intelligent customer experience (CX). Read on for steps you can take toward meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
http://customerthink.com/4-ways-of-exceeding-customer-expectations-through-intelligent-cx/
Brands often talk about being customer-centric but in reality, most businesses are still not set up with customers at their core. Simply installing a chief customer officer and hoping the rest will fall into place will not cut it in 2019.
https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/12/12/marketing-trends-2019-customer-centric/
One of the most oft-asked questions that I encounter by early-stage startups is "Do I really need to spend time on marketing? Why not focus on just building the product and let it lead the path of marketing? And if I have to start, from where do I start?"
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324541/
When asked what they saw as the number one opportunity in ecommerce marketing today, 30% of brands said ‘More accurate consumer targeting across retailers.’
Brands also cited three other key opportunities: ‘Improved user experience’ (22%), ‘Voice search advertising’ (14%), and the closer alignment of digital marketing with merchandising teams (8%).
In our recent Era of Ecommerce research report with Catalyst and Search Engine Watch, we found a number of interesting insights on the ecommerce landscape today, what opportunities and challenges exist, and how marketers are — or are not — rising to meet them.
https://www.clickz.com/how-to-improve-ecommerce-performance/220283/
https://www.business2community.com/ecommerce/how-b2b-ecommerce-marketers-can-use-the-voice-of-the-consumer-to-boost-sales-02133114/
'Staying current with ever-changing tech trends is now de rigueur for any modern marketing executive. One of the first things Jim Lyski did after becoming CMO of CarMax in 2014 was to go on a “digital safari” to Silicon Valley with the company’s new CIO and other senior executives. They spent three days meeting with leading tech and venture capitalist firms, getting up to speed on emerging technologies.
“Google is happy to show you not only what they’re doing but what they’re going to concentrate on over the next year,” Lyski says. “Facebook, Adobe, Oracle and IBM Watson will do the same thing. If you’re not talking to the experts that are reshaping our industry, you’re missing the boat. This industry changes at breakneck speed. If you don’t put in the effort to stay abreast of everything, you’ll blink and be left behind.”'
https://www.adweek.com/digital/4-keys-cmos-should-consider-as-they-transform-their-organizations-and-themselves/
“Your focus needs more focus,” urged the martial arts master, played by Jackie Chan, in The Karate Kid remake. The same could truthfully be said about any of our businesses. Focus is difficult to achieve and maintain. It requires constant diligence and discipline.
We could all learn from the experience of Phononic, the developer of solid-state cooling solutions used in a variety of applications and industries. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in the Research Triangle Park area of Durham, NC, this private company has been named a CNBC Disruptor 50 (twice!) and was just recognized for account-based marketing innovation at the #FlipMyFunnel conference, where I first met them. As a company who is just beginning to take their technology out of the lab and into the market, focus is everything.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferdavis/2018/09/10/5-ways-to-focus-on-the-buyer-and-their-journey/#10360c177c53/
The customer experience (CX) drives success or failure in retail, but who should claim responsibility for something so important? In most organizations, it’s the marketing department, according to research from Gartner.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2018/08/31/does-your-cmo-have-the-necessary-tools-to-perfect-the-customer-experience/#1894bd0a2e3f/
In this highly competitive environment, how can you optimize your people-based marketing? People-based marketing is only as powerful as the data you feed into it. By fleshing out your consumer profiles with a wealth of first-, second-, and third-party data, you can ensure more accurate targeting and personalization. Marketers often leverage their CRM or loyalty database to build people-based marketing profiles, however many have now also begun to tap into one of the richest sources of first-party data — the voice of the customer captured through their phone calls to businesses. Below we’ll discuss how using voice analytics from your inbound calls can enhance your people-based marketing.
https://www.business2community.com/marketing/how-brands-and-agencies-can-use-the-voice-of-the-customer-to-improve-people-based-marketing-02104904/
Sales cure everything. But what if I were to tell you that sales have very little to do with customers? What if I were to tell you that strategies like designing buyer personas and marketing to them aren’t about customers or their journeys, but you? It's true. What I’m about to share with you will change the way you look at customers and marketing forever.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/08/01/the-customer-is-always-last-looking-at-marketing-from-a-different-perspective/#46cc77ca4bdd/
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