BlogTechnology

Leveraging MarTech for Customer Acquisition and Retention

By Shruti Agarwal
August 28, 2017

In the past few years, we’ve seen a huge surge in the number of marketing tools and technologies. From social media to smartphones, technology is making a huge impact on the life of customers. This influx of technology-revamped marketing has led to the transformation of “MarTech”, which is a combination of Marketing and Tech that is used to acquire customers. Today, CMOs and Marketing Heads are thinking through the lenses of businesses and customer experiences, while technology is aiding them to empower their own unique perspectives and create an executable strategy. MarTech is enabling personalized marketing, which is something that brands need to learn in order to cope up with the changing trends for customer acquisition. Inbound Marketing is the Best tool for Businesses for Customer Acquisition and Retention.

#1. Advertising: the Top of Mind Recall

Today, advertising also needs unique trends to get itself notified, and the most pervasive component is 'Top of Mind Recall'. We generally market brands or products with every possibility of it lasting longer, but always forget that once the Top Of Mind Recall is created, it's usually less expensive to advertise the product. Advertising and marketing have always obsessed over the youth, but never more so and never more pointlessly. The over 50's now have control over 80% of the wealth in developed nations, have more free time, look set to live far longer, are way healthier and more engaged in brands than before. Yet the world of marketing abandons them to look at the trending money. The trend lines are clear, so what can your business do about it?

#2. Science & Technology: The medium for creating demands

The science behind how you continue the conversation experience is getting smarter day-by-day. Recently, Oracle launched their machine learning technology, which they are calling ‘Adaptive Intelligence Applications’ (AIA). For acquisition, conversion, retention and growth, chief marketing officers (CMOs) want to know how technology can make these things easier to practice and constant hard work is taking place on that vision to make it a reality. Moreover, different markets have different demands. Australia is the most mature market and one of Oracle’s most successful clients in that country is an airline company called Jetstar, which has won many awards for its effective marketing practices. The challenge is that the share of economies that are still trying to do sophisticated marketing is relatively small. A lot can be provided to the customers, and at the end of the day a lot of brands do marketing – some do it well, others not so much. More often than not, sophisticated marketers tend to be those who have tried to understand their customers. We can aid them by providing training and guidance, and help them translate their strategies into actionable outcomes. The biggest challenge is avoiding the trap of thinking that marketing is about giving discount offers to people. There is a lot of simplistic marketing practiced as it’s a price-sensitive economy, and this for of marketing at times is just about making an offer or making a limited price discount. Though that is an important tactic to use in marketing, most of the CMOs are now seeing the value in building a brand. If you have a strong brand, you don’t need to make a discount offer, but at the same time it is not easier as a lot of brands practice the discount strategy to attract customers.

#3. CMOs , Tech & Acquisition

For CMOs, if you don’t adhere to the best practices, there are more dangers than benefits of using technology. To make technology an enabler, we have to follow the rules of effective engagement with the customers and put safety measures into practice as far as customer data is concerned. Digital marketing has become an established practice, and it is important for marketers to understand the science and nuances behind it to make it more effective. The number one priority of the CMO is the customer. A recent study by Gartner confirms this: “25% of CMOs say leading customer experience is the most-increased expectation CEOs have of them over the last year.” Today, the CMO’s decisions are driven by data, as they attempt to understand customer sentiment, buyer decision patterns, and predict future actions. There is no question that the CXO and CMO should work in tandem. CMOs have a wealth of useful information to share with CXO’s looking to optimize the customer experience strategy. As the CXO role evolves, it continues to gain traction. With customer success becoming a critical differentiator in an increasingly crowded marketplace, organizations embrace the CXO as an invaluable player in shaping the overall customer experience.

#4. B2B the best practice to build connections

We live in a world where connections matter. With our current global economy, it’s impossible for a business to thrive in isolation. Developing strategic partnerships is absolutely vital if you want to employ the most effective B2B customer acquisition strategies and reach more people. Partnerships like these are a great way to gain exposure. You’ve probably already seen many different examples of this online. For example, a group of online marketers who offer similar or complementary products/services may decide to collaborate on a project, such as an online seminar. Each individual marketer will offer the seminar to their current customers, which will then broaden the exposure of everyone in the collaboration. You should be actively seeking out like-minded companies to build relationships with. These connections don’t have to be made online; they’re just as effective offline as well. Don’t limit yourself to either/or. Make a point of networking at local and regional events in addition to finding connections online.

#5. Focus On What Works

The B2B customer acquisition strategies have been tested and proven to be effective. Which of these strategies do you think will work best for your company? If you’re looking for a good company to partner with (especially one that can help you with your exposure), we’d love to chat!