Step 3: Automate Marketing Tactics
This deep dive into the third step of the Marketing Optimized Framework posted previously.
Why
Let's play to our strengths so we can be more effective and efficient
Human are creative, we see what isn't there (yet), we see the possible even without extrapolating from and existing pattern
Machines are great at executing repeatable tasks within defined rules over and over without error (or complaint)
What
Scale up the amount of personalization we can deliver to each contact using automation tools to execute campaign actions and free up marketers to think of new content, new designs and art, new sequencing, and new combinations of tests in a search for constant improvement.
How
From Step 2, we have automated rules that tell us What segment the contact belongs to and what content should be used next.
Matching up Company segments, Buying teams, roles, to campaign types and content and voice manually can be daunting. Leverage Automation tools for this work so you can scale up the activities without a constant increase in effort. Put in the time in designing a flexible system and rules and then let the machine do the heavy lifting deployment of executing marketing at every touchpoint possible.
Your process to select content in response to inbound visitors or preparing content for each contact for outbound marketing will look something like this:
Known / Unknown - Check to see if the contact (person) is known in which case it will have a personalized path. This doesn't mean everyone else doesn't have personalization. On your execution systems you can still use session personalization base on what they have clicked and/or detect the domain they are visiting from (assuming it's not an ISP and personalize based on Domain). Lots of options here. But this reduces the calls you need make to make for people that won't have a personalized path
Current Content - This lets us know what is the Current Content piece for the personalized path. The simplest approach is to just use what is suggested here but the centralized content logic (let's call it the Content Director). As your processes advance, you will see scenarios where you might want more flexibility at the execution system level. In this scenario, we will store not just the Current Content but also the entire Personalized Content Path (grouped by Marketing Stage)
Select Content - As mention earlier the simplest approach is to use the Current Content but if you want some flexibility in Rules at the execution system (Marketing automation, display ad platform, social platform, web experience platform, etc) level which may have more context of the interaction. Depending on the use case we may just select 1 piece of content (i.e. email content) or a basket of content (i.e. suggestions on scrolling bar on the website). The basket of content is the pieces that are grouped by Marketing Stage.
Assemble Marketing - Pull content components from a centralized content repository. Having it centralized makes it easy to update and standardize. Call the digital asset management repository for the right version for our channel and persona. Dynamically assemble the marketing piece in the execution system for each person and insert any tracking parameters. Not all execution systems have the ability to build content in such a dynamic fashion. In those cases you will have to modify your process... where it may look semi-automatic and you create the variations of content in the execution system and on the contact record you store the Current Content ID and inject the content piece for matching ID. This will look different depending on the capabilities of your MarTech Stack. (Put your questions in the Comments below)
Deploy and Update - The execution systems display the personalized content(s) for the person, updates the Central Content Director with what content was used (with date info), and any response metrics. These metrics should be aggregated in the Content Director for more refined logic at the execution systems. The Content Director updates Current Content and Content Path as need. And the cycle continues.
Note: Start simple and small as updating the Personalized Content Paths can become a heavy process
In addition to personalizing content, we can also personalize the connection... that is we can start to get the prospect used to communicating with their salesperson. This way when the prospect seems ready a call the the salesperson will not feel out of place (warmed up the prospect). We can do this with Dynamic signatures in select mass communications... dynamically replacing the sender and reply info and adding a signature where appropriate (i.e. emails). The emails and social share are done on behalf of the salesperson... softly building a relationship. The social marketers can tap into the connections (of those salespeople that have opt-in) with social posts/reshares reducing the effort of the salesperson having to do this manually.
Tools
Because we are talking about all marketing channels, there are too many tools to be able to touch on the difference between. (Share tools that you love in the comments below)
Instead, let's talk about how to select in a more general sense. Look for automation tools that can cover more than one communication channel (Display, email, social, website, Content Syndication, Advocacy programs etc)
Platforms vs best of breed - Many times giving up some lesser-used features (in best of breed) to reduce complexity is well worth the tradeoff (for selecting a platform)
This is in part because the troubleshooting is more streamlined
Data availability is better supported and more usable for decisioning
Unfortunately, some marketing channels don’t have tools that aggregate and automate your campaign activities and you may have to cobble together solutions that pull the data and asset together outside of the tool and just use the tool as a dumb delivery mechanism into that marketing channel (Comment below if you find you are running into this with some of your marketing tools)
Here are some tools I have had exposure to. (Share tools that you love in the comments below)
