Deep hands-on experience makes the work go faster
Companies want to quickly get to the message that clearly differentiates. It must resonate with their customers, alliance partners and employees. This is an iterative process. My broad background makes me more likely to know where to look first, reducing iterations and therefore time.
My background includes industrial sales, product marketing, alliances, business development, Web marketing, applications design and software development. The breadth of my experience helps me sniff out issues quickly.
Similarly, once we arrive at a candidate message, I can validate more quickly. I first implemented websites optimized for search in 2005 and have stayed current in that area and recently learned Facebook advertising. This enables me to roll out faster a message that can be tested using analytics.
Balancing qualitative vs. quantitative
Technology has a bigger role in achieving marketing aims, but there is no such thing as a digital strategy that leads marketing. Leveraging digital tools, like all IT projects, first requires clarity about priorities borne of a coherent marketing strategy. And that should always start with the customer. Here's one example.
Analytics is a wonderful way to test a marketing message, when used properly. Automation allows us to test an array of messages, picking those that maximize revenue. But implementing automation in haste to "analyze the path of the customer" or "optimize customers' experience" can backfire.
In the diagram "Generic 3D optimization visualization," imagine that the Z axis depicts the revenue impact of different messages across X and Y. The graph shows two smaller optimization "hills" and a big "mountain." If you start close to the top of either of the smaller "hills" and then optimize, you'll get to the top of one of the smaller optima.
Getting to the big win requires a lot of qualitative work first, across all stakeholders. Arriving at branding that resonates with customers, that all internal departments also view as authentic, makes it far more likely that marketing automation will find the true revenue-maximizing optimum.
