Ask most marketers what keeps them awake at night and near the top of the list is likely to be how to communicate better with our customers. But this question triggers many more, including how do we exploit social channels and how can we get to market quicker for less cost and a higher return?
Many of us are faced with myriad legacy systems and processes that make even asking these questions challenging, let alone finding sensible answers. Marketing services providers are beginning to be approached by clients with a more holistic, long-term vision. It’s no longer about how do I get the next campaign out of the door. It’s about how do I put in place the right tools so I can talk to whoever I want to, in whatever way, or more importantly in whatever way the consumer wants me to.
As aptly demonstrated in Douglas Adams’ classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s not the answer that matters, it’s getting the right question. We can be fairly sure that in the future there will be new, different channels compared to those we have today. We are also unlikely to predict what they might be – who would have predicted a website where you can only type 140 characters would be such a success or have so much power? We can, however, determine which factors must remain, regardless of what changes in customer communications:
1 It has to start with data; we have to have an identifier for the customer and some form of address with which we will be able to reach them.
2 There must be a set of messages we want to communicate.
3 There must be brand identity in addition to a tone of voice that is reflective of the desired audience.
4 We need a way of combining our data, content and layout to create a document.
5 The resulting document then needs to be produced.
6 Finally, we need to know what the customer has done with the document in order to inform our next communication.
The above checklist ignores most of what many marketers would consider the important elements, such as how good is our customer insight, how can we supplement our data, and what are the right messages? This is the point though. Marketers need to take all the non-creative elements of the process, automate and optimise them. They can then focus on the important part – communication with their customers.
Whenever I consider the design of communication systems, I like to do the ‘Minority Report test’. In that film, Tom Cruise walks through a mall. As he’s walking, his eyes are detected by a retina scanner and a personalised video advert is displayed on the wall.
My Minority Report test is: ‘Could my communications system do this?’. If the answer is yes, I’m happy the design will be robust for a few years to come.
Unfortunately, software suppliers face the same challenges as we do. They have a heritage of only dealing with part of the problem, such as data management, document composition and/or email delivery. It’s extremely difficult to find one system that covers all of our communication requirements.
Marketers need to learn how to assemble a communications platform from available tools that will enable them to meet any communication need, but will also allow for change as technology develops. This also needs to be done in a simple cost effective way.
Deciding whether to be channel specific early in the process or late is a key consideration. Choosing early is absolutely fine if we need to add anything, but a simple amendment, such as changing the email tool, can become very complicated and anything but cost effective. It can also lead to duplication of content in multiple systems and rack up a lot of man hours.
I come from the camp that we should aim to be channel-specific as late as possible in the process. We do have to make a decision at some point, but there are details we shouldn’t need to worry about until later in the process.
We haven’t covered every consideration – what management information do you need? How will you ensure content is signed off correctly? How do you archive what is created? These questions can all be answered with the basic building blocks described above.
We deliberately haven’t tried to answer the question ‘what are the right tools?’ as the answer varies for good reasons. I have my personal preferences, which I believe meet most needs, but my preferences would be different depending on the size of the business.
It’s no longer acceptable to create one HTML output and use a bit of CSS to make sure it looks OK on Internet Explorer 6. These days customers rightly demand an optimised experience, whatever medium and device they are using. This is the challenge and the opportunity that faces us as marketers in the 21st century.
Nic Sheen is chief technology officer at Communisis
