Every marketer hopes to wield a significant level of influence with customers, but a marketer’s influence isn’t just relegated to campaigns intended to reach the next new customer. CMOs need to be influential with their teams, their organisation as a whole, and, yes, their customers as well. Several of our exclusive CMO.com contributers recently shared their thoughts on areas of influence for the marketer and some vital areas where their attention needs to be focused. From understanding audiences to influencing company culture to creating positive change in the world at large, our exclusive content on CMO.com will give you much to think about.
Despite all of the data analytics tools available to marketers to make their jobs easier and more efficient, many businesses are still struggling to increase their website conversion rates. Geoff Galat, CMO of Clicktale, offered some suggestions for marketers to better discern the intentions and motivations of customers in order to achieve greater influence over customer conversion. According to Galat, marketers need to think beyond data analysis and combine analytics with psychological insights to better understand their target audience.
Katz Kiely, CEO and founder of Kiely & Co., addressed an issue that many companies are facing in operating as a “a fragmented collection of disconnected autonomous units.” Companies like these often struggle as a whole because of the competition of the individual units. Although the process of changing a company’s culture is hard, Kiely believes the change is necessary and offers some insight into establishing a strong company vision and earning employee buy-in to make the change smoother.
In a recent CMO.com exclusive interview, Cristian Citu, senior director of group digital strategy at DHL, touched on the topic of digital transformation. For Citu, transformation is more about a cultural change than the technology a company decides to implement. Without a proper plan for how people will use the technology, a company won’t be successful. Citu offered an apt reminder for today’s marketers about how important people are to the process.
Alastair Pegg, marketing director at Co-operative Bank, shared the role he believes senior marketers should play in helping organisations achieve transparency. With many agencies coming under suspicion, Pegg challenges marketers to be transparent themselves before feeling like they’re in a position to criticise agencies. Shane Stafford, head of brand at bookmaker BetVictor, believes organisations can help with the transparency issue by considering the agencies they work with as part of the company with the same expectations.
Klaus Sommer Paulsen, CEO, creative director, and founder of AdventureLAB, offered some encouragement for marketers to be promoters of positivity, especially given the negative outlooks of many people all over the world in light of the US presidential election. Now is the time, states Paulsen, for brands to be ready to deal with “a rising confrontational polarisation of opinion, cultures, and countries.” Brands who choose to promote positivity will create a win-win situation not only for their company, but for the world as well.
We invite you to engage with our exclusive content on CMO.com and gain valuable insight from some of the top marketing leaders. Please let us know what you think.
The post Strategies for Developing Marketing Influence appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog.