As the sun has now set on 2023, it’s time to put all the instability behind and buckle in for 2024. Already it’s lining up to be an exciting year for businesses with technologies maturing, economies stabilising, and global inflation figures seem to be on the downward trend.
In my role leading the Consultancy team at Clevertouch, I oversee some pretty complex projects – from platform implementations, migrations, strategic roadmap consultation, through to journey orchestration and campaign planning. Whilst every piece of work is unique, they are often similar in terms of the business problems, technology frustrations and skill inefficiencies that lead to marketers needing our help.
With this in mind, here are three things to consider to quickly put your Martech platforms and people in better shape.
1. Make the most of what you’ve got
While the economy is stabilising, budgets will take a while before they are back to ‘normal’. Business leaders are understandably cautious about capital expenditure but will be wise to release marketing funds where they can see justifiable returns. A smart way to deliver that would be to assess what you have in place already. 2024 Should be the year to use what you have got and get the most out of the technology you are already investing in.
What you can do:
- Audit your current technology platforms and see if there are any integration gaps or underutilised features.
- Look at small integration projects and additional platform training to ensure your tech is complementary and to minimise any skills gaps.
- Discover how your current martech is utilising AI, Machine Learning and Journey Orchestration right now – and how it plans to develop use of these technologies – to improve the way you already use the platforms. You may find some quick wins that will save you time and effort, or provide you with better data to make more informed decisions.
2. Clean up!
Last year saw a hive of activity to reduce database sizes for various reasons, from reducing software contracts all the way to executing more effective marketing strategies. If this is not on your radar for this year, it should be. Understanding your audience has never been more important, with technology like Artificial Intelligence driving more advanced ways of creating targeted, personalised messaging.
If data integrations are causing headaches, inconsistencies, or duplications then this is the year to get on top of it.
What you can do:
- Cleaning up your data does not need to be a daunting task. Start by auditing to uncover what you have.
- Working within strict controls of course, remove redundant data. Be that duplicates, or poor quality records, or aged records that may no longer hold value.
- Then take action to enrich the retained data set with more information. This will enable you to get the most out of your existing technology features and would be a smart way to improve how you talk to customers.
3. Communication as a journey, not a one-off
We are all aware that creating relevant content for customers or potential customers comes with a price tag. If that price tag is aligned to an isolated campaign, it might be a hard pill to swallow when displaying your return-on-investment dashboards.
What you can do:
- Create re-usable content. There is no better way to do that than to utilise journey orchestration to setup always-on campaigns, where your customers and potential customers can flow in and out. Re-using content in this way is smart, no longer are you looking at a list and creating content as standalone campaigns, instead you are creating content in ways that unlock advanced features in your Martech.
- Swapping from the old ‘batch and blast’ methods to journeys is not as difficult as you might think. It can be easily broken down into manageable chunks and delivered into budgets smoothly.
- Establish a culture of individual use cases. Focus on each use case as mini projects and deliver the changes to data, operations and campaigns in an agile way. This will accelerate progress towards fully structured, always-on, 1-to-1 journeys, where content is re-used and easily re-purposed. At the same time, will show continual results instead of waiting for the end of lengthy transformation projects.
To summarise...
Use what you have, clean up your data and work in an agile way to change your communication strategies away from isolated campaigns into journeys. You will notice that your budgets will go further, your ROI will climb, and your customer experience will drastically improve. That’s got to be a win-win scenario!
If you are seeking guidance with your martech strategy in 2024, are looking for a consultancy to help you drive change or are already embarking on a martech project and need support, I’d love to have a chat. Find me on LinkedIn here or get in touch with us at Clevertouch by completing the form here.
