“A Holistic View on Customers Interests Me the Most”
Mark Bosold is indeed recognized in the fields of business intelligence and marketing technology and we’re pleased to welcome him for this episode of our podcast. Mark is currently working as Head of BI and Analytics at Dein Handy. Among others, he also worked as a consultant in digital analytics projects for LeROI and IBM.
Technology Can Be Bought, the Right People Are Hard to Get
Nowadays, companies can draw on modern software solutions to utilize data and target customers most profitably. But they also need people with the necessary expertise in understanding and harnessing data for marketing purposes. Only then can it be used to shape and personalize customer journeys actively. Most likely, this will change in the future though, since tools will further develop to take over tasks related to data analytics and gain more strength in probabilistic predictions and modeling.
Focus on Relevant Customers
Mark explains that the most important thing to start with is the collection of data—It is the easiest part as well. Nevertheless, companies should elaborate in detail which data they really need to identify relevant customers. Only then can they focus their CRM and marketing efforts on promising segments while excluding others. But merely collecting data isn’t enough. It needs to be consolidated and readily available. Otherwise, it’s of little use for marketers. According to Mark, the software category of customer data platforms (CDPs) came to life to provide a solution in this regard. CDPs are designed to provide marketers with a user-centric view by stitching together data from all touch points and making it directly accessible and usable for marketers without relying on IT or business intelligence resources.
Strategy First, Technology Second
Decisions regarding technology and tools should be based on strategic decisions—and not the other way round. Regarding e-commerce businesses, Mark points out three fundamental questions which should be answered before thinking about technology: How to optimize acquisition or reduce customer acquisition cost? How to optimize on-site conversion rates? And how to increase the customer lifetime value? If companies don’t have answers to these questions, it is unlikely that they’ll stay strong in the future.