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OMNICHANNEL MARKETING

2015E SS E NTI AL GUIDE

n The Omnichannel Data Opportunity

n Rethinking Marketing’s Org Chart in an Omnichannel World

n The Linchpin Channel of the Omnichannel Marketing Future

Sponsored by

Sponsored by

A supplement

102 | The 2015 Digital Marketer

Email: key benchmarks and trendsFifty-three percent of total email opens occurred on a mobile device in Q3 2014, a

48 percent increase from the previous quarter in 2014. While 60 percent of opens

occurred on a mobile device for multichannel retailers, consumers continue to

show their omnichannel behavior with an equal number of clicks occurring between

desktop and mobile devices.

Email opens and clicks by platform – Q3 2014

Source: Experian Marketing Services, Q3 2014 Email Benchmark Report, 2014

All desktopAll mobile

Tablet

Per

cent

of c

licks

Per

cent

of o

pens

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Travel

Publishers

Multi-channelretailers

Media &entertainment

Consumerproducts& services

Catalogers

Businessproductsand services

Allindustryaverage

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

14%

39%

47%

19%

47%

41% 36% 45%

69% 54%

79%

35%

44%50% 40%

23%32%

18%14%

14%15%

8% 14%

9%

30%

61%

92%61%

60%

30%

50%

82% 64%25%31%

61%

37%

14%25%

13%9%

9%12%

11%

52 | The 2015 Digital Marketer

This full understanding of the customer is more important than ever as today’s

consumer is becoming more and more empowered. Eighty-four percent of all U.S.

adults (195 million individuals) are digital today, meaning they have a smartphone,

digital tablet or computer. In addition, the vast majority of digital consumers are

conducting digital transactions. In fact, 93 percent of PC owners, 76 percent of

smartphone owners and 96 percent of tablet owners have used those respective

devices to make a purchase.

195 million U.S. adults are now digital: 84%

58%own a

smartphone 73%own a laptop

76%have used it tomake a purchase



33%own a tablet

Source: Experian Marketing Services

This easy access to information and brand interactions in any channel means

that the omnichannel consumer is evaluating the brand against key demands and

deciding if he or she wants to continue the relationship constantly. If the brand

doesn’t deliver personalized, seamless interactions, he or she won’t think twice

about moving on. To deliver on these demands, marketers really need to craft

messages that specifically resonate with their target segments.

Create intelligent interactions with your customers. Every time.

An Experian Marketing Services Benchmark and Trend Report

2015TheDigital Marketer

Get it here

http://www.experian.com/marketingservices

http://ex.pn/dm15report

http://ex.pn/dm15report

6 HOT LISTThe Lexicon of Omnichannel MarketingIt’s time to clear the air. Here’s what separates cross-channel, inte-grated, multichannel, and omnichannel as marketing concepts. by Perry Simpson

8 DATAThe Omnichannel Data OpportunityToday’s jumbled customer journey leaves a trail of data that marketers can use to inform their strategies across all channels. by Jason Compton

14 STAFFING Rethinking Marketing’s Org Chart in an Omnichannel World A traditional approach to marketing staffing may no longer be logical or practical. by Eric Krell

18 TREND ROUNDUP The Linchpin Channel of the Omnichannel Marketing Future Is there one channel that can help ensure the success of an omnichannel approach to marketing? Twelve experts sound off. by Ginger Conlon

22 PARTING SHOT Infographic: Marketers Aren’t Monkeying Around With Data Sharing

Table of Contents

+DATAENTRY18% Marketers who say they have a single view of the customer page 7

37% Companies that self-identify as lag-gards in omnichannel strategy page 10

45% CIOs who agree that multichannel is too complex for one platform page 16

82% Digital marketing professionals who say that fi rst-party data is the most important data source page 22

Eric StahlSalesforce

19

1014

2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | TOC

“Email may not be the fl ashiest marketing chan-nel, but it’s the connective tissue of the customer journey.”

dmnews.com | June 2015 | 3

6

8

03_TOC.indd 4 5/11/15 9:36 AM

It’s no longer enough for marketers to influence customers

or attempt to change their behaviors. Today, marketers also

have to be mediums. They must foresee what customers

want and when, and then predict how they can be there at that

moment of truth to deliver.

This psychic ability is omnichannel marketing. And it’s no

wonder that it’s currently more vision than reality. Getting there

requires breaking down data silos and functional silos, thinking

from the customer’s perspective, and in some cases, reorganiz-

ing marketing teams (see “Rethinking Marketing’s Org Chart in

an Omnichannel World,” page 14). It also requires using data as

connective tissue—that is, taking learnings from one channel

and applying them to others—all to achieve that Holy Grail of

delivering the right message at the right time to the right cus-

tomer (see “The Omnichannel Data Opportunity,” page 8). It’s

more about being omnipresent than omnichannel. Like the old

VISA slogan, “It’s everywhere you want to be.”

Consumers don’t think in channelsDuring a recent conversation about ommichannel with Ashley Johnston, SVP, global marketing at

Experian Marketing Services, she said, “People don’t wake up and say, ‘I’m going to be a mobile

consumer today.’ They just use the channel that best fits the moment or task.”

True. And predicting what that

channel, moment, and task will be

is exactly the challenge. As much as

marketers would like to be every-

where at all times, doing so is rarely

cost-effective or practical. Omnichan-

nel marketing can be the answer to

optimizing the who, where, and when

for the greatest likelihood of success

(i.e. a customer action, such as a conversion, purchase, or share). That’s why Marketo’s Chandar

Pattabhiram, group VP, product and corporate marketing, prefers to call it optichannel marketing;

it’s about finding the optimal channels.

One company successfully moving in the direction of omnichannel marketing is Fresh Direct.

Like many of the online grocer’s customers, my decision to use its mobile app to grocery shop is

usually spontaneous. I throw a few things in my cart as I realize I need them, get home and check

around my kitchen to see whether I’ve missed anything, and then use my laptop to complete my

order (though I have placed complete orders from my phone). Fresh Direct doesn’t wait until

I’m checking out to pop up the familiar (and often blasé) retail query, “Find everything OK?”

No, it makes recommendations all along the purchase process, using past purchase and other

behavior data to be relevant. It also sends emails with ideas, recipes, and specials—often related

to the season or an upcoming holiday. The online grocer continues the thread on social where it

proactively presents content and specials, as well as quickly responds to queries. And it doesn’t

end there. It also provides an app that lets customers add items to their cart from recipes they

find online. Even its trucks are a touchpoint; they’re rolling billboards that serve as reminders to

customers to place their next order.

For me, Fresh Direct is everywhere I need it to be when I need it, without being intrusive or inva-

sive. And, although it doesn’t have the added complexity of retail locations, the online grocer does

use data to inform how it can be omnipresent across the channels its customers do use.

Is this type of marketing in your future? n

EDITORIALEditor-in-Chief, Ginger Conlon [email protected] 646-638-6184

Senior Editor Al Urbanski

Senior Editor Natasha D. Smith

Associate Editor Elyse Dupré

Digital Content Coordinator Perry Simpson

Contributing Writers Jason Compton Eric Krell

ART AND PRODUCTIONArt Director James Jarnot

Associate Managing EditorAndrew Corselli

Senior Production Manager Michelle Zuhlke

ADVERTISING(646) 638-6171

VP/Sales Greg Zalka

Account Director Deborah Hartley

Account Manager Matt Lee

Lead Generation Campaign Manager Rene Serulle

Sales/Editorial Assistant Heather Freitag

Circulation Marketing Manager Tracey Harilall

CORPORATEChairman/CEO Lee Maniscalco

Chief Operations Officer John Crewe

EVP Julia Hood

VP, Digital – Business Group Keith O’Brien

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Ginger Conlon Editor-in-Chief Direct Marketing News

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EDITOR’S NOTE | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing

As much as marketers would like to be everywhere at all times, do-ing so is rarely cost-effective or practical. So, omnichannel market-ing is the answer to [optimization].

04_EdNote.indd 3 5/11/15 9:29 AM

LEAVE YOUR COMPETITION FAR BEHIND Micro-segment. Hyper-personalize. Be super-relevant. Optimize resources and spend. Maximize use of data. You can do it. With RedPoint – named a “Leader” and highest ranked in cross-channel integration.

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H0T LIST | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing

The Lexicon of

OMNICHANNELMARKETINGIT’S TIME TO CLEAR THE AIR. HERE’S WHAT SEPARATES CROSS-CHANNEL,INTEGRATED, MULTICHANNEL, AND OMNICHANNEL AS MARKETING CONCEPTS.

By Perry Simpson

C ross-channel marketing; integrated marketing; multichannel mar-keting; omnichannel marketing. Each of these terms rose to promi-nence as a response to a fundamental shift in consumers’ behavior

and expectations across an ongoing proliferation of marketing channels. Understandably, the definitions of these terms have become muddled;

the subtle nuances that separate them obfuscated by semantic errors and the industry’s tendency to politicize its vocabulary. Today, however, cross-channel, integrated, and multichannel marketing—as terminology and practices—are falling out of favor for data-driven marketers focused on customer experience. Omnichannel marketing is the preferred ap-proach for those marketing pros. Yet all too often marketers today are talking omnichannel, but in actuality are only delivering cross-channel, integrated, or multichannel marketing.

Here, we examine each of these marketing terms, and define them in relation to the coveted Holy Grail of omnichannel.

Omnichannel definedOmnichannel is a complex but customer-centric approach to marketing. It’s all about thinking holistically in terms of customer experience, inter-actions, and messaging; about connecting and using customer data to be contextually relevant at the customer’s moments of truth. “Omnichannel is from the perspective of the customer,” says Marina Kalika, director of product marketing at engagement solutions provider TouchCommerce. “Terms and channels don’t matter to customers. All they care about is being served consistently. They want the experience to be appropriate for what channel they’re in.”

TouchCommerce CMO George Skaff adds, “The idea [of omnichannel] is that the customer may have different needs or objectives depending on where they are in their journey, but they’re still fundamentally the same person.”

With omnichannel marketing there’s a connectedness at a deeper level than cross-channel, integrated, or multichannel marketing. The reason is the holistic view of customer data on the back end that provides insight into each customer traversing channels and allows for the cohesive, customer-centric approach that sets omnichannel marketing apart from its predecessors.

Omnichannel versus multichannelMany marketers who draw a distinction between multichannel and omnichannel marketing define the former as simply the use of multiple

channels for a marketing campaign or initiative; there may not, how-ever, be a consistent or integrated approach in using them.

“A lot of this is jargon. To some people all of these [terms] mean the same thing, but it’s appropriate to think of omnichannel as an evolution of multichannel,” says John Faris, VP of cross-channel marketing at digi-tal agency Red Door Interactive. “Omnichannel is a more comprehen-sive approach where you prioritize being omnipresent in the consumers’ experience. Multichannel is a more marketer-driven, siloed approach.”

Multichannel may be a more marketer- than customer-centric approach to marketing, but contemporary patterns of consumer behavior mandated multichannel strategies in nearly every industry. “Multichannel became the goal around the time that the Web came into play,” says Jennifer Smith, marketing director at marketing and sales solutions provider Corporate Visions. “It was really just a reaction to all these new digital channels.”

This is one area where multichannel and omnichannel marketing are alike. Both evolved as reactionary in terms of marketers’ response to customers’ changing buying behaviors and expectations as the number of channels available to them have increased. But, again, omnichannel differs in that it uses data to orchestrate the use of multiple marketing channels from the customers’ perspective of what communications or interactions will be most beneficial and when.

Omnichannel versus cross-channelMany marketing pundits view cross-channel marketing as a way to progress from multichannel to omnichannel practices. “Cross-channel is about following the customer from one channel to another,” TouchCom-merce’s Skaff explains. In doing so, marketers begin to understand who customers are as they move through their buying journey.

On its own, omnichannel can be a daunting prospect, especially for or-ganizations without the processes and technologies in place to identify and track customers throughout their journey. Cross-channel marketing can be a boon to such businesses in that it can function as a lens through which an organization can bring an omnichannel focus into view. However, like multichannel marketing, cross-channel is a marketer-centric construct.

“When you think about [cross-channel] you’re thinking from the per-spective of those doing the marketing. Customers don’t care about what channel they’re using; they see it all as the same,” TouchCommerce’s Kalika reiterates. “Omnichannel looks at [marketing] channels as one

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2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | H0T LIST

OMNICHANNELMARKETING THE

NUMBERS

66%Retailers that haven’t operationalized in-store pickup, cross-channel inventory visibility, and store-based fulfillment [Accenture]

18%Marketers who say they have a single view of the customer[Teradata]

50% How much more om-nichannel shoppers spend with a brand than single-channel shoppers[IDC Retail Insights]

2/3 Consumers who purchase online who use the store before or after the transaction [A.T. Kearney]

23% U.S. online adults who check prices on their smartphone while in-store; 41% of whom wind up purchasing elsewhere [Forrester Research Inc.]

cohesive message because that’s how customers look at it.”

Omnichannel versus integrated marketingIf cross-channel exists as the link between multichannel and omnichannel, then integrated marketing is omnichannel’s doppelganger—at least on the surface. “At the core, integrat-ed and omnichannel marketing are the closest to synonyms out of these terms,” Corporate Visions’ Smith says.

The key here is “closest.” Integrated marketing and om-nichannel marketing are fundamentally not the same. Inte-grated marketing, simply, “is the integration of traditional and digital media,” Red Door Interactive’s Faris says. While integrated marketing seeks to synchronize mar-keting across channels—to create a campaign or initiative where the whole is greater than the sum of its part because the timing and messaging provide cohesion—omnichan-nel has the added jolt of back-end data connectedness that

makes the communications and interactions not only cohe-sive, but also targeted and relevant.

“Many marketers view omnichannel as a fully integrat-ed state of consumer engagement that includes shared data across channels to achieve a seamless experience for the consumer,” says Lila Snyder, president at customer information solutions company Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies.

So, as close as integrated marketing may be to om-nichannel, like its cross- and multichannel brethren, its orchestration is about benefiting the marketers delivering the campaign. Omnichannel marketing focuses squarely on the customer.

“At its core, marketing has always been about story and experience. It’s important to make sure you have that core foundation and not get caught up in all these terms,” Smith notes. “We’re still storytellers who want our cus-tomers to have a great experience with us.” n

06_Hot_List.indd 7 5/11/15 9:30 AM

DATA | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing


By Jason Compton

Marketers can now reach most customers nearly anywhere and at almost any time. And the interactions that take place across all those touchpoints leave a trail of data. But what will mar-

keters do with the insight revealed by that data—if anything? Rather than continuing to operate siloed feedback loops, the time

has come for marketers to embrace an omnichannel mind-set and ap-ply insights from every interaction to the entire customer relationship. “Marketing isn’t about an email or a direct mail piece or a retail insert anymore,” says Andy Bear, executive director of marketing solutions at Quad/Graphics. “Those all support the same objectives: talking to the audience and advancing them along the path to purchase.”

JustAnswer is one company applying omnichannel strategies; specifically, to build loyalty for repeat transactions. The company’s

business is matching consumers with experts who can address a par-ticular problem or need. First-time customers are typically in a crisis situation, desperately combing search engines for help. JustAnswer’s goal is to find the right outreach channel to spur repeat visits. “We’re trying to show how we can bring value every day, not just in the way they found us, when their hair was on fire and they needed informa-tion very quickly,” says Kara Douglas, senior manager of marketing communications at JustAnswer.

Instead of focusing as heavily on search for acquisition and email for loyalty as it had in the past, JustAnswer is blending them, as well as expanding its use of SMS as both a service delivery and loy-alty channel. The company has also rolled out experimental micro-conversion landing pages to attract potential email subscribers, even

The OmnichannelData OpportunityToday’s jumbled customer journey leaves a trail of data that marketers can use to inform their strategies across all channels.

10. Feature 1 - Omnichannel Data_v2.indd 10 5/11/15 9:32 AM


2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | DATA

among those who have never made a transaction through the service. Marketers at the company will use the data gleaned from customers’ behavior at each touchpoint to inform its other channel strategies.

Like the marketers have done at JustAnswer, it’s possible to build a marketing organization that can not only communicate more effec-tively with customers across channels, but also learn valuable lessons from their customers at each step of the relationship. Here are five ac-tions marketers can take toward building that team and implement-ing an omnichannel approach to data collection and sharing:

Start collaborating internallyA coherent omnichannel strategy depends on internal collaboration and tightly aligned goals. Marketers must think in terms of overall

marketing objectives, not individual, channel-based initiatives. This applies not only to communication channels, but to conversion touch-points, as well. Consider the situation when brick-and-mortar stores aren’t in synch with a retailer’s website. “When e-commerce is siloed, then the e-commerce general manager has little incentive to drive in-store sales, because in-store sales don’t hit his P&L,” says Jonathan Treiber, CEO of RevTrax.

This omnichannel transformation has to be backed by incentives, policy, and sentiment. “Marketing channels can be very proprietary in organizations, which is why marketing professionals should be compensated based on marketing success, not vertical success,” says Quinn Jalli, senior VP, strategic initiatives group, at Epsilon. “It’s no longer acceptable to hide or not share insights across channels.”

The OmnichannelData Opportunity


Embrace complexityWhen devising omnichannel communication strategies, move past the artificial restrictions of the past. Many marketing tactics rely on binary calls-to-action: buy now, or don’t; subscribe to a newsletter, or don’t. These binary choices may be effective in email campaigns and for A/B testing purposes, but extending these choices to multiple channels will help marketers take advantage of omnichannel’s potential.

So, instead of always boiling down an entire relationship to a single take-it-or-leave-it offer, invite a more open-ended discussion with mul-tiple options. “You need to give consumers unlimited choice to say what they like and don’t like,” Jalli says.

Engaging on social media is an excellent way to develop qualitative, non-binary insights. Using social as a listening channel, for example, collecting feedback and input about items such as product mailers or promotional text can help refine communications across the board.

Even as marketers extend to more open-ended discussions, they need to ensure that there is consistency in their communications,

and that the path to purchase and conversation has clear and coher-ent next steps despite the mix of channels customers and prospects may be traversing. “That next-best offer needs to be the same across the board,” says Mathieu Hannouz, evangelist for Adobe Campaign.

Refine attributionAn omnichannel strategy makes attribution even more important. Not for compensation and incentive reasons—that channel-specific thinking is outdated in an omnichannel world. But understanding how total en-gagements, from search engine impressions to direct mailers to in-app advertising, affects consumer response is crucial to future optimizations.

Attribution also helps inform how marketers should target and de-liver future messages. Over time marketers can build a comprehen-sive picture of the channels their customers and prospects prefer at each step in the buying journey.

Because attribution can look like a massive, boil-the-ocean project, it’s best to start with manageable connections and form strong opinions



82%➜ Marketers who strongly agree that fi rst-party data is their most valuable data source-Adroit Digital/Forrester Consulting

90%➜ Share of consumers who expect consistent interactions across all channels-SDL

37%➜ Companies that self-identify as laggards in omnichannel strategy-RSR

1.7X➜ The increase in likelihood of a purchase being informed by offl ine information than online-Forrester


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about them before attempting to create a Grand Unified Theory of channel attri-bution. “Small bites and quick wins are important in omnichannel attribution,” says Christopher Matz, VP of retail and consumer goods analytics at Merkle, adding that in some cases internal data isn’t enough to ensure proper attribution. “[Marketers] may need third-party data and panels to make a match between marketing activity and purchases.”

Build context through locationThe skyrocketing growth of mobile marketing and email means that audiences are no longer in a fixed, predictable location when hearing from a brand. That puts a premi-um on understanding location, and how location affects response and the overall context of the relationship.

Consider beacons and wearable tech, which can re-veal not only where customers are, but also how long they’re spending in a location. This, in turn, lets mar-keters make inferences about what those customers may be hoping to accomplish. “With beacon data, if you know a customer is lingering for a long time in the small appliance section of the store, you can drive an email or a direct mail piece about small appliances,” says Jay Henderson, director of strategy at IBM Com-merce. “It’s about finding these insights and bridging the gap into action.”

Additionally, location-based campaigns lend them-selves well to quick wins. “Just knowing a customer has recently been at a store is a valuable piece of in-formation that is often overlooked,” Henderson says.

Over the long term, detailed location data can in-form much more than the choice of digital interaction channel. “When you have an understanding of a con-sumer who shops at Target and commutes by train, you can apply that to TV and email campaigns, but you can also apply it to retail site selection and product development,” says Duncan McCall, CEO of PlaceIQ. “That’s when it gets exciting.”

Retargeting and remarket everywhereRetargeting is more than a way to chase customers around the Internet with entreaties to complete a sus-pended transaction. Build a picture of all the offers, com-munications, and inquiries you know customers have received but not viewed, opened but not acted on, and seen but not clicked. With those insights you can then customize a message in a channel with proven relevance to each consumer that fills in those gaps and ensures that they understand the value you place on their business.

It may sound complicated, but it can boil down to the obvious-yet-overlooked strategy of finding a new approach to reach people who have simply tuned out one or more channels. “Start engaging off-line. Follow up with direct mail if they’re purchasing your goods and services but never open an email,” Epsilon’s Jalli says.

Learning when to cut losses and move on is also an important element of any omnichannel retargeting or reactiva-tion strategy. “Retargeting works if it’s smart, but too many display retargeting systems don’t know that you’ve made a

purchase on another site and will keep sending ads for weeks after,” says Meyar Sheik, cofounder and CEO of Certona. “It’s wasted impressions.”

One way JustAnswer cut its losses—and reduced IT and email service costs—was by purging long-term unresponsive customers from its email database. The move cut the size of the email database in half, and freed more energy and resources to focus on loy-alty strategies for more engaged customers. This ap-proach gave JustAnswer a six-fold improvement in click-through rates, with open rates up 46%. “ISPs are starting to look at engagement as a metric to decide whether to put your email in inboxes,” JustAnswer’s Douglas says. “With all the competition for inbox space, we need to find the best use of our time.”

Pay attention in-storeBrands should avail themselves of every opportunity to integrate on- and offline insights. One approach is to combine in-store shopping habits with loyalty data and use that information to ensure that online marketing and merchandising skews to more relevant product lines.

The direct, low-tech approach is also still valuable. Outdoor retailer Moosejaw has a host of omnichannel technologies informing email, merchandising, and offer strategies. But in-store, associates are trained to be pro-active when it comes to interacting with omnichannel customers. When a shopper is seen actively engaged with a mobile device in-store, “our shop staff proactively ap-proaches the consumer and addresses questions around product availability, product performance, and pricing,” says Dan Pingree, Moosejaw’s VP of marketing. “It drives demonstrable benefits and a more loyal customer base.”

As Moosejaw learned, using insight and initiative across channels doesn’t have to be a bank-break-ing experience. It’s as much a matter of training and attention as it is about technology. “The costs of entry have gone down significantly,” Jalli says. “Omnichannel opportunities exist for those on the cup-of-coffee budget.” n

ACTION ITEMS

Build. Since virtually every channel can now be tracked for delivery, including mail, build insights from each touch into future campaigns.

Expand. Think beyond binary offers, and use suitable channels for feedback and customer listening.

Blend. Mix up contact channels, particu-larly when a customer or prospect has been quiet for a long while.

Motivate. Ensure that marketing stakeholders are incentivized on big-picture performance, not returns on an indi-vidual silo or campaign.

Unify. Focus on consis-tency of message and offer across channels, even if the path to pur-chase is wholly unique for each customer.

“It’s about finding these insights and bridging the gap into action.”Jay Henderson IBM Commerce




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STAFFING | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing

RETHINKING MARKETING’S ORG CHART IN AN

OMNICHANNEL WORLD

14. Feature 2 - Omnichannel_v3.indd 14 5/11/15 9:31 AM

By Eric Krell

Marketing organizations have been so busy transforming that they’ve barely had time to figure out how to arrange them-selves for the future. This opposing logic crystalizes the fluid

state of marketing team structures today. On one hand, “many chief marketing officers are tearing up their

org charts,” write Millward Brown Vermeer marketing consultants Marc de Swaan Arons and Frank van den Driest and Unilever Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Keith Weed in their Har-vard Business Review article “The Ultimate Marketing Machine.” On the other hand, these coauthors also assert (more than once) that a simple, widely applicable blueprint for the 21st century marketing organizational structure does not exist.

So, what’s a CMO to do when it comes to coordinating the troops to thrive in an increasingly omnichannel environment? Although the exact answer differs by marketing function, two important ele-ments of the solution include creativity and the ability for the execu-tive brain to hold two opposing ideas at the same time.

Let’s get physical—and logical“To be honest, the big message, and one that we communicate internally, is that our physical org structure is very different from our logical org structure,” says Rick Jackson, CMO of Qlik, a B2B data solutions provider. Both of these organizing principles deliver benefits.

Qlik marketing department’s physical org chart—what you see on paper—is based on traditional marketing functions; what it refers to as centers of excellence: product marketing, solutions marketing, digital marketing, events marketing, content marketing, etc.

From a practical (i.e., logical) perspective, however, the marketing func-tion aligns the bulk of its activities around three go-to-market “streams.” These streams include existing customers, new customers, and enter-prise prospects with specific functional or industry-based needs that cor-respond to specific Qlik product offerings and functionality.

The physical, on-paper org structure is essentially marketing or channel focused. Marketing professionals are assigned to centers of excellence based on the skills and expertise they possess. The logi-cal structure is more customer-centric. This structure brings Qlik’s different marketing experts together to attract and engage prospects and customers regardless of what channel they’re using.

Qlik’s practical structure is a reflection of the marketing industry’s recent ongoing transformation that, similarly, is a shift from a mar-keting-centric perspective to a customer-centric one. Customers and prospects don’t see channels (a marketing-centric word that 99.9% of customers probably have never uttered in this context). Instead, customers see the company or the brand, period. That’s why bank-ing customers get so dispirited when customer service reps place them on hold before handing them off to another customer service rep within a different internal service line (e.g., personal checking, credit card, business checking). Many, if not most, companies are structured based on how they view their product and service offer-ings. Similarly, many marketing teams are organized based on how


2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | STAFFING

A traditional approach to marketing staffing may no longer be logical or practical.


0 ➜ Number of “market-ing directors” at Procter & Gamble, which last year replaced that title with “brand directors” as part of a marketing restructure -Procter & Gamble

20%➜ Increase of marketing function’s influence on com-pany strategy from 2006 to 2013 -Millward Brown Vermeer

2017➜ Year by which marketing functions will spend more on technology investments than IT functions spend -Gartner

42%➜ Portion of CMOs who agree that “technology is siloed and too difficult to use” for cross-channel experiences -Accenture

45%➜ CIOs who agree that multichannel is too complex for one platform -Accenture

they view the channels through which they interact with customers.

As the need to maintain a consistent message and in-timate experience across all channels intensifies, these channel-centric marketing structures aren’t cutting it. But there’s a hitch to reorganizing around the customer: While it’s logical to restructure the marketing function in response to the new omnichannel reality, some as-pects of legacy marketing structures still offer highly practical benefits. “Our physical structure is there for a few reasons,” Jackson says. “One is for recruiting. You have specific expertise in each of those [traditional mar-keting] groups and you always need to bring in more expertise.” It’s easier to attract digital marketers to a digital marketing center of excellence than it is to hire them for an “installed-based, go-to-market stream,” for example.

Restructuring realitiesJackson’s hybrid approach marks just one of several creative new strategies for aligning resources to deliver consistent messages and experiences across more than one channel. Before considering other approaches, it helps to keep the following in mind.

Omnichannel is not yet a reality for everyone: The rise of om-nichannel marketing, as well as the structures and talent-manage-ment strategies that some companies have created in response, are truly transformative, even inspirational. Motorola’s marketing orga-nization has a marketing SVP who also leads the information tech-nology function; at Unilever, Weed oversees communications and sustainability in addition to marketing. Unilever and Diageo have sent some of their marketing leaders to Facebook for training. De-spite these impressive examples, omnichannel marketing structures remain an aspiration for many companies. “Although there has been a lot written about the difference between multichannel and om-nichannel, I find that a lot of organizations are just trying to get their head around how to better optimize multiple channels in a more integrated fashion,” Qlik’s Jackson says. “To be honest, right now we’re more focused on integrating across the channels, as opposed to leveraging channels against each other and creating a more optimal experience. We’re still fairly early on in that journey.” Despite that self-assessment, it’s notable that Jackson has seen fit to alter Qlik’s marketing structure to help it progress on this journey.

No rebuilding effort is an island: Knocking down internal

marketing silos requires external assistance, notes Glen Hartman, Accenture Interactive’s global manag-ing director for digital transformation. “As every busi-ness becomes a digital business, C-suite executives will need to collaborate to drive successful digital transfor-mation,” Hartman says. “New, emerging roles such as chief digital officer, chief customer officer, and chief experience officer will become integral parts of the digital lineup.” They will also need to be incorporated into new marketing structures in ways that the senior executive team understands and supports.

Restructuring involves a lot more than structure: Breaking down silos, removing traditional marketing functions, and creating new organizational strategies

is major work. But restructuring also requires changes to perfor-mance measures, compensation structures, and traditional training and leadership development approaches. When asked to identify the most formidable omnichannel-driven restructuring challenges, In-sightSquared Director of Marketing Brian Whalley points to skills development. “Consistently challenging and working on our status quo will help us find inefficient processes, or places where we’re not staying on topic,” notes Whalley, whose firm offers business analyt-ics applications. “The only way to challenge our process is to enable the team to explore new techniques and technology.”

An incremental approachSometimes, the marketing function can notch genuine restructuring progress with a single hire. Last fall InsightSquared saw a sudden in-crease in its offer launches and promotions. That was the good news; the bad news was that the surge in work was difficult to handle. “We had several content launches in a row that were not executed well,” Whalley says. During one launch, the marketing team realized it hadn’t written any social media posts or updates, and scrambled to complete those on the morning of the launch.

“There’s no reason to be doing that kind of work the morning of,” Whalley says. “It should have been done thoughtfully and a week in advance of the launch date.”

As a result, Whalley hired a new Web campaigns manager—not only to avoid last-minute social media sprints, but also to help the company adapt to marketing’s expanding sphere of influence. The new campaigns manager has central responsibility for quality and consistency of execution. “Because so many people across groups

THE NUMBERS

“The only way to challenge our process is to enable the team to explore new techniques and technology.”Brian Whalley InsightSquared


STAFFING | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing


2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | STAFFING

will work together on a launch or activity, we need to have one person centrally charged with respon-sibility for it,” Whalley explains. “For each launch, he has ownership of the release process and making sure that we have a consistent message, presentation, and execution.”

A flexible alternativeFor a more sweeping approach to restructuring, Millward Brown Vermeer’s de Swaan Arons and van den Driest, and Unilever’s Weed put forth what they describe as an “Orchestrator Model.” In this structure, marketing professionals (and even business partners outside the marketing team—and company) operate on three different short-term task forces: One group is focused on data analytics (the “Think” group); the second is focused on customer engagement (“Feel”); and the third on content and production (“Do”).

The relative size of each task force flexes up and down depending on the nature and emphasis of the task at hand. For a marketing initiative focused on alleviating customer confusion about bills, one company pulled together a task force to develop a

personalized video message to explain the bill. In this case the task force that primarily consisted of customer engagement (about 60% of the team), with assistance from content and production (25%), and a little help from data analytics (15%). A marketing initiative related to personalization, for example, likely would require a team with a much greater data analytics representation.

This flexible task-force approach likely is best suit-ed for marketing functions on the leading edge of omnichannel performance. But it should also serve as a motivating example of what’s possible and neces-sary. As Forbes marketing columnist Jennifer Rooney recently wrote, “Marketing organizations that aren’t restructuring to meet the demands of 2020…will be left by the wayside.”

The best way to avoid this fate is to get started restructuring by thinking differently, and meshing the traditional with the practical. As writer F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to func-tion.” The same, it seems, holds true for marketing executives wrestling with restructuring today. ■

STRUCTURALUNDERPINNINGSAs more marketing operations reorganize themselves to man-age across multiple channels, they should consider the follow-ing enablers: Training: “We invest a lot in team training, particu-larly because we hire so many people without a deep Web marketing background,” says InsightSquared Director of Marketing Brian Whalley, who actively encourages his people to share one skill they know particularly well with the rest of the marketing team. Whalley also maintains a professional development budget, so that marketers can attend confer-ences or participate in activities that help spark new ideas about ways to operate and organize. IT collaboration: “Investing in collaboration with the CIO and his or her group is a key part of achieving omnichannel market-ing,” asserts Glen Hartman, Accenture Interactive’s global managing director for digital transformation. Ideally, the CMO develops a vision and strategy for how customers experience the brand, and the CIO deliv-ers the tools and technology to bring those experiences and campaigns to life. In practice, this requires marketing and IT to act as information- and practices-sharing partners, not as territo-rial competitors. “CIOs will need to add marketing skills and CMOs should do the same by adding technology proficiency to their teams,” Hartman adds. Performance reviews: Beware of marketing ops reviews that focus on discreet—and typically traditional—functions within marketing. In those reviews, indi-vidual functions (or “silos”) tend to achieve strong grades even when marketing’s overall per-formance lags. Instead, Qlik CMO Rick Jackson advises, conduct departmental-level performance reviews that center on market-ing’s overall contributions to the company’s business objectives.



By Ginger Conlon Omnichannel marketing aims to create a cohesive, well-orchestrated customer experience across channels. The idea is to take a data-driven, customer-centric view of the purchase, engagement, and loyalty journeys and meet customers where they are for each. But in some cases one channel holds sway over the others, helping marketers take that more customer-centric approach while still meeting their marketing-centric needs and goals.

As omnichannel marketing grows in adoption and popularity among marketers, the question then becomes: What channel is—or should be—the linchpin of omnichannel marketing, and why? Twelve marketing experts share their perspective. Their answers may surprise you.

TRENDS | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing


The Linchpin Channel Of the Omnichannel Marketing FutureIs there one channel that can help ensure the success of an omnichannel approach to marketing? Twelve experts sound off.

CHRISTINE KESSLER, CLIENT SERVICES, SUDDEN IMPACT MARKETINGAs both a consumer and a marketer, I believe the linchpin of omnichan-nel marketing is the website. Cool campaigns can attract attention, but if the website isn’t up to date with the latest in-store and online inven-tory, or if it’s difficult to find what I’m looking for, you’re not going to make the sale. My time is valuable, so if I’m interested in a product, I’m going to check it out online before ever step-ping foot into your store. And if I’m not in a store, your mobile tactics won’t be nearly as effective.

What are the latest product re-views? Is it available in my preferred location? Can I reserve it online? I should be able to answer all of these questions from the convenience of my laptop, iPad, or phone; meaning the site also needs to be responsive. If you’re tracking my activity on the website accurately, you should have enough data to ensure that my experience is a seamless transition from what I was doing online, and you should be able to properly target me the next time a similar product goes on sale.

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ERIC STAHL, SVP OF PRODUCT MARKETING, SALESFORCEWhile marketers are constantly focused on the latest new platform, email has long proven itself to be the workhorse of digital marketing. It delivers the highest ROI, is appropriate for every audience, and plays well with consumers. In fact, a recent survey from Marketing Sherpa reveals that 91% of U.S. adults say they like getting promotional emails from companies they do business with.

Email ties digital marketing efforts together to deliver a seamless and personalized customer experience; it can be a petri dish for data testing, combined with predictive marketing to drive transactions, or used to amplify social media advertising efforts. In a case study of one major online retailer, email openers were 22% more likely to purchase when first reached with Facebook ads.

Email may not be the flashiest marketing channel, but it’s the con-nective tissue of the customer journey.


2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | TRENDS

SOO JIN OH, SVP OF DATA BUSINESS & AD OPERATIONS, MAGNETICWith consumers constantly switching between devices—including mobile phones, computers, wearables, tablets, and connected TVs—more and more marketers are implementing omnichannel strategies to reach consumers as they move across devices and along the purchase funnel. The rise of mobile consumption has quickly become the foundation for these omnichannel strategies, as the medium provides more ways to tap into a variety of data points to target consumers and deliver a brand’s message through tactics like click-to-call, swipe features, and GPS locators. While the increase in mobile consumption offers marketers a great deal of opportunity, we’re now faced with new challenges like how best to measure the efficacy of our cross-device efforts. It’s imperative that marketers spend more time analyzing the data they receive and set definitive goals to ensure their cross-device strategies are as effective as possible.

HOLLY PAVLIKA, SVP, BRAND STRATEGY,COLLECTIVE BIASAccording to a recent Pew Research Internet study, 74% of adults use social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This means that 74% of adults are sharing content with their followers on the aforementioned social channels. As marketers look to provide a cohesive customer experience for their consumer audience, social media should be a major focus of marketing campaigns. Socially con-nected customers are generating millions of impressions annually, and casting a wide net of influence over their friends and followers. And, with the implementations of “Buy” buttons on both Twitter and Pin-terest, the intermix of social and commerce isn’t something market-ers should take lightly. For example, we recently launched a study that examined the impact of Facebook on sales at a major grocer and found that Facebook fans of the grocer spent 50% more at the store than non-fans, and bought a total of 35% more product. For marketers, this is a clear indicator that social channels aren’t just a useful awareness tool, but a prime driver of sales.

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TRENDS | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing


JARED BELSKY, PRESIDENT, 360IBelieving there is one channel of more importance in an omnichannel measurement scheme is at direct odds with the meritocracy that is supposed to be digital marketing. Attribution systems sprung to life in theory to help mar-keters grow their business, but instead have too often devolved into arbitrating “credit” wars. A peer of mine is fond of saying that the best omnichannel system is the “one that makes your client the most money.” Adhering to this thesis builds trust. The one trump to this thesis is context. If you’re preparing to drive trial to a new line exten-sion with a short window, then the channels that are driving trial (e.g., programmatic, search, direct mail, FSIs) need to be weighted beyond those that less directly contribute to that critical goal if time is not on your side.

ALEX LUSTBERG, CMO, LYRISEmail is clearly the linchpin of any omnichannel engagement strategy. All the lessons in digital marketing were learned in email and it remains the heart of every digital relationship. Why? First, it’s the most mature, accepted, and adopted digital engagement technology. As a result, it has become both the digital driver’s license, necessary for completing any online transaction. It remains the only proven way to engage in an ongoing series of conversations with a captive audience of one.

MAR BRANDT, VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS, EXPERIAN MARKETING SERVICESWhile each marketing channel holds an important place along the customer journey, time and time again, email has been proven essential. According to a study by Forrester Consulting commissioned by Experian Marketing Services, market-ers who are seasoned in email will lead the transition to the era of cross-channel marketing. In the study, Forrester found that marketers struggle to integrate data sources and adopt effective data management practices, yet email marketers demonstrated significantly higher rates of data usage best practices—twice as much as the average respondent.

When executing a cross-channel strategy, marketers must select channels not only based on their target custom-ers’ habits and preferences, but also those that are best at delivering the message tied to each stage of the customer’s journey. According to our 2015 Digital Marketer report, email remains the most popular and effective channel to do this with. Marketers are able to pinpoint and identify what is most relevant and influential in the customer’s path to purchase. This level of clarity gives marketers the opportunity to then incorporate additional channels based on what’s relevant to the customer along that path that ties all communications together.

KRISTA LARIVIERE, CEO AND COFOUNDER, GSHIFTEmail. After decades of innovation in digital marketing and the introduction of new channels and methods to reach audiences, email is the linchpin of omnichannel marketing. Digital marketers wanting to get in front of their audience—who have asked (opted in) to be marketed and communicated to—stand the best chance of accomplishing that through a well-thought-out email marketing campaign. Getting into the target audience’s inbox also allows them to consume the message when it is convenient for them.

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2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing | TRENDS

JAMES ZAYTI, GROUP DIRECTOR, HYUNDAI MEDIA, INNOCEAN USAWhile it varies by category, we’ve seen that a brand’s website in the automotive space holds clout over other channels. It truly is the only channel that has no bias toward how old you are, what devices you use, or what social networks you prefer. It not only has the ability to cater to a seri-ous intender, but also to a window shopper, and provides numerous forms of content such as imagery, video, product detail, and price. It can also serve as a brand’s hub that users can visit to get all of the information they could pos-sibly want to know about and discover. When you mix it with search, a brand’s website can be pretty remarkable.

GREG HEAD, CMO, INFUSIONSOFTOmnichannel isn’t easy for any business, but for marketers at a small business being truly omnichannel can be especially challenging given their limited time and budgets. It’s hard enough to keep up with a few channels and keep the rev-enue flow going. This makes it even more critical for small business marketers to continue to hone their messages and narrow the target audience to make sure their message hits home and converts. Ironically, most small businesses struggle to specialize and focus beyond one level of “dentist in Scottsdale” or “marketing consultant.” They need to be even more focused to get their mes-sage across to the right audience. There are a number of steps to nurturing prospects and this requires multiple touchpoints, but it starts with a triggered action, such as an email, and then testing to understand which channel drives greatest word of mouth, and this is different for every business.

STELLA GOULET, CMO, AVANADEEffective omnichannel integration is critical to successful marketing programs. But, increasingly, we view Twitter as the linchpin that sits at the center.

We’re not alone. The Con-tent Marketing Institute found that 88% of B2B marketers use Twitter to distribute content, compared with 55% in 2010. And confidence in Twitter as an effective platform has gone up five percentage points in the past year.

Twitter has two key factors going for it: 1. it’s highly interac-tive—driving discussions, sur-veys, and more; 2. it’s fast and flexible, enabling us to convey key messages quickly and post a variety of content. Companies can also host tweetchats to dive deeper into a particular topic and expand their audience, some-thing we’ve done successfully on several occasions.

Of course, our ultimate ob-jective with Twitter (and all social channels) is to drive clients to our people and web-site, where we can provide a deeper, richer experience.

DIAZ NESAMONEY, CEO, JIVOXThe marketing landscape is shifting, namely, to an on-the-go consumer landscape where marketers need to have a mobile mind-set. Marketers now have a new approach to multichannel marketing, through the use of data, to communicate the right message at the right time to the right person. We now have more access to real-time data than ever before and we can serve mes-sages that are personalized depending on the weather, location, time, as well as their own preferences no matter what channel users are viewing it on. Combing dynamic content with precise message targeting is essential for the modern day marketer, and with smart use of technology this year will be the year that cre-ativity and relevancy come together.

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Data is the King Kong of marketing. And every year, it seems to get bigger and more powerful. Indeed, marketers can't seem to get enough of the stuff. According to a new study by Adroit Digital and Forrester Consulting, 96% of digital marketers and customer insights professionals consider fi rst-party customer data important or mildly impor-tant; 97% feel the same way about planning, budget, and forecasting data. And, 88% hold their business partners' customer data in the high regard.


PARTING SHOT | 2015 Essential Guide to Omnichannel Marketing

Marketers Aren't Monkeying Around With Data Sharing

97%96%88%

Consider the following important or mildly

important to their organization’s overall marketing strategy

Planning, budgeting, and forecasting dataFirst-partycustomer data Data about custom-ers from business partners

92%91%

Consider the following challenging

or moderately challenging when using a data co-op

Privacy concerns

Securitycontrols

Sources: Adroit Digital, Forrester Consulting

Digital marketing and customer insights professionals who…

Access to valuable data that was notused beforeDeeper insights from existing data

More holistic viewsof customersacross channels

54%49%46%46%

Better customerexperiences

54%

82%65%52%

Agree orstrongly agree that

First-party data is their most important data sourceSecond-party data is acritical source for their marketing team

is a

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