Sitecore Symposium Teaches Marketers to Collect, Connect, Analyze and Utilize Data for Better Customer Experiences
by Barb Mosher Zinck | August 28, 2014 12:07 pm
The Sitecore Symposium is right around the corner, taking place September 8-10 in Las Vegas. I took some time to chat with Sitecore Chief Strategy Officer, Darren Guarnaccia, about the event and how Sitecore is working hard to help digital marketers create better customer experiences.
You’ll remember I wrote about Sitecore’s new Experience Database and Experience Profile back in April. Then I talked to Nate Barad about how this new Big Data platform collects information about customers from a wide range of platforms, social media sites and more to give the marketer a 360 degree view of their customer. This is what Guarnaccia talks about when he says step one is to collect and step two is to connect customer data.
During the Symposium you’ll learn about those first two steps, something at least 30% or more of Sitecore customers are doing today. Guarnaccia said many more know and want to get these steps done, but often aren’t mature enough yet to get there.
It’s what comes next that excites many marketers and will be the driving theme of the Symposium: Step 3 – Analyze and Step 4 – Utilize.
Guarnaccia told me that Sitecore is working to help companies take everything they know about their customers and utilize that information to actually do something. The key is that they want to put these capabilities at the marketer’s fingertips in a way that gets a decision made combined with the tools that enable the marketer to take action on that decision.
Turning Decisions into Actions
Companies are at varying stages of maturity in their digital marketing strategies. Guarnaccia said that 5-10% of Sitecore’s customer base are actually putting their data to work. As with most new strategies/processes however, there are blockers.
The next version of Sitecore will help remove some of the adoption blockers, which often include:
- We have too many different systems
- We don’t know how to make a decision
- We don’t have the right data/reports to make a decision
- We don’t know what’s working
- We don’t know what to give credit to for a conversion
These are common themes to many marketers who are trying to keep up with this digital disruption. Sitecore focused on what those essential questions are that marketers need to answer, putting them into the context of actually making a decision and then acting on it. They have rethought the reports required and what the marketer is trying to decide, and put the right information into the marketer’s hands to make a decision.
But are there really a core set of questions every marketers wants to answer? Guarnaccia said that at the end of the day marketers want to know what’s making them money. He said that unless it’s an e-commerce site most are far away from figuring that out easily. The question “How much revenue did I get based on this thing I did?” is common.
This “ultimate barometer” is a challenge that Sitecore hopes to help marketers resolve. They are doing it by connecting revenue outcome to marketing actions. Of course Guarnaccia acknowledges they can’t get rid of all the blockers, but in instances where direct revenue can’t be determined, they can provide much better mechanics to give approximations with a high degree of certainty.
For those organizations that aren’t concerned about revenue, such as government, you can take the same principles and apply them to cost avoidance, which is extremely important.
Finding the Balance Between the Art and Science of Marketing
Marketers understand that things need to change, but there are still many caught in the traditional approach to marketing, measurable marketing that creates silos. But it’s not the only challenge faced by today’s marketing departments. Guarnaccia said that marketers have become so focused on the metric, the click, the conversion, that many “have lost site of the human being behind the keyboard somewhere.” Marketers need to get back to understanding customer wants and needs. Marketing is part art, part science – Guarnaccia said you need to find the right balance.
The goal of the next version of Sitecore, which will be announced at the Symposium, will be to help marketers with the measuring part in a way that enables them to focus more on the art of marketing. I don’t have details on what exactly this entails, but it’s certainly focused on pulling all the information together and presenting it in a way that provides valuable insights marketers can act on (and all within the same context).
The Symposium is a mix of strategy and technology. Primarily directed at Sitecore customers, there are sessions for beginning marketers to master marketers in areas related to business strategy, product strategy and more. And don’t forget the developer track. I expect from reading the list of sessions that even non-Sitecore customers can get valuable information out of the conference.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all the big news coming out of the event as it happens, so expect to hear more on Sitecore in a few weeks.
Digital Marketing Trends Update
Before we ended our conversation I asked Guarnaccia if his thoughts had changed on some of the big digital marketing trends that everyone has been focused on this year – specifically mobile and social.
Guarnaccia said that mobile hasn’t taken over like many predicted. It’s really become about the right tool for the right job. Mobile is great for convenience and time critical activities, but there are many other things you need to do that you’ll wait for access to the your desktop to do it. What we are seeing and will continue to see, he said, are different parts of the task/process on different form factors.
In regards to social, Guarnaccia said that it’s rapidly getting to the point that it’s loosing its luster, that it’s being abused by marketers. Social is a great place to listen and learn about customers, but it’s at risk of becoming another silo. Social is a great place to learn intent and gain more knowledge about your customers, it’s great for in the moment information, and Sitecore uses it to help marketers understand intent, in the moment needs, but the truth is that although most of us want that one ring to rule them all, it isn’t going to happen. Marketers need to learn how to leverage different channels and devices to offer the best experience to their customers.
This is experience marketing.
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