By Melanie Hoptman, COO for LiveRamp Asia-Pacific
The marketing landscape has been on a transformational journey over the last decade, facing technological innovation, Covid-19 and lately increased pressures to deliver results for every dollar. Although marketing is seen as a cost centre businesses pour money into, it is actually a cost driver and a vital growth engine for companies.
LiveRamp’s Asia-Pacific COO Melanie Hoptman is sharing tips for marketers on how they can make sure their organisation is seen as a revenue driver.
Customer relations are more important than ever
In a time of more purchasing options than ever, economic uncertainty and the need for personalisation, the customer has never been more critical to the health of any business. Although customer relations have always been pivotal to building and maintaining loyalty, the desire for greater personalisation has rewritten the dynamic. Each touchpoint with a customer is an opportunity to personalise the interaction, and to turn it into a valuable opportunity to increase rapport with the customer, while also gaining more data to inform future interactions, and eventually sales. With the customer journey more complicated than it’s ever been, being able to track as much of the customer journey as possible gives brands The advantage of being able to understand the different touchpoints and what is driving engagement with customers – to better replicate this success across their customer base.
It’s natural in times of economic uncertainty for brands to do less across the board – less spending on advertising turns into less spending on customer engagement. However, customer engagement is an ongoing funnel of activity, and an extended relationship that needs constant deepening and enhancing. To take your company’s foot off the gas here risks losing momentum in a critical tool for your company’s success.
While there are other touchpoints that your company has with consumers – such as with sales representatives, implementers, and relationship managers – marketing helps to boost and enhance touchpoints with customers with the volume of materials that it generates. Furthermore, organisations are increasingly bringing data to sit within marketing, such as with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), making it marketing’s responsibility to help to manage these relationships and touchpoints.
Driving better measurement
As a counterpoint to the increasingly complex network of customer engagements and interactions, measurements – and tracking the outcomes of each touchpoint – can help to convince stakeholders of marketings’ importance. Although customer relations are now more complex, measuring outcomes has become substantially easier, with more data at marketers’ fingertips. Data not only comes from internal sources but from external partners too, thanks to greater collaboration.
Keeping track of every marketing touchpoint and measuring periodically during a campaign will show not only the marketing journey but how each touch point contributed to conversion. Alternatively, if the campaign didn’t perform, and knowing where to optimise, marketers can make changes for greater campaign impact and efficiency. Having this tangible record of marketing’s effects will be helpful to unpack marketing’s value to company leaders.
How data collaboration opens up new opportunities
Data collaboration is yet another way that marketers can drive revenue. Thanks to data collaboration, and the ability to safely and securely collaborate both within organisations, but also with outside organisations, while treating customer data ethically, means that your data holds value outside of your four walls. Data collaboration can help to unlock hidden consumer insights that will benefit your company’s partners.
For example, an FMCG brand partnering with a retailer can reveal insights into customer purchases and enhance their understanding of the customer journey. If brands collaborate with other brands, they can improve their customers’ profiles – and possibly uncover synergies across shared customers. By securely collaborating with partners, marketers can map out their customers’ experiences more effectively and improve their results.
When it comes to measurement, data collaboration again yields benefits: connecting advertising with the channels where ads run yields a more complete – and therefore, more accurate – picture of how marketing activities work, and how well your advertising is reaching its audiences. Post-exposure, connecting with actual conversion channels, such as retailers, can trace the many consumer touches all the way through to a sale, giving an accurate picture of how marketing can drive revenue for your company.
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Melanie Hoptman has 15 years of experience in operational, commercial and people management. At LiveRamp, She is responsible for overseeing operations, as well as future growth opportunities for the APAC region. Hoptman is dedicated to reestablishing consumer trust while helping brands unlock value through the use of their own data and the building of new data partnerships.
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Top image: LiveRamp COO Melanie Hoptman