WHITE PAPER EMERGING CHALLENGES FOR THE MODERN CMO. Create and deploy IT solutions for business

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1 WHITE PAPER EMERGING CHALLENGES FOR THE MODERN CMO White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 1 Create and deploy IT solutions for business

2 EMERGING CHALLENGES FOR THE MODERN CMO The modern Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a key member of any business s leadership team increasingly the marketing function is emerging as a strategic part of the business rather than merely a tactical support unit to the sales team. As such there are therefore increased touchpoints with other internal teams and a focus on the ROI that must be provided from increasing marketing budgets. In addition, the typical potential customer the CMO s key target audience is becoming more tech-savvy, mobile and continually connected to digital and social media platforms. The tools the CMO may use to target these individuals are more sophisticated than ever before but they re also numerous and often disparate in strategic implementation. Meanwhile, according to Gartner, the CMO s technology budget looks set to eclipse that of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). While consumer use of technology is adding complexity by opening up channels of communication in all directions, it can also offer some smart solutions within the enterprise. In this white paper we take a look at the key challenges facing the modern CMO and how integrated business management technology applications coupled with marketing best practice can help meet these issues. White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 2

3 CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS FRAGMENTED PLANS MEANINGFUL ACTIVITY Ideally, 100% of a marketing team s activity, 100% of the time, will be devoted to impactful activity - that is, actions that directly relate to the department s aims and objectives. How can the CMO manage this, and ensure that every member of a team a team that might be spread across sites or countries is working effectively and productively, minimising administrative time and wasting time on activities that do not provide a return? How can the CMO translate the fragmented plans that different elements of the complex marketing department may be working towards into unified, consistent goals? SOLUTION: In order to ensure that plans and teams are unified, the marketing director must adopt best practice in communication and collaboration. By eliminating geographical barriers with video conferencing or IM technology such as Microsoft Skype for Business, management can facilitate a cohesive team effort. A unified software platform such as Microsoft Dynamics Marketing can also be used by all areas of the marketing department and for each stage in the marketing cycle, from campaign planning, through execution to evaluation. By setting KPIs and objectives by campaign and by activity and reflecting this within technology such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM that is used every day by the marketing team your CMO will benefit from ongoing analysis and review. COMPLEX CAMPAIGNS AND CHANNEL MANAGEMENT marketing, direct mail, events, social media, telesales, advertising, PR, digital media modern marketing campaigns span multiple channels and mediums and feedback loops. How does the CMO manage them all with equal efficiency? How can these varied strands of activity work together, sharing information and ensuring that customer contact fatigue never becomes a problem? The CMO needs to ensure his or her marketing team is watching, listening, recording and analysing where the business s customers are conversing. How can the CMO ensure that every channel is being heard and that what is heard is being fed back into the marketing department? SOLUTION: For any size and shape marketing team, it is important that just because multiple channels are being used that the separate technologies talk to each other. Leading CRM software such as Microsoft Dynamics integrates third party applications such as Click Dimensions as well as releasing new functionality twice a year in order to negate the need for juggling marketing tools. For larger and multi-site marketing teams and agencies, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing looks after multiple marketing disciplines, allowing elements like events and to integrate and share information. Microsoft Social Engagement integrates with Dynamics software in order to provide strength to marketing s digital armoury. For more information on best practice in managing multi-channel marketing campaigns download Multi-Channel Campaigns in a Connected World. White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 3

4 CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS MARKETING AND SALES COLLABORATION When sales teams are often focused on closing deals and marketing departments on nurturing and generating leads at the other end of the sales cycle, how can the CMO ensure that marketing supports and empowers sales, rather than working to separate goals? From planning, through execution to evaluation, every stage of the marketing and sales cycles should work together. How can the volume of data generated throughout the customer journey from initial web enquiry be captured and shared in the right place in order to build a profile? How can lead quality be clearly assessed, and consequent marketing and sales activity judged? How can the CMO ensure the sales team has appropriate visibility of campaigns in order to make informed judgements about follow-up sales activity and not waste time on leads that are not sales-ready? INSIGHT GENERATION How can the marketing team generate accurate data relating to customer insights and sentiment analysis from social media? How can they be sure of what customers and potential customers really think? When insight-generating tools are often disparate and disconnected, how can the CMO unite them to get a comprehensive picture? How, for example, are customer opinions from social media, events, marketing and customer support brought together and the customer journey traced? SOLUTION: By using social media listening tools that integrate with CRM or Dynamics Marketing you will gain a clear and comprehensive picture of your target market. By encouraging feedback where the response data feeds directly into your marketing platform for example online forms using Click Dimensions your team will gain insight quickly and easily. SOLUTION: A marketing platform such as Microsoft Dynamics Marketing which includes lead scoring functionality based on demographic and behaviour profiles that integrates with CRM, sharing contact details and communication history down to the level of individual customers. White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 4

5 CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS BALANCING THE BOOKS We ve only just scratched the surface of the range of different marketing strands a modern CMO may be overseeing. How can the CMO accurately track spend across this range, and the department as a whole? How can ROI be clearly calculated and assessed what lines of visibility exist to track the journey from campaign to customer? SOLUTION: Your marketing application must be able to track spend and return across every marketing discipline, whether that means integrating with your finance system (such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 or Microsoft Dynamics AX 7) or setting up campaigns within Dynamics CRM to include KPIs and targets for spend and response rates. DIFFERENTIATED AND PERSONALISED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE How can the CMO ensure that the business s offering is presented as more appealing than competitors in a world of mobile, always-connected customers and increasing price pressures? How can everything from website journeys and online checkout processes through to the experience of engaging with customer service be made as personalised and straightforward as possible for the end user? How can the CMO ensure that every opportunity is taken to innovate, to offer a customer experience that is superior to those of competitors, to be creative and to use technology to its best advantage in communicating with customers? SOLUTION: Targeted and personalised campaigns come from accurate demographics within relevant data fields, allowing your marketing team to test by creative, channel and message to optimise response rates. Marketing software such as Dynamics CRM arrives with pre-configured templates at company and contact level with the option to easily configure picklists and options. Integrated digital marketing applications such as Click Dimensions take this personal information in order to create individual marketing campaigns. White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 5

6 CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS REAL-TIME RESPONSIVENESS We ve already touched on the importance of monitoring all relevant channels of communication with customers how, too, can the CMO ensure that the marketing team is responding to any issues and adapting campaign plans as they occur? How can the CMO ensure that the data on every simultaneously ongoing campaign is collected and used to shape further sales and marketing activity including while those campaigns are still running? How can sales and marketing work together better particularly where leads are being generated, so that enquiries are dealt with quickly and feedback is provided more easily? SOLUTION: Marketing and sales software as responsive as the professionals using it, with real-time updates, smart phone features and mobile connectivity, so that wait til I get back to the office or duplication of administration effort is no longer an issue. INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY AND PROVIDING A RETURN We ve referenced that like other Line of Business leaders (LOBs) the CMO is taking control of their own technology budget away from IT. So how can the CMO ensure that all technology buying decisions are solidly grounded and comprehensively implemented and adopted? How can the CMO choose between the huge number of different products and applications for managing everything from campaigns to ROI analysis? How can the CMO ensure that technology buying decisions complement and integrate with the applications required by sales, and elsewhere in the business? This is particularly important with regards to the CRM system. SOLUTION: An integrated and cost effective business management system that connects not just within the marketing function such as Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (rather than separate functional apps) but also a common business platform such as Microsoft Dynamics allowing your finance, HR, service, sales and marketing teams to integrate and share information and analysis. White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 6

7 How can technology support the perfect customer journey? HOW TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTS MARKETNG BEST PRACTICE There are some common strands to these challenges: TRANSPARENCY AND VISIBILITY OF INFORMATION - WHEREVER, WHENEVER, HOWEVER It s vital that today s CMOs have access to all the information they need, when they need it. The marketing department offers particular data challenges, from the necessity of gathering and analysing subjective customer opinions, to the need for ROI to be tracked across a broad selection of activities. For marketing, ROI means lead quality as well as spend and revenue. Marketing management technology such as Dynamics CRM and Dynamics Marketing can centrally gather, store and analyse relevant information. CONNECTING TEAMS AND CHANNELS Whether the marketing department employs multiple people across multiple countries, or is a small group sitting in the same office, it will certainly be managing a multitude of marketing channels and campaigns simultaneously. By providing centralised technology which is role based and personalised to the user s skillset and job function, yet allows them to work on a single plan with the customer at the heart, this will minimise the management challenge. The marketing-sales relationship is particularly important here. It s vital that the marketing platform integrates smoothly with the CRM system, for both marketing and sales communicate with the same customers, often at overlapping times. By considering future-proofing the technology their teams use every day, CMOs can provide a relevant and effective service to both internal and external stakeholders. HOW PRODWARE CAN HELP THE MODERN MARKETING TEAM As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Prodware helps to advise organisations on the enterprise technology that is right for their needs now and in the future. We understand the challenges that departments face both within themselves and when they need to interact across functional areas. Speak to us about how we have assisted marketing and sales to work better together by choosing the right approach and supporting best practice. White Paper - Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 7

8 Prodware s global coverage Prodware s global coverage Prodware Offices Global alliance and partner network Prodware Offices UK - 02/11/15 Global alliance and partner network UK Information : +44 (0) International Information : +33 (0) UK Information : +44 (0) International Information : +33 (0) Prodware (UK) Limited Prodware House, Waterfold Business Park, Bury, Lancashire, BL9-7BR - [email protected] White Paper Emerging Challenges for the Modern CMO - Prodware 8 Prodware (UK) Limited Prodware House, Waterfold Business Park, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 7BR - [email protected]