Today’s digital marketing landscape offers marketers the ability to reach out to their target audience through many different channels. Why is it so important for marketers to take advantage of this, and how can you strategize your omni-channel approach? Oracle Marketing Cloud’s VP of Strategy, Cory Treffiletti, shares his advice:
Tell us a little about your role at Oracle Marketing Cloud.
As VP of Strategy my role is focused two areas. First and foremost, understanding the modern marketer and what their needs are so that we are presenting a set of solutions that will satisfy their needs as their role changes, evolves and escalates within the organization. Think of that as helping marketers understand “what is a marketing cloud and why do you need one now”.
We’re seeing more companies become “customer-centric” but they are taking baby steps to get there, and as a result they are not being as successful as they could be. I try to help marketers understand the full set of steps they need to take, and ensure they see the enterprise-scale benefits of the investment.
Secondly, I am responsible for spearheading the strategic unification of sales, marketing, product and M&A to ensure our offering is the industry leader, and that it provides the full suite of tools necessary for today’s data driven marketer inside a customer-driven enterprise.
Nowadays, marketers are able to reach their audiences in so many ways, such as mobile apps, social media, and interactive websites. Why is it so important for marketers to take advantage of this and adopt an omni-channel approach?
It’s important because the customer is already doing so. I think of it as matching technology with technology. The customer is deciding when and where they will interact with your brand and they are building their own technology stack to do so. Marketers need to cede control to their customer and create an infrastructure that responds accordingly. Marketers are seeing the value in technology to scale the personalization of their experiences and messaging – they are building a technology stack to match the consumer’s ever-evolving technology stack. It’s the only way they can keep up at scale and still be efficient
How can the modern marketer ensure that they are maintaining a consistent story across all their channels?
This requires orchestration that ties together data about your audience, an understanding of the placement and channel for that message, and actionable analytics that allow you to read performance and optimize. These three steps align with the structure of a marketing stack. Most marketers have bought into the idea of enterprise marketing tech, but not everyone has laid out their long term vision – this is the best part of my job – helping them to determine what the future looks like.
Utilizing multiple channels to target an audience allows for more feedback from the customer, as well as a bigger snapshot of customer behavior. This gives marketers the power to personalize their data. How important is it for the modern marketer to pursue personalization?
It’s the single most important thing they can be doing because the fact is that a more relevant, personalized message delivers higher performance while maximizing efficiency. As marketing becomes more accountable, and less a cost center but more of a measurable business driver, personalization becomes important. You can’t tell a vague story and try to be all things to all people – that simply doesn’t work anymore.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s Future of Marketing Summit?
The conversation and hearing where marketers are in their journey. How far down the path are they? Where do they see the end of the ride?
