“Communities, not companies, own the brands of tomorrow…and build the leaders of tomorrow,” said Sarah Kennedy, CMO of Marketo at the Marketo Marketing Nation Conference, part of the Adobe Summit, that ended yesterday.
Kennedy, and many other influential speakers from companies like Adobe, Cisco, and Amazon Web Services, focused on the importance of customer experience and how marketers must evolve from traditional modes of marketing to connect customers engagement to demand. Experience, a memorable one, is now expected from customers who are bombarded with more than 5,000 ads a day.
“In one word, we have to be intelligent. This is our north star: to deliver intelligent experiences to each one of our customers, from avid gamers to AI researchers,” said Kennedy. No matter who your customer is, marketers should be aiming to connect with them in a deeper way, creating a memorable experience, and this means going digital.
“Digital is either going to be a headwind or a tailwind and it is up to you to decide,” said Shantanu Narayan, CEO at Adobe. “At the end of the day, we’re not anything unless our customers really like us.”
This couldn’t be more true in the age of social media and “going viral.” Now, more than ever, companies need to create an experience that is not just engaging, but positive. The traditional B2B and B2C models that we hear so much about are being replaced by this B2E mindset – business to experience.
“Experience,” said Steve Lucas, SVP of Marketo, “is the line between epic and epic failure.” During his session, Lucas challenged marketers to think about the experiences that engage them every day and just how much marketing engagement has changed in the last 10 years. “The future of how we engage companies is not based on what people say, but what they do,” Lucas said.
Marketers now need to meet customers in their domain – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – are all platforms that can be used for selling based on what customers engage with. Today’s marketers can no longer rely on traditional means, customer data should be put to work to strengthen campaigns and provide powerful insights.
“Bringing our data together for a unified view of the customer and focusing on intelligent experiences and insights [was key],” said Alix Hart, global head of digital marketing at Nvidia.
The key takeaway from Marketing Nation? Experience is everything. Using data, digital marketing tactics, and strategic selling that connects engagement to demand, all marketers can craft memorable experiences for their customer.
To learn more about connecting engagement to demand, click here.
