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April 13, 2010
In previous blog posts, I explored the relationship of Marketing Operations to Social Media and the ”instant gratification” Marketing ROI organizations are unrealistically expecting from the Social Media channel. Before jumping into another plug for our partner, Newcomm Forum 2010: The Social Web. .. Redefining Business, I want to touch on an aspect of Social Media ROI that is easily overlooked but has significant relevance in today’s world: Social Media Monitoring. Before an organization can even hope to assess the impact of Social Media on its marketing effectiveness, it needs a way to be able to effectively track and monitor activity and relationships online in communities such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.. As is often the case with technology-based solutions and services, the plethora of options available is overwhelming and buyer confusion is the norm. Recently I met with Stephen DeBruyn, who is addressing this challenge with true passion. Steph is a protege of my friend and communications measurement guru Katie Paine, having worked with her at Delahaye Group (now Cision) before Katie left that firm to found KD Paine & Partners. Steph shared with me a fantastic resource he and Connie Benson have developed to take the mystery out of social media monitoring. Their website, Tools and Best Practices for Monitoring Social Media, includes a Guide to Social Media Monitoring Tools, Purchase Criteria, Insights & Trends, Resources, Best Practices/Social Media Case Studies and Definitions. Check it out!
Now on to the NewComm Forum plug!
As you know by now, Marketing Operations Partners is a proud sponsor of:
NewComm Forum 2010: The Social Web. .. Redefining Business
April 20 — 23, 2010
Marriott San Mateo
San Mateo, CA
http://www.commforum.com
We hope you’ll be able to join us next week at NewComm Forum, the premier conference for unlocking the power of social media for business. This is a great opportunity to get up-to-speed on the latest developments in the Social Media world, hear about best practices, explore new tools and applications, and network with users, vendors and thought leaders in the field.
Friends of Marketing Operations Partners can take advantage of special discounts by using the below discount codes.
Come for the entire conference or just a day!
NewComm Forum will feature a who’s who of social media experts and practitioners from leading companies presenting 40 sessions in five comprehensive tracks including:
- Online Communications & Communities
- Social CRM
- Markets are Conversations: From Theory to Practice
- Understanding the New Media Landscape
- NewComm Essentials
Keynoters include:
- Jackie Huba, online marketing expert and author
- Dave Carroll, singer/songwriter, “United Breaks Guitars”
- Scott Monty, Ford
- Jack Holt, US Dept. of Defense
- Tim Westergren, Pandora
- Neville Hobson, WeissComm
Choose from a variety of intensive ½-day and full-day pre-conference workshops on Tuesday, April 20th. See details at: http://www.newcommforum.com/Social-Media-Workshops.
Use discount code NCFW100 to save $100 on a pre-conference workshop.
And, wrap up your Forum experience on Friday, April 23rd in our special one-on-one workshop with conference faculty and SNCR Fellows — included in your conference fee. It’s like getting a half-day of expert consulting FREE! See more details at: http://www.newcommforum.com/Social-Media-Strategy
Register for the full conference now at www.newcommforum.com with special discount code for NCF300 to save $300 off your full conference fee!
Or, just join us for one day on Wednesday, April 21st:
The NewComm Forum 2010 One-day Pass Includes:
- Full Access Pass for Wednesday, April 21st
- 3 Keynote Sessions: Jackie Huba, online marketing expert and author; Dave Carroll, singer/songwriter, “United Breaks Guitars” and Tim Westergren, founder, chief strategist, Pandora
- Access to all conference sessions – choose from 16 breakout sessions in five tracks. Featured presenters include: Shel Holtz, Jen McClure, Paul Chaney, Eric Schwartzman, Francois Gossieaux, Brian Solis, Katie Paine, Dharmesh Shah, Beth Kanter, Kami Huyse and more!
- Networking Activities and Food & Beverage Events: Breakfast, Luncheon featuring Dave Carroll of “United Breaks Guitars” fame & Cocktail Reception
Cost: Only $395! Register now and use code NCF1D.
We hope you’ll join us for NewComm Forum, the premier conference for unlocking the power of social media!
Gary
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March 24, 2010
Today our Marketing Analytics team lead, Creig Foster, dives into the sexy topic of predictive analytics (PA). Why are we so enamored with PA? One of my students, the Marketing Operations leader at fast-growing software company, captured the essence of why PA is compelling in a recent essay: “I have a better chance of my marketing department growing and my personal relevance moving up the food chain if I can predict the future – plain and simple.” So if that’s the case, why aren’t more marketing leaders actively applying PA in their marketing strategies (particularly in the B2B world)? Perhaps they just don’t yet understand the many PA applications that are available to run their Marketing Operations better. Creig’s aticle takes some of the mystery out of the magic of predictive analytics. Gary
Increasing the Value of Marketing Operations with Predictive Analytics
by Creig Foster
A recent blog post by James Kobielus of Forrester Research advances the idea that business success depends on your company’s capability to see likely future outcomes and take appropriate steps now to realize them. He goes on to say that predicting future scenarios successfully, laying plans and deploying the needed resources is critical in seizing opportunities, minimizing threats and mitigating risks. I fully support this view and believe that for a company to be successful these days it must use predictive analytics to its fullest extent.
So what is Predictive Analytics? From the all knowing source, Wikipedia, “Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of techniques from statistics, data mining, and game theory that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future events.” You might ask yourself what is the big deal; humans do this sort of thing all the time. Yes, but predictive analytics takes in huge amounts of data, analyzes complex interrelationships, and discerns patterns in the data that the human mind could not possibly see. Besides, the models can do their processing 24/7 without making a mistake.
Kobielus goes on to state that the “grand promise of predictive analytics – still largely unrealized in most companies – is that it will become ubiquitous, guiding all decisions, transactions, and applications.” For a company (large or small) to become a truly predictive enterprise, I believe it will take more than an investment in the technology and people to accomplish this transition. It also takes a change in how a company thinks about its business.
Instead of a reactive response to challenges and opportunities as they are presented, I believe that a proactive and investigative approach to building the business is enabled by predictive analytics. Yes, I know we all plan with the best intentions of positive outcomes. What I am suggesting is using predictive analytics in making decisions about future directions and strategy. In other words, the use of predictive analytics should become part of the way a company thinks about its business and a cornerstone of the overall business strategy.
Read the complete article here.
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October 18, 2009
In our previous post, Jon Miller did a great job discussing the science side of Marketing Operations. His blog also include a link to another insightful blog post from Andy Hasselwander of MarketBridge on the subject. There’s no denying that the science or left-brained side of MO is very sexy to data-driven executives running technology and other types of companies. But there’s a lot more to MO than numbers, bits and bytes.
Fundamentally, MO is both a COO and change management process within the marketing department. Technology, process and metrics are vitally important. But so is raising the stature and influence of marketing to a more strategic role, aligning with stakeholders both in and outside marketing, and winning buy-in for marketing initiatives (which should be funded in support of enterprise straegic objectives).
Just like there are a only handful of CEOs that can effectively balance technological depth with vision, business savvy and leadership, there are very few technologists who can successfully lead an MO function. If you find one, more power to you. But let’s not forget that there are plenty of effective MO pros who can lead technologists that aren’t technologist themselves. They might come with deep experience in one or a combination of the following disciplines: lead management, sales enablement, channel marketing, change management, knowledge management, organization development, customer experience management, strategic planning, research, project management, process design, campaign management, measurement, analytics, product management, and, of course, corporate marketing. This list is certainly not exhaustive.
The sexy stuff like technology specification, dashboard development and metrics definition is certainly not easy. Infrastructure never is. But the real challenge is building an ecosystem of support so you deploy the right technology for the organization, make better decisions that are backed by stakeholder buy-in and resources, and continously learn as a team from your experience so the MO of marketing in your organization is constantly adapting to capitalize on the opportunities in the market (while never losing the unique and genuine essence of that which makes your enterprise different.)
Gary
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How our customers experience our organizations is at the core of our Marketing Operations effectiveness. We hear a lot of talk these days about “value” and the importance of ”customer experience management.” But often, the reality is that “value” is in the eyes of the beholder, and ”customer experience management” is a nice buzzword that we proudly tout without taking the necessary steps to integrate the concept into the fabric of how we do business. Today, my colleague, Lynn Hunsaker, shares some insightful recommendations on how to view customer experience more holistically and measure the outcomes that comprise value from the customers’ perspective. Gary
What’s Your Customer Experience Value Quotient?
by Lynn Hunsaker
 If value is defined as benefits versus costs, what’s your company’s customer experience value ratio? Superior value is the objective of customers and marketers alike. And since customers hold the purse strings, marketers are compelled to view value as customers do. In the customer experience value ratio, the numerator includes product and service value, as well as image and personal value. We may often overlook or be unaware of some of the cost dimensions in the denominator: money… plus time, energy and psychic costs.
In managing customer experience, the challenge is not only to maximize the numerator, but also to minimize the denominator. Touch-point analysis can be very helpful, but make sure non-touch-points are also considered, as the customer experience contains several elements that do not touch the company or channel. By carefully identifying and improving the time, energy and psychic costs to customers, the customer experience value quotient can be boosted significantly. In fact, the intangible elements of the denominator may be the hardest things for your competitors to copy, and therefore, your surest strategy to sustainable value superiority.
 A great exercise in exploring your value quotient is to quantify the value ratio for all choices available to your customer. To develop a holistic perspective, plot these quotients as they existed in the past, as they currently exist, and as you project them to evolve in the future.
While the exercise above is illuminating, it’s incomplete in its prescriptive value to your organization. You may realize that your solution is inferior or superior to other alternatives available to your target customer, but which superior elements should you prioritize for protection and strengthening, and which inferior elements should you prioritize for improvement? The answer lies is customer experience outcome research, which involves ethnography to observe customers in their natural surroundings, revealing a more accurate and realistic viewpoint of the dimensions in the numerator and denominator of the customer’s value equation.
 To innovate superior value, plot all available solutions by customers’ desired outcomes. If you have conducted customer outcome research, rank-order desired outcomes by importance x frustration x frequency. Now you’re able to see things the way the customer does: for the most important outcomes, how do the choices compare? Root cause analysis may identify engineering issues, service skill gaps, business process complications, or outdated policies.
Involve your whole organization in outside-in thinking and continual improvement by teaching them about the customer experience value quotient. For similar ideas, see my newest handbook, Innovating Superior Customer Experience.
Contact the author to find out how to customize these tips to your situation.
   
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October 12, 2009
Marketing Operations meets Predictive Analytics at Predictive Analytics World in San Francisco. As one of just two speakers on the thought leader track, I’ll discuss the symbiotic relationship between these two evolving disciplines on February 18 from 5:10–6:00 p.m. Here’s a sneak peak at my topic:
Marketing Operations: The Engine Behind Predictive Analytics
The holistic application of predictive analytics to create a smarter, more agile enterprise is unquestionably attractive, even sexy. But predictive analytics cannot fulfill its considerable promise without a strong Marketing Operations (MO) organization behind it to give it direction, meaning and opportunities for practical application.
What the heck is Marketing Operations and why should I, as an astute modeler and analyst, give a damn? While the definition and perceived value of MO varies from one organization (and one CMO) to another, one truth is self-evident: Those organizations that choose to ignore the need for MO will continue to operate in functional silos that constrain their ability to be proactive, consistent, scalable and to deliver sustainable results.
On the other hand, those serious Marketing organizations that embrace a new MO can overcome unmanageable complexity and the perception of being a cost center to deliver Marketing excellence. By leveraging process, technology, guidance, metrics and powerful tools like predictive analytics, Marketing Operations enables truly integrated and aligned Marketing that serves the enterprise as a strategic asset, a growth driver, an accountable business function and a navigator of change.
Other Great Speakers Makes Predictive Analytics World the Place to Be Next Week
I’m truly honored to share the spotlight with many distinguished speakers. Here’s a sampling:
* Jun Zong, VP Targeting and Analytics, Card Services Customer Marketing, Wells Fargo
* Dr. Sugato Basu, Senior Research Scientist, Google
* Dr. Vijay Desel, Principal Scientist, SAS
* Dr. Usama Fayyad, Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Research & Strategic Data Solutions, Yahoo!
* Dr. John Elder, CEO and Founder, Elder Research
* Traci Chu, Director CRM, Bella Pictures
* Alex Kinney, Distinguished Marketing Director, Lifecycle Marketing, Sun Microsystems
* Kim Larsen, Director, Advanced Analytics, Charles Schwab & Co.
* James Taylor, CEO, Decision Management Solutions
* Dr. Andreas Weigend, former Chief Scientist, Amazon
There’s even another guy named Katz (David) who is a pioneer in applying statistical models and database technology to marketing problems.
Kudos to Dr. Eric Siegel for putting together such a superb cast of speakers.
Hope to see you there!
Gary
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