As the report scan states: “The cross-channel campaign management (CCCM) market is diverse and continues to attract innovation and specialization. “The Forrester Wave: Cross-Channel Campaign Management, Q3 2014″ features an in-depth evaluation of nine of the top vendors. However, there’s a host of other vendors with compelling solutions that address various buyer requirements. In this report, we identify three reasons why customer insights (CI) pros should consider alternatives — exclusive digital focus, cloud-only deployment, and midmarket or regional presence — and highlight the capabilities of representative vendors.”
Forrester’s report focuses on six midmarket specialty providers of cross-channel campaign management and customer experience solutions. Clutch was included as one of these six midmarket providers due to its platform capabilities around data integration, customer profiling, analytics, segmentation and marketing automation.
We sat down with Ned Moore, Co-founder and CEO of Clutch to discuss the role of cross-channel campaign management in customer experience.
Q: Ned, there’s been a growing focus on marketing technology specialization for midmarket brands, what do you see as the driver of this?
NM: We find a lot of times that, despite being a premier brand, companies often don’t have the resources or budgets required to implement the traditional, massive enterprise solutions. Beyond this, it can take a tremendous amount of expertise to operate, support and modify these solutions as the business grows and shifts. Many premier brands often want a partner that specializes in and has expertise in their market and can tailor their consumer management solution to their specific, unique needs. Plus, they often want expertise and support in terms of program strategy and execution. We really look at our solutions as a balance between technology and strategy; we focus on tailoring our platform to fill the gaps of their marketing technology stack, whatever they may be, but also to serve as an extension of their Marketing and Customer Experience Teams to help inform on best practices and guide on strategy.
Q: It seems that there is a shift from marketing automation towards an increasing focus by brands on data management, why do you think this is?
NM: Marketing automation, cross-channel campaign management and omnichannel engagement are all important dimensions of enhancing a brand’s experience to motivate customers, but each of these are infinitely more effective when they are driven by real-time customer data. While traditional marketing automation has largely been built around third party data, many businesses are focusing on extracting the valuable intelligence from within their first part data through consumer management technology. First party data generated by customer behaviors and actions provides tremendous insight to the brand from a deeper understanding of the customer. This provides the opportunity for the brand to deliver highly relevant customer interactions.
Businesses are realizing that the ‘one size fits all’ approach to marketing doesn’t motivate. We often say, if it applies to everyone, it applies to no one. The only way to effectively personalize to achieve high relevancy is to understand your customer through their preferences and behavior data.
Q: In terms of cross-channel campaign management, where do you seeing it evolving?
NM: Right now is the most simplified your brand’s customer universe will be. It’s expanding and evolving incredibly quickly, and exponentially increasing in complexity. Your average brand is dealing with upwards of 10 channels, spanning point-of-sale systems, ecommerce networks, middleware platforms, social accounts and mobile applications today. This will continue to grow and add new devices, channels, wearables, etc. Having the ability to quickly and easily deliver relevant, consistent, personalized messaging across every one of these channels is of paramount importance to building trust and earning loyalty with customers. This is why consumer management is a focal point of many brands. They’re looking to synthesize their data, identify and understand their best customers and personally engage to effectively motivate them. This is why having powerful cross-channel campaign management capabilities is so critical.
