The people element extends to customers as well: the brand that uses data to support the customer’s journey is the brand that will thrive. “That is really the key,” says Ramkissoon. “Whoever understands their customers the best, wins.” TECH TOOLS BOOST PRODUCTIVITY Technology, the second element, allows an organization to access and analyze its data. “Technology is an important part of this process because it can be an inhibitor or it can allow you to actually execute on true one-to-one, fully orchestrated experiences,” says Ramkissoon. “If you’re inhibited by legacy technology, it can become very crippling.” On the other hand, not all new tech is good tech for a brand. Pinkney advises taking on a “discovery” perspective to avoid investing in unhelpful tools. This means considering what data you need before deciding what tools and methods to use to collect and analyze it. For example, do you need customers’ age ranges, details on when they tend to drop off your website or information on who clicks on which links? It’s also important to use tools that are the right size and at the right price point for your brand. “There are price tiers that allow organizations to get in at an entry point that’s commensurate with their business size—so there’s very little barrier to entry,” Ramkissoon says. Even better if the technology is scalable for future growth, meaning it uses an open-ended data model that can expand beyond your current needs to fulfill future goals for your brand. Pinkney also urges brands to prioritize tools that are designed to work well with the channels the brand is actually using, such as social media, email, newsletters or organic search. Doing these things, he says, will make data-gathering—and by extension, your customer relationship-building process—exponentially more productive. PROCESS BRINGS DATA TO LIFE Process, the final element, brings together the data, the people and the technology. This element also involves establishing key performance indicators to be sure you’re moving toward the right goals, and learning about important issues like core privacy legislation so your data’s never used improperly. USING DATA TO BUILD RELATIONSHIP MOMENTS For brands that are high on the Data Maturity Index, one-off, impersonal marketing campaigns are replaced with what Pinkney calls “relationship moments.” Customers respond more warmly to these moments than they do to traditional campaigns. That’s because the brand uses data to create engagement and actions that show the customer it understands their needs, wants, desires and aspirations. Says Ramkissoon, “Now you’ve 10 PAPERMATTERS
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