By M. Isi Eromosele

Marketing is the engine that drives sales in any business organization. When properly executed, marketing generates qualified leads for the sales organization as well as drive customers to the appropriate channel.

Instead of being a separate cost center, marketing needs to be a key component in the overall sales process. Utilizing analytical engines, marketing provides sales with a complete picture of customer profiles and activities, with up-sell and cross-sell possibilities.

Without insightful customer data, companies will struggle to build effective market segmentation models. Rich data sets include insightful attributes offered by customers, integrated analytical data and pertinent market research.

Additional information could come from socio-economic and demographic research. The above information can then be combined with qualitative data that would result in an abundance of qualitative data necessary to drive increased customer response.

The marketing evolution is taking place from a background of cumbersome processes, with little, if any definition. With the advent of superior enabling technologies, the scope of marketing implementation is becoming ever more complex with marketers now continually interacting with their customers through social networking sites, enabling the management of complex relationships.

The intuitive demands of modern marketing make process definition and integration a key necessity.

The advent of enabling technologies, such as digital marketing campaign management applications and customer data analytics allow for the dissection of gathered information to a granular level of detail.

The result is that multiple marketing campaigns can be implemented and managed simultaneously. This process has been aided immensely by the rise of digital assets that have been specifically developed for Customer Relationship Management implementation.

Insightful information should manifest itself in a marketing campaign as the right offer, to the right customer through the right channel, at the right time. A disconnect between insight and customer interaction in companies’ marketing campaigns will result in lost revenue opportunities that would negatively impact the acquisition, retention and management of customers within their target markets.

The answer is improved integration throughout organizations between those who create insight and those who utilize the information. This can be implemented through automation, in batch or real time.

To achieve this integration, appropriate touch points need to be created to seamlessly receive the data underlying the insight information.

Silos of data and the incompatibility of enterprise technology continue to be a hindrance to companies’ ability to take full advantage of the evolving market paradigm. In order to achieve a full marketing value chain, internal marketing systems integration is imperative.

Achieving increased profits through effective marketing requires that internal processes be defined and automated. Customer-centric interactive processes need to be implemented, underpinned by data analytical technology that would enable the building of profitable long-term relationships with customers.

Technology is simply the underpinning for a successful marketing campaign. Integrating strategy, data analytics, process improvement and change management are other key drivers to creating a successful global marketing organization.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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