
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2019. Read them in this 11th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Kristen Alexander, Chief Marketing Officer, Certain
Mastering the Art of Meaningful Engagement in 2019
Marketers today have the ability to
communicate quick and often, with any and all customers and targets. Whether
that communication happens via email, mobile, the web, ads, social media...
marketers have no shortage of options when it comes to how they reach people.
All of these touchpoints mean, of course, that
there is a lot more data available to marketers and sales teams than ever
before. The statistics can be overwhelming: in the last two years alone, 90 percent of the world's data was
created. Today we send 16 million text messages every
minute and receive over 103 million emails during those same 60 seconds.
Essentially, people are constantly creating
and receiving information, and customers are always in communication with
brands - whether they want to be or not. With all this data creation, this past
year has been about how to collect and make sense of it all. We saw companies
rapidly adopt the new digital technologies and channels available to them,
whether that meant offering a mobile app or online personal chatbot for shoppers
to interact with.
Now, however, as we move into 2019 we'll see
companies take a step back and really start to champion the channels through
which they are creating meaningful engagement. With all this access to
information, we have to really fine tune what we're doing with that knowledge.
We predict that in the new year marketers will be pickier about how they
communicate - picky about the platform, the messaging and their cadence. This
will be the year that marketers truly begin to master the practice of
meaningful engagement.
Quality
Data is the Key
As data continues to be key to meaningful engagement,
marketers will not only have the option to communicate any way they want, they
will also leverage data to make that communication more personalized. In our
world of B2B marketing and events, this will mean giving marketers the ability
to gather useful data on event attendees, like capturing a data soundtrack
throughout an event, enabling them to provide tailored experiences as an event
unfolds. This data can also be used for more individualized follow-up, creating
greater engagement at the top of the funnel, and driving real business
results-like pipeline acceleration-from the middle of the funnel down.
2019 will be about businesses shifting their
focus from data quantity to data quality. With this, marketers will have the
power to break through the noise and build stronger, longer relationships with
customers and business prospects.
Learn more about how Certain's platform
leverages data to drive greater results and create meaningful experiences
before, during and after an event here.
##
About
the Author
Kristen Alexander, Chief Marketing Officer,
Certain
Kristen
Alexander is the CMO of Certain and leads the go-to-market strategy, demand
generation, product marketing and corporate communications. Kristen brings 17
years of industry experience inside Fortune 100 companies and high-growth
startups to the role, in both enterprise and consumer companies. Most recently,
Kristen led marketing at Aviso, a leader in predictive analytics for sales and
Agari, a high growth leader in cybersecurity. Prior to Agari, Kristen held
senior roles at Disney Interactive.
Kristen
takes pride in being her daughter's soccer coach. Kristen holds a Bachelor in
Business Administration from New York University.