April Kinloch-Hackstall
The key to building strong, memorable brands while delivering a seamless omnichannel customer experience starts with knowing your customer and being completely cleareyed about your brand identity. All too often, companies will focus on one over the other and the key to delivering both with excellence is to keep both as primary focal points. I would say when companies have prioritized both points, they should then ensure there is continuity and collaboration amongst both customer experience and brand teams to move with one goal in mind. When these two teams are aligned and moving with open and regular communications, there is not much that cannot be achieved or overcome within the business. Information and dating sharing between both teams are critical to reach full optimization within the omnichannel and keep friction points to a minimal.
I’ve found that a personalized approach to your digital marketing and loyalty programs are the most effective in strengthening long-term customer relationships. Thanks to the abundance of ingenuity among MarTech systems and readily available intelligence, it has become relatively minimal effort to personalize your contact strategy and benefits with loyalty customers. Delivering added value and in return increasing trial and frequency is highly attainable with the right systems, integrations and partner relationships. Above all, the customer’s data must be protected and regularly audited to ensure the relationship grows with integrity, and the brand delivers a best-in-class interaction at every touchpoint.
You can only build and grow a loved brand with care and consideration for the people on both sides of the marketing strategy.
I’ve gained some of the most immeasurable leadership lessons by driving brand and digital marketing initiatives in an increasingly connected marketplace. It all starts with people. The people you recruit. The people you empower. The people you entrust. The people in which you collaborate. Most of all the people to whom you market. It doesn’t matter what product or service you render if you have not centered the people you want to reach and the people you’ve hired and deployed to this end. In this 24/7 digital age, it is highly imperative to keep the human experience and dignity as protected as possible. You can only build and grow a loved brand with care and consideration for the people on both sides of the marketing strategy. Those you want to reach and those who will perform the outreach. A smart leader knows that everything you do impacts the brand, especially to the people involved. The smartest leaders understand the power of digital marketing and how the people treated within and surrounding your brand also understands its power.
Changing consumer expectations and emerging technologies are reshaping branding, loyalty and omnichannel marketing strategies. With an overwhelming amount of automation in everyday living and lifestyle behavioral shifts constantly occurring, now more than ever the marketing strategies will have to become more intuitive. Brands must be more predictive and move faster than the consumer tools readily available to their customers. If marketers are only looking at past data to define and shape their omnichannel design, they will not only lose to competitors, but they will also lose to their customers. Today’s customer is consuming information faster than ever and because of this consumption, they have developed an expectation of personalization, convenience, value and excellence. The brands who get this right in their loyalty and omnichannel will be the ones who surpass all others.
If I were to offer advice to marketing professionals looking to build expertise in branding, digital marketing and customer loyalty, I would first recommend that they adopt a mindset of curiosity. Curiosity wins every day and it is the curious mind that grows and stretches in ways that cannot be quantified. Marketing professionals must remain in the state of flexibility and agility to be able to strengthen their proficiency across a breadth of techniques and areas of expertise. This field has jumped leaps and bounds in the last decade. Those who have embraced the power of technology has risen above their peers in accomplishments and success. The willingness to start anew, adopt a new outlook and to keep learning is the simple requirement yet often difficult task to building the expertise needed to succeed and build longevity in branding, digital marketing and customer experience.
