Your Story Supersedes Campaigns in the Customer Experience.

Industry experts have been predicting traditional marketing campaigns are dead. Do you believe it? Well, maybe this week’s OnMessage Minute will help you decide if they are right or wrong.

Let’s start by dissecting what a traditional marketing campaign looks like:

Campaigns … have a designated start and end date.
Campaigns … are managed solely by marketing.
Campaigns … are designed for specific channels (sometimes more than one).
Campaigns … consist of highly sequenced messages for specific customers.
Campaigns … determine message delivery timing and consumption.
Campaigns … are typically used for lead generation.

Now let’s look at the customer experience:

CX … doesn’t have a start and stop date.
CX … isn’t solely controlled by marketing.
CX … takes place through channels the customer chooses.
CX … includes any and all messages available to the customer.
CX … allows customers to engage when and where they wish.
CX … impacts acquisition, retention and loyalty.

The customer experience is more holistic, it is more immersive and engaging than any campaign could ever be. That is why CMOs and business executives alike are being forced to rethink how they view story development, delivery and activation – in campaigns and throughout the customer experience.

In years past, corporate messaging was controlled by marketing or corporate communications. They crafted the message, understood the message and pushed it out through traditional campaigns. Today, that is far from sufficient. Every
communication channel, every partner in your marketing ecosystem and every customer-facing individual in your business impacts the message your target audience consumes throughout the customer journey.

To be successful, CMOs must literally infuse messaging knowledge throughout the company, culture and marketing partner ecosystem if they expect to deliver a clear, compelling and consistent story throughout the customer experience. This means the age-old messaging development and delivery problem isn’t just between marketing and sales. It has become exponentially more complex and more important. Today, CMOs must align messaging development and delivery across corporate marketing, field marketing, corporate communications, product marketing, executives, human resources, leadership teams, ad agencies, digital partners, PR and IR firms, sales training companies, pre-sales teams, sales representatives, customer service, professional services, technical support and everyone else that touches the customer.

Forward-thinking CMOs are adapting and taking control.
A recent McKinsey study revealed the number one trait of companies that succeed in delivering a superior customer experience is the ability to develop and deliver a clear, consistent corporate message. That’s why leading CMOs and executives are allocating significantly more time, resources and dollars to ensure messaging connectivity and continuity throughout the customer experience. More specifically, they are investing in the training, educational tools and internal communication programs that ensure their “messengers” deeply understand and internalize the company’s story. They are investing in tools and programs that ensure messaging development and delivery “stakeholders” have access to a Corporate Messaging Platform that serves as the single source of consistent messaging, content and storytelling tools inside and outside of the company. They are arming these stakeholders with the knowledge and tools they need to drive clear, compelling and consistent messaging throughout the customer journey.

The Campaign Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Been Reincarnated.
While a lot of things are changing in the world of marketing, one thing remains the same: companies still need to get their message out. It’s just that the process and methods by which the message is developed and delivered have grown significantly more complex.

So maybe the campaign isn’t dead, it has simply come back to life in the form of the customer experience. This requires an entirely different approach to messaging development and delivery across the enterprise. Leading CMOs and executives realize this and are making serious investments to ensure every stakeholder that participates in the customer experience knows the entire story and plays their part in delivering a clear, compelling and consistent message in the market.

That’s Your OnMessage Minute.