True CXM – Bigfoot, Unicorn, or Aliens?
Have you seen true digital CXM in the wild? And what I mean by that is – have you personally witnessed an organization deliver truly contextually relevant, customer-centric content across multiple digital channels, using both implicit and explicit attributes to target and deliver that content?
I suspect you haven’t.
I haven’t – and I cover this space relatively thoroughly. Sure there are glimpses of it. And maybe Amazon is close. But ask any marketing technology solution provider for the actual CXM case studies – and they’re just not there. Yet.
And – it’s not their fault.
Business Technology Doesn’t Pull Customers Forward
Here’s the thing. One of the true blessings of working with my colleagues at DCG is that I get to work with disruptive start-ups, mid-sized companies, and global organizations. And, guess what? Right now, CXM is the sexiest thing that everyone is demoing and no one is actually doing.
Now that doesn’t mean the technology doesn’t work. No, in fact many of the software companies have truly amazing capabilities to drive contextualized digital content experiences across channels. It just means that marketers aren’t ready for it yet.
In fact, a study of marketers by Aquent and the American Marketing Association backs this up. In their very recent 2013 Marketing Salary Survey, more than 50% said that they were not at all equipped to handle new trends in technology.
Interestingly, that same study found that a similar number (53%) don’t feel like they have the right people on board to deliver results. But then (my favorite), almost 70% said that marketing would “positively impact the organization.”
Um yeah, we’re all sure marketing is a good idea — we just have no idea how we’re going to do it.
See, in almost every case, the marketers at the companies we’re talk to daily are simply navigating this tsunami as best they can. They’re working fast and furious at managing change, internally and externally, for their company. And they are, quite literally, throwing technology at the challenge. Today’s global 5000 company uses parts of Google Analytics with their Omniture implementation, and runs Hootsuite next to WordPress and Drupal, except for landing pages which are managed in Marketo. Then, the brochure sites are managed in their enterprise WCMS systems. Is it any wonder that Gartner says the CMO is the new CIO? Marketers are up to their eyeballs in technology that means nothing to them.
But as I said in June of last year – we all know marketing is fundamentally changing. But the difference now is that it’s just unclear what it’s changing into exactly. As my colleague Tim Walters says, in today’s world, “The More Things Change, The More Change Changes.”
And herein lies the challenge. Digital marketing software companies (WCM, Marketing Automation, Email, et al.) are all eyeing each other warily and trying to out “more” each other. Read the marketing materials. It’s all about more engagement, more measurability, more flexibility, more scalability etc., etc. What it adds up to is more software and more complexity.
But again, today’s marketers can’t even handle the technology they have.
Back in November, Scott Liewehr and I presented our Systems Of Engagement workshop at the Gilbane conference. In that workshop, I presented this graph about how businesses are currently buying content/marketing software.