I’m having more and more conversations with clients about content marketing, which appears to be the big buzz term of the past decade. It’s not hard to see why; if a brand’s content engages its customers, they might share it with their network, reaching more customers and increasing exposure to the brand.
But is this a good thing for marketers?
Consumers only communicate with an organisation or brand when they want to. This is when they want something: usually to buy a product, pay a bill, arrange a delivery or complain about poor service – sometimes it’s to engage with content. Social media puts marketing departments on the front line with customers, meaning that chief marketing officers (CMO) are increasingly taking over responsibility for managing customer service. Recent research revealed that 43% of CMOs said they now have a greater responsibility for managing customer facing teams and channels.
But managing customer service and marketing channels is a messy business. Dated technology systems in most companies mean that customer experiences across all touch points are often disconnected. We live in a world where people expect all interactions they have with a brand to be consistent. They expect brands to know who they are and what they want. This means joining up your social media, content marketing, customer service channels and even your retail channels. But in order to deliver your customers the connected experience they expect, you need to be very confident with marketing technology solutions.
This means implementing systems that give your customer service and the marketing teams access to the same customer data, so that they know exactly how to communicate with each individual customer using the information held. This challenge increasingly falls under the CMO’s remit.
If the CMO can deliver an improved customer experience, they will be responsible for an increasingly significant section of the customer journey. That means a more important role in running the overall business.
The future is looking rosy for CMOs, if they are brave enough.
John Perkins is managing director at RAPP
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