Less is More in Modern Marketing

Revolutions can be messy. But in a revolution, change is imperative and order is an afterthought. 

While the digital revolution transforming marketing is far from finished, it’s reached a stage of development in many businesses where the c-suite should now pause and ask an important question: What’s working and what’s not? 

Our research suggests quite a few marketing leaders would discover they’re data-rich and insight poor. Our survey of more than 1,000 marketing executives found that 57% confess they often don’t have the data to understand customers or anticipate their needs. 

But is the data really non-existent? After all, 82% of marketers report having more data from more sources than they did only two years ago. That tells us the data exists, it’s just hard to find. The whirlwind of digitization has left many marketing departments awash in data but encumbered by siloed systems and layers of touchpoints that create complexity where there should be clarity. 

This is the moment for marketers to shift their focus from haphazardly collecting data to strategically monetizing data. 

“When marketers declutter, they can reset relationships with customers and reenergize teams with a new sense of purpose and direction,” Manny Mattos, Accenture Song Salesforce Market and Partner Development said. 

Declutter to Deliver Data-Driven Marketing

Our survey revealed an industry that’s in urgent need of renewal. Nearly 70% of respondents reported the past year has completely exhausted their employees. But our research also pinpointed a way forward. 

Amid the widespread burnout, we found a category of marketers who have decluttered and are finding success whereas others are merely surviving or even struggling. Representing 17% of our sample, these thrivers are meeting customer needs, uniting teams, and flourishing. 

Compared to other marketers, thrivers are: 
- Over 1.4x more likely to perform far better in revenue growth and profitability
- Over 1.8x more likely to perform far better in customer satisfaction
- Over 2.5x more likely to perform far better in customer awareness 

The good news is marketers using Salesforce have a head start. The Salesforce platform provides marketers with an omnichannel view of customers and the ability to seamlessly orchestrate customer experiences. It also unifies data and establishes a single source of truth around which marketing, sales, and service can align to plan, execute, and measure as a coordinated team. The end result is happier employees and delighted customers. 

“Thrivers understand they’re at their best when they’re creating a comprehensive profile of customers across multiple touchpoints,” said Deb Corrao, Accenture Salesforce Business
Group Lead. “This is what allows them to truly connect with end-users. With Salesforce, organizations can gain a 360-degree view of customers across channels and hone their competitive edge in the marketplace.”  

Here are five things marketers can do to become more successful and meet this moment in digital marketing: 

1. Get to Know Your Customers (Again)

The pandemic changed the game. It’s no longer enough to know a customer’s name, email, and purchase history. Winning marketers have hundreds of insights about customers so they can customize and personalize experiences at a granular level. 

2. Take Your Place at the Table

Armed with a clear view of customers, marketers can provide the business with the strategic input it needs to succeed in a constantly evolving marketplace. Marketers can help steer the business toward the decisions that are best for customers. 

3. Move at the Pace of Change

Technology is not going to find a resting place. Marketers can count on disruption for the rest of their careers. That means marketing teams need to be agile enough to evaluate, adopt, and integrate new technologies quickly. 

4. Ditch the Drudgery

Elite marketing teams are elite because everyone knows what they are doing is important and drives the business forward. They’ve automated, orchestrated, and industrialized their operations so people can solve challenges and be creative without being slowed by tedious tasks and complexity. 

5. Put Purpose First

Customers want to do business with brands boasting clear, concrete, and meaningful values. High-performing marketers see changes in customer values as an opportunity to remake marketing’s role in the stewardship of brand purpose. 

Pet Project: A Decluttering Case Study

A great example of a company working to declutter with the help of Salesforce and AppExchange apps like Accenture is Blue Buffalo, America’s top-selling natural pet food brand. 

Decluttering how Blue Buffalo used consumer data was key to achieving one of its main goals: increasing household penetration. With pet adoptions soaring during the pandemic and a growing addressable market of pet parents, it was the perfect time to deepen consumer relationships and make new ones. The dog food company realized that this meant expanding the richness of its consumer data, deriving insights from it, and acting at scale in an experience-driven way.

One of the company’s new experiences is Buddies™, an app that owners can use to track their pets, connect with like-minded owners, and earn points for rewards. The app is powered by Salesforce, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Interaction Studio, Salesforce Customer Data Platform, and other ecosystem partners. 

Read the report

Future-Proof Your Marketing

By now marketing leaders know that digitization would continue to evolve at a blistering pace. The revolution will keep on rolling. But by investing time now to declutter, marketing teams would be able to monetize data more effectively today while preventing silos and data clutter from becoming a problem in the future. 

Looking to get started? The AppExchange has thousands of apps and experts to help your marketing team start the data decluttering process today. 

*This content is provided for general information purposes and is not intended to be used in place of consultation with our professional advisors. This document refers to marks owned by third parties. All such third-party marks are the property of their respective owners. No sponsorship, endorsement, or approval of this content by the owners of such marks is intended, expressed, or implied.*

Akella Surya Kiran is a senior leader at Accenture, who specializes in front-office transformations.