Marketing Technology Must Be Scenario-Specific for Maximum Impact

Feb, 3 2013

Marketing technology must be tailored to specific business scenarios to succeed. Right now, we have an embarrassment of data and powerful technology, but it isn't helping us solve basic problems. As argued by Ted McConnell in his AdAge article, “New Marketing Machine Has Powerful Engine But Bad Drivers, Few Mechanics,” businesses are surprising underachievers when it comes to marketing analytics.

Placing a marketer in front of dozens of dashboards can be like placing an airline passenger in the cockpit. You might understand the basic principles of flight, but that’s not the same as knowing how to fly a 747. McConnell argues that too many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies throw a lot of tools at their customers without providing insight on how to use them. What’s needed is a way to integrate knowledge and a common plan to drive scale. McConnell suggests a few ways forward:

  • Marketers need an agreement on measurements, consolidated along the lines of Nielsen’s 3Rs: “reach, reaction, and resonance.”
  • We need better analytical education, so the brightest minds think as much about “why” as they do “how.”
  • The measurement community needs quick, open, and fluid partnerships that can fuse technology, data, marketing, and measurement together to drive the new machine.
  • A power player needs to step in and “rationalize” the industry. McConnell suggests Google Analytics, but this would put a third party in the driver’s seat normally occupied by ad agencies and media companies.

At AgilOne, we believe that the tools you use should enable these goals, rather than interfere with them. That’s why you can use our platform to set up specific alerts and launch customized activities based on triggers designed to meet your specific business’ operating conditions. You don’t have to be a data scientist. The technology does it for you. You can move beyond looking at dashboards, to turning insights into immediate action. It’s like autopilot, but with you in complete control.