Creating a marketing technology roadmap helped Staples get a better picture of their customers and what was needed to improve their journey going forward.
Staples didn’t begin by considering technologies but rather capabilities, as in what should they be capable of accomplishing, says Mark Pickett, senior director, customer analytics, data science and BI, Staples, who spoke at the recent MarTech conference in Boston.
The key functional areas of marketing operations were identified, along with their business impact and the amount of effort required to accomplish those goals. The company’s martech gaps were highlighted, as were the priorities in the gaps between the vision for the future and the current state.
There were six pillars in the blue print they wanted to understand: Customer knowledge, customer centric planning, marketing planning, marketing implementation, measuring measurement and effectiveness, and lead management. The functions under each pillar were also outlined. For example, under implementation, tag management, digital operations, testing and agency management were also specified.
A maturity assessment was also done to assess Staples martech capabilities. “It was a good man in the mirror moment,” Pickett says.
The company created a martech charter, with a goal to access, audit and evolve the company’s core marketing capabilities.
“We wanted to keep an eye towards underlying technologies and processes that will enable a data driven and customer centric marketing operation,” he says.
Staples’ marketing team wanted to be able to see their customers’ interactions with the brand no matter where they were in their lifecycle, and have a single record across all channels. Technology is key to making that a reality.
“Technology isn’t a part of modern marketing,” he says. “Modern marketing is synonymous with technology.”
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