Digital transformation has officially become a ubiquitous term that describes any company’s investment in digital infrastructure regardless of ultimate vision and intention. But, unless digital transformation takes a technology-second and a customer/employee first approach, investments will be unaligned with market evolution and more importantly, human behaviors, preferences and expectations. Technology is just a means to power business transformation. But technology can only get part of the job done. You need people. And, like technology, people are changing. Each time I…
Facebook Borrows Key Feature from Snapchat to Help Brands and Customers Connect
Conversations about the eventual demise of Facebook are greatly exaggerated. Each week it seems, Facebook finds interesting ways to improve engagement on its platforms by either innovating, acquiring or borrowing new features. Did you know that 900 million people use Facebook Messenger every month? Beyond everyday conversation, Facebook sees a promising opportunity for businesses. In fact, over one billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Messenger each month. The team at Facebook aims to help businesses benefit from further promoting…
The Hero’s Journey to Digital Transformation
I spent some time with Bernhard Steimel to help him with research for his “Smart Service” series. He sent over the audio files from our conversation for review. He organized them into snackable formats to make it easier for me to follow the conversation. It was so well done that he’s allowing me to share the discussion with you. Each audio segment ranges between two and four minutes. I hope these brief segments help you in some way… 1. The…
Creating Truly Personal Omni-Channel Customer Experiences
During a recent trip to London, I spent time with the Smart Focus team to discuss the promise and shortcomings of omni-channel strategies. It was a pretty productive collaboration resulting in a video that explores the new digital customer, an ebook focused on omni-channel experiences and a webinar on the future of marketing. Customers are more connected and more informed than ever. Digital marketers now need an entirely fresh perspective to succeed in a world where customers and prospects experience their brand in multiple ways…
The New Marketing Contract and Why Context is the Future of Marketing
We live in a time of great technology evolution and revolution. Innovation is not only upon us; it affects, even disrupts, us as marketers and as consumers of other businesses. Your customers are more connected than ever before and they’re always on. The number of touchpoints between businesses and customers has exploded. Technology is everywhere and something new is always on the horizon. Wearables. Smart watches. The Internet of Things. Everything is changing. Indeed, today’s consumers are more empowered than…
Internet of Things is Here: What’s Your IoT Strategy?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is so much more than smart refrigerator that tell you when you need to go to the grocery store, wearables that track your steps or the smart watches you’re thinking about not getting. It’s the nervous system that sends and tracks important information between things, places and people. From smarter industrial applications to cities to health care to home automation to automobiles and everything in between, IoT is changing not only your personal life, but…
How the Next Five Years Will Revolutionize Business
Earlier in the year, I spent some time with Jason Ankeny. He was, at the time, writing an article for Entrepreneur on “the next five years” of business for the print edition. He assembled a pretty stellar cast to serve as his panel and I was more than excited to join in. Ankeny set up the discussion this way… The period between 2015 and 2020 is poised to redefine virtually every facet of how we live and work. It probably…
Pardon My Bluntness, The Future of Marketing is Screwed…But It Doesn’t Have To Be
The Adobe Summit in London is a pretty special event to me. A big part of it of course has to do with its location. I adore London and all of my friends, and those I’ve yet to meet, make the trip special each time. The other reason is that Adobe’s platform reaches EMEA and thus helps marketers who are pushing for change on a global scale. To prepare for the event, the team at CMO.com asked me to share…
Digital Transformation Starts with Reimagining the Customer Experience
All customers are not created equal. This is also true for relationships. No business has the same relationship with their customers as you intend to have with yours. The thing is though, you must first define what a relationship with your customer looks and feels like and in turn, how they would describe it to their friends and colleagues. This is where the future of customer experience begins. At a time when technology is affecting how people go through life,…
Customer Experience is Becoming More Important Than the Product Itself
Customer experience is the sum of all engagements and interactions a customer has with your business in every step of their journey and lifecycle. It’s what your customer feels, thinks, says (to you and others) and more so, what they do now and in the time to come that counts for everything. CX is measured not by NPS (Net Promoter Score) but instead by the sentiment and outcomes in every moment of truth throughout the relationship. That.is.the.experience. And, it’s yours…
