How you can convert marketing data into customer growth

Management

Sponsored by Dotdigital

Steve Shaw, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Dotdigital

How does a marketing technology company grow and stay relevant for 25 years? “Everything around us is changing constantly. Our customers want to be assured they have access to the latest technology,” says Steve Shaw, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Dotdigital explains. “So when it comes to innovation, we can’t afford to stand still. We have an engaged and talented customer base who keep us on our toes!”

He continues, “At Dotdigital we reinvest a double-digit percentage of our revenues back into our products. Knowing where to spend that investment takes time and is something we have been able to achieve by developing close relationships with customers.”

Market insights

Having a finger on the pulse and surveying the market is something Dotdigital has become known for in its space, with regular reports being released each year. Hitting the Mark, its global cross-channel marketing report, is now in its 12th edition and offers a deep-dive into the marketing practices of 100 brands.

It’s become a valuable resource for companies who want to learn from others and benchmark their strategy, but it also offers insight into where technological gaps lie. Notably, Hitting the Mark 2024 found that, while only 22 per cent of brands surveyed displayed comprehensive data collection practices, even fewer (8 per cent) are turning their data into a more personalised customer experience.

With hundreds of technologies being available, blasting out a campaign isn’t the hard part. Standing out among myriad messages, emails and other forms of communications that consumers receive is. As is giving new customers a reason to come back that goes beyond price. This is where good data hygiene and data collection is key.

Where GDPR meets FUD

The past decade has seen varying data privacy regulations come into play all over the world – and it now looks like AI-oriented regulations are set to follow. They are designed to protect consumers and should ultimately lead to a better customer experience, both on- and offline. The challenge is that these regulations are often poorly understood and instil marketing and e-commerce teams with apprehension (or FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt), which often leads to inaction. This is just one of the reasons businesses are slow to collect valuable customer data and put it to good use.

Dotdigital’s ongoing commitment to data privacy and trust means it maintains ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications for all its products. “Besides being compliant with world-leading data privacy and sustainability standards as set out by ISO, we also invest deeply in our people and the services we offer our customers,” says Shaw. “This includes the likes of an in-house messaging operations team and solution consultants who are on hand to help with the complexities of marketing today.”

Another key challenge is data unification. Few businesses are immune data siloes, especially when there is a lack of ownership of the end-to-end customer experience. Dotdigital’s CMO Tracker study found that customer experience ownership within marketing teams is increasing, with 33 per cent of marketing teams now responsible for the full customer experience. This, in turn, means that the team using the data is also the team with oversight of marketing activation and delivery, which is where messaging operations comes in.

Relevance is the word

With CX increasingly coming under the marketing umbrella, the need for data unification and tech stack consolidation is greater than ever. In September 2023, Dotdigital acquired longstanding tech partner Fresh Relevance, a cross-channel personalisation platform for e-commerce. Today, it’s Dotdigital’s all-in-one offering that gets people excited.

Dotdigital CEO Milan Patel explains the appeal of its expanded proposition: “More e-commerce businesses than ever now turn to us because they want to deliver more personalised experiences, from the first anonymous website visit through to checkout. Behind one login, marketers can access all their data, create smart customer segments and automate cross-channel campaigns that are relevant and will drive revenue. Not to mention cross-channel tracking and reporting. A single Dotdigital Tag feeding key signals and data to all our products, and seamless integration of AI throughout the platform means day-to-day users actually love spending time in the platform.”

Award-winning talent and tech

A marketing department will typically use anywhere between 20 and 50 different technologies. Pair that with the fact that marketing tenures are notoriously low (averaging around 18-24 months) and ease-of-use and customer support should top the list when evaluating a vendor. “Businesses must leverage automation and AI to fuel growth. Keeping your growth engine idle due to operational limitations is no longer acceptable and can be resolved by consolidating the technology stack,” says Patel.

With average response times of under 20 seconds for phone calls and under a minute for live chat responses, you can see why Dotdigital hits a notably high Trustpilot score of 4.8, with the Dotdigital team and the products’ ease of use being the most frequently cited reasons for glowing reviews.

The next 25

As Dotdigital looks to the future, it remains a partner that grows with its customers, fostering a culture of continuous innovation. Acting as a strategic partner and advisor, Dotdigital helps navigate the ever-increasing complexities of marketing with trust, responsibility, and diligence. With Gen Z shifting the technological landscape once again, the choice of channels will continue to evolve. Therefore, businesses need a partner that prepares them for the future, not just the present.

About Dotdigital

Dotdigital is a leading provider of marketing automation and cross-channel personalisation technology. Dotdigital combines the power of automation and AI to help businesses deliver hyper-relevant customer experiences at scale and across every channel. With Dotdigital, marketing and e-commerce, teams can unify and enrich their customer data, identify valuable customer segments and deliver personalised cross-channel customer journeys all the way from inbox to cart. Dotdigital’s products empower over 4,000 brands across 150 countries to drive meaningful results and lasting customer engagement.