UnSiloed: interactive marketing

Every conversation, every interaction you have with a customer—whether on Twitter,

Facebook, Email, or SMS—is a building block to the way the customer will ultimately view
and talk about your brand. Yet marketers continue to store the data they gather in separate,
siloed locations. It’s through a solid framework of Strategy, Technology, and Operations that
marketers can finally break down channel barriers and fuel the digital dialogue. It’s time to
join the real-time conversation. It’s time to get unsiloed.

What's Inside?
3 unsiloed: interactive marketing
4 strategy: start with what you know
6 technology: choose the right solution
8 operations: the hub and spokes model
10 Get Unsiloed—Move Up the Curve
11 conclusion: fueling the digital dialogue

© ExactTarget All rights reserved 01-02152011

 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

unsiloed: interactive marketing

Breaking down barriers to fuel the digital dialogue
More than ever, consumers have a choice when it comes to how they
TECHNOL interact with brands—from the products and services they favor most, to
the personal information they choose to share. But amidst email, SMS,
Twitter, Facebook, and other interactive channels today, the biggest
ATEGY

OG
consumer choice of all is deciding how they communicate with brands—

Y
DATA or rather, how to let brands communicate with them.
STR

S
ON It’s evident that consumers have exercised this right: ExactTarget’s

OPERA TI industry-leading Subscribers, Fans, & Followers research reveals that 20%
of consumers indicate they’ve started following a brand on Twitter in order
to interact with that company, while nearly 40% of consumers “like” a
company on Facebook to show brand affiliation to friends. But this doesn’t
mean social media has miraculously trumped all other interactive channels. Think email is “old news?” Think
again—96% of daily email users subscribe to at least one brand’s email messages, driving more purchases
than any other channel. So while email isn’t new, it certainly isn’t dead. The question is, how can all interactive
channels come together in an integrated, unsiloed interactive marketing approach?

Still, some marketers continue to operate their customer interactions in silos, confining social media and failing
to integrate email, CRM, and other customer data sources into one, 360-degree view of the customer. The truth
is, this approach not only falls short in effectively using customer data, it creates a one-way conversation
that forces information out to consumers but fails to listen to what is responded. A November 2010
report from Forrester Research, Inc. entitled “CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish” reveals a cruel reality for these
marketers, saying that “in the future, there will be two types of companies—those that are agile and adapt to
consumers’ changing media behavior and those that go out of business.”

Let’s face it: joining the real-time conversation isn’t reached by pre-planning Tweets and automating a year’s
worth of batch and blast emails. Today, traditional campaign management isn’t enough. By taking an unsiloed
approach through stronger Strategy, Technology, and Operations, marketers can better engage in the real-
time conversation by fueling what we call “the digital dialogue.” In this report, we’ll detail this framework with
insightful explanations and step-by-step tactics to help you on your way toward a more unified—and more
successful—interactive marketing strategy.

3
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

strategy: start with what you know

TECHNOL In talking with the most successful marketers around the world, one
fundamental has emerged as the best way to create a truly unsiloed

ATEGY

OG
interactive marketing program: start with brand promise and build on it as

Y
part of a broader strategy. It sounds simple, but all too often, interactive
DATA
channels are operated (even in large global enterprises) as a handful of
STR

S
tactics (Tweets, wall posts, emails, blogs, and video posts) in search of a

ON
O P E R AT I
greater interactive strategy. Think about it—no football team steps onto
the field without first developing a “plan of attack.” And no construction
crew starts building a house without a solid set of blueprints. Why should
your company’s approach to integrated marketing be any different?

Developing a strategy to interact with customers across email, mobile, social, and sites is no small task. There
is, however, a place to start and a process to follow.

Begin by defining your core brand promise:

• What does your brand stand for?

• What are your unique value props?

• What do you promise your customers?

Knowing the ins and outs of your brand will help define the way you approach interactive marketing, too. Why?
Because an unsiloed approach helps you deliver that promise across all channels, reaching consumers right
where they are, in the channels they’re already using. Whatever unique characteristics your brand embodies,
knowing your brand “personality” inside and out will help you better know your customers inside and out too,
leading you right to the channels they’re most invested in.

Now, take a step back and think about all the ways your organization interacts with customers. Who in your
company communicates regularly with clients? Is it solely a customer support center? Or do customer relations
also exist within your sales, marketing, and public relations departments? By taking an inventory of all the
consumer touch points your company houses, you can better understand how digital dialogue generates a
greater impact. Let’s be honest: consumers today are constantly rotating from one digital conversation tool to
another—if they don’t isolate these channels from one another, why should you?

4
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

“Unsiloed interactive marketing” doesn’t mean having to choose one channel over the other. After all,
while Twitter and Facebook may be rising in sophistication and popularity, consumers still prefer email
more than three to one. But that’s the beauty of having an integrated approach—when email, mobile,
client support, social, and all your other customer interactions come together, it creates a uniform view
of the customer, helping you fuel more genuine, rewarding relationships.

Most of all, marketers must not prioritize a channel over the customer. In its August 2010 report,
“Organizing For Interactive Marketing,” Forrester Research states that this approach “separates the
channels from business and brand strategy…inefficiently [duplicating] operations across brands…and
[creating] inconsistent or annoying customer experiences.” The purpose of unsiloed interactive marketing
is not to have the largest subscriber database or Twitter following. The goal is to make the consumer’s
experience with your brand more cohesive, more accommodating, and more enjoyable.

“ Let’s be honest: consumers today are constantly rotating from one

digital communication tool to another—if they don’t isolate these

”
channels from one another, why should you?
— UNSILOED: INTERACTIVE MARKETING

Finally, define success. Some of the best marketers view unsiloed interactive marketing through a
service model, measuring improvement in products and services while listening in the social space, as
well as other customer interaction channels. After all, every customer interaction becomes an important
measurement in the success of your program. If 90% of firms are listening to the conversation, but only
15% are actually doing something with the information, the smartest marketers will be the ones who look
at the steps they’re taking and realize the cost-benefit.

No two companies are alike. And that means no two interactive strategies are alike either. It’s important
to remember that there’s no silver bullet, and defining an interactive strategy won’t be as easy
as downloading it straight from the internet. However, it should be inspiring to know that it’s driven
entirely by your brand, your company, and how you define success. And it doesn’t just exist on paper.
Incorporating the right technology and organizing staff through well-oiled operations allows your strategy
to be actionable, making it the job of your entire organization to manage customer interactions well.

5
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

technology: choose the right solution

TECHNOL At ExactTarget, we love software. But it’s not the right place to start when
building an interactive media presence. Interactive channels don’t exist
ATEGY

OG
in silos—and neither should the technology that powers it. Without a

Y
strategy to apply it to, software compounds the challenge of unsiloed
DATA
interactive marketing. But when customer interaction is approached as
STR

S
a horizontal function that spans across the business, it becomes a key

ON
O P E R AT I
enabler to power success.

“
Marketing should look to a technology solution that empowers
people in different divisions, geographies, and functional areas to Marketers
speak on behalf of the brand. Much like CRM or other business
should prioritize
systems, interactive marketing should provide a foundation to help manage and engage in the
conversation in real-time. Each individual employee, team, or department within an organization may investments in
interact with one particular customer in a unique way. But, the record and view of that customer must technology based on
remain consistent across the entire company to ensure the greatest possible operational efficiency, how much they will
ROI, and most importantly—customer service. affect the brand’s
Customers are going to interact with your brand in multiple ways. That’s why it’s so important to log ability to improve
the customer

”
information about each and every client interaction within a shared business system that all customer-
facing employees throughout the organization can access in order to absorb this new data. This way, experience.
the customer is always treated with awareness and adherence to their previous experiences with your
brand. Not only does this single view of the customer make it easier for your employees to work and — CMO Mandate:
interact efficiently, but it also creates a better experience for the consumer, who isn’t forced to repeat Adapt or Perish
conversations, questions, or frustrations every time he or she interacts with a different member of your Forrester Research, Inc.
organization. Linking consumer profiles through cross-channel data creates an authentic, real-time
way to unify and integrate your company’s view of each individual customer.

But, beware—investing in software isn’t about choosing what your company’s most comfortable with, either.
It’s about meeting your customers where they are, taking the information you receive, and responding through
the most appropriate channel in real-time. According to the Forrester “CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish” report,
“marketers who don’t participate in the new technology that consumers adopt will never learn how to capitalize
on it.” Brands must allow consumers to interact how they want to, whether through email, mobile, social, or any
other channel. Other technology then enhances customer relationships by adding CRM, web analytics, and
other rich behavioral remarketing data to the mix. By investing in tools that allow for data integration, brands

6
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

paint a clearer picture of who their customers are, using the technology as a means of enabling
the information and powering it back out through genuine responses. the interactive
At the same time, marketers must invest in tools that allow them to participate in the marketing hub™
conversation while it’s happening. Otherwise, the brand conversation continues—without them.
Or even worse, the conversation is over before they’ve even sent their messages out. The Consumers today interact
reason? Marketers are still struggling to change their mindsets from “campaign management” with brands using a number
to “interaction management.” According to a recent study conducted by eConsultancy1, 98% of communication tools—
of marketers use at least three channels to deliver multichannel messages to their customers, email, mobile, Twitter,
but more than half still store the data they gather from each channel in separate, siloed Facebook, and more. Luckily,
locations. In the same study, only 35% report that they collect data from different sources and the ExactTarget Interactive
store it in a single database. And when asked about the challenges of multichannel marketing, Marketing Hub™ provides a
71% cited maintaining high-quality data as a major challenge. canvas to turn real-time data
into real results. With intuitive
Why does collecting the right combination of data to effectively market on the real-time dashboards and automated
web remain a challenge for the large majority of marketers? It’s because the very tools that features, marketers can
have promised “best-of-breed solutions” are simply insufficient. For example, campaign finally plug these pieces
management solutions remain too formulaic, and fail to allow marketers to truly understand and in to a single, integrated
engage a specific type of customer. These and other static solutions of the past simply don’t platform, allowing for more
accommodate the speed and complexity of the ever-changing, real-time web. The answer lies consolidated data and richer
in finding a tool that allows you to not only analyze the conversation about your brand, digital dialogue.
but also react—in real-time.
Sign up today for a free demo
Every customer record, every text you send, and every Twitter conversation you engage in of the Hub at:
should form an integrated, comprehensive view of the customer, allowing you to create more www.exacttarget.com/hub.
accurate, more meaningful relationships with the client. No matter what channel you’re using
to engage a customer, each and every interaction you have with them is highly influential
to the way the client will ultimately view your brand.

The mistake that many brands often make is the “buy now, strategize later” theory, which
causes some companies to purchase software without first establishing a strategy or basis for
use, forcing the tool to become a hindrance to your interactive marketing team, rather than an
asset. Beginning with a strategy that outlines what you want to accomplish will help you make
a wiser decision when it comes to choosing the technology that’s right for your organization.
1
Richard Lees, “Companies Aren’t Making the Most of Multichannel Marketing Data,” eConsultancy,
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/6683-companies-aren-t-making-the-most-of-multichannel-marketing-data.

7
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

operations: the hub and spokes model

TECHNOL Customer interactions live everywhere throughout your business—social
media management exists in marketing, customer data lives with the CRM
ATEGY

OG
team, and client support resides in customer service.

Y
STR DATA So, who owns the responsibility of managing interactive marketing?

S
ON
The answer is “everyone.” With more and more CMOs managing the
OPERA TI technology budget, it’s natural for interactive responsibilities to fall in
marketing. But if employees all over your organization are interacting with
customers every day, doesn’t it make sense that the task of managing the
real-time conversation should be divided as well?

STAFF. While email and mobile campaigns remain central to marketing, social media presents new
opportunities to expand to the larger organization with a framework we like to call the “hub and spokes” model,
utilizing employees throughout the company in order to maximize impact. A team of social media “specialists”
acts as the expert—the hub—in
delegating and carrying out the THE HUB AND SPOKES STAFFING MODEL
company’s interactive strategy.
Other departments throughout PUBLIC SALES
the organization (sales, PR, RELATIONS
marketing, customer service, and
others) function as extensions—or SOCIAL
MEDIA
spokes—of the company’s overall TEAM
interactive program, enabled to
interact with consumers and share MARKETING CUSTOMER
responses to customer messages SUPPORT
by incorporating their own expertise
and specialty within the organization.
This method of “air traffic control” enables the people who are behind a specific matter to actually answer the
questions. And with a robust system to traffic those questions—whether on Facebook or Twitter—to the right
people, you can get them answered and sent back out to the customer as quickly as possible.

WORKFLOW. Enabling every department in your company to interact with customers and view previous
dialogue opens the door to more meaningful, more valuable dialogue with consumers. Marketers who can

8
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

effectively build a strong staff of experts and advocates throughout the organization will not only streamline
business processes, but also make the brand more human. Interactive marketing channels like email, Facebook,
and Twitter were intended to bring people together, not split them up into independently-functioning silos.
When all aspects of interactive marketing can function this way too, brands will reveal deeper, more meaningful
customer relationships.

If you expect your brand to have a relationship with the people who interact with you online and purchase
your products, it’s imperative that you equip your business to manage the brand conversation. Forrester
Research refers to this as “spreading interactive DNA” in their report, “Organizing For Interactive Marketing,”
stating that “more and more, the job of the interactive marketer isn’t just creating and executing interactive
programs. It is also helping other business functions understand how interactive technologies will affect their
internal processes and overall customer relationships.” After all, consumers just want to be treated like people,
and they don’t care if your social media, customer call center, or email marketing departments fall in different
areas of your business. They expect your brand to know them no matter who they interact with at any
given time.

AUTHENTIC CONVERSATION. Consumers now have more choices than ever when it comes to interacting
with brands. Think about it—they already receive enough irrelevant messaging in their mailboxes, inboxes, and
cell phones. And yet, some brands continue to “pre-plan” Tweets and Facebook posts or automate batch and
blast emails without regard to previous interactions, forcing messages out to consumers who have no interest in
listening. While traditional campaign management methods might’ve worked in the past, today’s top interactive
brands are the ones who create authentic conversation, letting consumers speak first, and then responding
appropriately.

So, how can you be sure that they’ll choose to interact with you? Luckily, driving authentic conversation doesn’t
require you to hire a small army of “digital dialogue specialists” to generate interesting and thought-provoking
chatter with customers. All it takes is data. Authentic conversations happen when the digital dialogue is driven
by information—everything from email open and click-through data to analytics on recent purchases. “Breaking
through the clutter” is achievable by first listening to what consumers have to say about your brand and then
responding through the appropriate channel. Rather than forcing messages out to consumers (whether through
email, text, Facebook, or Twitter), take a supportive customer service approach, letting your consumers speak
first. Send and post messages that invite conversation (intriguing questions, fun polls, or forums on hot topics)
instead of distancing consumers with irrelevant “marketing speak.” Not convinced? ExactTarget’s latest research
from the Subscribers, Fans, & Followers series reveals that more than 90% of consumers unsubscribe, unfan, or
unfollow because of too frequent, irrelevant, or boring communications.

9
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

Get Unsiloed—Move Up the Curve

At ExactTarget, we help companies go from operating siloed, individual channel campaigns to creating and
delivering the most effective and engaging digital dialogue possible. As these brands consistently increase
their level of interactive sophistication, their revenue begins to increase as well, forming a diagram we like to call
“The Relevancy Curve.”

THE RELEVANCY CURVE

ENGAGEMENT
BLAST PROFILE PERSONA BEHAVIOR ENGAGEMENT
DRIVEN DRIVEN DRIVEN DRIVEN DRIVEN

RELEVANCY

Organizations whose strategy begins to adapt to the relevancy curve (increasing in sophistication and generating
more revenue over time) have one thing in common—they didn’t go from simple to strategic over night. Building
a successful interactive marketing program takes time, careful planning, and nurturing. Adding data sources
one at a time (whether CRM, web analytics, or even social media channels) slowly and efficiently plants building
blocks to developing an integrated, 360-degree view of the customer. Thus, brands can never begin at the top
of the relevancy curve. It’s only through diligent cultivation of the unsiloed framework (Strategy, Technology,
Operations) that they earn the opportunity to arrive there instead.

10
 unsiloed: interactive marketing www.ExactTarget.com

Conclusion: Fueling the Digital Dialogue

The best marketers today can agree on one thing: interactive marketing channels provide an real results.
unparalleled opportunity to engage with customers—and it can’t be operated as a silo. Through guaranteed.
an unsiloed approach, marketers can create real interactive success, getting the most out of
these evolving channels in the real-time era. With the ability to execute on a solid framework
of Strategy, Technology, and Operations, marketers can transform interactive marketing ExactTarget helps
management into something that extends beyond marketing alone, permeating the entire thousands of companies
enterprise and enabling the brand to successfully engage with consumers. around the world execute on
better interactive marketing
Strategy, Technology,
The Interactive Marketing Hub—The Ultimate
and Operations every
Unsiloed Platform
day. Through world-class
Every conversation, every interaction you have with a customer—whether on Twitter, support and an integrated
Facebook, Email, or SMS—is a building block to the way the customer will eventually view platform to effectively use
and talk about your brand. But when these channels operate independently, the view of data, our customers have
the customer becomes disjointed and diluted. consistently increased their
sophistication and driven
The ExactTarget Interactive Marketing Hub™ breaks down silos, bringing together Email,
revenue. Let us take a
Mobile, Social, and Sites communications into one, intuitive dashboard—helping you
look at your data and we’ll
turn millions of data points into meaningful customer interactions. With features like
consult with you for a better
cross-channel campaign calendars, at-a-glance reporting of real-time activity, Audience
plan you can execute on and
Builder™ segmentation tools, and more, you can finally break down the barriers of siloed
take to market.
interactive channels and start understanding your customers.
Visit www.exacttarget.com
Sign up for a free demo of the Interactive Marketing Hub at
or call us at (866)362-4538
www.exacttarget.com/hub today.
for more information.

11