Today’s world is so competitive and competition is everywhere. We can clearly see the competition in the marketing approaches of the organizations. Now every organization tends to increase their brand reputation or increase the popularity of their product, service etc. Having a consumer centric marketing strategy is necessity and expanding the reach to more customers is very important to sustain in the market. Smart Marketing is a trending way which keeps an organization on the growth path. DT spoke with Mr. Pavan Chandra, Senior Sales Director – CX Applications, Oracle India to know more about the smart marketing, its adoption and how it works.
DT: How do you see the importance of Smart Marketing for large organizations? Do you see adoption of these strategies into their growth plan?
Mr. Pavan Chandra: Marketing was never more difficult and it is going to be even harder. The competition for thirty seconds of customer’s attention is getting fiercer and fiercer. The marketer is not just competing against other companies but also against everything like social media.
Under such a scenario, where the pressure to present ROI is mounting, it is very much possible that the marketer may go astray from the original objectives of the marketing plan. There enters, SMART approach to marketing, where SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and times objectives. SMART approach helps the marketer to clearly define the result of the campaign that is being planned. Once the goal is identified, the marketer can focus all the energies and capital in attaining the same. Since this approach quantifies the goal under a given time frame, it also provides clear metrics, the success or failure of the campaign can be measured without any ambiguity.
SMART marketing helps organisations in two ways. First it helps organisations with more focused, defined marketing campaigns, which will help organisations to increase their business. Secondly, it helps organisations save precious money and time while implementing one of the most important functions, and thus contributing in organisation’s growth.
DT: What are the major challenges for companies while opting for smart marketing solutions?
Mr. Pavan Chandra: One of the major challenges while opting for SMART marketing solutions is that not all marketing objectives can be quantified. For example, if your campaign is about evaluating brand reputation or brand recall, then clearly these objectives cannot be quantified.
Another challenge can be pertaining to the time frame. We are living in dynamic times; no two days are similar. Under such circumstances, we may have to turn the plan upside down to suit the changed situation. With SMART city solutions, the agility factor can be a challenge.
Though setting goals, gives focus, but it can also constrain the vision of the marketer, which can make them miss the changing big picture.
DT: How can digital marketing strategy help companies of any size to grow sales?
Mr. Pavan Chandra: Digital Marketing strategy is more of a necessity than an option. Today’s consumers are savvier and are unlikely to fall for traditional sales techniques. According to a PWC research 78% of consumers are influenced by social media in some way while making any purchase. Most of the consumers go through reviews, comments and feedback posted online before making thebuying decision.
Consumers are now more demanding than ever. They want experiences that are personalized, relevant, and consistent—whether they’re interacting with your company online, in-store, or on the phone or via social media.
Digital marketing enables modern marketers to deliver personalized customer experiences, to retain customers through loyalty and advocacy. Marketers can deliver their message via number of channels like display advertising, content, email, mobile, and social on a single marketing cloud platform. This is how modern marketing or digital marketing works and help companies to increase their sales.
DT: What are the key solutions for smart marketers from Oracle?
Mr. Pavan Chandra: Oracle Marketing Cloud personalizes customer experiences with marketing software including content marketing, social marketing, and data management. It has been named a leader in 2017 Digital Marketing Hubs - for the 3rd Consecutive Report.
Oracle Eloqua enables marketers to plan and execute campaigns while delivering a personalized customer experience for their prospects. Campaigns greatly scale for audiences across channels including email, display search, video, and mobile. With integrated lead management and easy campaign creation, our solution helps marketers engage the right audience at the right time in their buyer's journey. Sales teams can close more deals at a faster rate, increasing marketing ROI through real-time insight.
Oracle Social Cloud is a scalable, enterprise-ready social relationship management solution that empowers brands to leverage the power of social media across their organization.Oracle Social Cloud integrates with Oracle and third-party systems for marketing automation, service automation, sales automation, and commerce systems.Oracle’s complete social platform empowers our customer’s business to uncover better insights, deliver optimized content, engage at the speed of social—and measure their efforts along the way.With integrations to marketing, service, sales, and commerce automation systems, Oracle Social Cloud enables our customers to leverage the power of social media across an organization to drive real business results.
Oracle Responsys empowers marketing teams with tools to deliver the relevant, engaging experiences their customers demand across devices, channels, and lifecycles.
