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“The real challenge is that the path to purchase isn’t just a single step anymore,” said Ali Wing, Chief Marketing Officer, maurices.

The clothing retailer has addressed this in two ways, Ali said.

• Putting in place attributions in order to organize which channels receive credit
• Transitioning analysis of those attributions from a transactional approach to that which includes well-rounded customer data

“We’re attaching customer data so we get a long-term value in understanding the customer we’ve acquired, versus the transaction we just acquired,” said Eric Bibelnieks, Vice President of Enterprise Analytics, maurices.

Many marketers struggle in a transition of this nature with understanding which data points are important when it comes to understanding your customers, and Ali has a specific approach that helps her and her team.

“I don’t care as much about absolute precision in any one of the channels. I care about a criterion that I consistently apply and then watch for patterns, because patterns tell us more than the nominal amounts in any one of the channels right now,” she said.

Secondly, she said, teams need a flexibility to recognize that “it’s not about being intelligent; it’s about being smart. We’re going for an 80-20 first, because they’re changing so fast you can’t worry about the last 20. You’ve got to get smarter about the 80.”

Another issue with data integration is keeping multiple internal teams in the loop and working together toward a common objective. According to Eric, they have approached this challenge through data integration.

“We’ve managed to pull data from our email marketing team, our digital marketing team and also from our store’s promotions and our loyalty team. We pulled it all into one source so we have that 360-degree view of the customer that lets us track her,” Eric said.

By focusing on these data points, Ali said, they are able to focus on the relationships of certain media. This helps them to focus specifically on certain types of customers.

“We knew what was happening with customers, but we didn’t really know if we had an A, B [and] C type customers. We wanted more of A — what’s the combination of media that best communicates for them? And that’s what the focus of our evaluation is,” she said.

In a universe where marketers don’t have limitless budgets, it allows them to figure out “where do I quit spending, and where do I start spending more?”

Ali advises that marketers in a similar situation start small, and Eric adds that it’s important to “run lots of test cases, prove and implement those wins, and then from that you’re able to build the ROI case to get to the next level.”

That way, he said, when you’re sitting across from your CFO, you’re able to say, “We’re driving up costs, but we’re also driving up our customer base.”

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About Courtney Eckerle

With a focus on aspirational, customer-first marketing, Courtney’s goal has been to produce clear, interesting and actionable external content for MarketingSherpa readers. This has included writing over 300 case studies, moderating live event interviews, and producing video content. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Mass Communications and Film Studies from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind., and was a correspondent for USA Today College prior to joining MECLABS Institute.

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Categories: B2B Marketing Tags: 2015, B2C, IRCE, Media Center