By NDA columnist Tom Ollerton, founder, Automated Creative
Aimee Irwin, VP for Strategy & Partnerships, Experian Marketing Services North America, sat down with Automated Creative founder Tom Ollerton to discuss her top marketing tips and advice for new starters in the industry, on the weekly Shiny New Object podcast. From network building to not being afraid to ask questions, ultimately all great marketing advice boils down to putting customers at the heart of your plans, according to Aimee.
Aimee’s top marketing tip, for new starters or seasoned marketeers is: Keep customers at the heart of your marketing strategy. This means understanding who the customers are and what their priorities and preferences will be with regards to your brand. In digital marketing, testing over and over, and adjusting offers based on the results of those tests, has become a lot more convenient for brands and should be a priority.
How should brands follow this tip in practice? It’s not all about spending a lot of money and potentially never finding the right answer. One of the useful ways to get to the core of what customers want is to spend time in focus groups. For Aimee, listening to customers talk about what they want and drawing conclusions about what they respond to – or, even more importantly, what they don’t respond to – has been critically important.
In the world of digital marketing, the right consumer research can be made easier by the use of data. Evaluating how people respond to messages, adjusting them and re-issuing them, can be a very effective ways for brands to build their communication strategy. This is why Aimee is excited to leverage technology in her role within Experian Marketing Services: the opportunities to tweak the message and make real time optimisations have never been better.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the world of digital marketing is changing and that consumer consent and privacy are on the rise. This may impact the testing capabilities of brands, while first-party data will be ever more important for establishing the right marketing strategies. Aimee sees this as a crucial point for brands to start thinking about how they handle digital identities, and how they create a 360-degree view of their customers. Ultimately, getting the right amount of consumer information and coordinating the online identities for each one will determine how not to overwhelm them with the same type of ads, and how to provide a stellar customer experience.
In the new world of enhanced privacy and consent online, the challenge for brands will be to leverage first-party data and to create an appropriate value exchange for consumers. This should motivate consumers to share information which enables them to ultimately have a better online experience with any given brand.
Find out more about Aimee’s top marketing tips and how she sees online customer experience evolving by listening to the full podcast.
The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, an adtech platform that turns brand’s media impressions into marketing intelligence.
