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Chapter 3: How to launch and measure cross-channel campaigns

Optimize every campaign with data-driven insights.

TIME TO READ: 5.5 MINUTES

Bret Taylor
President, Chief Operating Officer, Salesforce

The future of advertising is all about meeting the right customer with the right content at the right time on their preferred channels. Data is the key to connecting with customers this way.

The sophisticated and successful campaigns of the future will continuously use data to integrate relevant content throughout customers’ ongoing journeys with the brand — with artificial intelligence and automation optimizing content for different audiences in real time, based on customers’ actions, to ensure the best outcome.

Today, campaign planning always calls for alignment with business outcomes and KPIs, supported by data. When building a data-driven campaign, you can begin by analyzing the journeys your customers are currently on, and measuring the success of different content and channels throughout those journeys.

One customer might prefer to learn about a new subscription through social media before eventually signing up online, while another might prefer to learn about new products through email before eventually buying in-store. Advertisers are reaching customers through a multitude of channels and formats. With cross-channel measurement, advertisers can better understand customer preferences and ensure that every message is relevant, authentic, and personalized.

Get efficient marketing insights with automated measurement.

As marketing budgets continue to shrink, proving clear value and ROI is more important than ever. With unified marketing data and automation, today’s leading marketers are delivering deep and insightful measurement reports about their advertising campaigns and customer journeys.

While it’s still essential to generate leads, it’s becoming increasingly important to track customer-centric metrics — such as customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value — as well as growth-related metrics — such as return on marketing investment, funnel conversion rate, and sales/revenue — as marketing teams seek insights that can inform improved customer journeys and bottom-line business impact.

To prepare your measurement and reporting process for the data-driven future of advertising, you can connect and harmonize all of your marketing and customer data sources through a unified marketing data model that adapts to any new campaign or channel. A key best practice is to create a standard marketing data taxonomy that you can scale across different business units, regions, and teams. This helps keep the reporting conversation consistent, no matter where it takes place.

Einstein points up to a glowing light bulb

Artificial intelligence and automation can also be used to streamline measurement and gain real-time insights. By evaluating your business goals and your customers’ needs, you can align marketing to business outcomes. By using data as a starting point, you can help create a culture of continuous marketing optimization that benefits both your customers and your quarterly reports.

Always find ways to improve.

Fundamentally, data is information — and information is insight. Be sure to consistently use your marketing data to see how your advertising is working, and keep track of which parts of your campaign are working well and which parts may not be as successful.

With an eye on continuous improvement, you can find ways to create truly compelling and personalized customer campaigns that evolve over time, powered by real-time updates based on your data.

Conclusion

The future of advertising is coming at us fast, but with the right data and the right tools, every marketer has the opportunity to make things a bit easier. By informing your marketing with real-time insights from your customers’ preferred channels, you can create compelling journeys that connect with your customers and help your brand stand out.

The story of data-driven advertising is still being written, and we want to hear about your story, too. If you have any suggestions about ideas to add to this field guide, please reach out to Salesforce on LinkedIn or Twitter — and tag your message with the hashtag #SalesforceAd.

Chapters

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