In our previous blog (part I), we talked about the six key factors to consider as you set out to build a data-driven marketing strategy to drive marketing campaigns in this pandemic economy. Let’s take the discussion further and put the spotlight back on the factors that should govern your approach to creating a marketing strategy that will help your business move the needle.

1. Add a personal touch:

Personalization, my friends, is a contact sport. And no, if in the mix there is meant to be zero human contact, you as digital marketers are doing it wrong. Sure, automate away, and create a great, predictable customer journey. Just don’t forget you have little or no physical store these days. I recommend you pick up the phone, grab a postcard, or just ping your customers on chat and let them know that hey, the customer experience you had at our virtual business matters, and we want to know we’re here for you to listen. Use social media to connect with your target audience wherever possible. You’ll be glad you did when later on they vant (that is, when they vent and rant simultaneously during a pandemic). If there’s been an issue, you will have a better chance to keep them as a customer than if there had been little to no personal contact, right?

2. Democratize your data:

Don’t keep all those amazing insights you’re finding in the measurement of your business during this time to yourself. Paste those data visualizations in your PowerPoint, share your screen in Zoom, and tell your team about your marketing efforts! Yes―show, don’t tell. Empower your teams with as much of the data as you can in a way that narrates and visualizes the story. It will help you all spawn your strategies, realign your marketing goals, and rethink your marketing activities.

3. Enable predictable and consistent data layers:

I am of the opinion that your gut cannot direct you through this pandemic. There are too many variables and shifts to account for to get an accurate read without consulting your analytics. Going forward, you are at too great a disadvantage to compete if the data you are collecting to base your marketing analysis on is brittle or incomplete. Can you really afford the luxury of operating without being grounded in accurate data? The answer is no. You are going to miss the mark as you try and land business since you cannot measure your results to the degree necessary for today’s success. I recommend making an organizational commitment to collect your data across your sites and apps using a data layer.

4. Leverage your analytics anomaly detection:

Pay particularly close attention to data anomalies in putting your strategy together. Yes, for some reason between 11AM – Noon ET nobody orders when that used to be a particularly consistent time to shop? Why? Your customers are telling you something, friend. Don’t ignore the signs.

5.Honor areas of compliance in privacy, accessibility, and social distancing:

This is no time to limit your customers from accessing your sites and apps to the business, or providing no safe way for them to entertain doing business with you out there on Main St. USA. Get the help you need to ensure that these elements are baked into your digital marketing strategy, and if not, are on your immediate roadmap.

6. Consider adding machine intelligence:

How are you automating your marketing message? To do this right, consider the role AI can play in eliminating the friction and inconsistencies in your message within and across channels. Stitch your customer profiles together so people can be seen as a whole, and communicated to with ease. And certainly, create those exponential pathways in your customer journeys by leading with the machine. There’s too much data for us to try and assess at once as people, so deploy a way to measure and move the needle at the moment through AI. And once it is going, it’s going to be your most cost-effective and consistent way to predict the outcomes of your customer journeys and uptick your sales.

The next six months will bring drastic societal changes that will impact how brands and customers interact. Customer behavior will shift, ecommerce will evolve, and new marketing trends will emerge. Digital marketers must brace for unforeseen scenarios and take pre-emptive actions. The post-pandemic customer will be a new customer and data will form the backbone of the emerging digital economy.

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