2015 looms large on the horizon.  For marketers, a new year means new opportunities, planning, strategizing, and a general lining of ducks in rows.  And now with so many channels for marketers to manage and the increasingly empowered customer, the landscape screams of complexity.

Earlier this year the CMO Club Summit in New York shared what marketing executives said are their biggest marketing challenges, here are a few.

  1. Delivering a positive customer experience throughout the research, discovery, and purchase journey.

  2. Creating client or customer-centric content

  3. Keeping content flow constant

  4. Measuring the effectiveness of content

  5. Managing data and identifying how to leverage it effectively

  6. Maximizing omni-channel marketing with limited talent and training resources

  7. Reinvigorating an already well-known brand

How to Overcome Modern Marketing Challenges and Become a Rock Star

Entire books can be written about each and every one of these challenges.  A career can be built on getting one of those things handled, and finding a way to make decent headway addressing all or a handful of these challenges might just make you some sort of marketing deity.  It can be done.  But how?

When you examine these challenges you see that at the heart of all of them is customer experience.  Marketing disciplines such as content marketing, CX, UX, UI, SEO, PPC, digital marketing, traditional marketing, analytics, conversion optimization, etc are all just tools that are used to build one thing;  a customer experience.  The wise marketer knows that everything they do is about optimizing the customer experience. Also, when approached from this angle the challenge seems more manageable.  The next questions are how should the marketer leverage these tools to optimize the customer experience and realize better marketing performance.  The answer is simple.

Be customer-centric, data-driven, and manage by narrative.

  • By always being customer-centric the marketer never loses focus on the customer’s preferences, needs, desires, and motivations.

  • By being data-driven the customer is truly given the final vote. Great data analysis allows marketers to predict, model, and test new customer experiences.

  • By using the power of narrative (storytelling) marketers can manage internal and external teams (and their seemingly disparate disciplines) by effectively communicating the essence of customer experiences so that they are executed more efficiently and accurately.

I said the answer was simple, but not always easy.

The Buyer Legends Process Addresses Each Challenge Head On

After years of learning to master most of these marketing disciplines, working with some of the most experienced and talented marketers on the planet, experimenting, failing, and succeeding.  Some companies saw significant improvements but weren’t able to duplicate that success repeatedly.  But the companies that embraced a process of customer centricity, data-analysis, and usage of narrative to manage execution were able repeat their success in multiple channels.  They were rock stars at execution , and continuously make significant and meaningful long term impact on marketing goals. We call this process Buyer Legends.

Let’s see how Buyer Legends can impact each of the above stated challenges.

  1. Delivering a positive customer experience throughout the research, discovery, and purchase journey. By using storytelling(narrative) combined with customer data Buyer Legends allows marketers to map out in detail each phase of the customer experience from research to post-sale.

  2. Creating client or customer-centric content. Because Buyer Legends is a customer-centric/persona-based process it keeps content focused on the customer and what they need in order to convert.

  3. Keeping content flow constant.  Buyer Legends stimulate creativity that is first and foremost focused on the needs and preferences of the customer.

  4. Measuring the effectiveness of content.  Buyer Legends are measurable and tied to data and business goals.

  5. Managing data and identifying how to leverage it effectively.  The Buyer Legend process helps to interpret and communicate data in story form making data understandable and actionable.

  6. Maximizing omni-channel marketing with limited talent and training resources.  Buyer Legends allow marketers to communicate to internal and external teams the context and goals of creative and marketing/sales collateral, making for better and faster execution, even when working with less talented team members.

  7. Reinvigorating an already well-known brand.  By giving the marketer a deeper understanding of the customer and their journey Buyer Legends will allow you to build the ideal customer experience rather than simply patching a less than ideal experience.

In 2015 your customers will be more empowered than ever, by making a commitment to build a better customer experience you can put all the complexities and challenges of the modern day marketer into proper perspective and plan for a kick booty year.  Good luck!


Interested in knowing more about the Buyer Legends process?