Reading the Writing on the Wall

With the explosive popularity of social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other such sites in recent years, it has become clear that the new model for business communication is in the dialogue and not the monologue.

CMO’s are quickly realizing that there is no longer a place for the simplistic, one-way conversations that marketing practitioners have depended upon so heavily in past. We all know there is a sophisticated sector of digital baby boomers that will soon become the major consumers of tomorrow. We will have no choice, but to participate in this playground of interactive digital content, if we want to survive.

With this fundamental shift in consumer behavior, the need for one-to-one personalization in traditional marketing communications is more acute than ever. The clever integration of technology, creative content and personal interaction is that powerful combination that will allow us to redefine the way we communicate.

We all agree that the conversations need to be customer-centric and authentic. But therein lies the dilemma. As much as we would like, in most circumstances it is simply not logistically possible for companies to reach out to each individual customer, one-on-one.  And this is where technology can help.  The idea of ‘one-to-one’ is really ‘one-to-many,’  where each one thinks that they are the only one.

So the real question is – how do we efficiently manage individual conversations and interactions, along both axes of time and media? It’s not simple and many companies are wrestling with this “cross media” challenge.

One significant clue is that we see time and again, that an integrated solution for one-to-one publishing is critical to achieve a successful cross-media strategy.  The holy grail of cross-media publishing is the ability to communicate with consumers across the spectrum of print and digital media channels with consistent messages that are relevant to the individual recipient in terms of content, presentation, timeliness, and channel.

Only an integrated system could provide the overall event-tracking , analysis and feedback loop capabilities needed to set the stage for an improved dialogue  with targeted messages. In today’s customer-centric environment, no marketer should settle for anything less.

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