Although the newness of Siri has long worn off, she still manages to have a strong ‘following’. When you know you need something but just can’t pinpoint the specifics or you know exactly what you need but just not sure how to find it…Siri is ready and willing to find the information you need. And of course she serves as a good source of entertainment when your kids (or maybe you) decide to ask her ridiculous questions. (FYI – here’s a good list to reference when you have a little too much time on your hands - http://www.freemake.com/blog/siri-answers-20-hilarious-questions/.)
She’s knowledgeable and she doesn't waste your time – giving you exactly what you need when you ask for it. And although we know she has a bank of automated answers, she still manages to deliver a seemingly personalized response. Now if only Siri was smart enough to know what we needed before we asked (props to my wife for this idea, stemming from her frustration in my ‘inability’ to ask for directions). But if that was the case, Siri would be in high demand for a role on the digital marketing front!
Every digital marketer knows the value that comes with delivering personalized customer experiences. Companies are more committed than ever to knowing what makes their customers tick – or not tick – and determining how they can influence the decisions they make and the actions they take. Yet in most cases they don’t have the staffing and skills required to do it at scale.
Yes, B2C marketers are beginning to buy in to the notion of ‘operating like a machine’ with the adoption of marketing automation capabilities. But is the value of automation in automating for marketers what they are already doing today? Or is it in automating the discovery, testing and optimization of experiences to determine the most relevant experience for each customer at the right time?
Assuming it’s the latter – is it feasible to merge a meticulous understanding of individual customer behaviors with a ‘hands-free’ process aimed at scaling to the masses to transform your marketing performance?
As suspected, Siri says she’ll have to search the web to answer the latter but her results will most likely be in short supply as this notion of applying automation to achieve 1:1 personalization at scale is incredibly difficult to master. After all, continuously determining the optimal way to act at any given time, for any given customer, for any given behavior or context requires a unique balance of marketing creativity and technology.
It’s a new breed of marketing technology that enables this unique balance, ultimately making marketing personalization at scale possible. It’s a focus on automation – and by that I mean continuous, automated discovery, testing and execution of optimal customer experiences – across millions of customers. Not a set-it-and-forget-it delivery button.
So for the marketers out there, how close are you to having your customers (all of them) say “They know what I want and they don’t waste my time – they give me what I need BEFORE I even ask for it time and time again”? If this still sounds like pie in the sky, perhaps you need a new game plan.
