Our third and final blog in this series takes a look at the recommendations outlined in the Salesforce 2014 State of Marketing report.

Here are several recommendations for an effective marketing campaign, including:

  • Focus on customer engagement: Note when and how often your customers connect with you and your messages, and then create a strategy that revolves around those key engagement times.
  • Develop a clear data strategy: Consider the customer interaction data you currently have and will obtain in the future, and develop a long-term method for compiling that data to better analyze differing customer engagement times. Also, determine which social channels better serve your business and what your customers respond more to.
  • Evaluate your lifecycle campaigns: In terms of the four lifecycle stages (acquire, onboard, engage, and retain) you should note the summary of the success of your programs, and then assess and reform the way you interact with your audience.
  • Roll out responsive design: After observing how many of your customers view your emails on their mobile device, determine whether utilizing a responsive design plan will allow you to gain a ROI.
  • Hone in on clear objectives: Have set, quantifiable goals for monitoring your social media marketing plans and then you will be able to more easily identify what needs to be changed or added within your content and customer service initiatives.
  • Don’t ignore the importance of mobile: Have your overall marketing strategy coincide with your mobile strategy so that you will be able to conclude how to successfully use them together to create stellar engagement results, such as using emails to link back to your landing page website.
  • Take a deep look at how customers are currently experiencing your brand: Observe how customers are interacting with your brand both online and offline, and then produce a new plan that enhances any lackluster results you may have found.
  • Start communicating 1:1 with your customers: Although we live in a dominantly digital world, it does not mean that we should speak like robots on the web. It has become important to study data that is related to customers’ behavior regarding your brand, and then develop more high-quality personalized messages to send them.
  • Think about personalization beyond email: Aside from personalized emails, businesses are also creating full personalized web interactions. Based on the success of your email marketing efforts, you should develop the same unique experience through various channels, including social, mobile and the web.

By having a marketing strategy that appeals to both to your brand and your customers, you will be sure to create a large amount of interaction and ROI. Clear, personalized messages will always go a long way.

As Salesforce concludes their report, they end on a final thought that we also wanted to share:

Adapting to change is the one strategy that every digital marketer should adopt.

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with a PR, marketing or social media campaign, contact Scott Public Relations.

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