Mediaboss Marketing

The following is the final article in a three-part series from IBM. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Step 3: Learn.

It's easy to say marketers, especially social media marketers, have to be data savvy. But it's quite another in practice, when analytics has been in the wheelhouse of specialized data scientists. Especially when you move beyond simple web analytics, in most cases, they're the only ones who really knew how to make sense of all that data coming your way.

Until now. Simple-to-use yet powerful analytic tools are now available for the everyday marketer, merchandiser. and back-office process manager. You can access customer insights in real time, including the ability to understand how your customers are engaging with your brand through social and messaging channels. And save your (very expensive and probably over-taxed) data scientist for those truly complex analyses or one-time model setups.

Moreover, predictive analytics can be help you determine -- in real time while the customer is in your chat -- what offer is most relevant to a particular customer, predict their lifetime value and churn propensity, and even determine the optimal discount to get them to convert. The outcome of each engagement goes into a feedback loop, allowing the models to be continuously fine-tuned.

The marketing and operations teams can even monitor the relative importance of the drivers of performance to fine tune your marketing -- and your business. These tools move beyond pretty visualizations to help you look at where their customer experience is breaking, and even suggest next best actions or higher performing customer journeys. In other words, these tools help to learn from your customers' behavior and react quickly to their ever-changing needs.

Image: Watson Chat Bot and Predictive Analytics in Action

Read more about how IBM can help marketers engage successfully with their customers through mobile and social channels. You can also download their whitepaper here.

Read the original here:
Chat: the gaping hole in your social media strategy (Part 3) - Marketing Dive