Marketing, Customer Experience (CX), and Growth

It is natural to think that marketing (as a function across an organization) is tightly connected with the customer. Sadly, this is not the case. Most often, marketing is focused on internal goals. For example, how much the organization wants to accomplish and what the organization wants to sell (independent from how the product or service adds value to the customer). Most businesses have lost meaningful touch with the customer. In order for an organization to connect with its customer, it needs to have outside-in behavior. The following factors (at a minimum) need to be in place within the organization to truly engage a customer:

• Active customer listening
  • What are their pains?
  • What do they hope to gain?
  • What words do they use?
• End-to-end marketing across the organization
  • Is messaging consistent across tactics?
  • Do the sales channels even know about the offer?
  • Do the sales channels reflect the marketing message?
  • Does the customer get from the operation what was promised by
    marketing:
    • Product features
    • Pricing
    • Timing/delivery
• Segmented messaging based on differences in the customers’ profiles
  and behaviors
• Planned and measured customer experience (CX)

If these things are not true in an organization, then marketing is operating on an inside-out basis. On the other hand, if these things are true, then marketing is working on an outside-in basis and is likely to drive significant growth.

Are your marketing efforts truly engaged in an outside-in customer experience (CX)?