At Acoustic, we’re committed to supporting digital marketers with the solutions and the insights you need to meet the fast-changing needs of today’s customers. One of the best ways for us to stay on top of trends and what’s happening across our industry is to meet with the marketers who are making it all happen.

We traveled to Atlanta, Georgia and invited savvy digital marketers to share their thoughts about the digital marketing landscape. I was excited to host this group panel discussion and hear from Acoustic customers and seasoned professionals about how they’re meeting changing customer expectations, new channels they’re embracing, and what they’re doing to uplevel personalization and create stronger customer connections.

Meet our esteemed group of panelists:

Justina Pierce, director of digital communications at the Georgia Lottery in Atlanta.

Scott Couey, senior digital marketing coordinator for Messe Frankfurt, a tradeshow company.

Neil Korgaokar, senior manager, e-commerce & digital marketing technology for Husqvarna, outdoor power equipment.

Nancy Grimm, senior commercial marketing manager for Rheem Commercial Air products.

Biggest trend and disruptor to digital marketing—AI

A big theme on everyone’s mind is AI (no surprise), specifically how to use data analytics and AI to personalize marketing outreach. Nancy did warn, “AI has done a lot for content creation, there’s more content, but much of it is lower quality.” Justina shared that, “There’s an increasing need to focus on mobile-friendly content and emphasized the need for human-generated content for authenticity to help create genuine connections. For more personalized and targeted experiences, using advanced technologies and data is necessary to deliver content that’s tailored to each person at the perfect time on the right platforms.”

Changing customer expectations online

All of the panelists acknowledge that behavior online is changing and digital marketing will need to change accordingly. Neil says, “It’s a bit challenging, with privacy now top of mind, yes people want us to know them better, but they also want to be cognizant of the data being collected.” Justina added that, “Personalization will continue to evolve. We’ll be using Acoustic Connect to help us leverage advanced analytics and AI to understand and anticipate consumer preferences.”

Additionally, Justina shared, “Consumers are going to continue to reach for convenience. They want things that are simple. With personalization, email marketing, and data analytics, you can understand your customers. So, once you learn their preferences, you can use the data to market or craft your content around that, then you’re able to send out highly targeted messaging, which is what customers want. They don’t want generic messaging, that’s what causes the unsubscribe on emails. You want to send them what they want see.”

SMS is moving into the spotlight

The group agreed that there may be some email fatigue happening with customers. Nancy said, “We’ve dialed back on the number of emails being sent.” Scott is looking at SMS more. This allows customers to take action right away. Neil added, “For younger demographics, it’s about immediacy. Self-serving channels are becoming more prevalent. SMS is good for ratings and reviews.” The entire group is focused on being more intentional about using the channels that are best for reaching customers, and that’s not always email. It can be social media, mobile push, SMS. Scott shared, “For us, SMS and automation are hand-in-hand. You’ve always got your phone by your side. So having that ability to reach people immediately, that sense of urgency using SMS and then also automation so you can set things up in advance and target to the individual is key.”

Neil highlighted, “Mobile is probably one of the best [channels] for us. They either go to a call-to-action, they go to a dealer, or they buy it from us directly. We have to make sure that however we’re speaking to them at what time of the year, what day, is appropriate for what they want.”

Stronger customer connections start with personalization

Nancy shared, “You need to learn your customers journey—getting data from your customers, making sure you know them is an important component of being able to plan, provide content, and key to learning what your customer wants.” Justina relies on segmented lists and personalization like using first names and sending relevant content and recommendations to connect with customers. Using special birthday offers and abandoned cart emails can be effective marketing techniques. Understanding what your customers website activity and email engagement is critical. Only then can you cater to what their interests. Scott added, “Find out what customers want and use that to target them. There’s an opportunity to use send time optimization.” Diving further, the group agreed that automation plays a critical role because it can create a journey of automated and targeted communications that are personalized.

Key metrics for digital marketing success

“Conversions are the number one determinant of campaign success,” Nancy raised, and the group agreed. Justina also includes engagement metrics for email and social, and A/B testing as key measurements. She shares an example of doing email A/B testing, “It’s very easy to figure out which subject line or content or graphics work better and which resonate better with our customers. And with those results, we can refine our email messaging to match what the customer wants to see. We’ve even had occasions where we’ve changed the color of a call-to-action button and that’s changed the click-through rates. So, you really don’t know what the customer wants until you do these tests.”

Future Acoustic networking events like this one are posted here . If you’d like a live demo of our customer engagement platform, Acoustic Connect, schedule it here.