How 4 local marketing teams are making customer satisfaction tech’s hottest trend

Angela Faler Boersma, tms’s (formerly The Marketing Store’s) Account Director, Digital Customer Engagement, spoke to Built In Chicago about how she and her team are leveraging innovative methods and staying on top of martech trends. Read more below or in the full Built In round up article here.  

What are some of the innovative methods or technologies you’re currently using to reach potential customers?
We are passionate about delivering the right message at the right time to our customers and utilizing the right technologies help us achieve that. At the core of it all, this is about people and their behaviors — what they think, feel and do — and how we can make sure their experience is empowered, connected and frictionless.

We also see more and more that customers expect highly personalized interactions in every stage of their journey, whether in-person or online, so understanding their preferences and patterns can help us make predictions to bring to life meaningful personalization. To do that, we need connected data that is both implicit and explicit to create insights, uncover opportunities and improve our marketing effectiveness in real-time.

Digital twins are not a new technology but certainly an important one. We pair that data-informed strategy with atomic design systems and facilitative technology to empower dynamic creativity that not only manages thousands of pieces of content and messaging, but also brings them to life in strategically and creatively excellent ways. That marriage of science and art not only helps us reach our customers, but keeps them coming back.

How do you stay abreast of the latest trends in marketing tech and evaluate whether a new technique or technology might work for your team?
I’m a huge proponent of connecting dots between teams and projects, which is something we think is crucial for any organization. Good ideas come from multi-level, cross-functional teams and are fostered when people have access to good information.

We have a pretty robust approach to tracking and reporting on the latest marketing tech trends and how they may be actionable for our teams. Every output we create is crafted with a purpose to inspire those who receive it, distilled to key themes and business insights to ultimately influence new ideas.

We are also thoughtful about how each output connects to the rest. This includes how we build foundational knowledge, understand how it fits in the overall landscape and plan how it connects with our top priorities. We are purposeful in making sure teams have access to this information, but also continuously evaluate our approach to make sure we are staying adaptable — ensuring we learn, evolve and optimize to stay relevant and effective.

What technology trends are you currently following in the marketing space?
As a customer engagement-focused agency, there are a couple areas we continue to keep our eye on, especially as our customers continue to enjoy experiences that are in-person, virtual and often now a mix of both. Digital objects, gamification, augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D experiences continue to evolve, so we track how we can amplify our existing customer interactions and also bridge the physical and digital experience. Augmented and connected tech also helps us develop more inclusive experiences for our whole community of customers.

Finally, emotion AI is another space to watch — whether that is helping us better understand our customer’s emotions for heightened personal experiences or more holistically enhance our customer journey mapping and planning.