BlastX Consulting was a proud sponsor of the 2023 Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo. With CX industry veteran and new Chief Consulting Officer Brian McIntosh at the helm, the BlastX Consulting team spent three days in conversations with CMOs from leading brands and gaining invaluable insights from Gartner analysts and notable keynote speakers.

Here are some core themes we identified from the 2023 Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo.

Leading Multichannel Marketing Efforts Through Changing Times

There’s no shortage of marketing channels to reach customers. The key message of this event rang true: marketers must continue to innovate with omnichannel capabilities to address ever-changing customer expectations. Alex De Fursac Gash, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, highlighted the latest insights on the current state of multichannel/omnichannel marketing and explored what marketing teams must do differently to ensure their multichannel efforts and investments deliver commercial performance.

Evolving with the times takes work, but shunning a multichannel approach could cost marketers dearly in the long run.

Revenue growth rules the day. Customer satisfaction drives revenue growth. Customer experience drives customer satisfaction. In an omnichannel world, improving customer experience is a complex and dynamic proposition. Gartner sessions suggested leveraging multichannel marketing hubs in conjunction with AI and other modern data management tools to deliver strategic results from customer journeys. The most significant takeaway was a warning not to rely on aging structures over a decade old – evolving with the times takes work, but shunning a multichannel approach could cost marketers dearly in the long run.

Aligning Data Collection Needs to What Customers Value

Voice of the Customer (VOC) data offers a wealth of insights. However, this data often sits siloed away from other data points that marketing and sales capture. Chad Storlie spent his session explaining how “marketers can exploit their existing VOC data to improve customer experience, marketing strategy and loyalty marketing. From building more useful personas to tailoring campaigns based on customer satisfaction, marketers can lift short-term customer marketing and long-term customer relationship outcomes.”

When VOC and transactional data work in concert, marketers gain robust insights into the impact of customer experience efforts on loyalty, purchases, retention, and more.

A new level of insight is possible when VOC and transactional data work in concert. This combined data can show you the impact of your customer experience efforts on loyalty, purchases, and retention. It can show you which customers to target for loyalty and advocacy. It can tell you which of your campaigns are positively influencing increased satisfaction and lifetime value (LTV).

For more on this topic, check out “Putting the Human Back in Human Experience” from Roopa Carpenter, VP of Digital Experience for BlastX Consulting.

The Role of Systems Thinking in Unpredictable Economic Times

86% of organizations have transformed their design within the last four years, but 58% of design transformations fail. This problem clearly requires a new approach. Aprill Baughns, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, discussed the importance of systems thinking as companies and brands consider transformation and the customer experience in a new economic environment.

Systems thinking enables organizations to systematically understand customer needs as they evolve their customer experience.

Systems thinking is a way of exploring and developing effective action in complex contexts, fostering systems change. When it comes to evolving the customer experience, systems thinking enables organizations to systematically understand customer needs during each stage of the process to deliver outputs that will ultimately serve as their “north star”.

Final Thoughts

The 2023 Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo was an affirmation that leading brands will use customer experience as a key strategy to win and keep the hearts, minds, and wallets of customers. They’ll do this across diverse digital channels, enriching and transforming data into insights and using systems thinking when it comes to customer experience optimization. Today’s chief marketing officers (CMOs) must keep a range of plays and strategies on hand to create comprehensive customer experiences; thankfully, our tailored CMO guidebook illuminates the best paths forward.

Does amazing describe the digital customer experience of your brand? It could. Let’s talk. Get in touch with BlastX Consulting today.