IQ Workforce Blog

Akin Arikan, a senior consultant from Unica, recently published a new book entitled “Multichannel Marketing: Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success”. We have known Akin for some time and we are happy to provide our web & marketing analytics audience with a sneak preview of his new book.

We will be posting three excerpts from the book in our blog. The first excerpt is a passage entitled, “A Good Multichannel Marketer is Hard to Find”:

These days, when you ask a marketer about their plans for innovation in the coming years it is quite likely you will hear an earful about multichannel, cross-channel, or integrated marketing. But if you try to find companies who have actually integrated their marketing initiatives across channels, especially online and offline, there are very few that have done it yet.

What’s the big hold up?

Is it technology? Organizational issues? Well, yes, to a certain degree. But probably more significant is the shortage of people with experience who can hold their colleagues by the hand and take leadership.

Book excerpt:

Is it a Chicken or Egg Problem?

Finding [marketers with know-how in integrated marketing] is easier said than done. They need to be as good at understanding business issues as they need to be at understanding data issues. They need to be savvy in marketing and in IT. They need to be strategic thinkers, care about customer service, and still need to be analytic enough to dig deep into the numbers. They need sound judgment for distinguishing fad from opportunity. They need to be neutral enough not to favor the marketing channels in which they have personal experience, but seek out the ones that promise the best returns. On top of all that, they need to be good communicators to get the couch potatoes in their organizations to come on board with the program.

They need to be true multidisciplinary superstars, in other words. Needless to say, this breed of employee does not come readymade out of the typical school program. They would be more likely to be molded on the job at companies where there is already a mindset in existence of multichannel integration, performance optimization, and customer service orientation.

As a result, there may be a chicken or egg problem for creating multichannel marketers: Many companies may not get started with multichannel marketing metrics because of lack of staff with prior experience. Yet, many business analysts may not gain know how of multichannel metrics because their companies are not using them yet.

It is time to cut through the Gordian knot now to unleash the benefits of integrated multichannel marketing for business optimization. It is time for some marketers to be the chicken and the egg. Let’s cross the street between online and offline to shake hands with the marketers on the other side. Somebody has to take the lead; why not you?
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May the Multichannel Marketing book be helpful as you create your own path across the camps.

Find Akin’s Book on Amazon.com:

View Akin’s multichannel marketing blog: www.multichannelmetrics.com

Posted in: Recruiting, Web & Marketing Analytics by Corry Prohens