In today’s special episode, you get to listen in as the current CMO of Microsoft CEE Multi-Country Shira Levy Barkan shared the organization’s marketing methodology. The former CMO of Microsoft Israel has been with the company for 6 years. However, in a few months she’ll be moving to a different industry and will take on the role of VP Marketing for Playtika.

According to Shira, it does not matter if you’re a huge company or a small one, building a relationship (Relationship Marketing) with the customer is something you need to work on. However, establishing a relationship alone won’t suffice. The relationship needs to also be:

• Controlled
• Managed
• Measured

Once you are able to establish a good relationship, you’ll be able to bring in more money. Also, it becomes relatively easier for you to fix things in case you mess up.

Any company who uses relationship marketing needs to be ROI-focused. Without ROI, pursuing the marketing strategy is not practical. In addition, you also need to measure. Otherwise, you can’t scale.

In a nutshell, relationship marketing is strategic and reflective and will require commitment. Using this strategy, you need to answer some key questions:

1. How do you form / establish a relationship?
2. What kind of channels / infrastructures do you need to tap?

Emphasis is also placed on value creation (what’s in it for them?). In the same manner, business focus is also factored in. Why? Gaining customers is 5 times more expensive than keeping the current ones.

Understanding customers is also given priority. When you understand your customers, you are able to provide:

• Better products
• Better services

Another key statistic to take into account: A 5% increase in customer retention can also mean 25% to 85% increase in profit. In addition to that, your business will enjoy:

• More loyalty
• Favorable word-of-mouth
• Less resentment when you make mistakes

Shira also discussed the 3 key components of engagement, namely:

• Reach or how you get to people – for those who have limited marketing allocation, they can use blogs, social media platforms, email marketing, etc.)
• Engagement or how you engage with people – the key here is creating value. In line with this, you can do webinars, events, round tables, user groups, customer advocacy, etc.)
• Adaption – this is where loyalty is achieved

Links
Microsoft
Playtika
Google
Amazon

Quotes
"Measurement is your friend, it is not your enemy."
"It is like math, you need to fall in love with it, let yourself go and enjoy the measurements."
"Relationship is something that you need to manage, to control, and to measure."