Marketers tend to overinvest in acquiring new buyers while trying to keep the most valuable customers from leaving. That leaves a lot of customers feeling left out. To correct this imbalance, marketers need a more systematic framework for selective investment in the most promising relationship segments based on growth potential, according to the renowned marketing academic Michael Johnson.    

The Martech industry is going through a radical new era of technological transformation which is changing the contours of the marketing technology landscape. A burst of AI-driven growth and innovation is not only making marketing automation tools easier to use, says Martech expert Frans Riemersma, but the evolving “marchitecture” will liberate marketers from the onerous challenges of platform integration and workflow management.

Businesses today finally recognize the strategic urgency of unifying all customer data in an increasingly AI-driven world of personalized engagement. And now the  data technology has matured to the point where that goal is more achievable than ever,  according to SAP data expert Chris O’Hara. 

Personalization at scale has long been a dream of marketers. But until recently it has been more superficial than helpful, constrained by legacy technology and processes. Today, however, AI makes it easier to do than ever before. Now the only thing holding marketers back, according to personalization expert Mark Abraham, is their campaign mindset. 

Select excerpts from interviews with some of marketing’s most prominent thought leaders on the state of marketing and the need for transformational change.

B2B companies tend to be laggards when it comes to delivering a superior customer experience, focused more on selling than servicing. But as a result of digital disruption, they have finally begun to embrace the need for a better post-sale journey, according to Jim Tincher, a leading expert in B2B experience design.

The market research industry is facing an existential crisis. Brand marketers have lost faith in old school methods of research – too slow, cumbersome and costly, in their view. To regain the trust of marketers, the consumer insights industry has to modernize their practices and start delivering insights that make more of a strategic impact, says Brett Townsend, a leading market research authority.

Buyer Personas have become a standard part of the marketing toolkit for creating customer empathy. But where they can go wrong is failing to reveal why customers make the decisions they do, according to persona design authority Jim Kraus.  

These days it can be risky for brands to take a stand on social issues or promote inclusiveness. But if marketers are able to honestly depict the diversity of society in their brand communications, their message has a far greater chance of being heard, according to cultural theorist Anastasia Karklina Gabriel.

Companies still tend to over-invest  in the acquisition of new customers while paying scant attention to relationships with existing customers. The solution to correcting that imbalance, argues value creation expert Allison Hartsoe, is knowing the collective lifetime value of all customers, known as customer equity.