By Matt Pigott - April 6th, 2017
Marketing Attribution 2017-Part 2: Demar Amacker, strategist and CRM analyst at the San Francisco 49ers, talks to Incite on marketing attribution
When it comes to keeping fans engaged Demar Amacker, strategist and CRM analyst at the San Francisco 49ers knows that what happens off of the pitch is just as important as what happens on it. With around 1.3 million unique fans in the 49ers database, monitoring the conversation and targeting the messaging means paying close attention to those fans via the data they generate in their digital interactions. Above all, its attribution mechanisms and strategies help streamline the 49ers brand-to-consumer communications, keeping the conversation relevant, as well as driving engagement and lifting loyalty.
Says Amacker: “With the 49ers, from the marketing and sales standpoint, I currently work with the whole data stack and oversee our CRM and marketing automation platforms. Using the data to understand exactly who’s being targeted helps your messages cut through the noise.
“When it comes to marketing attribution, you then reflect and look back to get an understanding of which lead sources are driving ROI, and which channels are generating the best sales. Analyzing that information at the customer level, through advanced tracking of IP addresses, web traffic, email open rates and responses, to give a few examples, you can get a much better understanding of your customer base, and can use your tech stack to engage with them at the single customer level.”
And what about the single customer level? Is the tech yet sophisticated enough to deliver a holistic impression?
“Fan 360, is a dream. It’s the single view of the customer that everyone’s striving for. We’re a way off achieving that. But I think that, as new technologies come to market and are used in more sophisticated ways, we’ll get better at identifying customers and giving them what they want. Ultimately, attribution provides the justification for the hard work that goes into building the content and segmenting the audience, so that you can relate to fans on their terms.”
Of course, for any successful brand, it isn’t just about the customers and fans. It’s also about those in the driving seat making big decisions. Synthesis of the metrics and simplification of key data sets make that possible.
“C-level buy-in is really important,” Amacker confirms. “We’ve built out simple dashboards to track the magnitude of what’s going on and that helps the executives quickly access and assess the landscape. With the data placed in front of them in a straightforward way, they’re able to ask the next level questions they wouldn’t have been able to ask before. It’s time-saving to have that information provided in a simplified, digestible format, and empowers them to confidently make directional decisions.”
Getting in buy-in from the board
From a CMO perspective, there’s no getting away from the fact that their C-suite cohorts want data-driven solutions that provide greater clarity and more certainty. This means reaching beyond basic data monitoring—website entry point, bounce rate, and single conversion data—toward new levels of engagement, ones that provide opportunities for deeper psychological profiling, and better development of relevant real-time communications. From here, the next step is to become ‘sales predictive’, with attribution being a key part of this puzzle.
All part of the reason that today’s savvy CMOs are exchanging more ideas, facts, and figures with data scientists than ever. Getting a better understanding of customer segments, and striving to attain the single customer view now involves greater cross-departmental collaboration. They endeavor to find out:
– What gets the customer’s attention, nurtures engagement and drives a response
– What causes engagement levels to increase or drop
– How these sorts of fluctuations impact the bottom line
Digging down into the nuances of behavior, delivering a timed response, and assigning market value to an associated interaction now form the crux of the evolving relationship between marketers and data scientists.