When it comes to being a marketing chief these days, emphasis is often placed on the importance of an analytical, data-driven approach. But for Wotif Group’s general manager of marketing, Michael Betteridge, success comes from having the best of both science and art.

Marketing automation suite vendor, Marketo, has acquired real-time personalisation platform provider, Insightera, as part of plans to build its capabilities around cross-channel marketing.

Chief marketers struggling to put customer experience at the heart of their corporate culture should start by identifying clear areas of opportunity they can build off, Westpac’s head of CRM claims.

Australian brands should spend less time focusing on omni-channel sales and instead ramp up their cross-channel customer service experiences, a new report claims.

Clothing retailer, General Pants Co, is rolling out new in-store kiosks in a bid to bring together online and offline sales activity into one interactive experience.

Brands should be using their new-found wealth in customer data to deliver the same levels of personalised experience offered in the days of the friendly corner shop or local pub, Nectar UK’s marketing chief claims.

Industry research and results point to data-driven marketing being THE way forward for CMOs looking to achieve the ultimate in customer engagement. Getting your marketing team and the rest of the organisation to commit to such an approach, however, can be a challenge.

Australian wine brand, Jacob’s Creek, says its new smartphone app is the first step in a long-term plan to build relationships with customers through their digital platform of choice.

A new marketing approach based on recognising and responding to customer behaviour at different times of the day is being offered up as a way of revitalising the fortunes of high street retailers.

CMOs agree that when it comes to interacting with customers today, single-channel campaigning won’t cut the mustard. What isn’t as clear is how marketing leaders get their organisation to adopt and action an integrated customer approach.

Expedia is spending over US$500 million ($521 million) a year on its in-house technology, most of which is being ploughed into new platforms that allow the company to better predict itineraries for those searching for travel options on its website.

The majority of Australian brands are failing to recognise and respond to social media as an interactive customer service and support channel despite its rising importance with consumers.

Companies love touting stories of when their customer service staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty to delight a customer in resolving what might have otherwise been a negative situation.

While customer segmentation has become something of a mantra for data-driven marketers, few would suspect it’s also possible to take segmentation one step too far.

Today’s marketer must adopt a bigger and earlier role in the customer’s purchasing decision lifecycle if they’re to help their organisations succeed, says the CMO of storage and data solutions vendor, CommVault.

Organisations looking to successfully deal with the next generation of digital-first customers must quickly embrace new technologies and be willing to innovate products and services in an agile fashion if they’re to retain competitive advantage.

As a small wine marketer in Australia since 2010, Virgin Wines has been heavily reliant on digital marketing to build its brand position and sales.

The team at US-based crowd control solutions company, Lavi Industries, has compiled a new infographic looking at the 10 essential elements businesses need to improve customer satisfaction in a queue.

As an experienced marketer in the B2B technology sector with a history in start-ups, Ali Moinuddin is well versed in product development, fast growth and building revenue pipelines. So it’s not surprising the CMO of document collaboration vendor, Workshare, is relishing the task of positioning his company’s rapidly integrated and expanding product set.

Frictionless interaction and extreme trust are the cornerstones of successful customer strategy in the e-social age, according to one of the world’s leading business brains.

Marketing is going through its own industrial revolution and brands will need to change their approach to content, digital and data if they’re to remain part of the customer’s new decision making process, an industry expert claims.