Why Marketing Needs a Collaborative Approach to Data

Published on LeadTail’s website on November 19, 2020.

When marketing executive Michelle Killebrew started her career 19 years ago, she noticed something really peculiar.

The planet’s biggest brands, many of whom should have known better, kept their data in silos.

This information existed in a tangled clump of disparate databases and applications. Teams kept it isolated from other teams even though they all worked for the same team.

It was like different departments — Sales, Marketing, Customer Care — were keeping deep dark secrets from each other. Or one team didn’t want the other team to know what it was doing because it was quietly plotting world domination. (Our money’s on Customer Care.)

It was a mess. It still is. And not much has changed.

Michelle, one of Thinkers360’s 150 Women B2B Thought Leaders You Should Follow in 2021, has launched a one-woman marketing crusade against the greatest data disaster of our generation:

The damn silo.

And she means businesses.

She will repeat the same message until every marketer in the land listens:

Enterprises need a single source of truth.

In this Leadtail TV episode, keynote speaker and best-selling author Bryan Kramer talks with Michelle, Products and Technology Leader at PwC, about the disastrous dangers of data silos and how marketers can get rid of them for good.

A Collaborative Approach

Data-driven enterprises and marketing organizations have never been more fragmented.

“There are so many functional disciplines,” Michelle says. “But to go to market well, you have to ensure marketing and sales are interlocked, and sales and operations are interlocked, and product teams get feedback from customer success teams.”

The solution is as clear as crystal. Enterprises need to collaborate:

“Organizations should bring people to the table who adopt a real collaborative approach that defines team roles and how these teams come together. They need to orchestrate a plan that is truly operational, something that is truly executable, that they can launch together instead of competing with siloed objectives.”

Michelle describes herself as “naturally curious” on her LinkedIn. And, like a detective in an Agatha Christie novel, she hopes to solve some of the biggest unsolved mysteries in data integration.

She’s already solved the data silo conundrum:

“One of the things I’ve done in many organizations is design tech stacks from the ground up,” she says. “Enterprises shouldn’t trap themselves in a corner with data integration. They need to think long term and holistically about how they integrate tools and define data architecture.”

HIGHLIGHT: The Most Important Thing When Building Your Tech Stack

Now she wants to share this discovery with the world. With former stints at IBM and CA Technologies, and shout-outs from Entrepreneur (8 Digital Experts Entrepreneurs Can Learn From) and TopRank (50 Influential Women in B2B Marketing Who Rocked in 2020), Michelle talks about data silos, among other topics, as a speaker at events like TEDx.

And people are listening.

A Strong Foundation

Data silos exist because organizations are oblivious to them. Instead of solving such a simple problem, marketers get distracted by fancy new technologies, like kids in a candy store.

Michelle says organizations look for “shiny objects” to fix data integration problem when they should get down to brass tracks:

“If you have a strong foundation, and just keep it simple, you’re going to be that much more effective.”

So it’s all about that foundation:

“Ask yourself, ‘What do you need? ‘What’s impacting your business?’ ‘Does your tech give you insights so you can be more performance-oriented?’ If the answers are no, focus your efforts on strengthening that foundation.”

The Future of Data Integration

That foundation is a little shaky for some enterprises right now, pandemic and all. But Michelle thinks agile companies and marketing organizations have got this.

HIGHLIGHT: How B2B Marketers Can Create More Durable Data Integrations

“Make plans and then see how they come together,” she says. “Don’t over-invest. Don’t overstretch yourself. Doing so could lead to frustration, exhaustion, or double work.”

Ultimately, everybody’s just trying to figure it out right now:

“So cut yourself some slack.”

And for those enterprises with data still trapped in silos?

“Tight feedback loops and decision making.”

Now It’s Your Turn

What do you think? Can marketers solve their data silo woes? And what does the future of data integration hold? Let us know what you think.

Watch the entire episode here or listen to the podcast version here.

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Social Data: Inside Out

Published on ClickZ on February 19, 2014.

There have been a number of pieces lately on social data and how predictive analytics can make certain different assumptions. Some of the recent examples in the press are around Facebook and the forecasting of dating couples becoming a couple or when someone will get married based on their friends' marriage dates (timely for Valentine's Day), or earlier in the season around Twitter and flu outbreaks. In my mind this is some interesting behavioral data that can help the average person wrap their heads around some of the big data processes that we in this space professionally understand can be mined in varied and vast ways. The other thing that these stories are conveying to the general public is that the data mined from their social activity is indeed public domain, but that's a story for another day...

Today, I'd like to talk about the power of harnessing social data inside an organization and the amazing competitive benefits from doing just that.

I think it's safe to say that we all recognize that there is a major evolutionary shift happening today - in the way that is transforming how we do just about anything. Gartner calls this the "nexus of forces." These are universal game-changers - data explosion, social media, proliferation of channels and devices, and shifting consumer demographics - that the chief marketing officer (CMO) is worried about.

And how we work is certainly under these same transformative pressures. There are efficiencies to be gained by applying social communication technologies and collaboration styles inside the organization that can lead to:

Improved productivity
Enhanced employee engagement
Foster collaboration
Faster and broader knowledge sharing

...and that's just by facilitating easier and more efficient and transparent ways of communicating and reducing our dependence on traditional email.

But the truly exciting part of this from an evolutionary perspective is to be able to apply the data science that we are hearing in B2C use-cases and turn that inside the business and understand the breadth and wealth of information that we create that could facilitate breakthroughs in both process and output. As organizations roll out collaboration and social platforms inside the company, the amount of internal user generated content is exploding just as much as it is everywhere else. These "digital footprints" can be a treasure trove of information to help preserve the competitive edge of the organization - in an age where speed and innovation are the keys to success.

Applying analytics to internal data provide the ability to:

Expedite expertise location and introductions for employees working on similar projects around the world
Crowdsource innovation based on conversations happening on internal social channels
Understand employee sentiment, and identify internal influencers
Identify talent and top leadership qualities
Understand if an employee is a good fit for a team prior to their on-boarding

The world is becoming both larger and smaller because of the abundance of data at our fingertips. We are able to form human relationships across the globe because of common interests that are shared on social platforms, both inside and outside of the organization. We are able to think through global strategies more quickly because of the cross-cultural input at early stages of development. By applying data strategies to internally created user generated content, we will be able to accelerate business processes that enable organizations to compete. The data is already there (and growing rapidly) and tools to leverage it are available and growing quickly. It will be interesting to see how quickly businesses look inward to start mining this data as the true competitive differentiator; I believe that sometime very soon, we will see that those that do will leapfrog forward and those that do not will be left behind.

I wonder when we'll be looking at our own internal data to plan for the impact of flu outbreaks within a company and how we can shift process or production to unaffected areas to compensate...