Pretty much everyone in marketing space I have spoken to in the last month of two have mentioned budget cuts for the forthcoming year without any adjustment around returns expected, and incidentally the aforementioned folks were talking about approaches to optimize the budget in an effective fashion.

The situation reminds of the old-but-still-relevant saying “need is the mother of all invention”

Barring the fundamental issues around economic downturn, a telco operator in Australia is kind of insulated. Please read Vodafone Australia – Marketing Optimization to know more.

What is Marketing Optimization (MO)?

In a nutshell, MO translates marketing challenges/problems/issues into mathematical equation and recommends approaches to meet the optimized objectives – This is either reduced cost or increased returns.

Interestingly, to leverage the value from marketing optimization, you don’t need to have doctorate in Statistics or need to be technically savvy – Business team with basis understanding of Statistics and Computers would be able to comfortably reap the value. After all, we are using technology to solve business problem, and the solutions are built keeping this in mind.

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However, the real question is, do you, as a marketer want to automate the entire process? You might ask, if it is a relevant question? Yes, it is!

Let me give an analogy in aviation industry. The role of technology in aviation space has increased so much; flying a passenger aircraft from Helsinki to Caracas is possible without having to have a Pilot on board. The engineers behind the scenes at Boeing, Air Bus, Embraer et al is well aware, the instinct of the Pilots on board is something that can, by no means be automated. And, this very instinct is one of the critical factors for sustenance of safe flights.

What can we understand from this analogy? Though, it is possible to automate the marketing, particularly campaign management function much as you want to, it is essential to keep the human touch intact in whatever way you can. Sooner or Later you will realize, this decision has paid-off handsomely in managing customers effectively, i.e. either in managing marketing costs or increasing the returns you get from various marketing programs.

Please do not fall prey to sales-talks from vendors who make automation process look like result of a magic wand swing, do exercise adequate caution before registering what is being told to you.