There’s a notion among marketers that the way to provide the best customer experience is to have the richest data. After all, to CMOs and most modern marketers, data is basically the key to unlocking customer success. But to provide those marquee customer experiences, there’s a myth swirling around that the only way to have success is if all your data sets live in one place. You need the mythical “single source of truth.” But is a single source of truth actually attainable in today’s oversaturated martech ecosystem? Paul Cowan is the CMO of FreshBooks, and he isn’t so sure.
“Having a single source of truth is next to impossible. I haven't been in any organization where anybody said, ‘Man, our data is in a perfect state. Here it is. Here's our 360 view of the customer. We're done, clap your hands and walk away.’ That doesn't exist. You need to have your single source of truth in terms of what you believe success looks like, and everybody's aligned to that...But I think being able to have that 360 view of the customer is the hard part.”
Having a better understanding of who your customers are is something all marketers are striving for today, and it’s something that Paul and his team are working toward. But while a single source of truth might not be attainable, there are avenues to create a clearer picture to work with. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Paul joined me for a fun conversation covering a host of topics, including what it will mean to build FreshBooks’ data strategy to target an SMB market in dire need of reliable insights. Paul and I also discussed how FreshBooks reorganized its marketing department to eliminate siloed segments, and why the best marketers need to have an understanding of their sales counterparts. Enjoy!
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