Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

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Retailers missing valuable insights from customer data

Only one in three retail businesses have a records and information manager, compared to traditional process- and compliance-based industries such as manufacturing, where 46% have one, energy (48%) and financial services (50%).

Over a third (38%) of the retailers surveyed in a study of European and US mid-sized businesses admit they don't fully know what their records and information professionals do, and less than half (45%) say the role currently adds significant value to the organisation. This compares with the three quarters of business leaders in manufacturing (79%) and energy (74%) who say they understand clearly what their records and information managers do.

However, despite their uncertainty of what records and information managers currently contribute, 92% of retailers believe information professionals should play an important role in making the most of the organisation's information.

Harnessing the full value of customer data while keeping it safe and compliant is becoming increasingly important for success and brand reputation in consumer-focused businesses, and the retail sector was an early adopter of data analytics as a means to better understand its customers.

It is therefore important to understand why the contribution of records and information managers appears to be so misunderstood. One explanation could be that the records and information professionals employed by these businesses are confined to more traditional content types; with little responsibility for emerging and unstructured forms of content that are rapidly growing in importance and use in consumer sectors.

For example, around three quarters of records and information managers in retail businesses are responsible for the management of customer data (71%) and email (76%), with just a quarter involved with external social media content (29%) and mobile communications (37%).

The good news is that these trends do not necessarily herald the extinction of this key information management role. Despite the marked differences uncovered in both the understanding and employment of records and information managers, business leaders across all sectors are unanimous about the valuable skills the role could offer in the coming years.

For around two-thirds of business leaders, these skills include the ability to approach information with a strategic outlook and an awareness of wider business goals (61%); the confidence to communicate effectively across other teams and departments (68%); the ability to make information easily accessible (64%); along with compliance, security and digital transformation skills (62%).

"While there are signs that the natural habitat of the records and information manager is disappearing, the future looks bright for those willing to adapt," said Sue Trombley, managing director of thought leadership for Iron Mountain. "Companies in all sectors are becoming more customer- and data-driven. They want to exploit information where possible for business success and competitive advantage. As a result, customer-focused data flows are now getting as much attention as more traditional processes aimed at protecting information. Our study supports a view that records and information managers can play an active role in enabling the transition to a data-driven future. We urge them to embrace the new information landscape and to build the skills and expertise they need to thrive. Extinction is not a given, but evolution is inevitable."

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)