Public Art and the Future of Place with Angela Anderson Adams

Inviting artists to play a major role in designing and enhancing the civic realm shouldn’t be the byproduct of a sudden cultural shift brought on by a pandemic. It can’t be an afterthought or a quick fix to creating a unique place that will attract business and residents. And if you ask Arlington’s Public Art Director Angela Anderson Adams, a bold art plan for public art in a community might take nearly 40 years of investment and big visioning.

Quality Digest: Balancing Customer Insights With the Bottom Line

 

The following was written by Greg Kihlström for Quality Digest. Read the original article here.

Customer loyalty and lifetime value are highly prized in today’s competitive environment. Smart businesses know that a major point of competitive advantage (or failure) can be the type of customer experience they provide.

The need to balance what customers want with what the business needs to thrive requires knowing what you want to achieve, gaining meaningful insights into customer needs and expectations, translating those insights into action, and then balancing what your customers are asking for with what benefits your business.

Asking the right questions

For most organizations, the main challenge with customer insights isn’t having enough data. You’re probably flooded with information. The challenge is determining what information is meaningful and what is noise.

It isn’t possible to make the most of your data if you don’t have clear questions relating to what you want to know. In other words, if you don’t know why you’re collecting or reporting on specific data, how can you possibly know what to do with them when you have a report in front of you? You’d just be grasping at straws and hoping you find answers. Thus, before you even begin looking at the numbers, formulate a series of questions about your customers that you want answered.

The following was written by Greg Kihlström for Quality Digest. Read the original article here.

 

The Agile Brand Blog – Greg Kihlström Customer Experience & Digital Transformation  

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YFS: Here’s How World-Class Brands Deliver Lasting CX Results

 

The following was written by Greg Kihlström for YFS Magazine. Read the article in its entirety here.

Greg Kihlstrom, Principal & Chief Strategist at GK5A, reveals how to build long-term brand success by building frameworks that deliver on fundamentals.

Any business’s success depends on its ability to understand and meet the needs of its customers. A customer-centric culture that puts the customer first is essential for businesses seeking to stay competitive in today’s market.

Creating long-term success for a brand means building frameworks that understand, service, and listen to what customers want and need; delivering quality content that resonates with them emotionally; measuring their behavior to improve performance where necessary; and integrating technology into the journey for greater efficiency when it comes time deliver results.

The following was written by Greg Kihlström for YFS Magazine. Read the article in its entirety here.

 

The Agile Brand Blog – Greg Kihlström Customer Experience & Digital Transformation  

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Martechvibe: Achieving Maximum ROI From Personalised Customer Experiences

 

This article was originally written by Greg Kihlström for Martechvibe. You can view the original article here.

Personalisation has become an increasingly important part of modern marketing strategies, especially when it comes to engaging customers online, where competition for attention can be fierce.

By taking this approach, marketers can more effectively target their messages and create more meaningful customer experiences that drive purchasing decisions while strengthening loyalty over time—which are both vital goals in today’s highly competitive landscape.

Achieving successful personalisation efforts can be a daunting task, however, if the right people, processes, and platforms aren’t in place from the start. To maximise return on investment (ROI), organisations must measure not only direct sales but also long-term customer value throughout the journey using methods such as lifetime value calculations or multi-touch attribution tracking (e.g., first-touch or last-touch attribution).

When it comes to launching a personalised marketing campaign that stands out among competitors while delivering tangible results, there are several essential strategies all businesses should consider before getting started. Let’s explore.

This article was originally written by Greg Kihlström for Martechvibe. You can view the original article here.

 

The Agile Brand Blog – Greg Kihlström Customer Experience & Digital Transformation  

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Know Your Buyer: Crafting a Robust, Personalized, Omnichannel Customer Experience

 

This article was originally written by Greg Kihlström for SmallBizClub. Read the original article here.

A fantastic customer experience is the key to a customer-first, employee-driven business transformation. When you call to check on a refund and the customer service representative immediately recognizes you and the purpose of your call, can tell you when the refund is going  to hit your bank account, and can solve any sizing or selection issues that may have led you to seek a return, demands a new way of thinking about customer service. Rather than seeking to close tickets as quickly as possible, brands must focus on delivering the best possible experience across the board.

As customer expectations continue to evolve and shift, businesses must stay ahead of the curve in order to remain competitive. A robust, personalized omnichannel customer experience is essential for any organization that wants to retain their existing customers and attract new ones. But creating such an experience can be tricky; it requires a deep understanding of customers’ needs and preferences, as well as the ability to think modularly and flexibly while building for the future. Let’s take a closer look at some of the challenges enterprises face when attempting to create this kind of customer experience.

This article was originally written by Greg Kihlström for SmallBizClub. Read the original article here.

 

The Agile Brand Blog – Greg Kihlström Customer Experience & Digital Transformation  

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What Marketing Operations is and How to Leverage it for Success

In today’s fast-moving world of competition for customers, marketing operations (Marketing Ops) have become essential for businesses looking to be successful. It combines analytical and creative approaches to enable efficient, quality operations that maximize performance. Marketing Ops is comprised of people, processes, and technologies that all work together to enable success. Let’s break down how businesses can leverage the power of marketing operations.

Overview and Types of Marketing Operations

Businesses of all sizes should take advantage of the various elements that make up effective marketing operations. This includes expanding a manager’s skill set to include analytical skills and creativity while also building a team of professionals who are experienced in their respective fields—from data analysis to content creation.

Marketing Operations are the driving force behind any successful marketing strategy. As a collective approach, it provides clear insight into how tasks, resources, and funds intersect to create quality products and services for customers.

To effectively manage operations, marketing teams must deploy various techniques, such as performance tracking software for effective budgeting, automation of processes with AI platforms to cut down on manual effort and maximize scalability, and other strategies to ensure that each component of the process is in sync with marketing goals. By implementing these solutions, businesses can more effectively align their marketing strategies and be better prepared to handle challenges ahead.

Data Analysis for More Insightful Decision Making

Data analysis is key when it comes to making informed decisions about your marketing strategy. It’s important to collect the right data for successful operations, as well as utilize automation for efficiency and productivity in data analysis. Through data analysis, you’ll be able to gain insights into where customers are spending time and money online, target them with tailored content, understand how different customer segments react to different strategies, and even predict future performance based on existing trends.

Today’s business environment demands organizations to take a combination of analytical and creative approaches in their marketing operations to succeed. Analytical techniques such as data mining, optimization models, and advanced analytics allow marketers to gain valuable insights into customer behavior and improve marketing techniques. At the same time, creative elements can be used to leverage technology so that organizations are able to capture attention and engage prospects effectively on different channels. With the right marriage of analytics and creativity, marketing teams can gain a competitive advantage in the market.

In today’s competitive market, a successful manager must have a comprehensive skill set. In the realm of marketing operations, this involves leading teams with analytical capabilities and creative problem solving. To stay ahead in this field, managers must be comfortable using data to inform decisions as well as coming up with strategies to think outside the box. Understanding how to combine these two perspectives is essential to success in this important role.

Creative Strategies For Audience Engagement

In addition to being able to make more informed decisions with data analysis, leveraging creative strategies can also help you engage your audience more effectively. This includes crafting unique, memorable content; utilizing design elements for visually appealing content; developing relevant images that capture attention; and measuring the impact of these strategies through analytics & A/B testing. All of these elements combine together can create an engaging experience that resonates with your target audience. 

Marketing operations is revolutionizing how brands approach marketing. It combines a wide range of disciplines, including creative approaches like writing copy and designing visuals with technical and analytical processes such as A/B testing, tracking metrics, and optimizing campaigns. This holistic approach enables organizations to become more engaged with their target audience while ensuring they’re getting the most out of their marketing efforts. By understanding how certain tactics impact overall results, marketers can develop an effective strategy that has the potential to deliver remarkable returns. Ultimately, having a strong marketing operations culture gives organizations an edge over the competition when it comes to realizing their goals.

The Role Of Marketing Operations In a Fast-Moving World

Marketing ops teams are an integral part of any business, as they strive to bridge the gap between technology, strategy, and analytics. Professionals working in marketing operations come from diverse backgrounds – an analytical background adds the ability to assess complex data and drive meaningful insights, while those with process-oriented experience are able to develop efficient workflows and enhance scalability of operations. However, the input of a marketing ops professional is far more than just analytics or processes – they should be a strategic partner that provides insight into new opportunities and innovative solutions that lead to actionable outcomes. With their expertise comes the power to transform campaigns into amazing customer experiences.

Marketing operations play a crucial role in today’s competitive landscape—and any business looking for success should leverage its power accordingly. By combining analytical approaches with creative strategies in order to optimize efficiency and maximize performance, businesses can build an effective marketing ops team that enables them to exceed their goals. With the right combination of people, processes, technologies, data analysis tools & creative campaigns—any business can use marketing ops as a powerful tool in their journey towards success!

Blog – GK5A – Agile Business Transformation

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A Leader’s Guide to Measuring the Success of a PMO

The primary goal of the PMO is to ensure that project objectives are met on time and within budget. It helps teams coordinate and collaborate on projects, define roles and responsibilities, create budgets and timelines, track progress, manage risks and issues, and monitor performance measures. When it comes to running a successful enterprise, having an effective Project Management Office (PMO) is essential. But how do you know if your PMO is actually doing its job? Measurement and assessment are key components of any project manager’s toolbox; without them, it’s impossible to determine whether or not you’re meeting your goals.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss what a PMO is, the benefits of using one, and how to measure its success.

Benefits of Using a PMO

Using a PMO brings many benefits to an organization including increased efficiency in project management processes, improved communication between stakeholders and team members, better risk management strategies, more accurate budgeting for projects, enhanced visibility into project progress, faster decision-making capabilities through standardized procedures and processes. Additionally, by having one body oversee all projects within an organization instead of having each individual department managing their own projects independently increases overall visibility into project performance metrics which can help identify areas for improvement or cost savings opportunities.

PMO Best Practices and Benchmarks

It is true that every organization has unique needs for guidance, and creating a set of KPIs (key performance indicators) to reach the desired goals makes sense. The good news is there are common KPIs based on industry best practices that any organization can use as a starting point to create its own tailored set. 

Establishing these benchmarks not only helps measure progress, but they also provide an important reference point in deciding where to focus resources, energy and efforts in order to achieve optimal performance. Furthermore, using globally-recognized KPIs ensures that the measurements are trusted and useful in comparing performance across the industry and among competitors.

Measuring the Success of a PMO

Measuring the success of a PMO requires defining key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used as yardsticks against which progress can be evaluated. Different organizations may have different KPIs due to their unique needs but there should also be some common set of KPIs that all organizations use as baseline measurements such as cost savings achieved on projects over time or number of completed projects versus those still in progress. 

Once these KPIs have been identified then organizations should conduct periodic reviews to evaluate existing KPIs and make adjustments as needed depending on changing business requirements or industry trends over time.   

Additionally, conducting needs analyses can help identify possible shortcomings in the PMOs performance as well as opportunities for improvement by assessing current capabilities compared with customer expectations or industry benchmarks. This information can then be used to design strategies that target those areas where improvements need to made so they can be implemented through collaboration with other teams or departments within the organization if necessary. 

Continuous improvement of the PMO

This includes establishing measurable criteria to accurately evaluate the results of PMO initiatives, as well as ensuring that goals are unambiguous and specified before metrics can be tracked. With a well-defined framework in place, organizations will be positioned to assess the success of their PMO and identify areas for improvement. Ultimately, an effective evaluation process enables businesses to keep projects on track while optimizing resources, driving greater efficiency and increasing value to stakeholders.

A needs analysis is a great tool to have in the PMO’s arsenal in order to identify any potential shortcomings that may be limiting performance. It allows the team to critically assess their processes, systematically evaluate existing resources, and develop fresh ideas to improve results. This kind of thorough examination can reveal opportunities for growth and may even uncover areas needing remedial attention. With a comprehensive needs analysis in place, the PMO can make informed decisions about how to improve its performance and tailor its efforts to best serve the organization. The end result? A more efficient and effective PMO that can add tremendous value to the overall business!

Maintaining an effective Project Management Office (PMO) is essential for any successful business but it’s not enough simply to have one; you need to measure its success too! In this blog post we discussed what a PMO is, why it’s important to use one in your business operations, and how you can go about measuring its success by defining key performance indicators (KPIs), conducting needs analyses and making adjustments accordingly when needed. With these tips in mind you should now have all the necessary tools you need to keep tabs on your organization’s Project Management Office so that it can reach its full potential!

Blog – GK5A – Agile Business Transformation

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MarTech: North Star goals for category leaders: First-party customer view

 

This article was originally written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech. Read the original article here.

Having an effective first-party data strategy means you can balance two sets of customer needs — personalization and privacy.

Today’s customers have two, sometimes opposing needs. They want to receive highly personalized content, offers and experiences while maintaining a high level of data privacy. Enhancing the customer experience and acting as good stewards of customers’ private information is a win-win for brands.

My latest book, “House of the Customer,” outlines four North Star goals that every brand should strive for, no matter how aspirational they may seem. In the previous article in this series, I discussed the first of these goals — providing a truly one-to-one, omnichannel personalized customer experience. 

In this second article in a four-part series, I will discuss having a truly first-party customer view that protects customers’ data while allowing the brand to incorporate accurate insights to provide great experiences.

This article was originally written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech. Read the original article here.

 

The Agile Brand Blog – Greg Kihlström Customer Experience & Digital Transformation  

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