The CXM strategies shaping marketing in 2024 (and beyond)

From AI-powered offer decisioning to human-centric CXM, these ‘trends’ are worth paying attention to.

This year feels like the first in a while that we’ve been able to step back and look at global shifts in marketing. Since 2020 or maybe earlier, effective CXM has felt like an uphill battle. But now things are settling. We can start to make long-term plans again after several years spent more or less reacting.

This is more than just a feeling. Industry news, leadership surveys, our clients’ challenges, customer sentiment and even tech vendor choices are all slowly but surely moving in one direction: customer-centric CXM that builds long-term value .

Customer centricity is shaping CXM in 2024

It’s more of a movement towards authentic, real-time, data-driven value exchanges. These are the good customer experiences that grow brands.

So, as you work through these CXM ‘trends’ shaping 2024, keep in mind that we’ve cherry-picked the strategies that will increase your chances of fostering long-term loyalty through mutually beneficial experiences.

1.     Business goals become the north star

Gone are the days when we’d get giddy over vanity metrics. In 2024, it’s all about taking the long view and gauging marketing’s success by its contribution to business outcomes.

CXM success won’t be measured in likes and shares but in steady, needle-moving results.

This prediction might seem at odds with the current obsession over ROI. Like in late 2022, when MarketingWeek reported that 77% of CMOs felt “under pressure to prove their campaigns are providing enhanced short-term return on investment”.

But in another survey fielded by PwC last August, 54% of CMOs planned to increase investment into customer loyalty, compared to 44% investing in short-term lead gen.

PwC’s advice for CMOs is solid: if you’re investing in loyalty, prioritise audiences where loyalty can become a growth engine.

2.     Human-centric CX

Around three-quarters (73%) of people describe themselves as “channel-agnostic”, according to Google.

Brands need to meet customers where they are instead of chasing them around the internet with stale cookie crumbs.

That means thinking less about channels and more about consistent, quality experiences. This is the year to prioritise omnichannel CXM and first-party data.

Cohesive data

Gather first-party data (e.g. through preference centres, 360° customer profiles and 1:1 engagement) to understand how individuals prefer to receive communication; on which channel, on what days, and how often.

Consistent experiences

There’s no line between traditional/social and online/offline channels anymore. It’s not just blurry; it’s gone.

As a result, brand experiences and customer service should be consistent across every touchpoint. That looks like:

• Sharing data so sales and marketing are on the same page
• Standardising brand voice across every touchpoint
• Reviewing customer journeys and automations to eliminate cross-contamination
• Maintaining good data hygiene so customer profiles are up-to-date

Remember: omnichannel marketing doesn’t mean broadcasting product-led messaging on hundreds of channels. It means an integrated, customer-centric approach that responds to customer behaviour to deliver a consistent experience.

Continuous profiling

After consistency comes continuity. Great customer experiences are progressive, building on previous interactions to personalise the next (regardless of the channel it happens on) and improve offer decisioning.

Brands that seek and act on first-party data to refine and personalise customer experiences over time will excel in the customer-centric era. This is where customer journey orchestration tools like Adobe Journey Optimiser come into the picture.

3.     The AI craze comes to CXM

Generative AI might be all the rage in marketing ops, but we’re more interested in what analytical AI is doing behind the scenes in CXM.

Brands are gathering more data than ever. Customers expect more personalised and accessible services in exchange. That’s going to encourage exciting use cases for analytical AI:

• Personalisation at scale: By incorporating tools to analyse data, segment audiences and predict preferences, you could offer personalised offer decisioning and customised content in greater numbers.
• Predictive analytics: AI is becoming more confident at giving marketers a heads-up on customer behaviour, including purchase potential, churn likelihood, and cross-sell opportunities.
• Better attribution: In a non-linear, non-campaign world, understanding which tactic or series of tactics has the most impact on customers is a game-changing insight.
• Journey orchestration: It’s early days, but we expect AI to take over more journey orchestration and offer decisioning tasks in the coming years.

A lot of this AI potential is built on a foundation of probabilistic modelling that uses existing data to round out incomplete customer profiles.

You’ll see probabilistic identity matching, probabilistic attribution, probabilistic segmentation – these all use data as a springboard to make educated predictions about unknown or only-kinda-known visitors.

Deterministic modelling (the flip-side to probabilistic) is better for truly bespoke content, but probabilistic is increasingly helpful to expand a brand’s reach and kick-start first-party data projects.

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4.     Zero-copy architecture and real-time processing

Data processing usually involves copying information from one location to another, which adds overhead and latency. As you might have guessed, zero-copy architecture eliminates this unnecessary copying by granting requesting applications direct access to records.

Eliminating the need to copy data between different layers of storage and applications can enable real-time personalisation, dynamic pricing and proactive customer support.

For example, a customer support chatbot powered by zero-copy architecture can access real-time customer data and provide personalised responses without delays.

Zero-copy architecture is becoming increasingly important as demand for real-time CX experiences grows. It also benefits businesses by simplifying data management, reducing CPU requirements and alleviating network congestion issues.

That said, implementing zero-copy architecture often requires an overhaul of existing data processing systems. Before pitching the investment, you’ll want to be crystal clear on how faster data processing will enhance customer experiences.

5.     Head in the clouds, feet on the ground

Cloud-based CXM

Customer experience software took a while to evolve, mainly due to concerns over shifting data management off the premises. Now that most vendors have solved those privacy and security concerns, cloud SaaS models are the standard for CXM platforms.

In our experience, cloud-based CXM is significantly better for big organisations. As well as being more scalable, flexible and cost-effective, cloud platforms tend to tie in with other applications and processes more seamlessly.

UCaaS

UCaaS, or Unified Communications as a Service, combines voice, video, messaging and collaboration tools into a single, integrated platform. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Nextiva and Cisco WebEx have emerged as leaders in this space.

Increasingly, we’re seeing these platforms pivot closer to customer-facing. Contact centre solutions are setting the pace, extending the benefits of a unified system to incorporate customer service functionality. Maybe 2024 is the year when customer support workflows become truly integrated.

6.     CXM cleans house

The martech landscape has exploded, with 11,000+ platforms on offer today. There’s a tool for every little thing, and the haphazard nature of growth saw businesses bolting on a bespoke function instead of investing in excess capacity.

Naturally, this created data siloes with walls a mile thick. It’s also a spectacular waste of money. Gartner reckons martech stack utilisation has fallen from 58% in 2020 to just 33% in 2023.

Now, as more businesses lean into omnichannel CXM and audience-of-one progressive profiling, those walls – and wasted costs – need to come down.

Integrated martech stacks are the way to do it. Whether that means streamlining CXM functionality with a full-scope vendor, or gradually integrating platforms with sympathetic APIs, the goal is to centralise data collection, analysis and activation by reining in martech sprawl.

The benefits of martech stack consolidation

• Reduce costs by eliminating redundant and unused licenses, simplifying platform maintenance, and freeing up IT resources.
• Increase efficiency by reducing the time spent switching between platforms and translating data between tools.
• Improved data visibility and insights by consolidating data from multiple tools into a single platform to gain a holistic view of customer journeys.
• Enhance cross-channel marketing by managing content, creative and collateral for consistency and personalised marketing across all touchpoints.

7.     Getting closer to customers

In response to a few seismic shifts in data privacy regulations, third-party tracking deprecation and evolving customer expectations, CDPs (customer data platforms) are increasingly popular.

CDPs integrate data from multiple sources to create comprehensive, unified customer profiles. This allows businesses to understand their customers more deeply, predicting behaviours and preferences more accurately.

Established CDPs  Adobe Real-Time CDP, Tealium and Zeta are entering 2024 ahead of the pack, although  aren’t far behind.

The big differentiator in the next 3-5 years will be a CDP’s ability to translate multi-channel insight into real-time personalisation and targeted offer decisioning. Not only when customers interact with a brand but predicting the moment they are most likely to engage.

Customer-centric data governance

Where’s the line between personalised marketing and creepy CXM? Most users know that brands track their online behaviour, but the industry’s increased focus on first-party data raises concerns about privacy, security and ethics.

Customer-centric data governance encourages businesses to collect, use and store customer information responsibly, upholding privacy principles and ethical standards.

In practice, this looks like:

• Transparently communicating data collection practices
• Obtaining explicit consent
• Communicating the purpose for collecting data
• Implementing strong security measures
• Establishing retention and deletion guidelines
• Giving customers access to their data
• Reporting data breaches
• Ensuring discrimination and unfair targeting never happen

These practices build trust with customers – and avoid getting on the wrong side of regulators.

The central theme running through CXM in 2024

It’s hard to know whether customer demands, increasing competition or greater flexibility in martech is the biggest driving force behind CXM evolutions in 2024. Maybe all are – or maybe none. Maybe customers are just fed up with brands that half-arse half-genuine engagement.

What’s clear is that things are changing. Businesses need to step up their CXM game, which starts with taking an honest look at the current state of customer-centricity.

In 2024, everything is coming back to the customer.

Decisions about team structure, tech investments, data management, AI adoption, and even long-term CXM strategy should all be made based on what’s best for customers.

Not only because it’s mutually fulfilling but also because customer-centric companies do better over time, earning loyalty that goes far beyond short-term campaign ROI.

So, if you carry one thing into 2024, it’s the all-round importance of putting the customer first. Keep that as your guiding principle and you’ll do just fine.

Not sure how? Reach out to TAP CXM for help evolving your organisation from product-led to customer-centric.