The client for the marketing consultant's interim mandate was a multi-channel distance retailer that is one of the larger mail order companies in Germany. Among other things, the company operates online stores in a number of European countries with several hundred employees.
At the beginning of the project, new and existing customer marketing was largely carried out without automated processes and a sufficient data basis. Instead, most processes were handled manually. This applied not only to a single brand from the mail order company's product range, but essentially to each of the offers in the company's numerous online stores. Almost all processes were decentralized - and thus without the use of possible synergies.
Choosing the Marketing Cloud solution
The interim marketing consultant presented the use of a Marketing Cloud solution and the establishment of a central team as an internal service provider for all brands as a solution. With the involvement of the relevant stakeholders, he started a systematic selection process together with the team from the company. At the beginning, the requirements were recorded in the form of use cases and technical framework conditions. Based on this catalog of requirements, he evaluated potential marketing cloud providers, who were invited to present a proof of concept. The team created a decision matrix that enabled an objective selection of the best possible marketing cloud provider.
Central marketing team and cloud leverage synergies
A central marketing team was set up in parallel, which was specifically selected to meet the requirements of the marketing cloud and the marketing channels to be used. There was no brand loyalty; the focus was exclusively on technical expertise. All employees were recruited from the market. The interim manager was also responsible for managing the onboarding.
Agile rollout: prioritized use cases and sprint planning
The rollout was based on the use cases created and prioritized in advance. It began with a pilot brand as part of sprint planning. Further brands were added iteratively. The organization was carried out exclusively in agile teams and methods.
Milestones in corporate development
The large number of use cases, markets and channels as well as the connection of data sources in the roll-out was and is challenging. A de facto end to the roll-out will probably never be reached, as the requirements and applications are constantly evolving. However, with the selected Marketing Cloud solution and the qualified team of specialists, the company is now in a position to master these digital conversion requirements in the long term. The KPIs achieved so far in the marketing channels used via the Marketing Cloud and the establishment of a central competence center are major milestones in the company's development.
