IBM Marketing VP Ari Sheinkin: This is the marketer’s moment

Watch Ari Sheinkin's presentation

In times of great upheaval, it’s difficult for marketers to find their footing. Making data-driven decisions to reach the right customer at the right moment is a central goal for any marketing department. But this becomes especially tricky during turbulent times. There’s the need to reach out to your clients, many of whom may be going through some of the worst or most unsettled moments of their lives, with empathy and precision. Balance is key.

“This is the moment where knowing your audience matters,” said Ari Sheinkin, IBM Performance Marketing and Analytics Vice President, during a Think Leadership livestream on April 14, part of IBM's series of livestreams on how companies are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. “It’s going to be a transformational moment for many brands. This is the marketer’s moment. This is not the time when you want to be average.”

Sheinkin oversees the intelligence organization behind all of IBM's marketing and digital sales efforts. For most of his career he’s been in consulting and strategy, working with senior business and government leaders on applying data and analytics.

Sheinkin predicts the current crisis may forever alter businesses. One potential change for better marketing: more reliance on building digital connections with customers and prospects. The past month has provided a glimpse of that future. At IBM, web visits and registrations are up 20% since the start of the U.S. crisis.

Sheinkin believes part of the reason is the way IBM has been providing its technological and organizational expertise to the global effort to counter COVID-19. 

“In a time of crisis, we’re trying to reach people as individuals,” he said. “The more you can get to the granularity of the individual, the better. People will remember brands for how they behave in a time of crisis.”

During the livestream, Sheinkin addressed questions from clients in the audience and others he has spoken to in recent weeks:

This is such a disorienting time for everyone. As a marketer, where do you begin?

It starts with getting back to fundamentals. Too often, we as marketers get lost in a sea of conferences and events and updating webpages. We get buried in that stuff. But right now it’s time to strip away the complexity and get back to the core of the client experience. And the most important part is listening to your audience, so you can help guide them through this crisis period. Let them tell you what they need and what’s best. Then do your best to provide it.

How do you do that?

Wake up in the morning and look at what your audience’s behavior is that day. Open up Google Trends or a tool like that. Look at what people are searching for today and respond to those needs. Don’t bother reacting to the trend data from three months ago, or going back to your agency and asking for more reports.

Right now, you can’t just rely on analytics or A/B testing. That's part of what's so exciting about being digital—that immediacy. It’s the ability to look at the here and now, see the topics that are surging, and then respond accordingly.

Is the core concept of building customer “personas” becoming irrelevant in a world shaped by a global crisis?

Personas are useful tools, especially when you’re sitting with your agency and thinking about creative messaging. You want to have an image of whom you're talking to: “This is Melissa, she’s the COO and she likes A, B and C.” But that's not what modern marketing looks like now.

We have to look at all the signals people provide—not the persona slots they may fit into. There’s an individual human being here, with a point of view and interests. If there was ever a moment to set aside the old personas and start understanding the human being behind the profile, this is that moment. The difference it makes for us is enormous. Our customers are facing unprecedented challenges. So let's meet them where they are.

Beyond the day-to-day, what should we be thinking about long-term?

We’ve spent so much time considering the defensive aspects of the crisis—keeping our workers safe, our data secure and our businesses operating—and that’s critical. But it’s also time to look forward, to how you can reform a company and the functions within. This is the time to try new things.

If you’ve wanted to create a culture of experimentation, this is the time to do it. Build a framework that lets you experiment. Let your audience determine if it works. Engage with them. Tell them you’re trying new things in real time. Listen to what they have to say. In a digital world, you always know something about your customer—they got there through some click or another, and that tells you something about who they are and what they want. Remember that an experimental experience must also be personalized and relevant. 

It's a rough time for a lot of people. How do you walk the line between empathy and the traditional marketing role of promoting sales?

It revolves around the language you use and whether you provide the experiences people want. IBM launched a COVID-19 page, because people need to hear from us at this moment in time about our broader view of this crisis. But we’re not actively marketing around that. It’s not how we are going to engage with them.

At IBM, we’re very focused on business continuity. We want to present that assurance to our clients and prospects. What do you want when you're uncertain? More information. Some of our audience is just looking for practical solutions today for their business, to make sure it survives and thrives. We want to provide that.

→ Visit the IBM News Room's complete coverage of IBM's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

→ See the full lineup of the IBM Think Leadership Livestream series.