The best marketing plans are a combination of data, customer insight, lessons from the past and educated guesses about the future. But what if, instead of planning, we could enjoy the benefits of a preseason like NFL teams? So I raised the hypothetical with our CEO Mike Caccavale, who like most of the crew in our Boston office, is a big Patriots fan. Here are some of his ideas.

We talk about proactive and reactive behavior in many areas of life – driving, parenting, relationships (guys, buy the flowers before she asks). And as marketers, we see – and dish out – a lot of both. And to some degree, that will always be the case. But there are some areas for improvement in how we handle the balance.

On the way to a conversion or purchase, customers typically interact with multiple touchpoints that are pieces of the marketing puzzle. Customers may encounter a display ad, receive a mobile push notification for a sale at a local store, or research products on your website. All of these interactions play a different role in the customer’s decision-making process.

You’re taking a road trip and spot a fruit and vegetable stand by the side of the road. Excited by the array of silver corn and bushels of ripe peaches, you fill your basket. Unfortunately, the stand only takes cash and all you have is a credit card, so you reluctantly leave your produce behind. 

The customer journey is made up of the stages of interactions between your brand and the customer. Increasingly, the customer journey has become omnichannel, with customers moving between devices as they research products and services.

We know a lot more about our customers than we did ten or twenty years ago. Where marketers once ran campaigns rooted in broad-sweeping assumptions and “one size fits all” messaging, today’s consumer requires a lot more nuance. Luckily, we have the data to inform our decisions. But the discussion always comes back to whether we’re using the right data – and what are we doing with it?

The key to developing profitable, long-term customer relationships is finding a way to personalize the customer experience. According to a study by Infosys, 70% of American consumers are encouraged to spend 13% more with companies that offer stand-out customer service. In response, marketing is increasingly moving away from mass, push-based marketing strategy to one that learns from and adapts to the consumer.

The concept of an influencer strategy isn’t anything new. Ask any business owner and they’ll say word of mouth is a key driver to gaining new customers. Scale that for larger brands and the approach requires much more than asking your customer to grab an extra business card on their way out.

The rise of mobile has changed the face of marketing. Consumers increasingly use mobile to evaluate products and services and make purchasing decisions. An additional challenge has emerged to complicate the marketing landscape. Customers aren’t just using one type of device to make transactions.

Nothing can fragment a marketing meeting like the subject of segmentation – and I don’t mean that in a good way. People are using market segmentation and customer segmentation interchangeably and while arguably one shouldn’t exist without the other, they are quite different and need to be treated as such.