FCustomer Relationship Management (CRM) and Analytic Centers of Excellence (CoEs) can create a profitable growth engine for performance marketing companies and for agencies. Tailored organizational structures are crucial, taking into account the unique needs, goals, maturity stage, desire for integration, and expense parameters of the organization.

Understand your Analytic Team

In scenarios where there's already a robust analytics team in place, the creation of a CRM CoE requires a deep understanding of the internal analytic teams and their capabilities. Analytic teams may not all be equally steeped in Experimental Design and the process/production rigor necessary for execution and accurate performance reporting. The integration of CRM strategies here demands marketers who think in terms of test and learn, controls and hypothesis testing. They may need to help steer the analytics team to go beyond report generation and into univariate and multivariate testing and interpretation.

Understand your Marketing Team

Another critical consideration when building a CRM CoE is how your current marketers think about marketing campaigns. Do they see marketing campaigns as “episodic events” or as “always-on marketing”? The shift from episodic to "always on" thinking requires a specialized team of CRM strategists and analysts. CRM strategists need to emphasize the importance of test-and-learn methodologies, while analysts must translate statistical performance outputs into compelling data stories that drive continuous improvement.

Converting “Episodic Thinkers” to “Always on Thinkers”

Building a team capable of transforming episodic thinkers into advocates of an "always on" approach is not easy. The CRM CoE must act as a training ground, equipping marketing strategists with an experimental design mindset needed for sustained, data-driven customer engagement. This involves not just a one-time training session but an ongoing process that fosters a culture of continuous improvement through experimentation. Interestingly, a major barrier to developing this mindset is a “fear to fail” corporate culture. The foundation and driving force behind experimentation is failure!

You must carefully assess your analytics landscape, marketing team landscape and execution landscape to customize the CoE structure to ensure a sustainable shift to performance marketing. Whether integrating with existing analytics teams or reshaping marketing teams/strategies, the key lies in fostering a culture and understanding of experimentation.