New truth: Customers expect you to have exactly what they want.

Consumers today expect that any experience will be frictionless, anticipatory, relevant, and connected. In other words, they are concerned only with getting what they want, when they want it. And they insist nothing gets in their way.

New truth: Courting customers is just like online dating.

For a long time, marketing was largely about going to as many parties or bars as you could in the hope you would find that special someone. It was a world of spontaneity, serendipity, and a lot of face-to-face encounters.

Enter online dating and, now, finding your perfect match may be less about chance and more about data and algorithms. There has been a shift from reaching new people to reaching the right people for generating leads.

New truth: Customers must sit at the heart of your customer journey.

We must remember that marketing is often just the beginning of a relationship with the customer. For example, we go through a journey of engaging them, converting them to a sale directly or indirectly, and then hopefully retaining them so they become advocates and potentially open to upsells and cross-sells.

Marketing must be viewed in the context of the full end-to-end journey and, where possible, work to connect the dots.