There’s no denying that customer data is critical for success in today’s competitive retail environment, but you can only deliver a personalised and relevant experience to customers if you use your customer data effectively.
With the volume of customer touchpoints now available, obtaining this data is no longer a challenge – it’s what comes next that is critical. Follow these five rules to undertake campaigns that directly engage customers, deliver a personalised experience, and help secure a sale.
Rule one: Chose quality over quantity
Successful data-driven marketing comes down to using the right data, in the right way, at the right time. But with so much data being generated, marketers looking to create meaningful customer experiences must start by ensuring it is fit for the purpose. You want to feel confident that your decisions are based on quality insights, which will allow you to deliver a more relevant customer experience. Investing time to single out clean, complete data sets will provide a better starting point for you to undertake the appropriate segmentation and personalisation.
Rule two: Set measures for success
Establishing succinct clear goals helps to maintain the proper focus throughout a campaign. Marketers must be clear on the business goals and build a strategy to help achieve them. Don’t try everything at once. It’s best to get the basics down before broadening a campaign out further. Pick the primary targets and focus. As technology developments continue to push the edge of understanding customer habits and preferences, marketers must consider the best new tactics that can achieve specific goals (such as increased sales).
There has never been a better opportunity to show a customer that they are valued and understood, but campaigns are only going to be improved by undertaking continual tracking and benchmarking. It’s about more than promoting a matching necklace to earring buyers. Run the campaign, and then measure performance from start to finish to see what works and what needs improvement.
Rule three: Build the 360 view of the customer
All marketers should focus on using data insights to stand out alongside the competition and engage consumers with relevant messages to encourage purchase journey. Today’s tech-savvy customers expect true personalisation in every interaction, not just “Hello FirstName” at the top of the email. The key challenge is understanding how to unite all the data points – in-store, online, mobile, social, etc. – to deliver an enriched understanding of the individual, and provide a consistent experience.
With attention spans continuing to drop, responding to a customer in real-time and understanding the context of their behaviour at that moment is becoming increasingly important. Investing in tools that provide this 360-degree view of the multi-channel customer will allow brands to acquire, engage and convert customers, while also building long-term loyalty.
Rule four: Don’t be afraid to try something new
Customer expectations aren’t the only thing driving changes. New technology also creates opportunities for brands to engage on a personal level – if a brand is brave enough. Marketers are feeling pressure to deliver more differentiated campaigns to compete in a crowded market. New marketing technology can make the difference between mediocre performance and a stand-out campaign.
One example is adding a browse abandonment strategy to successful basket abandonment campaigns – engaging customers earlier in the purchase journey. The exact offer could be anything from a simple incentive to related product recommendations. Since you’re ultimately looking for new ways to increase overall sales, so don’t forget to track and evaluate the ROI.
Rule five: Keep an open mind
Omnichannel marketing campaigns require a flexible customer-centric approach, adjusting to changes in customer preferences. Marketing strategies have to evolve with the customers, the products and the technology. Brands should always approach data-driven strategies with an open mind and be flexible. For example, with mobile commerce expected to be an even larger part of customers’ daily lives, brands must adapt their strategies to consider mobile shopper preferences.
Marketers have never had a better opportunity to get under the skin of their customers to deliver personalised, relevant experiences based on real-time insights. Keeping these five rules at the core of your marketing strategies will ensure a solid foundation for building successful lucrative customer relationships.