- Get a singular view of all your customers engaging with your brand in various channels.
- Think beyond marketing tactics around seasonal holidays to launch products and other “point-in-time” promotions.
- A more robust product recommendation engine can factor out anomalies and one-time events.
by AnnMarie Willis
There is a way to achieve your goals by leveraging the data you already have. Simply put, brands have the power to connect first-party, real-time data to every customer visit in a much more personal manner. When used effectively, there have been amazing results, such as a 150 percent increase in return on ad spend, 4x growth in transactions, and triple the growth in customer loyalty.
The following three tips will help you optimize your data and grow your bottom line:
1. Make Sense of Your Data
Customers leave valuable clues about their buying habits with every interaction and site visit. Whether you are announcing a bundle offer on Instagram or updating a deal in a newsletter, that first-party data is invaluable, but it can also be overwhelming.
Bring all of your data into a Customer Data Platform, Data Warehouse first, Modern Data Stack, or Composable Customer Data Platform. There are a variety of architecture methods to fit your use cases. This will give you a singular view of all your customers engaging with your brand in various channels and allow you the ability to build a personalized customer journey.
2. Show Your Customers You Know Them
More than 70 percent of consumers expect personalization to be standard, according to studies by McKinsey. Other research has found it to be as high as 80 percent. Leverage Lab believes the best way to use data is to map the customer journey through awareness, consideration, intention, conversion, and loyalty. Then, build a framework and communication plan to personalize messages at every stage. This is being “customer-obsessed” in the truest sense, by fortifying that relationship using real-time data to earn customer trust.
If brands make a little extra effort to personalize a customer visit based on data and behavior, it translates into better customer outcomes. Think beyond marketing tactics around seasonal holidays to launch products and other “point-in-time” promotions. You are missing the opportunity to be personal and agile with the customer experience. Companies that nail personalization grow 40 percent faster than their counterparts, as seen in the report by McKinsey.
3. Re-Think Your Product Recommendation Tool
Most recommendation or personalization tools do not go far enough to grow your business, nor do they take advantage of what your customer will likely buy during the golden moment of point-of-sale. Some tools are static, based on top sellers or what is trending now, and might not pertain to the shopper at that exact moment.
With a more robust product recommendation engine, you can factor out anomalies and one-time events. Take a look at the data you are collecting and consider a change if you are leaving money on the table. When done right, you should be seeing a 150 percent increase in return on ad spend, 4x growth in transactions, and triple the growth in customer loyalty than before you personalized the customer journey at every stage.
AnnMarie Wills is the co-founder and CEO of Leverage Lab. With more than 20 years of experience, AnnMarie has worked with forward-thinking businesses around the globe that believe in the power of first-party data to create deeper relationships and new revenue opportunities with every connection.