Two main points from our last blog, lead us into our current discussion on personalization. 1. Personalization is about tailoring your marketing tactics to deliver the most relevant product, service and experience to the right customer segment at the right time. And 2., According to recent research, creating personalized customer experiences in particular help many businesses increase their top lines.
What does that look like today? According to Segment’s 2017 State of Personalization Report, consumers demand fast action and personalized communication in nearly every channel almost as soon as they choose to identify themselves to a brand. Respondents provided three important reasons for companies to take quick action: 54% expect to get a personalized offer, 63% say it will drive loyalty, and 45% acknowledge it is the most compelling way to get them to add another item to their cart.
Digital Personalization Opportunities
For companies with ecommerce sites, personalization is key to delivering the type of highly personal experience customers definitely expect. Segment data found that companies that can deliver on current customer personalization expectations are rewarded in the following ways:
- 44% are likely to become repeat buyers
- 49% make an impulse purchase
- 40% make a more expensive purchase
The Report also makes the case for businesses just beginning the personalization process to start with their website. Approximately half of customers rank websites and email as the top two most important channels for personalization. The channel most lacking? In-store personalization – as only 17% of respondents thought companies were handling this well.
Customers clearly expect companies to know and remember who they are whether they are on a digital channel or in-person. This means personalization needs to be handled through digital channels and through personal communication. Companies’ employees need to be able to quickly and efficiently demonstrate their worth to customers. As a Corporate Visions’ study found, 74 percent of buyers choose the sales representative that was first to add value.
In-person Personalization Opportunities
Companies must recognize that buyers are more informed and empowered than ever before. For sales teams in particular it’s harder today to connect with prospects and that’s because they have so many channels to receive information. Data now reveals it takes twice the number of attempts to get an appointment compared to 10 years ago. So businesses must change the way they sell and provide customer service to match how people buy.
Personalization Tactics
According to the Customer Experience Professionals Association, a big component of this new strategy requires personalization. Personalizing in-store interactions by adding insight and value helps differentiate your company in often-crowded marketplaces. Personalization approaches can require data mining and system integration, which can be complex and require specialized expertise to implement. However, taking an agile and interactive approach, companies can implement some rather straightforward personalization tactics to help increase initial customer engagement and retention by:
- Responding immediately to inquiries through their preferred channel
- Delivering information in-store beyond what’s available online
- Sending proactive alerts related to and beyond your products and services
- Sending personalized offers
- Providing product and warranty notifications
Prioritizing personalization leads to creating an enhanced customer experience across all channels throughout the marketing and sales cycle. With effort and resources dedicated to creating a personalized customer experience, companies will see a return on customer engagement, loyalty, and retention. Let Modern Marketing Partners provide you with a data-driven personalization strategy that offers your customers smart content through the digital channels where they live and shop every day.
