According to the IDC, we will generate 40 zettabytes (ZB), or 40 trillion GB by 2020. With huge amounts of data being created on a daily basis, are marketers really making the best use of what they have?
Some retailers are leading the way when it comes to creating digital products that make use of their data to create the best possible experiences for their customers, and ensure they are speaking to them in the most efficient way possible.
Following the success of Apple’s innovative in-store payment methods, more and more retailers are choosing to issue their customers with a digital receipt instead of a paper one. By doing so, retailers are able to link what their in store customers are doing, with their actions online. By bridging the ever present gap between on and offline, retailers can now identify a customer’s online and in store behaviour, therefore allowing them to seamlessly track the entire shopper journey. By targeting consumers online with a product which matches one they have recently purchased in store, and letting customers know brands understand their needs, will no doubt improve the customer’s experience.
The benefits to the consumer are clear, no more clutter, and receipts for big ticket products filed neatly away in their inbox. For businesses however, the benefits of bridging the gap between on- and offline are far greater.
Brands, both here and in the US, have been investing in products that span this virtual data gap to enhance their customers’ experiences. Investing in knowing your customer on- and offline helps obtain instantaneous customer feedback, enhance the online buying journey and the path to repeat purchase, increases the number of customer touch points and provides greater insight into customer buying behaviour. Knowing all of this about customers will help retailers to build their business around what the customer truly wants, therefore building loyalty.
Data enables businesses to nurture their customers with highly personalised, useful content, which in turn helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into advocates through marketing automation. This is another huge benefit of being able to link your offline customer behaviour with online.
Good automated customer interaction, that gives customers the information they want, when they want it, is dependent upon the retailer’s ability to store and manipulate relevant data about their customers’ behaviour. This is key to enabling them to send highly personalised and automatic messages. Targeted communications generally result in significant new revenue, and provide an excellent ROI.
When it comes to emails such as receipts, order confirmations, notifications of shipping and password enquiries, sent soon after the customer’s interaction with a retailer, the content must be targeted and personalised. If based on accurate customer data collected both on- and offline, the email is far more likely to be opened and succeed in engaging the customer in valuable conversations, than those that do not fall into this criteria.
A customer-initiated interaction is seven to ten times more likely to result in a sale than a company-initiated interaction or communication. Every opportunity must be analysed to understand the reason behind the interaction between customer and brand. A comprehensive channel strategy allows you to consider how you should manage a customer interaction when a customer engages with you.
Solutions should be aligned to your current business requirements, but also flexible enough to change in real-time, in alignment with your marketing efforts. Your solution should address the needs of real-time marketing so you can quickly analyse message data, integrate customer sessions and ‘Big Data’ insight. This will allow you to decide on the best offer or message to deliver to your customers.
Creating digital products that bring your data from the offline and online worlds will undoubtedly bring you more data. Before embarking on this you should ensure you are able to manage the potential influx it will bring.
Ensuring you have the right data management system in place to manage and extract the value of data will allow you to continue the valuable conversations with your customers. Of equal importance is the ability to adapt and react to incoming data instantly, which will allow you to maintain a competitive edge and is vital to success. The data is there for the taking; through mining the information correctly, and making most of opportunities on- and offline, brands will be able to use data-driven insights that enhance the experience for the customer, and ultimately generate a positive ROI.
By Christopher Kollat, Country Manager UK&I, Marketing Applications at Teradata.
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