Customers have come to expect personalisation as the norm, they’re now more tuned in than ever to trends and issues and expect brands to engage with them. This has led to businesses constantly pushing the boundaries of customer personalisation. Take for example easyjet, which to mark its 20th anniversary, launched a data-driven campaign that brought each customer’s travel history on the airline to life, using customer data to build personal stories meant that the customer felt valued and part of the bigger picture.
From offers to product recommendations the average common person’s feed is packed full of updates from businesses vying to build and maintain a loyal customer base. With such a competitive and saturated market it’s imperative that business owners and marketers fine tune their personalisation approach.
By giving consumers a unique experience, businesses can retain and gain customers to encourage longstanding loyalty. Surprisingly, in a survey conducted by Experian, 87% of customers stated that they found it acceptable for businesses to use personal data, which suggests that companies need to capitalise on this more. a line must be drawn as to what data should be appropriately leveraged. Take for example, Facebook’s myPersonality project which found that data mining Facebook messages could reveal substance abusers. Luckily all participants had agreed to disclose their data, but imagine if they hadn’t? This would be a deep invasion of personal privacy.
It’s vital that marketing teams work to personalise for the customer but they must feel valued rather than harassed. So what steps can companies take to ensure that this is the case?
Making the most of your data
With the average person estimated to spend five years of their lives on social media, the trail of data for companies to garner information from is multiplying. Buried beneath our activity lies our personal interests, hobbies and livelihoods, giving businesses insight into what people crave and providing them with information that would otherwise be unavailable to them. The challenge is for businesses to use these stories to hit the right audience on a worthwhile scale. Armed with effective platforms a company can trace a person’s digital footprint in seconds. Businesses are beginning to realise that it’s not enough to simply own this data, it must be used to personalise the customer experience.
Gone are the days of mass email marketing, it must now deliver something bespoke to the customer, something that will guarantee engagement. Firms are now using large data sets – big data – to produce innovative incentives, such as personalised loyalty schemes. These schemes are sure fire way to impress customers and benefit the business. With a report by McKinsey concluding that personalisation can increase company profits from 5% to 15%, everyone’s a winner when data is used to deliver meaningful and intelligent marketing campaigns.
The power of word of mouth
It’s a fact that people trust each other more than they trust a business or brand, with 92% of consumers worldwide saying that they trust word of mouth more than any other type of advertising. When content is real, it inspires emotion and validates the company. Many successful businesses have come on leaps and bounds because they actively rely on opinions from peers. Take for example TripAdvisor, which uses real life experiences to generate its information. The use of consumer generated content (UGC) is fundamental to the customer experience, with a report by Gartner revealing that 84% of our generation are heavily influenced by what strangers buy.
Businesses can also leverage UGC to enhance their marketing strategies. Where social media might not play a key role in business growth for financial or legal businesses, companies can create personal videos and use real life experiences to show ‘actual’ customer engagement. Take for example SalesForce’s Idea Exchange. Its innovative information-sharing platform is brimming with UGC, providing readers with exactly what they need and giving real support. The site covers anything from marketing strategies to nuggets of information on the IoT and the cloud – it features content generated by people, for people.
In our digital world where millions of companies are all offering similar services, customer experience is the what makes or breaks a business. Marketing has advanced hugely from the early days of in-store pop-ups and now must directly benefit the individual. Yes, the digital age has made marketing much more diverse, but if businesses are to cut through the clutter and stay ahead personalisation needs to be a priority and businesses must show that they care about their customers.
As Dale Carnegie rightly said, ‘to be interesting, be interested’. After all, when customers are valued, they will be brand faithful and businesses will be able to successfully meet the demands of our digital generation.
By Sue Mullen, director of The Mission Marketing Group and managing director of Story UK
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