With the rise of online shopping, some consumer relationship elements of the traditional shopping experience have been lost, as customers now browse through generic websites looking for the best deal. However, retailers have finally started to adapt by offering more personalised customer experiences through the use of email driven membership schemes and loyalty programmes. We’ve also seen sites such as Amazon tailoring recommendations based on a customer’s shopping and browsing histories. However, not many e-commerce brands are truly taking advantage of the opportunities to offer their customers a truly personalised experience, so there’s a real potential for tuned-in companies in 2015.
Personalisation in email marketing is now becoming common practice amongst many brands; however the experience often ends when consumers click through to the website and are faced with generic and static content. So much effort gets put into making the customer feel special and individual at the start of the journey, and very often this is where it ends.
A study by Janrain showed that 74% of consumers get annoyed with content that doesn’t reflect their interest, which has slowly spurred marketers towards offering a more personalised customer experience online. This progression of personalisation to other digital platforms isn’t a new marketing concept entirely, as good integrated marketing strategies aim to get the right content in front of the right audience at the right time; and marketers know that by providing customers with relevant informative content at each stage of the purchasing process, companies can increase engagement and conversions. However, a recent survey by Econsultancy/RedEye CRO shows that only 20% of companies are actively personalising the web experience, which is a relatively low figure given all the opportunities available for personalisation.
Every time a customer engages with a brand via email, via the website, or through mobile apps on any device, brands or retailers are presented with the chance to speak personally to the customer during each of these interactions by showing personalised content, such as imagery, ads, videos and promotions that are relevant to the customer. Segmentation of customer profiles is key in personalisation. The customer profiles build a picture of the customer’s needs, behaviour and interests, allowing marketers to specifically address those whilst promoting their products/services to increase conversion rates. This is made more challenging by the use of multiple devices during the customer journey across various digital platforms and understanding their needs during each interaction with the brand. But as visitors are increasingly using mobile devices to research and shop throughout the day, geo-location targeting can play a huge factor in influencing their behaviour and decision-making at those key moments in the customer journey.
Consider a customer, sitting at home in the evening with his laptop, doing some Christmas shopping online and searching for the best online deals for tablets; let’s call him Noel. After visiting several sites, Noel has found the best range of tablets on a particular retail website but is not ready to make a purchase yet. During his train commute several days later, while browsing on the same website, he sees the recently viewed products and immediately clicks through to view the products again. Immediately he receives a notification that there is a special promotion on tablets if purchased within the next 5 days.
Even better, Noel is informed that the nearest physical store is located only one mile away and has just 2 of the tablets he wants left in stock. Noel decides this deal is too good to miss and visits the store to purchase the tablet. Extremely pleased with the unexpected saving, he ends up also buying a tablet case to go with his new purchase, which the store assistant managed to cross-sell. In this example, the customer’s needs were addressed at each stage of interaction with the brand.
The customer was guided throughout the purchase journey through personalisation, incorporating real-time and geo-location targeting, which resulted in a sale and increased customer loyalty through the positive brand experience.
The example above only highlights some of the benefits of personalising the customer journey. We believe 2015 will open the door for savvy marketers to use customer data in such a way, where personalisation will become the norm, and customers will develop brand loyalty due to their emotional associations with the brand.
By Fast Web Media.
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