Consumer demands are ever-evolving. It’s what makes the role of the marketer equal parts exciting and frustrating. As the world has changed rapidly in the last 18 months, so has the game for B2C marketers – making the concept of engaging consumers across the entire customer lifecycle in a unified approach essential. This article will look at four key tenets to delivering just that.
The value exchange economy
Acquiring new customers, and gathering the personal and preference data required to deliver better offers, content and experiences are significantly more effective when you’re able to articulate the value you’re offering in return – this is the value exchange economy.
This can be something immediate and tangible — a prize, discount or personalized recommendation — or slightly more long-term, where you ask about specific interests and needs in order to deliver bespoke news, tailored advice or exclusive access and so on.
Marketers can deliver this through interactive experiences that ask pertinent questions and incorporate reward mechanics that give consumers a genuine reason to engage and submit their data.
Real-time engagement
Digitally savvy consumers who have long demanded next-day shipping, live-tracking of their brunch and dates at the swipe of a finger expect real-time engagement.
Consumers interact with a brand on multiple channels, oftentimes unpredictably. The way to engage with these consumers is through real-time, hyper-personalized experiences powered by machine learning.
That means providing the right offer, on the right channel, at the right time, a strategy which, according to Gartner, is 10x more effective than traditional outbound campaigns.
Unified loyalty
A loyalty program shouldn’t be a standalone, isolated tactic that sits siloed from the rest of your marketing strategy.
An effective loyalty program must be connected to an omnichannel engagement system, at the heart of your marketing function. This empowers you to talk to customers and prospects differently and gives you the tools to stand out from competitors, grow profitability and create long-lasting, more meaningful relationships.
To the customer, this should appear seamless, but to be done effectively, SMS, mobile wallet, website, email, POS and social media are all talking to one another and delivering a consistent experience.
Learn more on omnichannel personalization
Truly knowing your customer
The ability to deliver all we have discussed above requires these strategies to be powered by up-to-date data, housed in a sound ecosystem. However, 27% of marketers believe data is the key obstacle to personalization.
Changes in the buying journey from linear to multi-channel have required new methods to understand customer behavior. Adding AI and ML to your programs enables highly relevant, personalized, and contextually aware offers and empowers you to truly understand your customers’ behaviors, past histories, and what action they will take in the future.
Signals21- the award-winning virtual content series for marketers – is live. Whether you’re seeking that utopian single source of truth of the customer, how to use mobile across the entire customer lifecycle, or just want to be entertained and motivated by world-leading brands, we have a session for you.
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