Consumers are exposed to an average of 4,000 to 10,000 ads per day. From watching television to surfing the internet on a smartphone, consumers are bombarded with tons of messaging throughout the day. As a result, marketers have to figure out how they can differentiate themselves.
Much of this can be done through personalization. According to Accenture, 56 percent of consumers are likely to purchase from a retailer that addresses them by name, while 58 percent will do the same if the retailer suggests products based on past or recent purchases.
So how can marketers utilize these and other tactics to ‘break through the noise’, and hyper-personalize their messaging to reach their audiences?
Collect as much data as you can
Names and contact details are great sources of data, but to really understand your customers, you need to collect more detailed data. What is their age and gender? What types of brands do they currently shop with? Have they engaged with your brand before? How did they move around your venue? What are their interests? How much have they spent in the past? What is their favorite medium to receive marketing messaging? You get the idea.
There are a lot of ways to gather data, whether that’s through social media, online analytics, point of sale systems, WiFi analytics or even something as simple as sending a quick survey. All of the data you collect will help you create hyper-personalized campaigns proven to drive conversion rates.
You can then consolidate this data in a CRM platform or marketing automation tool that makes it easy to identify customer groups and trends.
Types of communications
Email and SMS are some of the more personal ways to reach your audience. Not only this, but these methods of communication allow you to test, track and repeat your personalization efforts.
Try different messaging, offers, and discounts based on the data you have collected to test what types of communications drive the best results.
Timing
When are customers most likely to view and respond to communications? Do you send an email request for a TripAdvisor review immediately after someone has left your venue or 24 hours later? Do you send a text notification to customers encouraging them to sign up to your loyalty scheme before or after they make a purchase?
It can take time to build up an understanding of what works best, but if you invest the time into testing, you won’t regret it.
What do others have to say?
Customers care about what others have to say. According to BrightLocal, 85 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. So, a great way to take advantage of hyper-personalized marketing is to share consumer reviews with potential customers. Instead of just sending push notifications or a traditional sales pitch, send product reviews personalized to their interests.
Test and optimize
Take a look at what your customers do while they shop online. Look at the amount of time they spend on your site, on specific web pages, monitor clicks, and use this information to impact the buying decision.
You can also make use of A/B testing; what content, images or call-to-actions drive better conversion rates? These are all things you should consider.
You can also replicate this process for your offline space. Use location analytics to understand how much time users spend in your venue, where they dwell, what are their preferred entry and exit points, what are your busiest periods? This kind of data can help you with space planning and staffing requirements, improving conversions whilst in-store.
Map their event sequence
This practice is a hyper-personalization tactic that can help you gather more information about where to focus your messaging. Event sequence analysis allows you to track every event and action consumers go through before they decide to make (or not make) a purchase. This step can help you see what works and what doesn’t as far as moving consumers through a sales funnel. What search terms are they using? How do they interact with your brand socially? Have they left reviews? Knowing this can help you re-target and place advertisements in optimal locations.
Customers expect businesses to pay attention to what they do, and what they want. While it may seem a little intrusive – collecting customer data – it has been proven time and time again that hyper-personalization works, and favours the customer.
Guest post: Chanell Alexander is a writer for TechnologyAdvice. She is a freelance writer and digital marketing strategist who enjoys blending innovative technology solutions with communications.