Turn data into insight and improve customer engagement
There can be many different ways to achieve customer success; a combination of strategies designed to attract, retain and grow a customer base. Individual strategies may change over time but one thing is crucial: keeping customers engaged.
Customer experience is predicted to overtake price as a decisive factor in consumer purchasing decisions by 2020 (Walker Research: Customer 2020 Report). Companies who succeed will use intelligent marketing centred on knowing, engaging and personalising your customer approach.
However without good data and analytics, this will be impossible. Data is the basis for improved experience and engagement. From better customer communications to enhanced loyalty and growth, marketers will need to understand how to turn data into valuable insight.
Behavioural marketing
The demands of a digital world creates more online (and offline) noise for consumers. Communications must be customer-centred to cut through. The goal is to encourage dialogue and relationship building between customers and your brand – fulfilling their need, while also achieving your targets.
Outbound activity should be informed by consumer behaviour. Learn more about their lifestyle and what they like, and use the knowledge to create engaging messaging. It is essential to use behavioural data to gain a fuller picture of your audience, instead of solely demographic information.
Netflix are keenly aware of this, as Todd Yellin, VP of Product Innovation said in an interview:
“It really doesn’t matter if you are a 60-year-old woman or a 20-year-old man because a 20-year-old man can watch Say Yes To The Dress and a 60-year-old woman could watch Hellboy.”
So as well as developing customer personas to understand who your ideal customer is, it’s also necessary to understand what drives customers to act.
Applying customer insight
Once you understand customer motives you can segment website visitors, email communications and mailings. This will help you to target offers and adverts and prove more efficient for your budget. Then, by creating personalised messages that invoke action, the right message will reach the right customers. Personalisation is important; the 2017 State of Marketing report from Salesforce states that customers are 52% more likely to switch brands if communications lack personalisation.
Each and every touch point should be analysed for greater understanding. You’ll gain new insight into how and when people engage, and on what channels. This will provide greater opportunities for targeting similar promotions. Data is more than collecting information, but monitoring it and acting upon your discoveries.
Finally, the goal is to anticipate the needs of your audience. Rather than looking historically, embedding a strong data ethic in your activity will enable you to look forward. Steve Jobs is quoted as saying “a lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Using a proactive approach will enable you to optimise customer value.
Why you need a data strategy
There are a growing number of studies that show the benefits of data-driven marketing and analytics. Key findings from a Sloan Review report this year include:
- More than half (59%) of managers say that using data analytics is helping their business to gain competitive advantage
- Analytics are increasingly being used to drive customer engagement; with stronger engagement from data-mature companies
- The longer the history of data analytics, the higher the number of data sources used to engage customers
Organisations that embrace data strategies are able to use insight for the most gain. This increases further if you can integrate on and offline data, to create a holistic customer view.
Overall, data analytics help to drive customer engagement by:
- Ensuring relevancy in all offers and communications, as you have data to back up your findings from test and live campaigns.
- Enabling your brand to act fast; reacting to consumer behaviour and market trends to deliver at the right time.
- Building trust with customers. Better data protection measures (including GDPR) will enable greater consumer control. This helps you to deliver messaging to the right place, i.e. as stated by the customer’s communication preferences.
By using insight to improve your connection with customers, you can turn data into bottom-line advantage.
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Read more > 7 Ways Personalisation Will Boost Your Marketing Strategy
Contact us to find out how you can use data to drive engagement. Call Nicki on +44 (0)20 7846 0004