Get Closer To Your Customers With Data-Driven Personalisation

The customers’ journey from their first interaction with your brand to becoming loyal advocates is long and uncertain - and there are many obstacles along the way that could end the journey right there and then for them.

2020 is set out to be the year of customer-centred marketing. A year where when dealing with your brand, people will get the impression that they’re dealing with one company rather than a bunch of different departments.

A year where marketers value creating seamless, personalised omnichannel experiences for users above everything else.

Is it just my wishful thinking? I wish it was this simple - 84% of your customers say that being treated like a person rather than just a number is a priority for them when it comes to making an informed purchase decision.

And 52% of them will switch if you don’t personalise their experience.

To make it happen, you need all the help you can get from AI, marketing channels and data - the whole enchilada.

Start with taming your data

Did you know that the global volume of consumer data flowing across the internet is expected to reach 212 exabytes per month in 2020? The wealth of data available today is great, but … it can also prove somewhat problematic if you’re aiming to take an individual approach to each and every customer.

That’s probably the biggest issue marketers come up against when implementing their personalisation strategy - how to get a single picture of a customer with their unique needs and preferences.

There are various solutions to this problem. Marketers are divided between using a database or CRM system or even their email service provider (ESP) to cater to the individual needs of their customers.

But there’s another way to manage your data, and that’s the old good data management system (DMP). A significant number of marketers are now planning to use their DMP for audience insights and segmentation, while identity resolution and management is the third most popular new use case. 

Incorporate AI to better anticipate customer needs 

Marketing adoption of AI has grown by 44% in two years – but still, less than a third of organisations are using it. Which could give you the so-much-needed competitive edge over the remaining 71% of brands that have not yet incorporated AI to their marketing mix.

The truth is, since the industry giants such as Amazon or Netflix pioneered the field of personalisation, customers now expect personalised experiences in exchange for their data. However, it’s almost impossible to deliver one-to-one experiences manually to all of your customers for obvious reasons.

AI allows you to scan the sheer volume of data, extract valuable insights and the ACT on those insights at the right time, with the right offers for the right customers - for example, an AI engine can scan the data from multiple leads to assign them a priority score (and so much more).

Distribute across all channels

… in real time. Customers who engage with brands across multiple channels are the ones with the deepest need, highest interest, and urgency and typically have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop on only one.

Even though it sounds like a pipedream, personalised experience for each customer that evolves based on the channel is possible to achieve because almost a third of UK marketers deliver their message that way already.

However, implementing it successfully depends on having a platform that connects the data and AI to your customer-facing systems.

The bottom line

All of this might sound like an excerpt from some sort of sci-fi model but make no mistake - it’s happening and it’s happening fast. If your 2020 goal is to set your eCommerce apart from thousands of others, this is what you need to be implementing.

If implementing data-driven personalisation strategy has been on your mind recently, then book a call with me and let's make it happen together.