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When I was a teenager my friends and I took great pleasure being the same. Not just following the same dodgy fashions (well I was a child of the 80’s) but wearing our hair the same, having the same lipstick and dating the same boys. This desire to fit in happily leaves us all as we mature (cough-cough) and nothing makes me happier these days than banging my own drum. Loudly.
Today, individuality is the new black and everyone from fashion designers, to retailers to marketers need to get on trend.
Technology, of course, plays no small part in making such individuality possible. Once upon a time personalised print seemed the cutting edge of Direct Mail, but now due to augmented reality, pURLs, 3D printing etc, we’re only just touching the sides of what will soon be possible.
In the consumer world personalised shopping is now the norm; with giants such as Amazon investing the time and resources needed to create a user experience that matches our specific needs. At Marketecture we have always been passionate about personalisation. In a world where we are bombarded with hundreds of sales and marketing messages b2b marketers need to keep up with our b2c contemporaries; creating a more creative, engaging user experience just keep up with the competition.
We all know that whether we’re talking about b2b or b2c what we really mean is person-to-person (p2p) and more than ever businesses are starting to differentiate customers not just products/services by:
- Identifying potential customers
- Determining their needs
- Determining their lifetime value to the company
- Interacting with them to learn about them
- Customising products and services to meet their needs.
But just how do you use customer data to enhance your marketing campaigns? Here are a few simple ideas:
- Track search terms. Allowing you to tailor content on your website or follow up communications such as emails.
- Monitor on site behaviour. Technologies that monitor click-throughs, time spent on specific content, hover times, page views etc help you find out more about prospect behaviour; helping you build up profiles which in turn help you deliver more personalised content, advertising and calls to action.
- Retargeting. Although more popular in the b2c arena, behavioural targeting is slowly being picked up by b2bs. With tools that enable the tracking of cookies across millions of sites, advertisements can be targeted to people who have expressed a specific interest in a product/service, even if they have never been to your site. Big Brother is here.
- Data capture. Okay so this may not be new, but too many businesses fail to take advantage of this simple tool. Promote content of value and ask for some simple information in return, Simples.
- Social media. It has never been easier to keep up with an individual’s likes and dislikes; be that who they follow, what they Tweet and what they share. Social targeting is an exciting is an exciting development which we all need to add to our marketing arsenal.
Everyone wants to be treated as an individual, and by better evaluating behaviours and needs, you’ll be better placed to reach the right people, at the right time, in the right place, with the right message. More importantly as the consumer world and your competitors deliver more personalised content, your prospects and your customers will demand the same of you. Give then poorly targeted, ill-thought out, generic communications at your peril!
