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Combating the Declining Power of the Click

Who looked at it and when? Did they click on it? Share it? Does it matter that the post went viral if no one actually clicked to buy?

For even the most skilled marketer, aggregating digital engagement data can be a futile endeavor unless it is combined with intelligence that puts the data in context with customer behavior and expectations, i.e. personalization.

“Personalizing the customer experience demands that we harness the data that is collected across the organization and immediately transform that into something that is actionable and resonates with the customer and their preferences…only then [can we] fully optimize the revenue potential for each individual customer,” according to Liz Miller, Senior Vice President of Marketing with the CMO Council.

Ultimately, customers expect relevance from the engagement they have with a brand. A new report from the CMO Council and Microsoft shows that marketers must become more innovative with their strategies, seek new opportunities, and ask more critical questions about the data they collect.

Brand-Customer Engagement: It’s Not Just About the Click

Marketers looking to deliver exceptional customer engagement experiences are increasingly turning to personalization as the key driver to maximize customer value. But this goes far beyond just looking at what prompts a customer to click. It requires moving away from relying on past performance metrics to predict future behavior or trends.

Rather, data methods need to uncover real-time insights about customer behavior, such as how customers react to trends, news, special offers, product promises, promotional prompts, recommendations, social commentary, and personalized messages.

A primary challenge to marketers’ ability to capitalize on aggregated data is a lack of predictive models–such as those used by economists and meterologists–-that can convert data into actionable insights and empower marketers to anticipate customer needs.

An inherent issue in developing these types of models is the multitude of channels through which a marketer can engage with customers. From a corporate website to sales data and customer surveys, to a company's social media pages and accounts, the volume of data points is overwhelming. And there is little, if any, consistency in data points across platforms.

Additionally, the more customers reveal about themselves to any given brand, the more they expect the brand to do for them. This leaves organizations at a loss when they are not prepared to respond with a more interactive, personalized experience for that customer.

Analytics & the Customer Journey

“Real-time analytics [can] turn this data into actionable insights, allowing organizations to better predict customer needs and quickly adjust…[thus] providing superior experiences at every interaction,” says Robert Tas, CMO of Pegasystems.

One of the key approaches to making personalization an integral part of a brand’s customer experience is pulling together fragmented campaigns into a cohesive “customer journey.” This has to be embraced by the whole organization and executed on all levels of customer interaction--from the first engagement point (be it digitally, in the store, or through sales and support) to follow-up interactions across a variety of engagement channels. Another critical aspect is the ability to deliver a real-time, relevant offer to the customer to optimize revenue.

Going forward, one-off campaigns will not be sufficient. They will not capture the “customer journey” with a brand nor be able to foster long-term engagement. Experience and relevant personalization will drive brand interactions with the customer. The challenge is capturing these personalized metrics, making relevant analyses, and transforming data-points into actionable campaigns to have an overall impact on brand visibility and the bottom line.

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