Personal service is nothing new. From the waiter at your favourite restaurant knowing your name to the tailor knowing your inside leg length and preferred colours and cloth, personalisation has always been a part of business.
When digital marketing first came to be, personalisation consisted of addressing the email to the recipient. Believe it or not, this is still a very powerful tool which not every brand is making use of. Even on a mass email, those which use the recipient’s name receive 29% more opens and a 41% higher click through rate (CTR) than an email which does not. Easy, right? However, it’s estimated that 70% of businesses do not employ this simple tactic.
Personalisation doesn’t end there however, and in the future brands are going to have to harness their data to create meaningful customer journeys. This will not always be easy. Consumers have so many different devices they plug in with, and across so many channels, that it is difficult for marketers to establish just who is on the other side of the screen.
But consumers expect this personal touch, particularly when it comes to customer service. Social media and digital media has become a way not just for brands to communicate with their customers, but for consumers to engage with brands, and they expect answers almost instantly. This has led to the development of automated communications systems, such as chat bots and “we’ve received your enquiry” automated messages.
Technology has made us lazy shoppers. Consumers want to be more or less spoon fed. Through the use of data insights, we can build a relationship with customers through reacting to their buying habits, making helpful suggestions be it “time to reorder” messages, a favourites/wish list feature with an alert for promotions on their desired items, or recommended products to go with already purchased or in basket products.
In their white paper, Customer Engagement from the Consumer’s Perspective, Rosetta Consulting reveals that loyal customers buy 90% more frequently, spend 60% more per transaction and are five times as likely to stick with your brand.
Birthday messages with a gift discount code can be another effective touch. Data insights from Experian suggest that personalised messages, such as birthdays and anniversaries, can result in 300% higher click-rate and a 250% higher revenue rate. Reason being is that 78% of customers equate brands who create personalised content for them with brands who value their business and want to build a relationship with them.
It’s important that you get it right though. When surveyed, 67% of people said they would immediately leave a web page which asked them to donate to a hated political party, 57% said they would do the same if they were married and shown adverts for a dating website, and 50% would quit on a site that recommended to them the wrong gender’s underwear.
Personalisation can be used to provide a seamless experience to your customer. Get it right, win over the customer and they will become your biggest brand advocate and keep on coming back. The time is coming when personalisation will need to have a strategy within every business in order to win over a loyal audience.
Are you ready to get personal? For any advice please email me@rebeccagoodyear.com