Putting your SCV to work

By Andy Wood, Chairman Go Inspire Insight…

Consumers expect brands to communicate in a way that is relevant and dated carpet-bombing marketing methods just don’t hit the spot anymore. Nowadays, businesses have access to all types of data that customers share with them over multiple channels through their various interactions with the business. This means they should be well equipped to tailor their marketing strategy to the individual consumer.

Connecting with customers on a personal level is also critical for businesses wanting to improve or maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty: Cloud IQ shows that 69% of consumers demand an individualised experience, two thirds are expecting it, but just 40% of brands were in fact offering this in 2017 . This data is alarming considering that 50% of consumers state that they would be more likely to stay loyal to a business that provides them with personalised offers and information . Targeted pricing is one tool for businesses to communicate in a relevant way with the individual improving the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of marketing campaigns.

So what are the steps for a successful personalised marketing strategy?

Make better use of your SCV

The Single Customer View (SCV) is the key tool for a successful personalised approach and although it is not a new concept in the industry, few understand how to harness its true value. Boasting multi-channel touch points is not enough if a business is unable to collect and analyse data from these channels efficiently – reports show that 40% of businesses still store over 80% of their customer’s information in different silos throughout their organisations . A fragmented customer view can jeopardise the whole marketing strategy and compromise the level of personalisation offered. An efficient use of the SCV allows businesses to track their customers across every channel, improve customer service offerings, achieve higher customer retention, higher conversion rates and improved CLV to boot.

Navigating the data maze

It’s not just about how data is stored, but also how it is employed. Typically, businesses today hold plenty of data on their customers, but much of it is duplicate or irrelevant and that’s why the use of tools and techniques to extract an SCV is critical. In the growing maze of customer data businesses need tools to identify which information can really help grow revenues, margin and loyalty. Having access to information such as when a customer has visited your website as a result of direct mail for example, or when they’ve abandoned their online basket, gives businesses a deep understanding of each of their customers’ behaviour patterns. This kind of understanding allows businesses to interject communications at the right time of the ‘purchase journey’ in order to encourage the customer to close on a sale – maybe through a small discount or an incentive to visit the store in person.

Don’t forget to integrate

The more data you gather the better your customer understanding will be, for this reason it’s important to integrate all the information from all the different channels that consumers engage with. Name, address, browsing history, abandoned basket tendencies, ecommerce and store transactions, email data and mobile data, even data from Wi-Fi within stores, everything needs to be used and combined if you want to truly understand your customers. Through an effective integration you will be able to identify the most effective marketing mix for a specific client, making your communications welcome and relevant. This in turn will increase loyalty and customer lifetime value (CLV) with the business.

Adopt a 3D view

Nowadays a 360° view is not enough, what businesses need to adopt is a 720° view for a three-dimensional approach to customer communications. In-store, website, call centre, social media these are some of the channels that businesses need to monitor in order to obtain a full understanding of their customers’ needs and behaviours. Combining all data from these touchpoints and creating one single repository makes it possible to have a clear picture of which combinations in the marketing mix are generating real value and increasing sales, which ones need more work and which are simply not effective.

Keeping these recommendations in mind can help businesses become more relevant in the way they approach customers and have a better idea of what channels are worth investing in. If you want a marketing strategy that stands out from the crowd, targeting groups of people with the same message is not going to bring the business any joy; focusing on relevance and channel mix is how savvy businesses are staying ahead of the competition.