Everyone responds to the personal touch – which is particularly true with marketing, where customers not only expect personalized ads but respond better to them. 56% of customers expect all interactions with a brand to be personalized and 59% of customers site tailored engagement based on past interaction is crucial to winning their brand. Customized marketing helps them find what they need more quickly and makes them feel that companies pay attention and care about their needs.
So, how do businesses learn enough about their customers to individualize their messages to match each customer's needs and preferences? It takes the right combination of tools, techniques, and understanding. In this post, we'll discuss how you can personalize marketing messaging using analytics and intent data. Let's get started.
Personalize Marketing through Customer Understanding
Connecting effectively with potential customers means knowing their habits, needs, and interests. It requires insight into where they spend their time and what they respond to. This data tells you which methods and platforms you can reach them on and the type of message that will most effectively capture their interest.
Understanding your customers gives you a basis from which to start. It provides information on how to shape messaging relevant to their needs and pain points. You can begin with demographic info and shared interests, then use that data with the stage of the sales funnel to create messaging that addresses those issues.
Ways to Develop Customer Understanding
Analytics and customer data collected through digital marketing are ideal ways to help you collect rich information about who you want to reach. There are many ways to accomplish this data collection. Reaching out to customers through surveys, data collection forms, email newsletters, loyalty programs, and blog subscriptions are a few ways to gather information.
Other methods include:
- Chatbots
- Customer transaction and purchase history
- Focus groups
- Published studies
- Social media
- Statistical data
- Website tracking tools
However, raw data is only the start. Using customer relationship management (CRM) software, you can compile your online data into analytics that will provide significant insight into your target customer.
Use Intent Data to Match Ads to Buyer Journey
Intent data, as its name suggests, gives you insight into customer behavior that can show you the next steps they plan to take. It may be making a purchase, or it could be researching your competition for a better deal. This data is highly valuable to businesses, giving granular insight into customers' mindset when they visit a site. It helps you know whether to target customers with ads that provide more information for them to research or ones that entice customers to purchase.
When you leverage intent data, you can use that information to customize your message to match their pain points. For instance, if you notice a trend of customers researching your competitors for a better price, you could implement a price-matching offer that you promote in your ads. If your customers have many questions about a particular product or service, focus your ads on your personalized customer service with live help or chatbots on your site that can answer quick questions. You might also consider promoting videos showing customers how to use your product or service to solve their problems.
Connect Experiences Across Platforms
Today's customers utilize many different platforms in their daily routines. Using multiple touchpoints is the best way to ensure your message reaches your intended audience. Provide a mixture of search engine marketing (SEM), email, and social media to ensure you reach your customers and reinforce the information and messages you've given them on other platforms.
This method of steadily building the information and push notifications you provide can help entice and carry customers throughout their buyer journey. Using specific messages that address any hesitation they may feel in each stage makes them feel seen and supported until they're ready to purchase. Once they've made a purchase, you can use your data to help solidify and strengthen your customer loyalty and enhance your brand reputation.
How To Personalize Marketing with the Right Tools
Understanding all the ways to gather, analyze, and leverage data for the right message at the right stage of the buyer journey can seem overwhelming to small business owners. After all, you only have so much time and hours in a day. That's why you need the right tools that can help you optimize your marketing efforts.
McClatchy is the second-largest local media company in the U.S. We offer a unique audience with a deep local reach and broad national reach – as well as strategic digital tactics, local content sponsorships, and more to help you get your messages to your ideal audience. Reach out to us today to get started.
