How Data & Analytics Increase Direct Mail Effectiveness
Direct mail has evolved significantly in the era of data-driven marketing. No longer reliant on one-size-fits-all approaches, today’s campaigns leverage data to deliver hyper-personalized content. The shift from generic targeting to precise audience engagement has become pivotal. As a result, both data and variable printing now play a crucial role in ensuring that direct mail reaches the right audience, at the right time, with precisely the right message.
Getting Started with Data-Driven Direct Mail
To utilize the full potential of data in direct mail, integrating both first- and third-party data is essential. This approach not only enhances campaign effectiveness but also boosts relevance and maximizes ROI. By thoughtfully gathering and analyzing data, your business can refine its targeting, personalize messaging and imagery, and optimize overall campaign strategies.
How to Effectively Use Your Data and Analytics
- Define Your Objectives: Clearly defining campaign objectives—whether to increase sales, generate leads, or launch a new product—provides essential direction. Additionally, establishing measurable goals, such as setting specific redemption rate targets for mailed coupons, serves as a benchmark for success from the outset.
- Collect Relevant Data: Diverse data sources, from customer databases to website analytics and social engagement, offer valuable insights into audience behaviors and preferences. Tactics like analyzing purchasing patterns can reveal demographic preferences for specific offers, such as preferences between a 50% off coupon or a Buy-One-Get-One-Free deal.
- Segment Your Audience: Segmenting audiences based on demographics, behaviors, and purchase history allows for tailored messaging that resonates with distinct groups. This segmentation optimizes resource allocation and enhances campaign impact by delivering offers aligned with specific customer preferences.
- Analyze Audience Insights: Utilizing advanced data analysis tools can provide deep insights into audience preferences and purchasing behaviors. For example, analyzing website behavior identifies top products of interest, guiding the customization of direct mail promotions for higher engagement.
- Craft Personalized Messages: Tailoring messages to each audience segment’s specific demographics and needs can help boost engagement rate. Whether you’re using age or occupation specific imagery or highlighting product recommendations and exclusive promos based on past interactions, variable data printing allows for truly personalized and impactful interactions.
- Test and Optimize: Conducting A/B tests on messages and offers reveals audience preferences and helps refine campaign strategies for optimal engagement and conversion rates.
- Track and Measure Results: Monitoring key metrics, including response and conversion rates, provides vital feedback on campaign effectiveness. Tracking responses to targeted promotions can help in identifying successful strategies and areas for improvement.
- Adjust and Improve: Refining targeting, messaging, and strategy through data analysis and predictive analytics can enhance campaign relevance and effectiveness. Whether you’re using first party data, or information from similar industries, these insights can help you pinpoint likely responders, reduce wasted marketing spend, and increase overall ROI.
The Benefits of Leveraging Analytics
Data-driven strategies provide several advantages:
- Enhanced Targeting and Personalization: Precision targeting based on demographics, behaviors, and preferences enhances engagement through personalized messages and offers.
- Improved Campaign Effectiveness: Analyzing past performance and customer behavior helps tailor strategies for maximum response rates and ROI.
- Cost Efficiency and Resource Optimization: Targeted campaigns reduce waste, optimizing print, postage, and overall campaign costs.
- Increased Response Rates and Conversions: Personalized messaging prompts action, boosting response rates and conversions.
- Continuous Improvement Through Testing: A/B testing refines strategies for ongoing improvement.
- Customer Insights and Relationship Building: Analyzing customer data fosters stronger relationships through personalized communication.
- Adaptability and Market Responsiveness: Data-driven strategies ensure agility in responding to market changes and consumer trends, maintaining competitiveness.
Final Thoughts
In today’s competitive marketing landscape, data-driven direct mail campaigns empower businesses like yours to engage effectively with audiences. By leveraging data for personalized messaging, optimized targeting, and measurable results, your business can drive engagement, enhance ROI, and achieve marketing objectives effectively. Embracing data-driven strategies not only improves campaign effectiveness but also ensures adaptability to evolving market dynamics. As businesses refine their approaches, direct mail remains a potent tool for meaningful customer interactions and sustained marketing success.
Looking makes your next direct mail campaign a data-driven success? Get in touch with a Strata expert today to learn more.
How to Use A/B Testing in Direct Mail Campaigns
In today’s dynamic marketing landscape, where every message needs to resonate and each design choice should entice engagement, experimentation is key! This is where A/B testing steps in. But what exactly is it, and how can a practice commonly associated with digital tactics like email be effectively used in a more tactile strategy such as direct mail?
What is A/B Testing?
At its core, A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a systematic method used by marketers to compare two or more versions of a marketing element to figure out which performs better. For direct mail campaigns, where every detail can make or break engagement, A/B testing can provide a plethora of insights and boost ROI for a relatively expensive (yet powerful) channel. It allows marketers to experiment with headlines, copy, visuals, and even CTAs or response mechanisms, measuring the audience’s response to each variant.
Overall, A/B testing acts as a compass towards the most effective strategies. By systematically testing different variables, you’ll not only uncover what resonates best with your audience but also fine-tune your future strategies for maximum performance.
What Can I A/B Test?
It’s important to mention that every part of your direct mail campaign can be tested for better results – but here are a few of our favorites that we’ve seen offer the most insights and maximized impact:
1. Coupons & Calls-to-Action (CTA):
- Offer Variation: Test different types of offers like discounts, freebies, buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deals, and limited-time promotions.
- Coupon Designs: Experiment with various coupon designs, including layout, colors, fonts, and imagery. Test the visibility of the coupon and its placement within the mail piece.
- CTA Language: Test different wording and phrasing for CTAs to see which resonates best with your audience. For example, compare “Shop Now” versus “Claim Your Discount” or “Limited Time Offer – Act Now!”
- CTA Placement: Evaluate the effectiveness of different CTA placements within the direct mail piece. Test placing the CTA prominently on both the front and back of the mailer.
- Personalization: Test personalized offers or coupons tailored to specific segments of your audience based on demographics, purchase history, or preferences.
- Incentive Levels: Experiment with varying incentive levels for offers or coupons to decide the best discount percentage or value that drives the highest response rate.
2. Format:
- Mail Piece Size: Experiment with various sizes of mailers, such as standard letters, postcards, or oversized formats, to figure out which attracts more attention and engagement.
- Envelope Style: Test different envelope designs, colors, sizes, and messaging to see which generates higher response rates.
- Paper Quality: Test different paper types, weights, and finishes to assess their influence on perceived value and recipient engagement.
- Fold Types: Experiment with different folding techniques, such as bi-fold, tri-fold, or iron-cross, to see which format delivers key messaging most effectively.
- Inserts and Enclosures: Test the inclusion of added inserts, such as brochures, flyers, or product samples, to determine their impact on response rates and campaign effectiveness.
3. Imagery & Design
- Product Images: Test different product images or photographs to showcase your offerings. Experiment with angles, backgrounds, and product variations to see which visuals attract the most attention and interest.
- Lifestyle Imagery: Experiment with lifestyle images that depict your products or services in real-life situations or settings. Test different scenarios, demographics, and contexts to decide which resonates most with your audience.
- Human Faces: Test the inclusion of human faces in your imagery, such as models, customers, or employees. Experiment with different expressions, demographics, and compositions to gauge their impact on viewer engagement and connection.
- Illustrations vs. Photographs: Compare the effectiveness of illustrations versus photographs in conveying your message and capturing attention. Test different artistic styles, techniques, and visual interpretations to see which resonates best with your audience.
- Color Schemes: Test different color schemes and palettes in your imagery to evoke specific emotions and associations. Experiment with vibrant colors versus muted tones, complementary versus contrasting colors, and color combinations that align with your brand identity.
- Image Placement: Assess the impact of image placement within the mail piece. Test placing images prominently on the front versus integrating them within the content or using them as background elements.
- Image Size and Scale: Experiment with the size and scale of images to optimize their visibility and impact. Test larger images that dominate the mail piece versus smaller images that complement the overall design.
- Image Personalization: Evaluate the effectiveness of personalized imagery tailored to individual recipients. Test incorporating recipient names, locations, or preferences into images to create a personalized and relevant experience.
4. Response Mechanisms:
- Response Channels: Experiment with offering multiple response channels, including phone numbers, website URLs, QR codes, email addresses, and pre-paid business reply cards (BRCs), to assess which channels are most convenient and effective for your audience.
- Call to Action (CTA) Variations: Test different CTAs, such as “Call Now,” “Visit Our Website,” “Scan QR Code,” or “Mail Back Coupon,” to determine which prompts the highest response rate.
- QR Code Placement: Test the placement and visibility of QR codes within the mail piece. Experiment with placing QR codes prominently on the front versus discreetly within the content to see which generates more scans.
- Personalized URLs (PURLs): Evaluate the effectiveness of personalized URLs that lead recipients to personalized landing pages. Test different formats for PURLs, such as including recipient names or unique identifiers, to enhance personalization and response rates.
How Can I Execute an A/B Test?
1. Research Common Methods: Research common methods for exactly what you’re aiming to refine. Understand the best practices and approaches that align with your industry and target audience.
2. Observe Your Audience and Hypothesize: Carefully observe your audience’s behaviors and preferences. Formulate hypotheses about what elements might resonate better with them based on your observations and industry knowledge.
3. Create Variations: Armed with insights, craft variations for the elements you’ve identified – be it offers, format, response mechanisms, or imagery. Develop alternative versions that test specific aspects to gauge audience response.
4. Run Tests: Implement your A/B tests by deploying the different variations to distinct segments of your audience. Ensure that the tests are conducted controlled to isolate each variable’s impact.
5. Analyze Results and Deploy Changes: Once the tests are complete, analyze the results rigorously. Find patterns, trends, and conclusive data. Based on your findings, deploy changes to your direct mail campaigns, optimizing for the elements that yielded the most favorable outcomes.
How Can I Ensure A/B Testing Success?
1. Set Measurable Goals: Begin your A/B testing journey by setting up clear and measurable goals. These benchmarks will not only guide your experiments but also provide a roadmap for success.
2. Avoid Testing Overload: Resist the urge to test too many things at once. Keep it simple and focused. Testing too many variables simultaneously can muddy the water, making it challenging to extract meaningful insights.
3. Prioritize Reliable Tracking: Ensure your data is as exact as possible by leaning into technology. Utilize methods such as unique promo codes, customized landing pages, trackable URLs, and A/B testing platforms.
Final Thoughts
When on the path of A/B testing, steer clear of these common pitfalls, keeping your focus sharp and your campaigns on the road to success.
While there are many ways to measure the success of your direct mail campaign, A/B testing stands out as the most effective method to elevate it to new heights. If you’re seeking additional resources or insights on A/B testing, connect with a Strata Expert today. With over 30 years of experience, we’ve honed our strategies and testing to consistently deliver exponential results for our clients.
Is One More Effective than the Other?
In the world of direct mail marketing, the debate between reach and frequency is constant. But does it have to be? In this blog, we’ll aim to explain the difference between reach and frequency, when to consider one over the other, and ultimately how to strike the perfect balance between the two.
What’s the Difference Between Reach and Frequency?
Understanding the distinctions between reach and frequency is pivotal for crafting effective direct mail campaigns. Reach, simply put, quantifies the total number of individuals exposed to your marketing message. In the context of direct mail, it equates to the total number of addresses on your mailing list – if you mail to 10,000 addresses, your reach equals 10,000. Essentially, reach is about maximizing exposure to a diverse set of recipients. Frequency, on the other hand, is the number of times an individual on your list encounters your marketing message. For instance, mailing to the same list three times results in a frequency of three. It focuses on the depth of interaction, emphasizing repetition for enhanced recall and engagement.
What’s More Effective?
While both elements are undeniably vital when it comes to campaign success, effectiveness boils down to your overall goals.
If you’re looking to build brand awareness in a new market, focusing on the reach of your direct mail can ensure that your message is seen by the broadest audience possible. If there are 1,500 people in your addressable market, you’ll use your marketing budget to send a single touchpoint introducing your brand.
However, if your goal is conversion, whether that involves bringing new shoppers through the door or converting loyal shoppers from one brand to another, you’ll want to focus on frequency. If there are 1,500 people in your addressable market, you’ll want to segment that list into a more niche audience of maybe 500, and then use your marketing budget to send those 500 audience members three pieces of direct mail with tailored messaging that can enhance memory recall and build trust.
Finding the Right Balance
While reach and frequency are distinct concepts, finding the right balance between them is essential for a successful direct mail marketing campaign. A high reach may not guarantee impact if the message is not seen often enough, while excessive frequency without sufficient reach can lead to oversaturation and diminished returns.
To ensure you’re striking the right balance, consider the following:
- Understand Your Audience: Dive deep into market research to truly understand your target audience. Utilize data analytics, customer surveys, and social listening tools to gain insights into their preferences, pain points, and buying behavior. Then, develop detailed buyer personas to segment your audience effectively and tailor your direct mail campaigns to address their specific needs and interests.
- Segmentation is Key: Beyond basic demographics, consider using advanced segmentation techniques to create highly targeted audience segments. Factor in elements such as past purchase history, engagement level, and lifecycle stage to personalize your messaging and offers. By delivering relevant content to each segment, you can increase the likelihood of engagement and conversion.
- Strategic Timing: Conduct thorough research to find key moments in your audience’s journey where direct mail can have the greatest impact. Consider seasonal trends, holidays, and industry-specific events that may influence purchasing behavior. By timing your mailings strategically, you can capitalize on opportunities to connect with your audience when they are most receptive to your message.
- Measure and Analyze: Implement tracking mechanisms to watch the performance of your direct mail campaigns in real-time. Track key metrics such as response rates, conversion rates, and ROI to gauge the effectiveness of your frequency-focused approach. Leverage A/B testing and multivariate analysis to find trends, patterns, and opportunities for optimization. This allows you to iterate, optimize, and continuously refine your direct mail strategy based on data-driven insights and learnings from previous campaigns.
Taking the Next Step
Remember, when it comes to direct mail, success isn’t defined by reach or frequency but by understanding your goals, segmenting your audience, and tailoring your messaging. Once you understand your overall business objectives, align yourself with a trusted partner that can help you find the perfect balance of reach and frequency to exceed your goals and enhance ROI.
Don’t have a trusted partner in mind? Contact us today to learn more about how we’ve helped companies like yours implement performance-driven direct mail campaigns at scale.
Best Practices & Strategies to Reduce Abandoned Carts and Boost Conversions
In the world of e-commerce, there’s one common challenge that every business faces – abandoned carts. As one of the most common roadblocks in the industry, it’s important to be aware of the most effective ways to combat it. While there are various approaches, such as the use of direct mail, in this blog we’ll focus on several digital solutions.
What are Abandoned Carts and What Causes Them?
Understanding cart abandonment and identifying why it’s happening is crucial for developing an effective strategy to combat the issue. Cart abandonment occurs when a potential customer initiates the checkout process for an online order, but abandons it before completing the purchase. Abandoned carts are notoriously ubiquitous and can (and do) happen to any company (even if you’re doing everything right!). What many companies fail to consider – and fix – is the cause of customer diversion. While there are a variety of causes, potential customers’ reasons for cart abandonment can be grouped into four categories:
1. Logistics
This is the primary and most prevalent cause of cart abandonment. It encompasses factors like pricing, hidden fees, and additional expenses (such as shipping and taxes). Cost is often a critical consideration for customers when making a purchase. A high initial cost may deter them from the start and/or lead to second thoughts later, but it’s typically unexpected additional expenses at checkout that directly result in abandoned carts. According to a study by Baymard, logistics, on average, contribute to 47% of cart abandonment.
2. Trust
Building a strong foundation of trust with your customers is paramount. With no shortage of untrustworthy online vendors, customer suspicions tend to run high, and any questionable actions on the seller’s part will not go unnoticed.
3. UX/UI
Poor design and usability features can play a major role in cart abandonment. This can range from difficulties with store navigation to users simply disliking its appearance (which also ties into the trust and credibility of your platform). Inconveniences, such as requiring a customer to make an account, can account for 25% of lost carts.
4. Poor Intention
In some cases, not every abandoned cart can be recovered. Some people simply never had the intention to buy the product at all. Sometimes it boils down to retail therapy, window shopping, or a mistake.
What are Some Ways I Can (Re)Convert These Flighty Shoppers?
Effective Re-Marketing Techniques
One of the most critical tactics of converting abandoned carts is the implementation of effective re-marketing techniques. To successfully recover potential sales, it’s essential to craft a well-thought-out series of marketing initiatives that gently nudge customers towards completing their purchases. The initial outreach is key, as it serves as a friendly reminder of their abandoned cart. Ideally, this message should be personalized, addressing the customer by name and showcasing the items left behind. Furthermore, it’s essential to suggest why completing the purchase is a good idea, highlighting the benefits of the product(s), and noting any ongoing or personalized promotions.
In addition to personalized email reminders, consider employing other retargeting tactics, such as tailored push notifications or SMS messages through the customer’s preferred communication channel(s). To sweeten the deal and provide extra incentive, offer discounts, free shipping, or exclusive offers, further motivating customers to return and finalize their transactions.
Lastly, in any re-marketing piece, it’s essential to make it easy for customers to take action. Ensure that your cart recovery emails and ads have a prominently placed and easily findable call-to-action (CTA) button or link. A well-designed CTA button can make all the difference in whether a customer decides to return to your site and complete their purchase.
Schedule Optimization
A crucial aspect of converting abandoned carts is schedule optimization. It’s essential to remind customers about their abandoned items at the right times to maximize the chance of recovery without being overly intrusive. Sending reminders in well-planned cycles can be highly effective. As stated above, it’s best to start with a gentle, initial reminder shortly after the cart abandonment (typically within a few hours) to keep the purchase fresh in their minds. Follow this with subsequent reminders, strategically spaced out over the next few days, gradually increasing the sense of urgency.
With that said, it’s essential to strike a balance between being assertive and being respectful of your customers’ preferences. While urgency tactics can be powerful, avoid being too pushy, as this may lead customers to opt out altogether (and possibly even never return to your site again). Instead, use persuasive language that highlights the benefits of completing the purchase and the value of the products they’ve chosen.
Offering Incentives
As we touched on above, incentives and discounts can be powerful tools in the arsenal of cart abandonment recovery. By providing potential buyers with enticing offers, you can address their reservations and motivate them to return and complete the transaction.
To maximize the effectiveness of these incentives, it’s crucial to ensure that all payment options are well-represented during the checkout process. Customers should have a seamless and hassle-free experience when they decide to return and finalize their purchase. Eliminating any friction in the payment process is key to preventing further cart abandonment.
However, a word of caution is necessary: while incentives and discounts can be highly effective, it’s essential not to overdo them. Offering too many discounts or incentives too frequently can devalue your products and erode your profit margins. Therefore, strike a balance between using these offers strategically to win back customers and maintaining the integrity of your pricing structure.
Alternative Solutions
In addition to the conventional methods for recovering abandoned carts, exploring alternative solutions can be a game-changer in your cart conversion strategy. Maybe try retargeting through Google Ads, which allow you to display personalized ads to cart abandoners as they browse the web. This serves as a gentle yet persistent reminder, keeping your products in front of potential customers.
Exit intent pop-ups are another valuable tool. These pop-ups appear when a user is about to leave your website. They’re often used to offer a last-minute incentive or assistance, like a discount or free shipping, to encourage them to stay and complete their purchase.
Additionally, displaying customer reviews, ratings, and social proof can be a potent motivator for hesitant shoppers. When customers see positive feedback from others who’ve purchased the same products, they feel more confident and reassured in their decision to buy.
Lastly, a reliable customer service presence, whether through live chat, email, or a responsive support team, provides customers with a safety net. Knowing that assistance is readily available can alleviate concerns and prompt them to proceed with their purchase.
A/B Testing & Data Analysis
A/B testing and data analysis are indispensable tools in the quest to effectively convert abandoned carts. The significance of A/B testing lies in its ability to uncover the most compelling approaches to cart recovery. By experimenting with different subject lines in your cart recovery emails, you can identify the ones that resonate best with your audience, ultimately leading to higher open rates and conversions.
In addition to A/B testing, robust data analysis is essential for measuring the effectiveness of your cart recovery efforts. By reviewing metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated from recovered carts, you can gain valuable insights into what strategies are working best and where improvements are needed.
Ready to supercharge your e-commerce strategies and conquer cart abandonment? Consult with our experts at Strata and transform abandoned carts into thriving sales with tailored solutions!
How to Meet Your Individual Customers Exactly Where They Are
As online privacy and technology evolves, we continue to see an increased reliance on first-party data. At the same time, we’re learning more and more that audiences want marketing messages that utilize psychographics and speak directly to them. While “personalization” is a part of the conversation, “individualization” is just as important of a term in today’s marketing environment. Before we get into the differences between these two customization practices, let’s take a quick look at marketing tactics and how they’ve evolved over the course of recent history.
A (Very) Brief History of Recent Marketing Tactics
Although one could argue that brands as we know them started when marks and emblems graced handcrafted goods in the years BCE (Before Common Era), the official kickstart to marketing as we know it today stems from practices set forth during the industrial revolution. Innovation, discovery, growth, mass production, infrastructure improvements, and the rise of mass media all opened the door for producers to create products that met customer needs. Of course, with more companies creating and selling goods and services came the need for marketing to help companies stand out from the rest and win customers over. With this competitive environment, we’ve watched marketing grow and evolve to what it is today.
More recently, marketers have been able to connect and engage with their audiences in new ways. With each year, it seems marketers can target their specific audience(s) more and more precisely. This increase in precision can be viewed as a funnel, with each tactic progressively narrowing down the marketing message until it speaks directly to the individual. Let’s break them down:
- Mass Marketing: A cheap and scalable tactic that gives you the ability to connect with many people, but no way to segment your market.
- A/B Testing: Also known as split marketing. It’s recommended you hold off on this method until you have at least 1000 (minimum) conversions to analyze. And, you’d need an additional 250 responses per test to even parse through the data.
- Segmentation: The process of differentiating groups by different categories (segments). By separating portions of your audience, you’re able to better serve particular markets (you can learn a little bit more about segmentation by checking out this blog).
- Personalization: Like the name implies, this tactic is about personalizing your messaging using things like first names, addresses, personalized URLs, content, imagery, and more. Basically, this strategy shows each audience member content that’s directly related to their demographic and geographic data.
- Individualization: With this fairly new tactic, you’re talking directly to the recipient using first-party data. With this data, you’re able to connect with them and cater to their personal experience at every touchpoint. Read on to understand how…
As businesses grow more in tune with their audience(s), they’re able to better connect with individuals and create more carefully crafted, personalized marketing experiences all along each customer’s individual customer journey. And, while personalization and individualization may sound quite similar upon first read, there are some key differences between them.
Personalization (An In-Depth Look)
Personalization uses general data – past purchases, user login information, and more – to address the audience’s personal information. There’s a balance that must be achieved between company transparency, consumer choice and privacy, and accountability. The information that’s used in personalized marketing is usually along the lines of name, birthday, and address. Here are a few numbers to consider when approaching personalization:
- 75% of customers are more likely to buy a product based on personalized recommendations
- 49% of consumers say that after receiving a personalized recommendation, they’ve bought a product they didn’t intend to buy
- 26% of revenue comes from the 7% of visitors who clicked personalized ads
- 69% of consumers would share personal data in exchange for more personalized product recommendations
- 1 in 3 consumers (38%) say they’ll shop with a brand they’ve had a good experience with again, even if there are cheaper or more convenient options
- 62% of consumers say a brand will lose their loyalty if they deliver an un-personalized experience, up from 45% in 2021
- 35% of companies feel they are successfully achieving omnichannel personalization, up from 24% in 2021
With tech giants like Apple and Google implementing and following new privacy regulations, it can feel like companies are scrambling to collect, manage, and protect first-party consumer data in a responsible manner. The ending of third-party cookies has made way for new technologies to deliver the personalized experiences consumers have come to expect. These tools for understanding and engaging customers have created opportunities to reach customers on the channels they prefer most while also delivering personalized experiences across multiple different channels. So, while personalization is often effective in connecting with individual consumers at a demographic level, there are times when you may need a bit more targeted focus in your marketing to convince potential buyers…
Individualization (Under the Microscope)
Instead of communicating with customers based on demographic segments, individualization helps you connect with them as a specific, unique people with particular and distinct needs, preferences, and habits (also known as AIOs – activities, interests, and opinions). 78% of people say they’re more likely to recommend brands that customize their experiences, and those 78% are more likely to become repeat shoppers, as well. With information that customers have voluntarily provided – such as through a form on your website – you’re able to leverage first-party data. With that power comes the responsibility of transparency with your customers about how their data will be used. By doing so, you’re allowing the customer to feel protected and building a strong foundation of trust. When you have the right privacy barriers in place, you avoid presenting yourself as invasive and untrustworthy.
Let’s think about an example scenario. You’ve received the name of a customer – John Smith. After John purchases a new fitness watch band and running sneakers, he fills out a form on your website to log in and track the package of products. With the information John’s provided on your site, not only can you give him a discount off his next purchase but can also make custom recommendations. Maybe you’d next recommend socks or athleisure wear, or a discount on dumbbells. It all depends on his activity on your site, his information, and any other details you can get from his purchase(s). And, as he continues to visit your website, you’re able to go beyond just an offer based on his address and age. You can provide an experience based on his individual data and actions over time.
Looking to the Future
As it becomes increasingly necessary to utilize first-party data, we’ll continue to see a push to connect with the customer at every part of their journey using new, ethical tools and tactics along the way. Although personalization is still key, there will often be times when individualization is necessary. And soon, it may be the only way to market to (as we’ve said above) customers that now expect highly customer-centered marketing.
Crafting a highly personalized or individualized multichannel campaign can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone! Contact us today and connect with our team of marketing experts, print specialists, and digital advertisers!