It’s just common sense: the more personal a service, the better the chances of starting and maintaining a quality customer relationship. The question for most enterprises comes down to finding ways to scale that one-to-one attention up to offer it to every prospect. The answer is to use the marketing automation technology that will allow you to create personalized messages at every stage of a prospect and customer’s journey.
Messaging as a conversation and interactive interface has changed dramatically. Marketers have more data than ever before about the people who currently do business with them and, in some cases, those who might. Using a rich multi-channel messaging platform for your communications allows you to create a personalized journey for every customer.
What is one-to-one marketing?
In one-to-one marketing, your customer is addressed personally at every stage of the journey. Emails and direct mail assets are addressed to them by name. When they click on your links, they visit personalized pages that use their names and have convenient prefilled forms. They get messages that are geared to where they are in the sales or customer process to extend the life of the relationship and keep them coming back.
This process involves a deep understanding of a customer’s journey. Every step of the way is informed by data. This provides a more relevant and personalized experience. You increase your chances of conversion by making the prospect feel more cared for. You also can increase the customer lifetime through offering incentives and products at just the right time.
What tools are available for human-to-human marketing?
In a rich multi-channel messaging environment, you are able to reach customers on every platform that they have shared. This can include SMS, email, social, direct mail and more. A quality platform should have both inbound and outbound capabilities so that you are always able to communicate in the right way at the right time.
Geofencing in app communications means that you can get a message just to those in the right geographic area to respond to it. Hyperlocal GPS allows, for instance, for a brick-and-mortar retailer to send a coupon or a sale announcement to someone who is in just the right area to make a spur-of-the-moment visit. In-app communication means that your message is waiting for a prospect when they log on so that you are reaching them at a time that they are most receptive to your message.
How does this look in practice?
This sort of prospect and customer nurturing can be valuable in a wide range of industries. Take this example from the casino and gaming industry:
- A new player signs up. They receive a personalized welcome.
- Their birthday comes! You send a personalized birthday wish with a special promotion.
- They play consistently. You can respond with loyalty tiers to keep them coming back. The more tiers, the more they are motivated to keep playing.
- They don’t visit for a while. Your system automatically sends a message inviting them back to play more.
- Reward the Jackpot winner in real-time, so that the guest can continue to shop, dine or even play and spend more at the Casino!
This is just one industry where careful nurturing improves customer retention rates and customer happiness. By applying this sort of individualized attention across the board, you can keep customers coming back and significantly increase the value of every customer. Over time, this will help you earn more on every customer acquired and make your business more profitable.