How to engage your customers
The DMA Event for Customer Engagement on 18 February 2020 discussed how to create user journeys with a contemporary touch. The event outlined how combining creativity and technology can improve your customer’s experience with your brand. These are the top seven tips we learned:
1. Give the consumers their control back! More and more, people are feeling responsible for their own data. Customers are willing to share their personal data but want a better understanding of what's being done with it. Brands need to start developing a clear statement for customers when asking to collect their personal data. If customers know it will benefit them, they'll be more likely to agree.
2. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. This is something that came up again and again. Just because you can send a personalised welcome pack to a cold target, doesn't mean you should. Cold targets often find this intrusive and don't respond positively. Just because there is a wealth of new marketing technology, doesn't inherently mean it's a good fit for you. As always, continue to think about your brand, what you sell and who you sell it to, and use what is relevant to you.
3. Think in terms of experiences. The experiences in your marketing funnel aren't just PR events and sales experiences. Nowadays even your branding, or the act of purchasing your product/service, are experiences for the customer.
4. Know your audience. A few misconceptions about the general population were pointed out to us: did you realise millennials were born between 1980-1999 and now make up most of the current workforce? For most people, discounts and benefits are the most engaging call to action. But, they’re most likely to share their personal data not only if they get these benefits but if they’re relevant to them.
5. Solving a problem isn't enough anymore. Your marketing shouldn't focus on just solving a problem. Your marketing strategy needs to create a user journey by having various touchpoints, offers and added benefits to the customer.
6. Create personalised experiences through digital. One of the benefits of direct mail is that it is inherently interactive and can easily be personalised. However, there's a lot you can learn through digital to tailor that personal message. By examining how someone got to your website, what they looked at and what they bought, you can tailor a follow up email or direct mail offer to suit their interests.
7. Make an experience that’s made for your audience. Mi Rewards was a great example of this. Most loyalty programmes require you to have your loyalty card on hand. Colin Munro at Miconex found that this was a contributing factor to towns and cities not having a successful loyalty program - so Miconex adapted to suit their audience. They partnered with Fidel, the company which manages the data belonging to Visa and Mastercard to create a loyalty program in which customers link their Mi Rewards app directly with their debit card. Local businesses agree to participate and then offer discounts and offers to relevant users depending on where they're spending.
