Put aside any fad diets you might be doing this January and invest in our digital detox! Over the next few weeks we’ll be delivering some fresh (and very real) detox ideas that will make a difference to the shape of your 2015 marketing plans.
In Part 1, we’ll be exploring what promises to be one of this year’s hottest trends: personalization. Whether you’re new to personalization or consider yourself a pro, there’s always room for improvement, especially because personalization is constantly evolving. How brands positioned their personalization strategy in 2014 should be quite different in 2015.
Here’s why.
Personalization should create a positive customer experience
Retailers simply must create a personalized customer experience. When shoppers are faced with more and more choices than ever, it’s now imperative to get ahead of the crowd (click to find out how in our personalization eBook.) From department stores and online retailers to brands who offer their customers a multi-channel experience, personalization offers every retailer the chance to connect and engage with consumers like never before.
We saw a lot of the ‘if you like that, you’ll love this’ approach in 2014, especially in terms of product recommendations. To create a positive customer experience, personalization needs to be subtle and almost go unnoticed. It should help your customer and improve their shopping experience and can be in the guise of user generated content, real-time interactions and predictions that take contextualization into account.
Really help your customer
A lot of brands and businesses still see personalization as a strategy that should have an immediate impact on revenue. For example, if you are deciding whether or not to position a personalized, clickable banner on a website, the question perhaps shouldn’t be ‘will this banner drive revenue’, but rather ‘is showing this banner to these people going to help them?’
Long-term wins over short-term
What’s a short-term personalization win?
- Changing banners that promote international delivery according to your website visitor’s location.
- Email recommendations based on past product purchases.
How about long-term?
- Showing product recommendations that benefit the customer – which are also strategic upsells.
- Collating and understanding meaningful customer data e.g. clothes size, favourite colors and reacting to it.
Although there’s certainly a lot of worth using short-term personalization methods, it’s always advisable to look long-term. Find out as much as you can about your customer. Look at what they buy, when and where. A helped customer is a happy customer.