Customers have multiple choices at their disposal. We know they’re not short of options, but they are short on time and patience, so businesses need to communicate with them quickly, effectively and personally in order to make any kind of impact. Generic marketing campaigns are a thing of the past – or they should be – and each customer now expects a certain level of personalised care and communication in order to maintain their attention.
When we speak about personalisation, we are no longer only referring to addressing a customer by their first name. That’s a given, but customers want more. According to insight provided by SalesForce, “62% of consumers expect companies to send personalised offers or discounts based on items they’ve already purchased.” It’s become an expectation and retailers need to deliver on this in order to stand out in their already competitive space.
Retailers Need To Adopt Hyper-Personalisation Methods
The next level of personalisation is hyper-personalisation. This uses behavioural insight and big data to determine personal interests and habits of a customer. Brands can then feed the customer separate offers that are tailored specifically to their needs or shopping preferences. There is a lot of product understanding required to get this right, but when done properly, retailers are seeing exceptional results.
Let’s look at two global brands that are doing this and taking it to the next level.
Amazon Owning The Hyper-Personalisation Space
Amazon is no doubt regarded as one of the Internet’s retail giants and they have had plenty of time (and budget) to hone their digital marketing craft. But here’s where they are really making a difference to their customers. Using extensive data and customer interaction, Amazon has been able to finetune their cross-marketing in a big way.
Using predictive analytics, they offer features such as their “Frequently Bought Together” option that pops up when a user clicks on a product. This provides highly relevant product information for potential customers. They also look at factors like items on the wishlist, previous purchases, and shopping cart items to create a personalised home page for each customer who comes online.
Starbucks Treating Their Customers Like Family
Starbucks have been providing game-changing customer experience, but they have taken it to new levels of late. Their loyalty programme – Starbucks Rewards – has opened up the facility for them to be able to create and send personalised offers to each and every customer, based on their particular preferences.
The rewards programme and app was introduced in 2011 and has been the main source of gathering personalised insights about their customers. The best part? Customers are only too happy to offer up their personal information because they know that there are rewards in it for them at the end of the day. And not just any rewards… hyper-personalised rewards.
How Can Your Business Adopt Hyper-Personalisation?
Not only do you need to invest time into learning about your customers, but you need to find a non-intrusive way to do this. Utilising the data you have on hand is a great start. It also – as previously mentioned – pays to understand your products, their benefits and general uses in great detail. That way you can figure out the best ways to match products to customers and vice versa.