The data marketers collect through their websites and CRM systems can spur improvements to marketing programs and overall offerings. Why? Because this data mirrors the information customers use to decide whether or not to do business with a marketer. And due to its nature, this data is anonymous, honest, and largely unbiased—much like the information businesses might expect to receive from focus groups.
Only it's better.
Focus groups attempt to simulate a genuine experience and gain feedback on what the customer potentially thinks. But the combination of online testing results, analytics and CRM data offers marketers feedback on what actualpeople doing actual searches on their actual sites are actually thinking when making actual buying decisions. Used wisely, this insight can improve their websites as well as their product offerings, in-store efforts, other offline experiences and overall marketing efforts.
Testing and CRM won't eliminate old-school focus groups. There is still a need for these, especially those that take place prior to a product’s launch. But marketers have access to a ton of rich information and insight into their products and marketing efforts, in real-time and on an ongoing basis, already available to them.
By pairing CRM data with A/B and multivariate testing, marketers are able to infer how customers would answer questions such as:
* Why do you get all the way to the shopping cart before deciding to quit?
* What types of offers do you find most appealing as you go through the buying processes, and which types distract you?
* How did you find out about us in the offline world, and what was it that finally made you come to our site?
* What makes you come back?
* At what points did you feel you needed outside information to make a buying decision?
* What makes you share your thoughts about us with your friends?
This type of information can help marketers improve their websites—optimizing everything from button size and shape and recommendation types to number of click-throughs from point A to point B to content placement. It can also help businesses improve their products, as well as the way they talk about them, who they talk to, and where and how they position them in the real world.
Speaking of the offline world, CRM data isn’t something that marketers are limited to collecting online. Customers offer the same type of insights offline where they’re shopping, consuming, deciding, recommending, and otherwise engaging with brands and people.
Here are four examples of how marketers are using data gathered from CRM and testing results to improve their multi-channel marketing programs, both online and off.
1. They’re reproducing successful online tactics to inform overall branding and in-store shopping experiences.
Marketers acknowledge that the online store experience needs to live up to many of the same expectations that the physical one does—easy-to-find products, items positioned strategically on the “shelf,” helpful customer service, and so on—but they’re not always aware that the reverse is also true. A/B and multivariate testing and CRM data reveal customer preferences that are valuable well beyond the virtual world.
If, for instance, this insight reveals that a particular product recommendation is effectively converting customers at the shopping cart/recommendation phase of the online experience, a company should strongly consider reproducing such an experience in its stores–whether through its associates or with product displays placed near checkout.
Similarly, if a brand begins noticing that customers are consistently gravitating toward a certain editorial tone or responding positively to distinct button colors, these things could also be integrated into in-store signage, advertising, direct mail, and beyond.
2. They’re using data collected from in-store purchases to flag customers online and customize their experiences based on this knowledge.
Companies that sell both online and offline operate in an ecosystem that’s only as healthy as the relationship between their various selling locations. In other words, customer transactions in the offline world need to speak to activity in the online one so that the two can mutually benefit from one another.
For instance, if a customer purchases a cell phone in a store and this purchase is tied to the customer’s email address in the point of sale system, it may trigger certain follow-up activity. In this case, the company may have a rule set up that anyone who purchases a cell phone will receive an email promotion for a Bluetooth headset within two days.
If the same customer were to buy a TV without a warranty, the purchase may trigger a promotion that highlights coverage for the TV. Ever bought something from the Apple store? Perhaps an iPhone? If so, a few days later you should have received an email about your new iPhone.
In all of these cases, it’s about making smart recommendations based on the user’s known activity, no matter where that activity originated.
3. They’re leveraging data gained from loyalty and rewards programs to improve customers’ online experiences and increase conversion.
Loyalty/rewards programs and frequent shopper clubs offer a wealth of data about customers’ activity in the real world. What do they do? What do they like? What are their preferences while engaging with a brand they return to again and again? Many companies are using this information to create unique profiles for each of their customers, so that they can tailor their subsequent experiences around it, thereby reinforcing their status and confirming their importance to the brand.
Take the hotel industry, for instance. As hotel websites continue playing an increased role in travel bookings, some hotels are marrying behavioral insights with loyalty data to continually improve the customer experience from the time of booking until checkout. Information such as program status, recent travel activity, travel frequency, prior or frequent destinations, and even life events like birthdays and anniversaries (when provided) can be fed directly into an automated targeting model, and greatly improve the precision and appeal of any offers displayed to this valuable customer.
This type of personalization could result in things like a free room upgrade, a chance to buy exclusive backstage pass concert tickets in the destination city, or even free tickets to a tennis tournament leading to customers extending their stays at their new favorite hotels.
4. They’re recognizing shoppers’ preferences and tailoring their direct marketing efforts around those.
Shoppers don’t only share their preferences by purchasing products, they do it through their product reviews and other engagement with/activity on specific website pages. Over time and across customers, this activity can tip marketers off to items customers are likely to purchase in the future, specific problems they’re trying to solve, and even nuanced life situations—all of which can trigger different direct marketing efforts.
A good recent example of this was the revelation that Target’s customers’ patterns were so consistent that the store was able to tell a customer was pregnant before she’d revealed it to her own family. Essentially, behavioral data collected on their site flagged a customer as being pregnant, and as a result, triggered a direct mail program personalized for pregnant women.
While this particular situation led to debate, its accuracy, precision and ultimate execution are a great case study on the usage of CRM to inform subsequent promotions and communications.
Mark Simpson is founder and president of Maxymiser.
Network
