This may not be the sexiest of topics but nonetheless it is an important for the serious digital marketer and can mean the difference between high volume ‘spray and pray’ online marketing or super targeted, relevant campaigns.
In t’old days a marketers would go for high volume, generic messaging – throw your campaign out there and hope that you appeal to some potential customers. We’ve moved on since then and more importantly our target audience have. Even if you wanted to go for the lazier approach, your returns would be small and you would have alienated your target audience against your brand.
With so many options easily available to them due to technology and open communications, your target audience wants to feel special and they want relevant online marketing campaigns that show you’ve put some thought into selling to them.
So how do you tackle this personalised campaign?
Well firstly you need to get to get the data in the first place. And this is easier than you may think because your audience will happily let you know what they like and don’t if they think it will benefit their shopping experience.
The easiest data to collect is how they want to be communicated with because it will cut down receiving unwanted emails and adverts. So ask them how they want to be communicated with – email, SMS, tel, direct mail and then ask them how frequently. You now have to pieces of data that you can use instantly to give them a better experience.
Now you can ask what they’re interested in and because they know you care enough to ask for comms preferences, they’ll be more inclined to trust you with this. Tell them why you’re asking and give an example of how their data will be used.
Most importantly – tell them how it won’t be used with easy to understand privacy policy and a clear opt out of third party campaigns. Don’t try and be clever with language, they’ll see that you’re being wily and won’t trust you.
You probably hold data on their last purchase, what it was, when it was and you certainly have data on when they last engaged with you (opens/clicks/visits/downloads) so now you’re building up a good picture of their custom data, use it!
Use this information to segment your lists – a campaign to those who bought from you in the last 6 months in a category or one for those who haven’t engaged with you in the past year. Once you hold this custom data you can start brainstorming campaign ideas. Start small and once you have a campaign out you can work on your next one.
