Personalization and the human touch

Even in our technology-driven age, people appreciate a personal touch in interactions – that’s why personalization remains a vital marketing tool. Human-to-human (H2H) marketing strategies focus on creating individual experiences, like personalized videos or understanding prospects’ interests through social media. These tailored approaches attract quality leads and boost conversion rates.

Why not level up your workflow by blending personalization with marketing automation? Trust us, it’s a game changer, making your marketing feel even more genuine and engaging to your audience.

How to personalize with marketing automation

When done right, marketing automation adds a human touch by catering to each contact’s unique needs and preferences. It teams up with personalization effortlessly, helping you deliver tailor-made experiences at scale. Here are four ways to achieve that:

1. Segment your audience

When it comes to reaching your audience effectively, segmentation is key. Dotdigital offers powerful tools that allow you to create segments based on various criteria, such as age, location, and RFM score. This means you can tailor your marketing efforts to specific groups within your audience.

By utilizing automation programs, Dotdigital makes it easy for you to create segments and deliver targeted messages. This not only saves you time but also ensures that your audience receives personalized content that resonates with them.

2. Use dynamic content

Dynamic content is a game-changer when it comes to email marketing. It enables you to provide personalized and targeted content to your recipients in one email. Achieving this is possible by tapping into your customer analytics and creating engaging content, which can be delivered at scale using dynamic content blocks and smart program logic.

Imagine being able to display images of local stores to recipients based on their location, making them feel like you’re right there with them. Or recommending products based on their recently viewed or purchased items, giving them that extra nudge toward making a purchase.

With dynamic content, you can create highly relevant and engaging emails that cater to each recipient’s unique preferences and behaviors. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows exactly what your customers want, delivering the right message at the right time.

3. Customer-driven journeys

Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all approach to automation programs. In today’s customer-centric world, it’s all about giving your contacts control over their journey. Instead of bombarding your customers with generic content, why not offer multiple paths based on their actions and preferences?

But it doesn’t stop there. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches like remails to find what truly resonates with your audience. Keep testing and refining your strategies until you discover what works best for each segment of your contacts.

4. Leverage behavior data

Tapping into behavioral data is the key to understanding your audience by tracking their actions and responding in a way that resonates with them. With Dotdigital, crafting automation programs that respond to your contacts’ behavior as it happens becomes a piece of cake, paving the way for timely and relevant communication.

Imagine noticing a shopper leaving items in their cart, and effortlessly sending them a gentle trigger to encourage the completion of their purchase. Or, picture welcoming a new subscriber to your newsletter by guiding them through your brand’s journey, all the while showcasing meaningful offers, using marketing automation.

By harnessing the potential of behavioral data, you’ll never miss an opportunity to connect with your audience when it matters most, leading to stronger relationships and increased satisfaction.

Combine marketing automation and personalization for maximized results

Both personalization and marketing automation have their merits, but combining the two can help you unlock your full marketing potential. With tools like Dotdigital, you can provide personalized experiences at scale, catering to each contact’s unique interests and preferences, without sacrificing the efficiency and reach of automation.

1. Make your content mobile and desktop friendly

In today’s digital age, it’s important to ensure that your content is not only visually appealing but also optimized for both mobile and desktop devices. With more and more people shopping and browsing through their phones and laptops, it’s important to review how your website performs across different devices and make any necessary optimizations.

By making your content mobile and desktop friendly, you can provide a pleasant browsing experience for your users. Nobody wants to zoom in or scroll endlessly just to read the content or view product details. So make sure that your website and email design is responsive, with easy navigation, readable text, and properly sized images.

Optimizing your website for mobile devices can also help reduce abandoned carts and increase conversions. If users find it difficult to navigate or complete a purchase on their phones or tablets, they are more likely to abandon their carts. On the other hand, if the checkout process is smooth and user-friendly on all devices, it can lead to higher conversion rates.

2. Turn abandoned carts into revenue with crafty email follow-ups

The holiday season is here, and with more shoppers turning to online shopping, it’s the perfect time to focus on fine-tuning your abandoned cart recovery strategy. Don’t let those potential customers slip away – give them a chance to save their carts for later.

One effective way to reconnect with shoppers who’ve shown interest in your products is through personalized emails or messages. By sending follow-up messages tailored specifically to their abandoned carts, you can remind them of the items they left behind and entice them to complete their purchase.

Whether it’s a friendly email highlighting the benefits of the products or a text message offering a limited-time discount, these personalized approaches can make a significant difference in recovering lost sales during this busy holiday season.

3. Add a personal touch to your messaging

When it comes to holiday messaging, personalization is key. Gone are the days of generic mass emails and cookie-cutter marketing campaigns. Today, it’s all about creating a personal connection with your audience.

By utilizing the data you’ve gathered from preference centers and first-party data sources, you can tailor your messages to cater to each individual’s preferences and behaviors. This level of personalization not only shows that you value their unique needs but also increases the chances of engagement and conversion.

Imagine receiving an email that speaks directly to your interests or a targeted holiday ad that showcases products you’ve been eyeing. It instantly creates a sense of connection and makes you feel understood as a consumer.

4. Sprinkle some holiday magic into your SEO

The holiday season is the perfect time to sprinkle some festive magic into your website’s SEO. By incorporating festive keywords throughout your SEO copywriting and product descriptions, you can capture the attention of shoppers who are in the holiday spirit.

One way to add a touch of holiday flair to your SEO is by updating your meta tags and headings to showcase that seasonal spirit. By including keywords like “holiday deals,” “gift ideas,” or those related to your product, you can align your website to what customers are searching for at this time of year. By with your customers’ seasonal searches, you can increase the chances of attracting more traffic to your website. 

You can make the most out of your website traffic by incorporating a clear call-to-action (CTA) section. Not only does it help enhance your click-through rate, but it also allows you to drive revenue. By organizing your CTAs with various links, you can cater to the different interests and preferences of your visitors.

To make your CTAs engaging, use simple language that is easy for users to understand. A user-friendly layout will also encourage them to take action. Remember, the goal is to create a seamless experience that entices users to click and explore further.

5. Be social media savvy

The holiday season is the perfect time to have some extra fun on social media. With so many people spending time online during this festive period, using paid and organic social methods is an effective way to reach both new and loyal customers.

On Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you can use targeted ads to connect with your desired audience uniquely. These platforms offer a range of gamification options to incorporate into your ad campaigns. You can create engaging content that resonates with your demographic using interactive quizzes, polls, and immersive storytelling experiences.

By adding gamification elements to your social media ads, you can transform the user experience from passive viewing to active participation. This approach not only increases brand awareness but also encourages interaction and engagement with your target audience.

But why stop there? For an added layer of flair and authenticity, team up with influencers who resonate with your target audience. Collaborating with influencers can help you tap into their engaged followers and create a buzz around your brand during the holiday season.

Time to wrap up

These five simple and engaging tips will help make your holiday marketing campaign a smashing success. By keeping your messaging personalized, your SEO festive, and your content as device-friendly and heartwarming as possible, you’re setting yourself up for a profitable holiday season. So why wait? Jump into the holiday marketing fun and spread good cheer all around.

What is personalization?

Personalization goes beyond simply addressing your customers by their names. It’s about crafting tailored experiences and delivering content that resonates with your audience based on their individual preferences, actions, and unique characteristics. To excel in personalization, it’s essential to make well-informed decisions at each step of the customer journey. This means delivering the right content at the right time to the right audience. 

Personalization is achieved by leveraging customer data and insights to provide an experience that is both relevant and engaging. This approach makes your marketing messages not only authentic but also meaningful to each individual customer.

In marketing today, personalization goes far beyond just using the customer’s name in an email or celebrating their birthday. According to Salesforce, 62% of customers expect companies to deliver personalized offers and discounts based on their previous purchases. While incorporating basic information such as a customer’s name, birthday, or gender is important, modern consumers expect more.

Top personalization tips

We’ve curated a selection of top personalization tips to help you make stronger connections with your audience. From leveraging dynamic content to tapping into customer insights, these effective strategies will ensure your marketing messages are tailored, relevant, and engaging for each individual.

1. Elevate your campaigns with dynamic content

Dynamic content is a powerful tool to supercharge your marketing campaigns by delivering laser-targeted messaging in a single send. Thanks to dynamic content blocks, you can easily display a variety of content, including text, images, and CTAs. These content blocks cater to each recipient’s data, preferences, and previous interactions.

By tailoring your content to specific factors like a customer’s location, subscription level, or any custom data field of your choice, you ensure that your messaging remains highly relevant and engaging for each individual. At Dotdigital, we love seeing how brands can capitalize on customer location data to craft unique offers that resonate with recipients and forge stronger connections.

Incorporate dynamic content into your campaigns to unlock higher engagement rates and deliver remarkable end-user experiences that set your brand apart and keep customers coming back for more.

2. Tap into targeted product recommendations

For ecommerce businesses and brick-and-mortar retailers with delivery or click-and-collect options, targeted product recommendations are an invaluable tool to add a personal touch to your email campaigns. To capture customers’ interest and encourage them to explore further, you can create product recommendation blocks that cater to their previous buying and browsing patterns or preferences. This can be based on a specific stage in the customer journey.

For example, if you’re a shoe retailer, you could showcase running shoes tailored to a customer’s specific needs. This could include their preferred terrain, distance, gender, or even color preferences. You could also feature items they’ve previously expressed interest in by browsing online or adding them to their shopping cart. These curated recommendations create a sense of familiarity and personalization that resonates with your customers.

Dotdigital takes it a step further by enabling you to harness machine learning to suggest the next-best products and more. By utilizing these advanced techniques, you can create unforgettable customer interactions that drive engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, increase conversions for your business.

3. Harness segmentation for ultimate personalization

There are times when dynamic content blocks are not enough, and you want to make the whole message personal. That’s when segmentation comes in handy. It helps you split your audience into groups based on things like age, customer type, or even personal tastes like favorite colors.

But that’s not all – with eRFM segmentation, you can group your audience based on their engagement and purchasing behaviors. eRFM stands for “engagement, recency, frequency, and monetary,” which means you’re looking at how engaged your customers are when they last made a purchase, how often they buy, and how much they spend. With Dotdigital, creating groups for different customers, like loyal fans or people who need some extra nurturing, is simple. Plus, you can make new groups when customers change how they act, so your messaging is always spot-on.

By rewarding your brand champions with special offers and winning back inactive customers, you’ll create a better experience for everyone. Personalization is all about choosing to do or not do something based on the customer. If this group isn’t engaging with your campaigns, it’s a good idea to exclude them from your newsletters and instead reserve sends for them for big events (like Black Friday). This way, your campaigns will be more engaging, and your customers will be happier.

4. Create personalized journeys with custom automation paths

Designing and building customized customer journeys is a breeze with Dotdigital. By using automation programs, you can create personalized journeys that cater to each customer’s unique engagement with your brand. With the drag and drop functionality of our automation builder, you can easily design tailored paths, utilizing actions, decisions, and delays to create the ideal experience for every individual customer.

These customized journeys empower your customers to choose their own path through the automation program, with each action they take (or don’t take) determining the subsequent messages they receive. This way, you can ensure that every journey is one-of-a-kind, offering highly engaging and relevant content that speaks directly to your audience on a personal level. By tapping into our platform, you’ll bring these personalized journeys to life, improve customer experience, and boost conversion rates. 

Summary

In today’s digital world, personalization is no longer optional – it’s essential. So, why not revamp your personalization approach? By implementing these strategies, you’ll give your audience the personalized experiences they want and set your marketing campaigns up for incredible success.

Sending irrelevant emails can readers into unengaged contacts. Sending them repeatedly, all but guarantees their unsubscribe.

To keep subscribers engaged you need to consider email segmentation as a core element of your email marketing strategy. Segmenting your audience base allows you to send personalized emails that reflect the customers’ needs and wants. The more you’re able to do this, the easier it’ll be to convert and retain customers.

Below are some key segments you should be building to optimize your email marketing performance.

Why email segmentation is important?

Every time you send a targeted email to your segments, you’re one step closer to sending personalized content. The more you refine your audience segments, the more relevant and personalized your marketing will feel when it lands in a subscriber’s inbox.

There is a number of ways you can use email segmentation in your emails to personalize them.  In the following sections, we’ll explore tactics for different industries to master the art of email segmentation.

General email segmentation

Every email marketer, from beginner to well-seasoned professionals, should have a collection of general segments built and ready to use when the campaign demands it.

These usually use the explicit data customers hand over in exchange for a more personalized experience. Demographic data such as gender, age, and location are all examples of explicit data and should form the basis of your email segmentation strategy.

Marketing preferences collected through your preference center should also be a priority for serious email marketers. You should be collecting preferences such as favorite products, interests, and newsletters they’d like to receive. This will give you unprecedented insight into your customers and empower them to personalize their own experiences.

B2B segmentation

As well as segmenting based on demographic data B2B marketers can use lead scoring to segment and target specific audience groups.

Segments based on whether a prospect is “cold”, “warm”, “hot”, or “red hot” enables you to send targeted messages designed to tip them into the next category. For example, you can target your “red hot” segment with invitations to book calls with your sales team. Or, you can target your “warm” contacts with educational download content to drive them into the “hot” prospect category.

Ecommerce segmentation

Ecommerce brands have a wealth of customer data at their fingertips. From past purchases to total money spent, every insight adds value to your relationship with customers.

You can take these insights further by segmenting based on customers’ RFM scores. RFM – recency, frequency, and monetary – models help ecommerce brands group customers based on their shopping habits.

Dotdigital’s RFM modeling tool groups shoppers into eight personas which you can use to create audience segments. These personas are:

• Lost
• At-risk
• Can’t lose
• Need nurturing
• High potential
• Recent customers
• Loyalists
• Champions

Segmenting your audience based on these personas helps you identify what each group needs. For example, during the sales period, you can offer “Loyalist” and “Champion” segments exclusive pre-sale access. Or you can target your “Need nurturing” segment with engaging newsletter content that helps them develop stronger connections with your brand.

Internal communication segmentation

A lot of internal communication and HR teams tend to rely on their internal email providers to connect with staff, but the benefit of using an automation platform is unprecedented.

One of the biggest perks is the ability to segment your workforce. Whether you’re sending important updates to managers, onboarding new staff, or targeting specific office locations, segmentation will enable you to get messages out quickly and efficiently.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) segmentation

A lot of emerging D2C brands offer products and services to consumers on a subscription basis. These membership-based businesses need to connect with customers to keep the contract rolling.

Targeting audience segments based on how long they’ve been subscribed to your services, and the type or level of subscription they have is a great place to start. You can ensure your loyal customers are rewarded and kept up-to-date with your latest releases. You can also nurture subscribers paying for basic packages by regularly delivering outlining the benefits of upgrading.

Non-profit segmentation

The audience base of a non-profit organization is as diverse as they come, which means segmentation is a vital tactic. Charities, non-profits, and membership organizations regularly have to deliver important communications to stakeholders, but each stakeholder may require a different level of business insight.

Building segments for your volunteers, fundraisers, board members, ambassadors, and more will make getting emails out easier and more efficient.

Summary

By incorporating personalized strategies your email marketing, you can establish a deeper connection with subscribers and deliver content that genuinely resonates with them. This approach allows you to customize your email content to align with individual needs and preferences. This will enhance the likelihood of your subscribers opening and engaging with the message, ultimately driving desired actions.

Email segments divide audiences into groups depending on age, gender, location, interests, and more. If you don’t segment your marketing list, you’ll be sending generic content to your whole database. When customers decide they’re not receiving valuable content they become unengaged.

That’s why segmentation is such an important tactic for all email marketing professionals.

Why is email segmentation important?

We’ve already mentioned how segmentation can improve your email engagement levels, but let’s dive a bit deeper. Why should you use segmentation and what are the benefits?

Not all subscribers are the same

Each of your subscribers will have very different expectations for your brand. One-size-fits-all approaches don’t work. In the same way, you target different personas, different audience groups have specific goals when they subscribe to your marketing.

Email segmentation helps you identify common characteristics among them. As you learn more about your customers, your segments can get more granular. The deeper you go, the more likely you are to convert readers. You’re personalizing emails based on their shared interests and helping them achieve their goals.

Different stages of the sales cycle

Readers will be at different stages of the sales cycle when your email lands in their inbox. To maximize your impact and their experience, it’s important you target customers with the content they need, every step of the way.

You can use segmentation to group your audience according to their stage in the journey. If they have just joined your marketing list, you should be sending them welcome emails and content to introduce your brand. When they’ve made a purchase recently, they’ll need follow-up content to keep them engaged.

Failing to connect with customers at the key stages of your sales cycle, risks losing them altogether. Segmentation makes the likelihood of missing these opportunities significantly smaller.

Better results

Because of the benefits outlined above, you’ll see better results when you send segmented email marketing. You’ll be targeting the right customer, with the right message, at the right stage of the journey. This will lead to more conversions, sales, and ultimately revenue for your brand. If you’re looking to improve your email marketing metrics, segmentation is a must.

Improved deliverability

The more relevant the content your send, the more opens you will get. The more your open rates improve the better your email reputation will be. Everything’s connected.

When you send targeted emails to a segmented database, you’re engaging with your customers more. This will encourage your customers to interact with you on a deeper level.

As customers begin to expect relevant and engaging emails, they’ll open and interact with your emails more often. The more readers engage with your email marketing email providers will recognize you as a reputable and trustworthy brand. Accidentally landing in the spam folder will be a thing of the past.

Enhanced customer experience

When you leverage email segmentation you can improve your customer experience. By delivering tailored, relevant emails to your subscribers, you address their unique needs and interests, making them feel valued and seen. This personalized approach fosters a stronger connection between your brand and your customers, ultimately leading to improved satisfaction and customer loyalty.

How to segment your email list

There are five key ways brands should be segmenting email marketing lists.

1. Demographics

Demographic segments use customer information such as age, gender, marital status, and job title. You should collect this data when new subscribers sign up to receive your email marketing. The more information you gather during the early stage of your relationship, the more advanced you can make your segments.

2. Geographical

Targeting customers based on their location has a massive influence on purchase decisions. Especially if you’re driving shoppers to brick-and-mortar stores or providing delivery updates, customer location is essential data to have. Modern shoppers love convenience. By targeting geographical segments you can drive customers into making spontaneous decisions.

3. Marketing preferences

You should always be collecting marketing preferences, especially during the welcome series in preference centers and re-engagement programs. This is data such as the departments, newsletters, or topics they’re interested in and the frequency with which they would like to hear from you. Driving customers to update their preferences will help you ensure engagement levels are high for each segment.

4. Email engagement

Email engagement metrics such as open rate and click-through rate are automatically tracked. That means it’s easy and straightforward to segment users based on how they interact with your email marketing. Whether it’s non-openers or readers who’ve clicked specific links, targeting these segments will have a huge impact on your results.

5. Behavioral

Behavioral segmentation is the most advanced email segmentation tactic. It’s based on customer behavior on your other channels such as your website. Specific page hits, frequency of visits, and recent activity are just a couple of the segments possible that help gives your email marketing a hyper-personalized feel.  You can also use data like purchase history and average order value to create behavioral audience segments.

eRFM segmentation

eRFM is a model that helps businesses profile customers’ shopping habits. Depending on the RFM score a customer gets, you can identify segments from ‘champions’ and ‘recent customers’ to ‘high potential’ and ‘at risk’.

Three factors are considered when categorizing audiences:

1. Recency: how recently did the customer purchase?
2. Frequency: how often do the purchase?
3. Monetary value: how much do they spend?

Dotdigital’s eRFM modeling tool provides eight separate personas you can use to segment and target customers with relevant content.

SMS segmentation

SMS marketing is being adopted by brands around the world. Compared to email marketing’s average open rate of around 89.42% (due to Apple MPP making open rates unreliable), SMS has a read rate of 98% within the first five minutes. It’s a quick and effective way to reach audiences with important information.

But it’s also becoming the new channel for batch-and-blast customers.

Like email marketing, you should segment SMS audiences. This will ensure engagement and start two-way conversations.

Because of the immediacy of SMS, you should base your audience segments on data such as location and recent activity. Segmentation will help you to connect with engaged audiences and deliver relevant promotions and offers that will land with an impact.

Summary

Email segmentation is a powerful tool to improve your marketing strategy. By understanding the different ways to segment your audience and the benefits it brings, you can create tailored and relevant messaging that resonates with your subscribers. This personalized approach not only drives engagement but also fosters customer loyalty, leading to increased conversions, sales, and overall success of your marketing campaigns.

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through some these best practices to improve your personalized email marketing game.

What is email personalization?

Email personalization is a powerful marketing strategy that revolves around creating and delivering content tailored to the interests, preferences, and unique characteristics of each subscriber. It involves using customer data to create personalized messages that speak directly to their needs and desires. This leads to improved open rates, click-through rates, and ultimately higher conversion rates.

Email personalization best practices

To make the most out of email personalization and drive successful results, it’s important to implement proven best practices. Here are some key personalization strategies that can help elevate your email marketing strategy:

1. Collect and use the right data

The foundation of email personalization is collecting relevant customer data. You can collect first-party data via the channels your customers interact with you on. This data may include basic information like their name, location, and job title.

Additionally, you can collect zero-party data from surveys, sign-up forms, or customer account profiles. Remember, it’s important to be ethical and transparent when collecting data so you respect your subscribers’ privacy and international regulations. 

2. Understand your audience

To craft an email that resonates with your intended audience, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who they are, their preferences, and what type of content they find valuable. To gather this information, it’s essential you implement a preference center at the start of your customer journey. As time goes on, you can collect additional data on demographics, browsing habits, purchase history, and email click data. This will allow you to create individualized user personas for each segment of your audience.

3. Segment your contact and email lists

Segmenting your email and contact list is an important personalized email marketing tactic. Breaking down your email list into smaller groups based on user attributes or behavior can help you create targeted and relevant emails. For example, you could segment your list based on geographical location, past purchase behavior, or the recipient’s age group. Tailoring your emails based on these segments ensures that your audience receives content that aligns with their interests.

4. Use dynamic content

Including dynamic content in your emails is another way to enhance the personalization of your email campaigns. Dynamic content refers to elements within the email that change based on the recipient’s data, such as their name, location, or browsing history. Incorporating dynamic content within the email can help you create a highly personalized experience for each recipient without having to craft individual emails manually.

5. Craft persuasive subject lines and preview text

The subject line and preview text are the first things recipients notice, so it’s crucial to make them eye-catching and captivating. Including personal touches in your subject lines, such as the recipient’s first name, can improve open rates. Also, use your preview text to suggest exclusive content within the email, enticing users to open it and interact with your content.

6. Personalize your calls-to-action (CTAs)

Tailoring your calls-to-action to match the interests and preferences of your email recipients can increase your click-through rates and conversions. Use the data you’ve collected on the user’s preferences or past behavior to personalize the CTA, offering them a unique and relevant experience. This can be achieved using dynamic content, as well as tailoring the CTA copy to reflect the user persona you’re targeting.

7. Test and optimize

As with any marketing strategy, it’s essential to continuously test and optimize your email personalization tactics to ensure maximum efficacy. Use A/B testing to experiment with different subject lines, content, CTAs, and design to find out what resonates with your audience. Use analytics to understand the impact of each email on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, enabling you to make data-driven adjustments as required.

8. Communicate regularly but don’t overdo it

Personalized emails are more likely to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more. However, be mindful not to overdo it – emailing your recipients too frequently may result in a decrease in engagement. Striking the right balance between regular communication and giving your subscribers space is important. Use your data to understand when and how often your audience likes to engage with your content to ensure you deliver a positive experience.

Summary

Email personalization is an important part of creating a successful email marketing campaign. By implementing these best practices, you’ll be able to create targeted, personalized emails that engage your audience and drive meaningful connections. Don’t miss the opportunity to stand out in your subscribers’ inboxes and take your marketing efforts to new heights – start personalizing your emails today.

Key takeaways from the Retail Innovation Conference and Expo

Let’s discuss the key takeaways from sessions at #RICE23: 

1. Leverage generative artificial intelligence (AI)

One of the most intriguing and innovative concepts presented at this year’s #RICE23 was the potential and utilization of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the retail industry. As retailers aim to deliver more personalized, efficient, and engaging customer experiences, the introduction of generative AI proves to be a game-changer in meeting these expectations.

A prime example of generative AI in action is WinstonAI. WinstonAI draws on Microsoft Azure’s generative AI technology (GPT-3.5) to offer suggestions and inspiration on how to take your campaign content to the next level. Built directly into the Dotdigital platform, WinstonAI can now easily provide you with hints, tips, and advice on how to improve your email marketing and customer experiences. 

If you want generative AI tools like WinstonAI to meet your expectations, it’s crucial to dedicate time and resources to train them. By refining these AI models with suitable data and feedback, you can unlock your full potential to develop more powerful marketing campaigns.

2. Deliver personalized customer experiences

In the era of fierce competition, driving customer loyalty and retention goes beyond offering high-quality products or services. To create meaningful connections, brands must prioritize personalization and create positive customer experiences tailored to individual preferences. By cultivating a loyal and dedicated customer base, businesses set themselves apart from the competition.

Harnessing the power of customer data is crucial to this strategy. Data guides brands in crafting unforgettable customer experiences tailored to their target audience. By gaining insights into customers’ preferences and needs, businesses can develop innovative products, launch strategies, marketing campaigns (both offline and online), custom packaging, superb in-store experiences, and user-friendly website designs that elevate their brand from the rest.

The solution lies in adopting a human-to-human (H2H) marketing approach. This paradigm shift emphasizes treating customers as humans with emotions and stories rather than mere data points. By humanizing your marketing strategy, your brand will stand out from the competition and foster stronger relationships with your target audience. This deeper connection ultimately influences their decision to choose your brand over others.

3. Embrace creativity

If you want to stand out and attract the attention of the tech-savvy Gen Z audience, creativity is key. This generation appreciates new and unique ideas, and they are more likely to try out brands that break away from the norm. Don’t hesitate to be innovative with your products, marketing strategies, or brand stories to set yourself apart from the competition. Additionally, make sure to communicate with this generation on their preferred channels and engage in meaningful conversations.

Liquid Death is a brand that has effectively used creative marketing to establish its own unique identity. While they sell canned water, their success comes from their entertainment and content-driven approach. Their marketing strategies aim to create an exciting and unconventional image that stands out among competitors and captures the attention of customers.

4. Build a community

Cultivating a sense of community within your brand is pivotal to forging lasting, personal connections with your customers. This intimate relationship fosters a sense of belonging, support, and empowerment, transforming casual customers into passionate, engaged champions who actively use your products and services.

The power of a strong brand community offers: 

• Enhanced virality: When customers feel connected to your brand, they are more inclined to share content and products within their networks. This organic sharing significantly expands your reach and fuels viral growth.
• Natural brand advocates: Members who are deeply engaged with your brand community will readily share their positive experiences, recommendations, and testimonials with their circles, establishing trust and credibility among potential customers.

5. Maintain your digital presence

It’s important to keep your digital presence up-to-date to create a positive perception of your brand. Your ecommerce site and martech stack should evolve with changing consumer expectations, as customers often form their first impression of your products and services through your digital presence.

If your website is outdated, it may harm your brand’s reputation and give potential customers the impression that you are not up-to-date with current trends. This could affect their decision-making process and lead to losing customers. Therefore, it’s important to update your website regularly.

To maintain your digital presence, you can: 

• Update your technology stack: As technology evolves, so do the expectations of tech-savvy consumers. Invest in tools and integrations to deliver a seamless user experience that meets consumer demands.
• Refresh your design: A visually appealing, modern design can significantly influence a brand’s image. Regularly update your website or email design elements, layout, and color scheme to reflect the latest design trends and maintain a fresh, contemporary appearance.
• Monitor your competition: Keep an eye on your competitors’ websites and take note of any updates or changes they make. This can help you stay informed of the latest industry trends and anticipate consumer expectations.

Summary

During #RICE23, experts in ecommerce, social media, and martech discussed valuable insights. In today’s rapidly evolving retail industry, it’s essential for brands to keep up with industry trends and consumer preferences to succeed. Thankfully, we were right there, soaking it all in for you, so you don’t miss a beat in keeping your business on top of its game! 

We entered 2023 still in the shadow of the pandemic; inflation continued to rise, the war in Ukraine continued, and there have been plenty more headlines since then. People everywhere can’t help but ask – is the worst behind us, or is there more bad news to come?

This is the trend that is likely to influence spending for some time. Consumers will have a constant battle on their hands between seeking stability and wanting to move on. 

Right now, consumer spend isn’t slowing down. Most people are spending to make up for lost time due to Coronavirus. This is called revenge spend.

• In 2022, online revenue increased by 23%
• Shopify announced a record-breaking BFCM weekend
• Forrester predicts that spending will increase a further 5%

But when you combine this type of spending with economic concern, the result is a demanding customer base with high expectations. Consumers are looking for quality over quantity and are more selective about which brands they engage with. Consumers may be eager to spend their money, but they’re not looking to throw it at anything and everything – it’s targeted spend. 

This should be a wake up call for marketers everywhere. Due to economic difficulty, marketers are under pressure to improve ROI, take stock of existing set up, and even re-arrange teams, but now is not the time to slow down marketing efforts. Consumers are looking for places to spend their money, and someone needs to tell them where.

Keep reading for practical tips on how to keep up with high consumer expectations and come out on top in 2023.

Effective tactics to overcome purchasing objections

The key to overcoming purchasing objections is to build trust with your customers and leverage it across the whole purchasing journey.

There are many ways to build trust, including press releases, features in industry magazines, utilizing a founder’s or company story, and aligning your company mission with the beliefs of your customers. 

Building trust among consumers is incredibly important, and one of the most effective trust signals is reviews. Customer reviews should be incorporated throughout the buying journey to better overcome objections at the different stages of the purchase. For example, you should feature reviews on your website’s homepage, product pages, and even at the checkout. Also, reviews should be used in wider marketing, such as social media and email campaigns.

Another important trust signal to customers is done through responsible marketing, data processing, privacy, and security. Consumers want to trust that a brand will use their data responsibly and with the right level of security to feel comfortable making a purchase. 

Growth strategies that will work in a difficult economic climate

There is no silver bullet when it comes to growth. The most important thing is to do the basics really well, stay consistent and trust that customers will come. 

One effective growth strategy that is often overlooked is focusing less on acquisition and more on loyal customers. Take the time to find out who your best shoppers are, their behaviors, and what they respond to. Analyze why these customers purchase multiple times and use this research to drive more shoppers to do the same. Your top 20% of customers are responsible for 80% of your total revenue. This is the group that brands need to focus on to grow. 

According to Matt Johnson, the key to winning over customers is by being the closest to them. The way you interact with your customers after they make a purchase is important for building loyalty and growing your business. Treat your repeat customers differently, show them you understand them, and make them feel special. Use data and segmentation to deliver this level of personalization at scale. Collect zero-party and first-party data to understand your customer better and bring that into your marketing tech stack to run more effective marketing campaigns.

Three tips for effective data acquisition and usage in 2023

1. Better personalization and segmentation

The best way to spot shopping behaviors and trends that you want to target is by looking at your customer data from all sources in one single view. Combine this holistic approach to data with a powerful segmentation tool to easily create lookalike segments to send personalized, specific marketing.

2. Customer insights beyond the norm

Use custom data fields to collect customer attributes that you can use to further personalize the entire shopping experience. For example, if a skincare brand knows a customer’s skin type or age, they can tailor everything from the onsite experience to paid social posts so the end user will always see relevant content.

3. Build authenticity

Collect higher quality reviews that include images and videos. You can also showcase user-generated content (UGC) on your website to be more genuine. This will help you to stand out and look more authentic. It will also help deliver the right content back to the customer through the right channels and at the right time.

How can businesses create meaningful hybrid customer experiences?

The first way to bridge any gap between physical and online shopping is effective data collection and utilization. Collect your customers’ data at every point and leverage this during in person as well as online experiences. So when a customer visits your pop-up or brick-and-mortar store, they will be recognized as a previous customer and reap the benefits. 

Another key way to create meaningful offline customer experiences is through the unboxing experience. Leverage your ecommerce data to deliver personalized notes and offers to customers as a part of the delivery experience. 

Events are also a great place to build relationships with customers offline. Businesses should consider how in person experiences like events can be used as part of their strategy to strengthen their connection with customers and also as a way to reward them for their customer loyalty.

Are you up for the challenge?

Consumers everywhere are still spending money on brands they love and that offer engaging and personalized experiences. Are you ready to meet their higher expectations? To satisfy shoppers, use data to build authenticity, trust, and offer personalized shopping experiences that make them feel special.

REVIEWS.io was founded in 2010 to focus on authentic and genuine reviews to help customers make a real difference to their business. The solution has been built to put clients at the heart of everything REVIEWS.io do and support their customers’ businesses to monitor and grow their reputation online through the power of review collection, management, and publication.

REVIEWS.io is a global Dotdigital partner. Dotdigital and REVIEWS.io together help you seamlessly target your audiences and send personalized campaigns based on their review history. Strengthen your email campaigns, click-through rates, and increase your revenue using our joint technologies. Or why not learn more about our partnership with REVIEWS.io.

Understanding why readers unsubscribe

While marketing list depreciation is expected, you want to keep minimal. To properly optimize customers’ email marketing experiences, you need to understand why people unsubscribe in the first place.

Surveying customers at the point of unsubscription is the only way to gather real insight into their actions. This will give you a clear idea of what elements of the customer experience you need to prioritize improving.

3 top tips to reduce unsubscribes

1. Personalize

In the modern world of marketing, personalization is essential to reducing unsubscribes. Whether you’re a B2B, B2C, or non-profit brand, customers expect uniquely personal experiences from brands. Failing to meet this expectation will drive disappointed and unengaged customers to unsubscribe.

Personalization can take many forms. From using first names and dynamic content to segmentation, all personalization tactics have a positive impact on the reader’s experience. By tailoring your message to align with individual preferences, subscribers are more likely to engage with your email and maintain a long-term relationship with your brand.

To ensure your content is relevant to your readers, create actionable segments. Nobody wants to read irrelevant content, and if your content doesn’t apply to them, they’ll ignore your marketing efforts. By targeting specific groups based on factors like gender, company size, or location, you can ensure that your content is tailored to the individual reader.

Dynamic content blocks such as product recommendations also go a long way in personalizing your email marketing. Especially using AI-powered product recommendations, every email will be automatically populated with content unique to the reader based on their previous behavior.

Nothing demonstrates how well you know your readers more than a personalized email. It speaks directly to their interests and behaviors, making your email one they’ll want to open. The more you deliver relevant content, the more value customers will get from the relationship. Unsubscribe rates will fall significantly when you deliver one-to-one marketing.

2. Re-engage

There are many tools in a marketer’s arsenal that can help you identify disengaged customers. From eRFM to lead scoring, you should keep a close eye on your customers’ behavior to prevent losing them.

An automated re-engagement program is a perfect way to bring customers back before they leave you forever. Using insights gathered from your RFM persona tracking or lead scoring, you can trigger this program as soon as a customer lapses.

Well-timed “we miss you” emails, teamed with an incentive can drive a shopper back to your website. You can also use this program to drive subscribers to update their marketing preferences or complete a survey. By asking for feedback or encouraging a review of their marketing preferences, you’re demonstrating your commitment to the customer. It’s a clear demonstration that you care about their experience and are willing to change to fulfill their needs.

This will go a long way to keeping readers happy. All too often customers are bombarded with marketing emails, so giving them control of their relationship with you will set you high above the competition. And no one will unsubscribe from a brand that clearly cares about its customers.

3. Familiarize

Don’t wait until you’re on the cusp of losing a customer to remind them why your brand is the one. Newsletters – real ones, not just sales emails masquerading as newsletters – are essential for establishing strong relationships with your readers.

You should think about what kind of content will add the most value to your readers’ experience. Educational articles about how to get the most out of your products and services are an automatic win. They prove that you care about their overall experience, not just sales.

Your brand’s story is also important. To establish a strong bond between the customer and your brand, you need to show them the people behind the brand. The more human you are to the reader, the stronger the relationship will be. By demonstrating your brand values around economic, environmental, and social issues, the reader sees that you are passionate about the same issues as them.

Summary

For an effective email marketing strategy, it’s important to reduce unsubscribes. You can achieve this by implementing these three quick and efficient methods. By taking a tailored approach that aligns with your audience’s expectations and desires, you can foster long-lasting relationships and drive success in your email marketing campaigns. Don’t let unsubscribes undermine your efforts; take action today and keep your email list thriving!

Consistently sending the same message will eventually damage your brand reputation, increase unsubscribes, and ultimately hold up conversions. Sales will dip and profits will suffer. All because you failed to engage customers enough.

Targeted emails don’t have to be complicated or hyper-personalized works of art. Successful email marketing strategies are all about understanding and catering to your audience’s individual needs and preferences. Read on to learn four key benefits of targeted email marketing. These benefits will revolutionize your campaigns and boost your business growth.

What is targeted email marketing?

We all know that email marketing is the most successful channel available to marketers today. Email marketing offers $42 ROI for every $1 spent. But that’s just the beginning of what’s possible.

You can significantly improve your ROI, sales, and profits by adopting targeted email marketing.

Targeted email marketing is a way of ensuring your emails make an impact in the inbox. Using the information you already hold about your customers, you can send tailored messages to specific sets of subscribers. You target them.

To improve your email marketing strategy, it’s important to segment and personalize based on customer information like their interests, age, and gender. This level of personalization impresses readers and improves their experience with your brand. This increases the likelihood that they’ll act on your calls to action and remain loyal customers.

4 benefits of targeted email marketing

Let’s look at these four benefits of targeted email marketing…

Improve relevancy

Segmentation ensures you’re sending a more relevant message to your audience. You can divide your customer base into distinct groups based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, preferences, past purchase behavior, or engagement history. 

By categorizing customers into these segments, you can tailor your email campaigns to address the unique needs, desires, and expectations of each specific group. Customers who receive relevant content are more likely to engage with your email marketing efforts. Customers will click and convert because targeted emails appeal to their goals and offer value to them.

It’s most effective to gather information and segment new subscribers through their welcome program. You should regularly prompt customers during their customer journey to update their marketing preferences.

Segmentation is an essential and under-utilized email marketing tactic and helps build stronger connections with your audience. But, the more you segment and target your audience, the better your results will be.

Increase ROI

Sending targeted and personalized emails leads to higher engagement rates and increased sales conversions. With more customers converting, your revenue will naturally rise. By understanding your customers’ preferences and needs, you can provide them with targeted discounts and promotions that cater to their interests. This approach allows you to deliver the appropriate message at the right moment, resulting in higher customer engagement. When you deliver relevant messages, engaged readers convert faster. And more conversions mean more revenue.

If you know customers are interested in a specific product range, target them with offers that appeal to them. Even basic segmentation such as age and gender significantly affects your ROI. Marketers can enjoy ROI increases of up to 760% when sending targeted, segmented campaigns.

Better customer relationships

We’ve already mentioned that improved relevancy in your emails will demonstrate your brand’s value to the customer. In the long run, it will also help you build and nurture long-term relationships with your customers. 

When you know your customers and segment and personalize your emails accordingly, customers will hold your marketing in high regard. By regularly sending relevant content, customers will develop high expectations from your emails. The more you meet – and exceed – these expectations, the more their trust and respect for your brand will increase.

Longer customer retention

Targeted email marketing not only makes building relationships with subscribers easier; it also makes retaining them easier. 

Creating personalized and targeted email marketing campaigns can greatly enhance customer retention. It’s important to build strong relationships with both potential and existing customers by continuously learning about their preferences and optimizing your email campaigns. 

By doing so, you increase engagement and ensure your customers receive value from your emails. This fosters loyalty and customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

Shoppers who value your experiences will seek you out, in and out of the inbox. If you replicate these experiences in your cross-channel marketing they’ll think about you first, every time.

Optimize for ultimate success

It’s important to optimize your marketing strategy as customers’ needs and goals change with every conversion. Encourage customers to update their marketing preferences and keep track of email marketing metrics such as opens, click-through rates, and ROI to determine which tactics are most effective. Adjust your campaigns accordingly to align with your customer’s interests and behaviors.

Summary

By using targeted email marketing strategies you can connect with your audience, increase ROI, build stronger customer relationships, and improve retention rates. It’s a powerful tool that can significantly impact your digital marketing efforts. To stay ahead of the competition, it’s highly recommended to invest in targeted email marketing strategies to take your marketing campaigns to the next level.