As marketers attempt to adjust to the post-lockdown world, brand owners are being offered fresh insights on emerging customer behaviour patterns to support their customer marketing efforts for the “new world order”.
The long-term effects of the Covid-19 crisis are uncertain but for now it is clear that shopping habits have changed radically, and will continue to evolve in the near future.
Marketers must assess these changes as a matter of urgency, to be able to build robust strategies for business success in the so-called “new normal” conditions.
To gain a concrete perspective of the changes taking place, Go Inspire Insight has collaborated with a selection of clients during March and April 2020 to analyse the changing behaviour of 5 million customers.
In each case, the client company is a multichannel business that temporarily closed its physical stores. The analysis has thrown up invaluable insights with immediate practical use for marketing activity, Go Inspire insists.
For instance, while traditional sales emails had a lower open and click-through rate, emails with editorial content only (e.g. how to enjoy your garden) had a four-fold increase in click-through rates, causing a sales spike in the products featured.
This data makes it clear that businesses cannot simply revert back to their usual strategies without analysing the new state of play. In fact, a lack of smart analysis could be detrimental to recovery, as opportunities are likely to go unnoticed.
On the basis of its findings, Go Inspire Insight has identified seven broad groups characterising new behavioural profiles, from in-store customers who did not switch to online spending (‘Trial Separation’) to chance visitors who have the potential to become long-term customers (Chance Lovers).
While Go Inspire recognises that each company must conduct its own bespoke analysis, it claims these categories are a highly useful starting point for retail and ecommerce firms, providing a basis for tailored loyalty strategies and smart investment of marketing resources.
Go Inspire Insight managing director Beth Powell said: “We’re seeing customers behave very differently – existing customers are not responding to marketing interactions as they used to before the pandemic, and new customers are finding brands virtually that they might otherwise have missed.
“In this climate, making assumptions is risky and our study really illustrates this point. Businesses must produce new customer nurture plans and these will need frequent reviews in the coming months, as stores re-open and circumstances evolve. Our post-pandemic profiling series is a stepping stone for this unexpected journey.”
The full report – The Post-Pandemic Profiling Study, Part 1: Early evidence and insight to pivot CRM to the new reality – is available from the Go Inspire website>
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