Why brands must work harder for true personalisation

Tim StoneIn a world where customers are flooded with thousands of marketing messages a day, the explosion in digital content across multiple devices means brand exposure is at an all-time high but how can brands redefine content to beat the masses?

Recent research found that advertising overload is causing “ad fatigue”, with almost three quarters (73%) of UK consumers seeing the same ads repeatedly, and just 11% reporting that they “enjoyed” advertising.
And it isn’t simply ads. A phenomenal amount of data is generated each day – 500 million tweets alone are sent daily, and the entire digital universe is expected to reach 44 zettabytes by 2020.

With such message overload, relevant customer experiences driven by data are more important than ever for businesses. Harvard Business Review has documented the financial payoffs of effectively engaging with consumers in stark terms: tailored content can reduce the costs of attracting customers by half, lift revenues by as much as 15%, and even increase the efficiency of marketing spend by up to 30%. In short, hyper-personalised experiences are now the marketing holy grail.

So, how can brands create the hyper-personalised, consumer-driven experience that is so important for business success?

Mobile as a growth-driver of customer experience
Mobile usage has grown exponentially. As consumer behaviour and expectations have changed, so too has the way brands engage and interact with them. There are more than 3 billion smartphone users worldwide today, and mobile devices are used for over 40% of online transactions. This presents an opportunity for brands to harness smartphone use, which is already a major source of page visits and email opens. Personal and mobile-first communication, location-based marketing and personal product suggestions are key growth opportunities for brands.

Data foundation with the right marketing automation
Managing the multitude of data and touchpoints is a key challenge. Getting this right can be an essential support to a customer-centric marketing approach. Companies need to invest time and resources into a robust marketing automation platform that will allow each channel to work together without friction to create a single, cohesive brand message. Having a single customer view is also critical in order to give a consistent experience across channels.

Artificial intelligence as the accelerator of optimisation
Artificial intelligence is an integral element in tying real-time behavioural data to each individual consumer profile. For companies trying to get ahead of the curve by concentrating on customer experience, AI is the means to achieve it. Not only does AI have the potential to greatly reduce the time-to-market for optimisation, but by analysing data and putting meaningful optimisations to work in real-time, it also helps brands to understand what, when and how to serve customers. The goal is real-time contextual relevance, which every marketer aspires to achieve.

The bottom line is that investing in customer experience pays off. With 51% of customers willing to share their personal data for a more personalised experience, there is a golden opportunity for brands to better engage with their customers simply by giving them what they want.

However, all of this requires a different way of working; brands must work harder to tie real-time behavioural data to each individual consumer profile if they want to deliver personalised, AI-driven content in the moment across channels.

Tim Stone is global head of revenue marketing at Selligent Marketing Cloud