How can you differentiate your eCommerce business in a marketing landscape full of personalization, disruption and tough competition?
This blog post explores how you can deliver customized communications to your customers, resulting in higher revenue and increased brand loyalty.
Those of us competing for consumer attention in the online space know just how tough the competition is and how difficult it can be to come by without doing something pretty disruptive. Consumers are absolutely inundated with demands for their time, attention and online spend, and their standards for what constitutes personalization are rapidly on the rise; they’re savvy to our marketing wizardry by now!
Every automated email they receive is addressed to them by name, and every brand they shop with knows their birthday, their anniversary, and even their dog’s star sign…
So, the question becomes: In a world where the basic levels of personalization will no longer cut it when it comes to delivering superior customer service, how can you set yourself apart with an email strategy that delivers a truly customized experience?
Below are a few options you might consider integrating into your email strategy that will demonstrate you’re going the extra mile to deliver only content your customers will love receiving: no fluff, no spam.
- Email segmentation: A basic but brilliant way to demonstrate that you know and care about your customers and their experience. If you have some basic data on your customers, such as gender, age, location, purchase history, engagement history, or anything else that might indicate a proclivity to particular products, services or events, make sure you use this to create ‘segments’ in your audience, sending customers only information likely to be relevant and helpful to them.
If you don’t have much to go on, you can always set up a simple 1-click survey, transparently asking your customers to self-identify what they like, are interested in, and want to hear about. It’s that simple! - Put your cookies to work: By using cookies to gather information on your customer’s browsing history and journey through your website, you can re-market these specific products to them via email. This is fantastic for nudging a customer who abandoned their cart or reminding someone of that product they keep viewing but just haven’t gotten around to buying yet.
You can also use this technique (as we did in this customer case study) to suggest other, similar products a customer might like to check out, based on what they’ve been browsing on your website. - Make them feel involved: If your brand is known for a specific cause or mission, you can create email campaigns that make customers feel involved in the process. This also highlights and reminds them of the shared values that likely brought them to purchase from you in the first place.
Why not utilize your purchase data on each customer to let them know how much you’ve contributed to charity on their behalf as a result of their purchases, or how much food waste has been saved thanks to their choices?
This technique isn’t exclusive to charitable causes, either. People all want to feel included and part of a movement, so think about how your brand might use this strategy to make your customers feel like an important part of the gang! - Celebrate special occasions: As well as rewarding customers on their special days, make sure to invite them to celebrate special days you share with them too. Whether it’s the anniversary of their subscription to your emails, their 10th purchase from your store, or just a fun national holiday, take advantage of any opportunity to celebrate with your customers, and create ‘occasions’ to remind them you’re there!
- Make it ACTUALLY personal: Most emails come from the brand or store itself, and people know these emails are automated. So, why not occasionally create an email from the CEO, with a personal message, heartfelt thank you, and sign-off that makes the customer feel appreciated?
It might sound simple, but knowing there’s a person behind a brand can make a difference to consumers.