13 Sep Customer communications: the value of relevancy

Over the last eighteen months, we’ve seen brands accelerate their digital strategies in order to keep up with their customer’s needs and demands. Digital now has a bigger audience than ever before, giving brands an incredible opportunity to build stronger relationships, through effective customer communications.

Every time a customer makes a transaction, they reveal a little bit more about who they are and what their preferences are. It’s ultimately up to the brand to leverage this insight to ensure they keep the customer engaged so they continue to purchase.

However, many are not taking advantage of the invaluable first party data they are capturing (particularly via digital channels) and continue to send spam messages of irrelevance to every customer on their database. Customology’s research report, The Unspoken Customer revealed that 45% of customers don’t believe they are being targeted properly, and that 74% believe brands lie in their marketing communications. There’s clearly work to be done to earn customer trust.

The marketplace has never been so flooded – the importance of the right channel, and the right message is now vital to cut through the noise. Customers want to be recognised as individuals. Their expectations are ever-increasing and brands are struggling to keep up.

Importance of defining audience first, message second

It’s simple really. When you know who you are talking to, it’s a lot easier to have a relevant conversation. This also applies to customer conversations. When people think of segmentation, they may think of targeting different genders, locations, ages etc. But this is no longer enough. The reality is, brands actually have all of the assets they need to understand exactly who their customers are and what’s important to them. 

Sending a personalised message goes way beyond including a first name. A much more sophisticated level of personalisation is required in order to truly grow long-term loyalty and retention. It’s about understanding exactly where in the journey each customer is with your brand. What does their past behaviour look like and what can you learn from it to influence future behaviours?

No benefits in irrelevancy

Sending irrelevant comms comes with a number of negatives. Most importantly, the customer becomes frustrated and inevitably ends up unsubscribing, thus preventing the brand from making further contact via that channel. This essentially gives competitors the perfect opportunity to swoop in. 

It costs money each and every time you contact a customer, so why wouldn’t you want to ensure the message is relevant in order to generate the highest possible return? 

We shared a story a while ago, one of our colleagues bought a shirt from a retailer and continued to receive two to three messages a week from the same retailer, despite never returning. They worked out that the brand had spent more on marketing costs than they received from the one and only purchase they made. It’s guaranteed they are not the only one, so how much marketing budget is this brand throwing away unnecessarily?

Marketers can get a much higher return on investment by targeting customers based on their actual behaviour. Check out our case study on Youfoodz and how they received over an 8000% return on ad spend (ROAS) by doing exactly this.

Market smarter

Typically, marketers access data through a number of platforms, very little is actually integrated – making it impossible to have a clear single customer view. We touched on this recently in our article ‘The cookie’s crumbling’ . Without that single view, you have no control over what messages your customers are being exposed to. 

Customology is helping brands market smarter. We’re revolutionising customer engagement through our innovative customer messaging platform, Vector. At the heart of Vector is its ability to integrate a dynamic list of customer data, offering extensive segmentation capabilities. Brands are able to access customer data in near real-time, so can plan targeted campaigns based on actual behaviour. Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue¹. 

As we said above, when you know who you’re talking to it’s much easier to continue the conversation and create a message to cut through the noise. 

Is your brand getting the best return on investment when it comes to customer communications? We’re here to help, get in touch with one of our Customologists (1300 264 549 or hi@customology.com.au) to learn more about our Vector and how Customology can help you leverage your first party data to help you create customers for life.

¹ Campaign Monitor

Listen to...