How to Use Data-Driven Personalisation Strategies for Ecommerce Growth

While customer engagement used to typically take a one-size-fits-all approach toward a target consumer, today, this has changed substantially. Given the capabilities of the internet and digital spaces, companies are now able to gain a deeper understanding of the psychology of each of their consumers.

Given the unprecedented access that companies now have to personalise customer engagement efforts and tailor them to individual consumers, this is a powerful and effective approach that everyone should be taking advantage of. However, it can sometimes be tricky to know where to start engaging in these tactics. Thankfully, having some guidance can simplify the process.

Here is how to enhance customer engagement through data-driven personalisation strategies.

The Power of Data Analytics to Improve Business

While customer data used to be difficult to come by, today, every company website can be utilised as a way to collect data and gain a deeper understanding of consumer behavior. In fact, data analytics can benefit businesses in a number of keyways. These include:

• Acquiring customers: When companies look to convert new customers, looking to data can be incredibly useful. Since data can be collected so thoroughly in today’s largely digital world, businesses have an opportunity to determine which tactics and practices are the most effective for acquiring new customers.
• Creating content: Today, content marketing plays a key role in boosting and maintaining customer engagement. Data analytics can help take the guesswork out of the process of creating effective content by utilising customer data to determine which topics and forms of content will have the most powerful and beneficial effects.
• Developing new products: Developing new products can be a complicated task for businesses for several key reasons. The most significant of these reasons are the fact that the process can be costly and that there is a risk that consumers might not want the newly developed products. Data analytics allows businesses to analyse consumer preferences and develop products that they are more likely to desire and purchase, thereby limiting the amount of risk associated with the process.

Using Customer Data to Individualise Marketing Efforts

While the internet has offered companies a plethora of new ways to connect with consumers, it has also broadened the market and made it more competitive. In other words, consumers are now bombarded with a seemingly endless amount of marketing efforts from brands looking to get them to engage. As such, consumers have become more discerning and less easy to prompt into engaging with one’s brand.

As the business landscape has become more and more digital, using data to craft unique customer experiences has become more important

Fortunately, personalisation is a great way to get the attention of consumers and increase the chances of them engaging. By recording and analysing data associated with particular customers, personalised marketing efforts can be automated to increase the chances that they’ll engage with them.

To put the idea into perspective, it can help to explore an example. Imagine a consumer, let’s call them Consumer A, always purchases purple clothing from one’s retail website. If Consumer A gets an ad for a new purple item of clothing in their email inbox, they’re much more likely to engage than if they received an ad for a yellow item of clothing. Though this may seem inconsequential, it can have a dramatic impact on customer engagement efforts.

Rather than trying to please everyone with specific campaigns — which is an incredibly difficult (and in most cases impossible) task — crafting various campaigns that can be used depending on customer preferences is key in today’s evolving digital landscape. This being the case, any organisation intent on boosting its levels of customer engagement should engage in data-driven personalisation strategies to be more effective in converting customers and cost-effective in implementing campaigns.

Personalising Customer Experiences

Effectively utilising customer data to boost engagement involves personalising customer experiences. Understanding keyways to personalise experiences can make it easier for organisations to engage in these data-driven marketing efforts. Some essential strategies for personalising customer experiences include:

• Personalising Recommendations: Personalised recommendations are a tool that all brands should be taking advantage of in today’s inundated digital landscape. By providing recommendations to customers based on their past purchasing data, companies have the ability to pique customers’ interest and prompt them to engage more effectively.
• Personalising Emails: Much like the internet is now filled with ads vying for consumers’ attention, so are consumer email inboxes. This being the case, any company intent on having their email campaigns stick out amongst the crowd must personalise emails to consumers. This can include utilising their names and utilising their data to inform them about new items similar to their past purchases.
• Personalising Discounts: Personalising discounts and promotions for consumers is an amazing way to spark engagement. For example, if a specific consumer leaves an item in their cart without purchasing it, a personalised discount can prompt them into making the purchase. In addition, utilising data about which product pages they spend the most time browsing can also provide key information that can allow companies to offer effective personalised discounts.

Data-Driven Personalisation Strategies Make Customers Loyal

Just like being remembered in a physical store will make customers more likely to revisit a certain them, having personalised digital experiences will make customers feel more of a connection to companies. This being the case, it becomes clear that utilising customer data to personalise their experience of one’s company in various ways can elicit more loyalty and repeat purchases from customers.

The reason behind this phenomenon is that crafting personalised experiences for customers helps build a stronger relationship between consumers and brands. When consumers feel like brands are taking a particular interest in them as an individual, they’ll naturally feel more connected to them. As such, using customer data to personalise their experiences can potentially transform one-time customers into lifelong ones.

Data is Key to Increasing Customer Engagement in a Digital World

As the business landscape has become more and more digital, using data to craft unique customer experiences has become more important. From building more loyalty with customers to acquiring new ones, data analytics can play a powerful role in making businesses more effective in their efforts. Given the tremendous power of taking advantage of customer data, data analytics will likely become an inextricable aspect of all business in the decades to come.