Marketing can be one of the best assets of your business. When it’s done well and is personalised, it is an engaging way of reaching new audiences and keeping current customers coming back; however, when marketing is done wrong, it can go very wrong.

Making assumptions over who your audience is and what they want can be damaging for your brand. Now there is a wealth of technology and data available for marketers to use to better understand your audience, idle generalisations on audience segmentations are inexcusable. Providing a personalised experience for your consumer can only be achieved when you truly understand who they are,how they want to be contacted, and what to
contact them with.

Getting personalisation right becomes even more important when there is a risk of upsetting your consumers if you do not. A prime example of this is making generalisations and assuming key calendar dates such as Mother’s Day are relevant to everyone. Brands must consider the reality that these dates may be of no-interest to a customer and, far worse, could potentially cause extreme distress. It’s a challenging situation as on the contrary, many customers will be keen to receive marketing from brands around these dates too. So, what can marketers do to engage the right
audiences around these moments?

The problem – Poorly targeted communication

Sending marketing material to customers who have lost their mum or lost their child in the build up to and on Mother’s Day can trigger and cause further upset on a day which will already be distressing.

Reassuringly, this can be easily avoided. However, it’s worrying that many marketers are either not collecting this preference data from their customers or simply do not have the capabilities to implement the insight into their marketing strategy. In fact, our research shows less than half (42%) of marketers ask their customer base whether they would like to opt-in or out of marketing around sensitive moments, such as Mother’s Day, despite over half ( 54%) of UK consumers stating that they find it helpful when a brand gives them the option. A brand that is offering customers the option of its Mother’s Day marketing is Bloom & Wild .

The brand expanded on last year’s email opt-out campaign with this year’s ‘The Thoughtfulness Movement’, a mission to bring like-minded brands together in a spirit of placing the customer first with messaging that is more tailored to their needs.

The impact – Brand loyalty and customer retention

Careless marketing and not accounting for personalisation in your strategy makes it prone to fail and can negatively impact both retention and brand loyalty. So much so, 66% of consumers say encountering content that isn’t personalised would stop them from making a purchase. In order to increase customer acquisition and improve retention levels, brands and marketers must ensure they tailor their customers’ experience across all channels used.

In addition, personalised and targeted marketing means you will reach a group of consumers who are more likely to make a purchase, which in turn makes campaigns more efficient and effective.

Customer insight is a powerful weapon in a marketer’s arsenal; targeted marketing is more cost-effective so marketers can avoid wasting time or money reaching people who will never convert into a paid customer. Brands need to observe how a consumer behaves online and then use those ​Opportunity: Mother’s Day: Brands not catering for unavoidable observations to determine future behaviours which may assist marketers with personalisation and help improve conversion rates.

The solution – Personalisation and tailored marketing

Ultimately, with consumers inundated by marketing and advertising communications every day, only truly personalised content will fully engage target customers.

Brands that successfully get this right will realise the unique competitive advantage. Brands can understand their customers’ emotions and desires by collecting continual feedback through a voice of the consumer programme and use these insights as a feedback loop to improve the segmentation and profiling. Other leading brands use sentiment analysis on social media alongside conversational surveys to better understand each customer way beyond “old-hat” demographic segmentation. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what route a brand uses to acquire additional data and preferences from their customers; it just matters that they are doing this in the first place – and then using the insight to improve the future customer experience.

When marketers understand how, when and what type of marketing will resonate with their customers, they can be assured they’re in a strong position to deliver a slick customer experience.

The simplest way to ensure your marketing is informed is by getting to know your customers and target audience better. By simply asking your marketing base what their preferences are, you can carefully tailor your messaging and relationship with them, understanding their feelings way beyond basic demographic profiling. Marketers need to avoid getting caught out by using poor personalisation tactics, and instead take the time to truly understand each specifics customer’s wants and needs.