It’s that time of year again. Love is in the air and everyone’s trying to find the perfect expression of their affection for their special someone, to keep the relationship fires blazing. We’re not the love doctor… but we do have some advice for marketers when it comes to enticing new prospects; and more importantly, cultivating and strengthening the relationships, or B.O.N.D. you have with your existing customers. Read on for our relationship advice for marketers (including what that acronym stands for). And stay tuned until the end, when we have a special Valentine’s Day gift for you!
Funny thing about consumers. They don’t really want to leave you. When they find a brand they love and trust, they’d rather stay connected. In fact, according to a 2018 InMoment survey, 77 percent of consumers reported maintaining relationships with specific brands for ten years or more. But consumers are also picky: according to our own Selligent 2019 Global Connected Consumer Index, 54% of consumers will leave a brand after two or three bad experiences. So brands and companies need to do everything they can to create loyal, devoted customers who will make repeat purchases and provide advocacy. How do you do that? We’re glad you asked.
Loyalty programs are extremely effective when it comes to keeping consumers hooked to a brand. But they’re not all created equal; and they’re not all equally satisfying to consumers. On average, consumers in the U.S. belong to 13.4 loyalty programs but are typically active in only 6.7 programs. But the majority of consumers are more likely to continue doing business with brands with good loyalty programs. The brands winning at loyalty are those that provide genuine benefits for customers: from transactional deals to personalized recommendations. And that takes truly knowing your customer, and using their data in a meaningful way to create unique, value-added experiences. Marketing platforms like Selligent succeed by leveraging data in your customer data platform (CDP) as the fuel for personalized recommendations.
What’s a relationship without trust? From the beginning of your relationship with a customer, at the opt-in stage, you need to be open about how your brand or company uses and shares consumer data and about how you protect their data. Transparency creates trust. Customers today are savvy; they know that they’re entering into a data-value exchange with a company. And they’re willing to do so: In a recent survey, 54 percent of consumers said they would allow companies to use their personal data in return for more personalized experiences. But only when they fully understand what the exchange is and how their data is being used. Today, over 73 percent of consumers consider transparency more important than price when it comes to choosing a brand, and 40 percent would even switch to a brand that is more transparent.
We’ve talked about the B and the O in our B.O.N.D. acronym. Now for the N: nurturing the relationship. Isn’t that what Valentine’s Day is all about? For marketers, it’s not about flowers and chocolates (although no one minds receiving those…). The number one rule for nurturing your customer relationship: Keep it personal. Use the data in your CDP, including purchase history and real-time situational data, to show a little love by sprinkling every interaction at every touchpoint with personal relevance.
Selligent offers a full suite of functionalities to keep customers engaged on a personal level, from website and mobile personalization to AI-generated customer journeys, all the way to automatic retargeting with full cadence control. With the right foundation of actionable data, marketers can deliver personal relevance that forms deeper connections – not just at Valentine’s Day, but all year ‘round.
There’s one letter left in our B.O.N.D. acronym. But you didn’t really think we were going to give it all away so easily, did you? To find out what the D is all about, and to learn more about building customer loyalty and strengthening your customer relationships, check out our new white paper, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CUSTOMER LOYALTY. It’s full of actionable tips and strategies for creating long-term connections with your customers, how to be more open and transparent in your relationship, how to keep your customer engaged post-purchase, and real-world examples of brands using Selligent to nurture loyalty and reap the benefits. And it’s yours for the asking. Happy Valentine’s Day from Selligent!
Marigold: where relationships take root.
