Dubbed by some as marketing’s Holy Grail, customer profile stitching (when used in an omnichannel customized approach) might just be the golden ticket you’ve been looking for! However, it takes a lot of knowledge and skill to kill at getting a sole customer view. Marketing always has and always will involve nailing that perfect message at just the right time to just the right person, and this magical unicorn doesn’t come by chance. There are many factors at play, but the most important of all is that single customer view or “universal customer profile.” This profile is aggregated and holistic, taking into account the person’s interactions on all possible touch-points including mobile, web, and even in “real life.” How can you know how, when, and where a person entered a brick and mortar establishment, then window shopped on the e-commerce site on their phone, and eventually made a purchase on their laptop?
It takes a lot of time, effort, and often money but customer profile stitching (aptly named because the marketer is “stitching” together a profile that’s all loosey-goosey) can yield great results. It’s part of leveraging a sole profile across a whole martech stack, all while getting omnichannel personalization in real-time fired up. Omnichannel, or considering all channels a customer might use to connect with a company, is the be-all, end-all of marketing.
The Holistic Approach
Tealium customers recently completed a survey where 99 percent of them revealed that if they could make, store, and leverage profiles, that they would be reaching their ultimate goal. In fact, 73 percent said it was “very important,” 26 percent said it was important, and a paltry one percent said it wasn’t important (Tealium employees aren’t quite sure what that wayward one percent has in mind!). While just 173 users were included in the survey, it was 173 marketers who know first-hand how challenging an omnichannel strategy can be.
The number one goal of any marketer is to convert customers from window shoppers, lurkers, and cart abandoners into full fledged paying customers. However, this seemingly “simple” achievement is one of the trickiest parts of sales and marketing. This happens when an online shopper is actually engaged in websites, social media, and other online “homes” of companies. With a universal profile, you can gather information about customer behavior, including their preferences, in real-time and at many touch points. You also learn how to treat that customer the way they like to be treated, no matter which channel they’re in.
Know Your Customer
Once a customer spends a certain amount of money on omnichannel properties, some companies like to acknowledge that by giving them VIP status. Even if the customer doesn’t know about the VIP title (there are potential pros and cons), the company knows how to treat this VIP and delivers better experiences that suit their spending habits. Priorities with the customer lifecycle include upping brand awareness, matching audiences to digital channels, converting visitors to customers, maximizing customer loyalty and building customer referrals.
Yes, there are many third party data sources promising great results, but when you treat a project like Frankenstein’s monster, that’s exactly how it will look. The best data is first-party, which means it’s coming from you. You can then augment via third party resources when necessary, carefully stitching together profiles.
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