It’s no secret that today the customer is in control. With technology and tools like smartphones, a consumer can shop for a product in one store and simultaneously compare pricing on that same product online via their phone. If a customer is looking for a quick answer, they can Google search, and if your website isn’t providing the correct answer fast enough, they will likely move on to the next.
To many, this presents a challenge; how do we get consumers to engage and trust us? How do we keep our customers happy? I like to view this as an opportunity (maybe because it’s Friday, and who isn’t feeling overly optimistic on a Friday?) to interact with their consumers in an entirely new way. It provides marketers the opportunity to be creative and innovative in an effort to separate themselves from competition and satisfy their customers. It also gives us the opportunity to learn and leverage incredible tools and technology, like Oracle Eloqua, that are required to reach our contacts the way they want – personally and customized, one to one.
If you have read any articles about general marketing, digital marketing or marketing strategy in the last year, it’s likely you have seen or heard the term ‘one to one marketing’ (1:1 marketing) used a time or two or ten. After all, it has been called the next big thing for marketing.
One to one marketing is the strategy of approaching the customer as an individual, with a tailored marketing mix designed for them specifically. It “seeks to reinvest marketing with the personal touch absent from many modern business interactions” (Margaret Rouse, techtarget.com). It’s also, in my opinion, the solution for companies trying to build deeper relationships with their customer, and in turn, make them happier.
Amazon is a prime example of a company that executes one to one marketing extremely well. They track what you search for on their website and your previous purchases, which allows them to send emails a week after you purchase a 52-inch TV and suggest that you also purchase AppleTV (the perfect tool to bring your Netflix marathons to a whole new level) as an enhancement to your most recent purchase. Amazon isn’t sending an email to each of its customers suggesting AppleTV. Instead, they capture their information – recent purchases, past purchases, price points and more – and they create an email that is both personalized and customized to the end-user, alone.
Not every company can be Amazon. But every company has the ability to mimic aspects of their one to one marketing strategy and satisfy customers. Just this morning, I received an email in my inbox from Ticketmaster with a subject line reading ‘Anna’s Ultimate Live Event Guide.’ The personalized subject line was enough for me to open the email. I wanted to see what Ticketmaster had pulled together for me and what shows were coming to town that could be of interest specifically to me.
The email provided a list of twenty concerts that were recommended based on my previous purchases and location. Based on the fact that the sole purchase of the last year that I made on Ticketmaster was Fleetwood Mac tickets (gift for dad), I would say Ticketmaster’s customized suggestions were pretty accurate.
One to one marketing isn’t just limited to emails. Consumers visit websites to research information, not always to make purchases. Website content presents additional opportunities for companies to make visitors happy. Leveraging marketing automation tools allows you to track your customers – what pages they visited, what links they clicked on, how long they stayed on each webpage, etc. They allow you to capture information about what exactly your customers are looking for. In turn, you can provide them suggestions of information they may like, increasing their levels of satisfaction with you and the chances that they continue to return to your website. Tools like Get Smart Content are great for this. Get Smart Content uses data and personas to create a persona-driven web personalization, allowing marketers to provide an individualized experience for customers, in an automated fashion.
Minneapolisrunning.com did such a good job of this for me, I almost signed up for a marathon! Minneapolis Running is a website dedicated to all things running in Minneapolis – advice, race schedules, guest bloggers, recipes and more. I also subscribe to their newsletter. The other night, I was reading my newsletter. At the bottom, I clicked on an additional link which brought me to their website. I began looking around to see what races were coming up in the next month, which led me to click on the TC Marathon link. From there, I navigated to the TC Marathon official registration page to see if registration was still open. When I clicked back over to minneapolisrunning.com, I had a nice pop-up of suggested reading. Low and behold, the suggested reading was why I should run the upcoming Med City Marathon. Upon reading the article and reflecting on my upcoming races, I was close to signing up for the TC Marathon (and scarily enough, am still considering it).
The pop-up is the perfect example of one to one marketing. If you can track what your website visitors are interested in and spending their time consuming, and you can provide them with information they want (or may not even know they want) without them having to do a single ounce of work!
One to one marketing may seem like a daunting strategy. It’s a lot to ask someone to interact with many, many different customers in an individualized manner, but it’s doable. It’s important to remember two things: personalization and customization. One to one marketing can embody both or simply just one. Start off by personalizing communications by use of first names in emails/subject lines or including an individual’s company name in the email. From there, you can start to dig deeper into understanding each of your customers and their behavior and you can begin building deeper, more meaningful engagements with them. When you can give the customer what they want, that is when you are sure to win!
If you have Eloqua and you need support with email strategy or building emails, please contact us! We love helping companies transform their marketing automation.
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About the Author: Relationship One
