Database marketing is the practice of taking a collection of verified customer data that is regularly collected and updated, and leveraging it for use in campaigns and general customer-facing communication. This is all done with the goal of delivering more relevant, and therefore more engaging, customer experiences.
So how can database marketing help your team create campaigns that drive customer engagement?
For starters, leveraging CRM data means you’ll have a vastly improved understanding of your customers and leads. Data is knowledge, and it reveals to marketers exactly who the consumers are they’re targeting. Of course this means using someone’s name and location, but it can also include access to purchase histories, recent searches, buying habits, preferences and more.
In order to craft engaging messages, you need to understand who you’re talking to and database marketing drastically help achieve this. It sounds simple, but many brands still fail to see the value in segmented and personalized messaging. Here are 3 top ways database marketing can hack your engagement strategy…
1. Resources Are Put Towards Messages That Hit Their Mark
One of the positive side effects of knowing exactly who your audience is, is that you can all but eliminate the guess-work from your marketing strategy. 54% of marketers say that increasing their engagement rate is their top email marketing priority for 2017, and 74% of marketers say they’ve noted increased engagement from targeted personalized marketing.
When you leverage CRM data to reveal customers’ interests and shopping habits, you can fine-tune your message into something people are more likely to interact with, that’s why data-driven marketing has a direct impact upon engagement.
All of this then means you can put the right resources, both physical and financial, towards the activities with the highest pay-out. The guess-work is all but eliminated.
Why ask your team to toil on one massive campaign that gets blasted to all of your contacts and resonates with few of them, when you can be working on multiple smaller campaigns targeting the wants and needs of multiple persona profiles?
According to Hubspot, “The ability to segment email lists and individualize email campaign messaging are the most effective personalization tactics for 51% and 50% of marketing influencers respectively.”
And the ROI is significant. Personalized emails deliver 6X higher transaction rates vs. generic emails.
2. More Effective Cross-Selling and Up-Selling Campaigns
Is it smart to sell baby diapers to someone who doesn’t have a baby? Is someone who makes $20,000 annually your best lead if you’re selling luxury yachts? Without data to tell you who your customers are beyond their name and email address, how can you be confident you’re not making similar dumb marketing mistakes right this very minute? You don’t! A gorgeous campaign that delivers the wrong message to the wrong customers is worthless in the end.
When it comes to cross-selling and up-selling, data-driven marketing is the only smart way forward. In knowing what products or services customers currently engage with, you can create campaigns that are visually and informationally engaging, and that bring about the ROI that execs demand. Specifically, marketers have noted that data-driven marketing delivers 5-8X ROI on marketing spend.
3. Higher Chance of Renewal and Repeat Purchases
If you’re giving customers the information they want, especially when you’re delivering it quickly and in the visually-driven formats they crave, you set yourself up for engagement success and nurture long term relationships between client and brand. Customers who are given experiences that actively evolve and adapt to their changing preferences, who receive relevant messaging and who can rely on excellent customer service turn into customers who decide to renew their policies and make repeat purchases.
Monarch Holiday, a leading UK tour operator, leveraged Personalized Video technology to encourage past customers to book another travel itinerary. The video campaign was personalized to show previous destinations viewers had visited through Monarch, their dates of travel, their airport of origin, and more. Future destinations were then recommended and changed based on individual viewers’ travel histories.
The campaign, which you can watch below, was a huge success for Monarch. Their savvy use of database marketing not only wowed viewers, the campaign saw a strong open rate of 36% and 99% of viewers watched their video to completion.
A Better, More Personal Customer Experience
Database marketing is the engine upon which an intuitive and satisfying customer experience runs. When marketing is personalized, customers feel special, more connected to the brands they shop with and more in control of their purchase experience.
75% of customers report they prefer personalized marketing offers and 64% believe it’s more important for companies to present relevant offers rather than prevent websites from tracking their personal information. People are asking for and expecting data-driven experiences. Isn’t it time you used database marketing to bring your engagement strategy up to speed?
If you found this useful and you’d like to learn how to take advantage of the latest trends in a fast-paced and ever-evolving marketing landscape, we invite you to download a copy of our “How to stay ahead of the game in the marketing industry” guide for CMOs
