Consumers are demanding a lot of personalized attention these days. Like a world full of cranky, hungry toddlers. As such, marketers have had to get clever about appeasing them. And a box of animal crackers ain’t gonna cut it.
Here’s the nitty gritty - the power has shifted to the consumers. They expect every experience to be curated specifically to them in each moment. What’s more, it’s no longer unreasonable for them to have these expectations.
Mostly because they’re getting their needs met.
Smart Brands Realize the Power of the Consumer
It is the consumer who decides when, where, how and in what way they’re going engage with a brand. And when they do, the experience had better be consistent, seamless and relevant across all touch points. Otherwise, heads are gonna fly. Or, more accurately, consumers will ignore you - which one could argue is just as fatal to your business as decapitation.
So that’s why the vast majority of top marketers are focusing on customer experience. They’re delivering exceptional experiences based on everything they know and learn about their customers, and then engaging them across all channels.
And we mean, ALL channels.
Mobile as a Mogul
There are now more mobile devices in the world than there are people. We won’t venture to guess how many of them are smarter than humans. Some humans, at least.
The point is, consumers have made a big shift toward mobile channels.
It’s how they check their email, find out how many “Likes” they got on their latest Facebook post and buy their ball bearings. Or whatever. It’s pretty much the new norm. And this fact has not escaped shrewd advertisers.
The closeness and increased engagement of mobile gives companies some serious advantages. Marketers are now able to reach consumers with personalized messages and offers in real time. After all, a mobile phone is essentially a tracking device. So companies can advertise to consumers based on their interests, preferences and even physical
Mobile is no longer an option for marketers—it’s a requirement.
Everybody’s Talking
For better or worse, there’s no escaping social media.
And if you're running a business and dodging it in some attempt to be a loner and a maverick, you’re losing out. Because social media is vital for product discovery, sales and customer care. As such, an overwhelming number of marketers say their companies use social media marketing to drive business ROI.
If you’re still turning your head away and cringing, we encourage to turn to your screen and face it head on. Because here’s the thing - social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat are more than just places to show off your child’s first day of school or what you’re having for breakfast.
They give companies a load of information about who people are and what makes them tick. And that makes them a valuable part of any successful marketing strategy.
But if you’d rather skip that whole driving awareness and sales thing for your company, then re-avert your gaze. That’s your business. (Though probably not for much longer.)
The Mysterious Cloud
Not long ago, clouds were merely puffy white shapes in the sky. People would stare up at them and - as if suddenly engaged in some sort of self-administered Rorschach test - they’d call out what they saw. (An elephant, for instance. Or a chainsaw.)
And while clouds still float about in the sky doing impressions, THE cloud is more mysterious. It’s the “place” where super-sized tomes of information live. And it takes no space.
This is the magic of cloud-based technology.
It used to be that companies had to give up massive amounts of money and their first-born child to store all of their consumer data. There was clumsy hardware and software that had to be manually configured. And don’t even get us started on the big honkin' servers. It wasn’t pretty.
Plus, all of that fragmented information was susceptible to total annihilation by any number of vast and sundry natural disasters.
But with cloud-based technologies, companies now have access to infinite computing resources without having to deal with a cumbersome infrastructure. Thus, managing consumer data is has become even easier than making ice. And without that pesky wait.
Add to that the fact that data and applications can be easily stored in a centralized location that’s accessed from anywhere and at any time, marketers are happy as pigs in mud. Pigs in mud that are able to use consumer data easily and instantaneously to power personalized experiences across all those channels, that is.
The Real Intelligence of Artificial Intelligence
Once upon a time - not all that long ago - marketers relied on historical consumer information to figure out what customers wanted or needed. This information was gathered by manual and often annoying means - the telephone survey at dinner not being the least of which.
But these days, it’s all about AI tools.
Unlike the tool that was calling you during dinner to ask your opinion on tube socks, the AI tool collects data to learn from past consumer behavior. Through algorithms, it draws insights from massive amounts of data to see patterns emerge.
For example, it can quickly identify the sentiment in a
With AI, companies are getting more from their data and able to personalize their marketing efforts like never before.
Anticipating Consumer Needs through Data
This is what it all comes down to. And it’s been a real game changer.
Brands that want to survive need to engage consumers with personalized, real-time content. And they need to do it across all channels.
This starts - and maybe even ends - with the ability to tap into the power of mobile, social, the cloud and AI.
Have at it.
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