Using data to deliver a personalised experience will be a big focus for businesses going forward. However, the key to utilsing this approach effectively is to make sure your use of data creates a win-win situation for the business and the consumer.
For example, companies can use the information they have gathered to offer specific products they know a customer could be interested in, as well as tailor-made offers or loyalty bonuses. However, businesses can’t appear to be spamming a customer – just because they purchased a kettle once, they won’t want to be seeing offers for kettles every week. Businesses must make offers more targeted, built on a genuine understanding of the customer.
Another way in which businesses can personalise a customers’ experience is by tailoring the content they see on a website. For example, in the B2B world, if you know your customer is a finance director, you can push content towards them which would be more focused for their interests i.e. discussions around the bottom line or cost. This rids the need for the finance director to search around the website for the information they need and allows the company to grab their attention from the moment they visit the website.
In essence, we will see companies increasingly use a variety of tactics to create a personalised experience to boost sales, but this approach must give something to the customer, whether that’s special discounts, an improved experience, or hand-picked content.