Today’s customers meet marketers on their own terms, and expect to receive a high level of professionalism and real-time commitment.
The modern marketer needs to succeed under these new engagement paradigms, where the customer is in control and very often makes new demands at the point of engagement. Success often depends on personalization, relevance, and effectiveness. Meeting these objectives requires a healthy understanding of the customer’s interests and requirements.
A good way to understand customer preferences is by applying analytics to real-time data provided by social media and various other sources. Many suites and services have created solutions to meet such needs, but marketing enterprises also need to run centralized business rules based on the data before finalizing the terms of engagement and communication.
For example, regarding a bank or other financial institution, the basic engagement strategy may be to generate a ‘welcome email’ as soon as the account is opened, and follow it up with the delivery of a ‘welcome kit’. Applying analytics enables the bank to predict the customer’s needs and subsequently ensure that the specific actions needed to fulfill those needs are taken. One good strategy may be to send a cross-sell offer for a certificate of deposit along with the ‘welcome kit’ if the initial deposit exceeds $3000. When the customer updates his Facebook or LinkedIn profile to indicate a change of job, it may be the right trigger to pitch an offer about a rollover IRA.
The key to marketing success depends on ensuring that such engagement initiatives remain relevant, personalized, and timely. The marketer also needs to be aware of the customer’s preferred means of communication, e.g., email, chat, or phone, and use the relevant medium as a follow-up method. A good follow-up helps to keep the customer engaged while strengthening the opportunity for further business.
