Modern marketers must create personalized, relevant communications and deliver them to the right people at the right time. Additionally, they must facilitate great customer experiences, adhere to privacy expectations, and unify campaigns and communications across many channels and customer touchpoints—all while coordinating multiple business units and dealing with data that continues to expand in both volume and complexity. Without the right resources, a marketer’s role is nearly impossible. Thankfully, they have the following tools at their disposable to help drive customer loyalty:
More from PostFunnel on combating churn:
How to Win Back Late-Churn Customers (Part II)
Brands Raising the Bar: 4 Examples of Outstanding Customer Experience
4 Retention Marketing Trends You Need to Address in 2019
- Customer Data Platforms
Tom Treanor, head of global marketing at Arm Treasure Data, noted that in order to drive customer loyalty, it’s critical to have a full understanding of how each customer interacts with your company. That includes understanding what they’ve purchased, whether they’re part of a loyalty program, if they’ve answered a survey, called support, and how often they repurchase (if at all).
“A Customer Data Platforms (CDP) is the marketing tool used by cutting-edge marketers, customer experience leaders, and customer data analysts to get a full 360-degree view of each customer and their customer journey,” he said. “Companies use the data stored in CDPs to personalize the website or mobile app experience, customize communications, identify the best customers (or customers at risk of churn), optimize advertising spend (on better prospects), and provide a better support experience.”
- CXM or CEM
Nextiva’s CMO, Yaniv Masjedi, said that forward-thinking companies have already invested in a customer experience management platform—called CXM or CEM—to improve customer loyalty. This software is critical given the increasingly omnichannel customer journey.
“It’s no longer possible for a single marketer, or even a team for that matter, to track all of the data across social media, organic and paid search, onsite and offsite content campaigns, inbound calls, and more,” he said. “Instead, you need to rely on automation and artificial intelligence to crank out some of the data and provide your team with analysis on which campaigns are creating the most engagement, and ultimately increasing customer retention and loyalty.”
- Google Analytics
Canz Marketing’s account manager, Daisy Campbell, noted that while Google Analytics is used by most websites around the globe to track various KPIs and metrics for websites, it can also create customer loyalty by identifying which pages the customer spends the most time on, times of day your audience is most active, pages customers dislike, and the monetary value of the traffic.
“All of the above four points are customer-centric and would allow for a deeper insight as to what the customer is interested in,” she said. “I think the customers would be grateful to see changes being made because of their preferences, thus resulting in customer satisfaction and increased loyalty.”
- Messenger Marketing
Mason Mitchel, content marketer with Airy, said that messenger marketing is a great new way for businesses to market smarter.
“Messaging campaigns boast open rates of around 80 to 90% and help companies grow their lists of qualified leads exponentially,” he said. “One of Berlin’s major cultural institutions, the Komishce Oper, used messenger marketing campaigns to grow their list of contacts from a few hundred to a projected total of over 10,000 by the end of this year.”
- Automation Tools
CEO of National Positions, Bernard May, said that automation tools such as email nurturing and SMS messaging can contribute greatly to customer loyalty.
“Nurturing your existing clients with flash sales or in-store discount codes can help keep your business top of mind,” he said. “Additionally, this constant drip of value to your customers reminds them that you care—that you paid attention to them as an individual—especially if the offers are personalized based on previous purchases.”
- Email Programs
Slisha Kankariya, CMO of With Clarity, said that customer loyalty is driven by a great email program that combines personalized outreach with a program that allows people to gather the best possible incentives to continue working with you.
“Personalized outreach via email, social media remarketing, and having a dedicated representative are the best ways to keep customers coming back,” she said. “[Make sure you’re] constantly reminding customers of the great service and products, as well.”
- Texting
SimpleTexting.com’s marketing manager, Alfredo Salkeld, said that while SMS sounds a little outdated when you’re looking for the “latest and greatest tools,” text messaging works because it’s so simple.
Research shows that around 98% of text messages are opened, and that means it’s easy to get your loyalty message out.
“Texting is native to every cellphone. Just last year, the Pew Research Center published a report stating that 95% of Americans own a cellphone of some kind,” he said. “Plus, it’s easy to sign up for text loyalty programs. All a customer needs to do to sign up is enter their number into a web form or text in a keyword.”
Driving customer loyalty means delivering the right message at the right time, though without certain tools, this isn’t easy. The above resources enable marketers to create great customer experiences across all touchpoints while simultaneously honoring their customers’ privacy.
