Customers know companies gather data about them.
But this leads to a growing expectation that marketers will understand each individual’s preferences and behaviours, and deliver personally relevant information.
To do this, marketers need individualised insights to deliver the meaningful, timely interactions that customers expect.
However, are there misperceptions about individualised marketing that prevent marketers from adopting the practice?
“Capturing the attention of customers in a crowded market means marketers need to work smarter, not harder,” says Umporn Tantipech, Principal Consultant, Teradata Marketing Applications.
“For example, marketers can use Integrated Big Data Analytics platform to tailor interactions to individual customers’ changing circumstances, including real time if necessary.”
Tantipech has identified five common myths preventing marketers from adopting individualised marketing practices:
1. “Data-driven marketing is too complicated and will slow us down.”
Tantipech says that a recent survey from Teradata found that 59 percent of marketers said data-driven marketing made them faster at decision making.
“This is because the Integrated Big Data Analytics platform can automate the process of collecting and analysing large amounts of online and offline data that would otherwise be a time-consuming, manual process,” Tantipech adds.
“This increases how quickly marketers can understand the needs of individual customers and lets them utilise the insight to deliver a much more relevant message or service faster.”
2. “I can do this myself, without input from anyone else.”
In reality, Tantipech believes marketers must collaborate to be effective.
“80 percent of survey respondents said data silos within the marketing function actually prevent progress,” Tantipech adds.
“With the rapid pace of digital disruption, it has never been more urgent for marketers and IT to work closer together as a team.”
3. “My customer service department holds all the customer data.”
For data-driven marketing to be successful, Tantipech says customer data can’t exist in a silo - marketers need to integrate databases to develop a strong foundation that enables the data-driven marketing strategy.
“Integration is critical because it underpins the discovery of individualised insights through the use of data and analytics,” Tantipech adds.
4. “We’re already using an omni-channel approach.”
Tantipech reports that 88 percent of marketers say they take an omni-channel approach to reaching customers, but 44 percent also find it difficult to be consistent.
“And not to mention the need to do so at significant scale,” Tantipech adds. “Data-driven marketing and individualisation shouldn’t drive merely a handful of campaign, channel or platform at a time.
“It must drive the entire customer-centric strategy to create consistency and a true omni-channel approach.”
5. “I can get started on this next year.”
Consumer demand and your competitors will not wait! In reality, individual customer insights deepen over time. The sooner marketers adopt data-driven marketing to drive 1-1 customer engagement the better.
Tantipech believes this will result in more targeted and competitive campaigns for their brands.
“Our survey found that 67 percent of marketers believe that using data lets them make more accurate decisions, which in turn should result in higher campaign responses and ROI,” Tantipech adds.