A career in digital marketing is bit like a roller coaster.
There are best practices and strategies for every outlet and platform, but in a time where outlets and platforms are constantly changing, creating a successful strategy can be difficult.
In 2019, with anywhere from 1-3 screens (or maybe even more) open at a time, customers are constantly connected and their data is available in an infinite amount.
Marketing has now come to a place where hyper-connected customers expect personalized, seamless digital experiences because, whether they like it or not, their data allows marketers to reach them in a super personalized way.
With one-to-one marketing strategies at the forefront of digital experiences, brands have the ability to foster greater connections and increase customer loyalty, which always works well for your bottom line.
Below we’ll explore ways to create more one-to-one marketing strategies for your brand.
Defining One-to-One Marketing
The term one-to-one marketing (1:1) is relatively new, but the approach is almost as old as commerce itself. Once upon a time when mom and pop stores were on every corner, customers were loyal to their local vendors because of the personal experiences they would have. Isn’t it nice when you go to your local pharmacy or coffee shop and the employee knows your name, greets you with kindness, and has your order ready for you before you even ask? One-to-one marketing strategies should aim to create a similar experience, except, of course, online.
One-to-one marketing seeks to reinvest marketing with the personal touch absent from many modern business interactions.
Segment Your Market
The first step in creating one-to-one marketing experiences is to research your customer and prospect base and segment the market. Traditionally, brands had no choice to market to everyone at once, but social intelligence can deliver detailed information about your customers, going beyond their interactions with you and uncovering more about them as a rounded human individual. Their data can tell us what other sites they visit, where they shop, what articles they read, where they stand on social issues, and that’s not even touching the surface.
Are you an e-commerce brand? You can target your customers based on what’s in their shopping carts and let them know their items are still waiting for them. (This happens to me more often than I care to admit, but it pretty much always works). It’s a very specific, individualized marketing strategy, and that data will tell you this is much more effective than an email updating customers that new shirts are now in stock.
Don’t Underestimate Social Media
This may seem obvious, but social media is the perfect place to speak to your audience one-to-one. Whether it’s responding to a customer service question, thanking a community member for a Facebook share or retweet, there’s no better (or easier) place to interact with your clients, customers, and community members in real time, and in a personalized fashion.
If your goal is to foster close relationships and build customer loyalty, social is the place to do it. Create a poll in Instagram Stories or ask your audience a question. Your fans and followers will
Email Marketing
When it comes to email marketing, it’s simple to segment your email database, such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact, to deliver different content to different groups. In B2B that could be by industry, job title, or the stage in the buyer journey.
For example, earlier this year, B Squared hosted the HELLO Conference. In preparing for this conference we created an email campaign for our entire email list when we decided to make the initial announcement. As we started to get sign-ups, we segmented out those who confirmed attendance before sending reminder emails to those who had not yet signed up.
We made sure to create a personalized email experience for our list based on whether they had taken an action or not. In both Mailchimp and Constant Contact, it’s just as easy to segment out a list of one as it is to a list of thousands.
Final Thoughts
A good practice is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers, and potential customers. Do you want a brand speaking to you as if you’re just one in a crowd, or would you prefer a brand to recognize you as an individual and address you as such?
Think about this next time you’re putting a new marketing strategy together.
How are your providing one-to-one marketing experiences for your customers? Let us know in the comments!
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