Today’s consumers expect personalized content and experiences, and why wouldn’t they? Not only has technology increased everyone’s expectations to receive what they want, when and where they want it, but today’s brands are also requesting more and more personal information from consumers. It’s only fitting that consumers should expect to receive tailored content and customized, high-quality user experiences in return.
Consumers aren’t quiet about these demands, with nearly 75% of online consumers reporting frustration when brands don’t deliver content that aligns with their interests.
Personalized Marketing
Luckily for today’s marketers, it’s now possible to deliver on consumers’ increasing expectations. Marketing platforms today now utilize artificial intelligence marketing (AIM) and machine learning to collect and analyze consumer data to craft detailed consumer profiles. Marketers can in turn leverage these profiles to create highly targeted, personalized content, campaigns, incentives, and experiences.
Marketers no longer have to send generic messages to huge audiences. Instead, AIM makes it possible for marketers to create, optimize, and customize interactions across multiple channels, with little to no added manual work. This means marketers can now engage with consumers in meaningful ways, on a personal level, at every step of the buying journey.
Innovative Technology
So how do marketers actually achieve this level of personalization? The answer lies in emerging and innovative technology.
Today’s personalized marketing technology can use customer data to predict buyer needs, align brand offerings to those needs, and then proactively recommend products and offerings that benefit both the customer and the brand.
Here are some types of technology that can help marketers deliver consumers what they want, before they even know they want it:
Marketing Automation
Automation enables marketers to create complex workflows, turn them on, and let the technology take over.
Many marketing automation solutions allow for enhanced personalization in addition to optimization. These advanced workflows can be expanded to include personalized content and messaging based on specific triggers or predetermined rules. Marketing automation allows marketers to do more with less, all while creating a seamless consumer experience.
Tech Savvy Offline
This is one trend garnering a lot of attention in 2017, and it was even mentioned in Software AG’s press release on disruptive digital trends. It refers to bringing a digital, online experience to brick-and-mortar stores, through in-store experiences like robots, virtual reality, and other tech-savvy gimmicks.
While these types of customer draws may seem trite, they can actually be a great way to collect customer data for an offline audience. Marketers can then use this data to supplement digital marketing profiles, creating even more opportunities for personalization and refinement.
Conversational Commerce
Another trend mentioned in Software AG’s release is the rise of conversational commerce in marketing, which comes on the heels of new artificial intelligence offerings such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Home, and Apple’s Siri. Brands have already begun partnering with these innovative companies to bring a whole new level of 1:1 communication to consumers.
Conversational commerce, like AIM, is a technology that wouldn’t even have been possible just a few years ago, yet is now looking to be a must-have strategy for the future. These types of technologies go to show how quickly marketing solutions can change; where consumers go, marketers must follow. These emerging solutions are key to predicting consumer expectations and delivering exceptional experiences that drive sales.
Omnichannel Marketing
Omnichannel marketing, while not an actual technology itself, is the strategy that ties these innovative ideas together, and depends upon emerging technology in its execution. Omnichannel experiences are seamless across channels, platforms, and devices, ensuring that consumers never lose sight of a brand’s purpose, or the value it provides. It’s important that marketers work toward an omnichannel strategy as they create complex campaigns on these new technology platforms.
Consumers are smart. They know when a brand isn’t being genuine or honest. Omnichannel marketing ensures that consumers receive consistent, steady interactions with a brand regardless of channel, ensuring there are never forced interactions or faulty messaging.
The aforementioned consumer profiles are critical components of omnichannel strategies, as they help brands maintain personalized and meaningful engagement with consumers throughout the buying journey, all the way through the sale.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, personalized brand experiences and meaningful engagement are what turn consumers into loyal brand advocates. Marketers have the tools available to understand their customers and predict their future behaviors.
Interested in becoming a better predictor of the needs and desires of your customers? Emarsys can help. Learn more.
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