5 ways marketers can improve customer experiences with personalization

One of the most frustrating things for customers is a fragmented brand interaction. And with consumer expectations at an all-time high, poor CX could end up breaking your marketing campaigns.

“Research from PwC shows something that should be scary to CX leaders,” said Christopher Cummings, Principal Product Manager at big data company Precisely, in his session at our MarTech conference. “59% of customers will leave a brand that they love after just two or three negative interactions.”

The primary channel has moved from face-to-face to digital, according to Brian Stewart of AXA Investment Managers, and many brands are struggling to adapt. The sheer volume of channels within the digital space has made it difficult for marketers to implement a unified strategy.

“There’s been a lot of industry talk about omnichannel, but too often marketers misunderstand it,” said Cummings. “It’s not about simply marketing across many channels, but really about those channels all working together at every point in the customer’s life cycle.”

He added, “It’s about the connected experience among them.”

Providing customers with personal, unified experiences can help increase positive interactions. Here are five ways these tactics can improve marketers’ engagement strategies.

1. Personalized emails

“Personalization is more than just getting the name right,” said Cummings. “It’s about optimizing for the user’s device.”

Personalizing customer emails can be a good way to bring customers into a unified experience. What’s more, they’re easy to create and send. The important part is leveraging customer information in a way that best connects with them and respects their privacy.

2. Dynamic PDFs

Marketers leaning into their CX personalization strategy can improve the quality of their communications with dynamic PDFs.

“Sometimes you need to attach PDFs into your outgoing emails,” Cummings said. “Maybe it’s a flyer just promoting an event. Yet when you need to do things like that, you want to be able to add dynamic elements like barcodes or QR codes.”

Adding these dynamic elements to static documents can help improve customer engagement, especially when they’re personalized.

3. Interactive videos

“Video can be an effective way to engage a customer,” said Cummings, “and when that video is personalized to the individual, you can create an immersive digital experience that exceeds consumer expectations while also meeting your business objectives.”

Video has been shown to increase engagement rates more than most types of media — adding personalized and interactive features could make it even more effective. Cummings suggests uploading custom audio and other aspects using customer data to give them an experience they’ll remember.

4. Data-driven chatbot implementations

Although some have had negative experiences with website chatbots, these tools can be quite effective if used properly. Marketers can use the data they’ve gained to personalize these interactions, further bridging the gap between customer touchpoints across email, video, etc.

“In the chatbot experience, there are many different options for interactivity,” said Cummings. “There are buttons, menus, image carousels — all of these different options to propel the conversation forward.”

80% of common questions can be answered by chatbots, according to a report from IBM. CX professionals would be wise to use data-driven chatbot strategies to further unify customer journeys.

5. Personalized SMS

Impersonal texts to customers aren’t the best for engagement, but personalized messages can build trust. Leveraging personal data customers have consented to share is a quick way to form a connection.

“Presuming the user has given you permission to contact them this way, it’s an effective way to create loyalty because you’re helping her easily keep track of what’s going on with the account without forcing your customer to log into your app or your website. So you streamline the customer experience for them.”

Streamlining experiences can ultimately help unify customers’ journeys. It’s not about how many channels marketers use — it’s how those channels work together to give customers a seamless experience.

Watch the full presentation from our MarTech conference here (free registration required).