Every purchase is the culmination of the buyer’s personality, preference, and desire. Catering to these is a matter of understanding what they want and communicating it the right way. Today’s shoppers expect relevant and personalized targeted messages across platforms – these include notifications, in-app recommendations, click-to-buy pictures on social media leading to an online store, SMS push notifications, and more.
In fact, Wong Pei Gy, VP of Synagie’s Channel Development and Management reveals that personalized marketing messages can result in a remarkable 40% increase in conversion, 50% decrease in abandoned carts, and 10% additional average order value! Here are 7 steps to boost your sales with personalized marketing while striking a balance with data privacy:
The panel of digital commerce experts clockwise: Dr. Roh Sungjong (Singapore Management University Assistant Professor), Sonya Sison (Synagie Head of Performance Marketing), and Wong Pei Gy (Synagie Vice President of Channel Development & Management).
1. Build a Loyal Customer Base
“When the customer comes first, the customer will last” – Robert Half.
An eCommerce business is akin to an aspiring five-star hotel whereby a strong foundation and functional amenities are required. Then only can you enhance your business by listening, understanding, and engaging with your guests.
Wong Pei Gy, a Synagie VP leading a team of 70 to manage nearly 1000 in-stores, emphasizes that one must build a strong customer base and followers from your eCommerce store itself. Build a store with a user flow design that is both attractive and easy to use. Be sure to input crystal clear information and deals that stand out.
2. Use AB testing
Next, develop an irresistible charm for your brand with campaign participation such as too-good-to-miss introductory discounts and social media giveaways that raise brand awareness. Don’t forget to focus on responsive and helpful customer service along with a seamless fulfillment management that delivers your products promptly and undamaged.
Sample A of an advertisement shows that 64% prefer a zoom-in of an athleisure-looking sneaker. Sample B of an advertisement shows that only 36% are attracted to the picture of one pair.
One fool-proof way to effectively utilize your advertising budget is by using AB testing i.e. comparing two versions of your marketing messages to figure out which performs better. Pei Gy shares that AB testing in marketing campaigns is key to understanding your customer base.
Get creative with organic social content to reach your existing followers. Do this by curating a video or picture that matches your researched customer needs. You can also ride on the wave of influencers flooding the social media of your ideal eCommerce customers by doing paid social content. This enables you to reach a larger audience.
3. Craft Personalized Experiences for each Customer
Now that you have laid a solid eCommerce landing page and sussed out the advertisement messages that people love, it is time to get personal. This can be effectively mapped based on your customer’s frequent or recently searched keywords, perhaps even purchase history data.
For instance, dad at the beach in the picture above probably searches for comfy travel clothes or kids games, appreciating relevant marketing notifications – rather than irrelevant ones such as Y2K fashion.
The drawback of such mapping as highlighted by Dr. Roh Sungjong is that personalization depends on machine learning to track consumer preferences and oftentimes, setting up your own Survey Monkey or Google Feedback form is insufficient as human preferences constantly change. Businesses may need to spend lots to set up a system to capture consumer purchase habits and user behavior insights.
Thankfully, the modern digital commerce landscape has made it simpler with eCommerce platforms’ own analytics engines handling consumer behavior analysis, gathering insights, and performing target marketing. The best part is that this technology is free once a business sells on its platform.
4. Discovery of the masses
Your brand discovery stage is essential for successful customer acquisition, retention, and loyalty. Sonya Sison, who takes the lead in marketing at Synagie, strongly recommends personalizing even at the stage where your target customers are looking for products that they are interested in.
Platforms like Lazada have marketing solution tools that factor in personalization. This means that only customers who are interested in products you are selling will get recommended to your online store. How does it work? Users who browse the app get purchase behavior analyzed and such data is used to build the recommendation list of products that show up on the Lazada homepage as well as notifications with messaging like: “Liked this? You may also like…”
5. Aim for Repeat Purchases
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers” – Shiv Singh
Once you have targeted the people who are interested in the type of products you sell, it is time to earn their loyalty. Get to know your customers better by reading every review and improving their experience based on that.
Pregnant women or new moms are great target audiences for repeat purchases. You can set up a “moms club” for legitimate mothers to sign up and receive truly exclusive discounts that accompany every stage of motherhood.
Be on the lookout and constantly introduce creative marketing messages, inspirational videos, and tips on how to use your products. Don’t miss out releasing limited edition products too. Of course, customers receiving notifications based on purchase history helps as well! Send short and sweet messages to buyers about the latest offers or related products from the same store once a buyer clicks follow and has purchased something.
Pro Tip: Constantly amplify your brand’s offerings. It can be showcasing the top reviews, providing free samples to introduce related products e.g. an eye cream, sunblock, or perfume when a customer purchases moisturizers. These buyers will either be delighted and purchase the full versions of these samples, or even better – pass the samples to family or friends!
6. Empathy
Time, technology, events, and businesses are constantly on the move with surprising twists at every turn in today’s fast-paced times. Dr. Roh Sungjong who specializes in teaching computational data science, analytics, and consumer decision-making points out that the greatest stranger is often our own self.
Hence, do keep in mind that surveys or reviews may not last the test of time as consumers often overestimate the stability of their preferences. Constantly stay in tune with the latest preferences of both new and repeat buyers. Numbers on your website or accounts register will reflect your current top products.
Pro Tip: eCommerce platforms like Lazada simplifies the process of comparing and contrasting overall product sales. It shows you how many SKUs have been sold thus far for each of your products.
7. Strike a balance with data privacy
Last but not least, keep in mind the privacy of your customers. Dr. Roh Sungjong discloses the findings that more consumers leave brands due to over-personalization rather than insufficient personalizations.
Data protection is indispensable. Customers who click “accept cookies” to let you track their location, age, add to cart items, and purchase history in fact wish to build a long-term trust in your data and privacy compliance.
When setting up an online store for your business (or you may already have one), a privacy policy that abides to your local regulations is fundamental. Even better, you can just incorporate your online business into widely-used eCommerce apps. Using an established platform such as Lazada saves you the worry of legal regulations with a qualified legal team to take care of your business data practices.
Get further expert insights on the latest commerce trends by heading over to howwesell.asia’s Lazada Insider page. Position your brand ahead of the marketing game and make wise business decisions today.