Whilst reviewing a number of early submissions from my students on the CIM Driving Digital Experience module of the Level 6 Digital Diploma in Professional Marketing, I began thinking about the 10 most important steps that would be required in practice if a business wished to integrate personalisation in the customer journey and marketing communications plans.
“Personalisation is becoming less about simple product and service mix and more about our ability to create the right experience for each customer. This change in direction requires organisations to think much more broadly about how they can use personalisation to enhance the customer experience. Research has shown that brands adopting the technology and strategies to enable personalised digital experience will gain competitive advantage over brands that do not. Organisations that learn to leverage personalisation will find it easier to acquire customers with appealing and engaging digital experiences, enable faster conversions and create lasting engagement and loyalty.” CIM Driving Digital Experience – April 2019
So where do you start if you believe this to be the near future of effective marketing communications strategy?
Step 1 – Identify your most important customer persona
Step 2 – Plot your persona’s customer journey through awareness, conversion and retention
Step 3 – Highlight the critical touchpoints on this journey, especially where the persona makes key decisions that affect the course of the relationship and their commitment to engagement
Step 4 – Using analytics, insights and metrics, establish key performance indicators throughout the length of the customer journey so you can measure effectiveness of each step
Step 5 – Introduce innovative personalisation technologies or practices to enhance the persona’s journey
Step 6 – Establish a process of monitoring outcomes and results to inform continuous improvement
Step 7 – Determine the impact on the wider business of serving the customer in a personalised manner
Step 8 – Continuously evaluate the impact on resources (people, time and budget) to monitor return on investment
Step 9 – Integrate a measurable, appropriate and balanced content strategy to fuel the personalised customer journey
Step 10 – Monitor key performance indicators and adjust personalised marketing communications on an ongoing basis
There are many details at the next level down in planning for personalisation in marketing communications. But I believe these 10 steps will be helpful for those starting out on their journey of customer personalisation.
If you can see value in considering this in your business but would like a helping hand, please get in touch and let’s talk about your marketing.
You can learn more about the CIM Level 6 Digital Diploma in Professional Marketing which has driving optimum digital experience at its core.
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