To all data-driven marketing professionals in retail industries, we are all facing
a data explosion era; you may collect a lot of data, but do you really utilize it
well? Extracting insights from big data and enhancing the customer's experience
will be a key challenge for all of us. As a master’s candidate of the Integrated Marketing
Communications program at Northwestern University, I want to share two articles
with you.
Firstly, mobile apps have changed consumer behaviors toward searching and
shopping. While improving functions of apps to attract customers, retailers
should also grab the chance to utilize more data from mobile devices and
integrate that with data from other mediums. Smart retailers don’t just collect
data; they see the big picture, transforming the data into brand stories and
experience customization. A vast amount of data from mobile devices is the new
gold mine. It not only enables us to improve customer service, but also helps us to improve other business problems, such
as employee relations. I found an article in The Jordan Times. It
showed several statistic trends of mobile device that you might find interesting: Mobile devices, dataanalytics key to businesses future growth —experts
However, knowing what kind of data we can extract from multi-media is still not
enough. How can retailers use that to improve customer engagement? Today, the
power of word of mouth influences customer retention and acquisition, and the
key factor that drives word of mouth is customers’ experiences toward the
brand. In this intensive competition, only brands that utilize insights from
data to customize customers’ experiences will be crowned. Here is another
article on Forbes that may help you to think about that: Customer ExperienceControls Business Growth Today
To summarize these two articles, we should start to do the following things:
• Link data
from different mediums in order to see the big picture.
According to the second article, consumers have
turned “omnichannel”. Therefore, in order to maximize the usage of different
channels’ data, such as from mobile, linking data from different platforms is
essential for brands. Retailers can establish a multi-dimensional customer
profile about where and when customers search, shop, and give feedbacks. While
merging data and linking key identifiers together, marketers can see the big
picture and avoid falling into silos.
• Utilize
data to improve experience customization
Data is dead, only storyteller can make it alive. Stop
collecting data and then putting it away! Retailers should re-evaluate current
datasets and extract consumer insight. By segmenting different customer groups
and digging into customers’ preference and behaviors across different media
platforms, we can better understand what they really want and take the chance
to outshine competitors. These insights will tell customers’ stories and really
help the brands to engage and customize customers’ experiences.
• Differentiate
your apps from others and deepen the customer
engagement.
Since mobile has been an important tool for marketers
to collect data, how to keep engaging with customers and consistently
communicate with them define the winner in the long run. By analyzing data,
retailers can find niche advantages to establish their apps’ uniqueness, and
also get more useful data from consumers. Two birds, one stone.
By executing the actions above, marketers are able to extract insights from
data in multiple dimensions and increase a brand’s
strengths. In addition, since the mobile market hasn’t reached the mature
period yet, every brand has a chance to win. Why not starts it now?
Contact information of
the author:
As a master’s candidate with proven data analytics and consumer
insight professions, Flora Yang will graduate in December 2013. She is looking
for marketing analyst positions in retail, CPG, financial and agency industries. Reach
her on Twitter: @finverota or via LinkedIn.
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