Marketing in Real Time - A Customer Story
BY JOHN ONISON | MARKETING AUTOMATION SOLUTION CONSULTANT
Once upon a time, businesses could get away with not having a real-time marketing strategy, but times have changed.
Today, engaging with your customer base requires a lot of finesse. Not only are customers very aware of marketing tactics, but they also look for valuable interactions. Tailoring your approach to be personal can leave some marketers scratching their heads.
Shopping habits have changed so rapidly since 2020 that trends forecasted to materialize in the next decade have accelerated beyond recognition leaving some retailers spinning; unable to manage the shift in consumer demand without the proper infrastructure in place.
Statistics show that over 53% of consumers are now buying more things online than normal. This is not surprising given the state of the world. Amazon’s net profit soared to 84% at the end of fiscal 2020—further compounding this change in buyer behavior. Proving that being able to deliver in online retail (quite literally) is essential to business today.
Still some consumers prefer the immersive experience of in-store shopping, and arguably there is something undeniably tangible about a brick and mortar that is hard to replicate digitally.
Regardless, e-commerce is here to stay. Global e-commerce is expected to reach a whopping 5 trillion globally by 2023, and with it being immune to the dreary onslaught of lockdowns and ever-changing restriction measures globally, this forecast seems promising.
Trust seems to be the number one motivator for online consumption. An overwhelming number of shoppers are routinely let down by faulty orders & products, contributing to the apprehension. However, this trust is building with continued improvement in the space along with changing attitudes around data collection.
The lack of personalization in digital retail whether through web or app-based platforms contributes to this wariness as well. This begs the question: how do traditional brick-and-mortar businesses leverage CRM and data science to deliver customer experiences as bespoke as their product offerings?
Meeting customers instantaneously; at their exact moment of need, has never been more relevant. Consumers and their conversions are increasingly digital meaning businesses need to be able to respond as they happen. The path to purchase is not as linear as it used to be. In fact, it is constantly evolving.
Microsoft Dynamic 365 Marketing elevates the customer experience with dynamic real-time interactions.
Let’s walk through a scenario; imagine you are a retailer with stores that have seen a sharp decline in patronage since the onset of the pandemic. How would you leverage this solution to drive in-store visits?
Tracking actions made on your e-commerce store; you could identify which contacts within your CRM have engaged in a purchase by adding items to their carts using the event trigger. The event trigger within Dynamics 365 Marketing allows marketers to create lists of contacts based on actions they make. In this case the abandoned cart.
You may then decide to create an email, dynamically pulling the customer’s name and the specific product they abandoned, inviting them to visit their nearest store (based on their ZIP code) to purchase that item in person with a 10% off coupon.
Any customer that uses the coupon on your POS system can be pulled into a segment for comparison between recipients of the email promotion, and those who ventured in store and claimed their discount. Thereby giving you an accurate conversion rate and ROI on your efforts.
Taking it a step further, you may choose to remarket to customers who did not use the coupon, sending them down another multi-channel journey with the goal of a purchase. Additionally, you may also choose to send customers who did use the coupon a survey, to better understand their experience and ways to improve it.
Predictive AI puts the customer data to work by identifying patterns in buyer behavior. Leveraging these Customer Insights, marketers can merge data from different sources to enhance their approach.
Microsoft’s Customer Insights gives marketers a unified 360-degree view of their customers and all their touchpoints – allowing for more personalized experiences with tailored messaging at scale.
Combining different data sources through pre-built connectors such as POS, web and social interactions, customer survey information, preferences, and transactional history – Customer Insights is able to build a single view of customers that not only keep fragmented data in one place but also leverages out-of-the-box AI to create suggestions for next best action, churn rate, and lifetime value.
Utilizing this data, businesses can create segments from behavioral, transactional, and demographic information to further tailor their approach.
Additional insights like customer sentiment and brand affinity can help curate that customer engagement further.
Some other innovative features of Dynamics 365 Real-Time Marketing include:
Custom Event Triggers
Along with pre-built triggers (email opened, SMS link clicked, push notification delivered) commonly used to instigate a customer journey or automated notification, Dynamics 365 Real-Time Marketing has allowed for user-defined triggers that enable marketers to react to customers real-world situations. Things like; page visits, purchase, connecting to in-store Wi-Fi, & the abandoned cart trigger demonstrated above.
Event-based journeys allow real-time responses to end-user actions, while segment-based journeys compile audience lists based on predefined criteria like age and location.
Setting Business Goals
By setting an intended behavior as a goal, marketers can measure conversions against the success of a campaign on an ongoing basis. Which allows for insights into optimizing journeys for higher ROIs.
Goals can be used to drive purchases, engage customers, increase loyalty, and event registration.
Filtering by goal allows for more specific reporting.
SMS & Push Notifications
Marketers can send outbound text messages to their contacts as part of their customer journey and create personalized text messages within the application.
Similarly, marketers can create push notifications for contacts that have installed their company’s app for quick messages, offers, or reminders.
A/B Testing
With AI-driven split testing, marketers can measure which content messaging or channel results in a higher delivery rate. This makes it easier to optimize the delivery method so that your message gets through.
Channel Optimization
Leveraging the real time AI model, channel optimization continuously monitors how each contact responds to communications automatically. As time goes on, historical data reveals their preferences and which channel (SMS, Push, Email) is most likely to achieve the intended outcome.
Learn More:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/marketing/real-time-marketing-overview
For businesses that are B2B focused, automating lead assignment (or any task for that matter) based on a lead score model, form submission, or event trigger has never been easier or instant.
Weaving data science and CRM functionality into various aspects of your business, whether that be in marketing & sales, finance, or operations is sure to result in more informed decision making, which leads to increased profitability. Insights into consumer behavior eliminates the guesswork on how best to engage customers & increases loyalty by catering to their specific needs—opposed to objective approaches that provide little benefit to the individual.
Consumers are connected, yielding a lot of power at their fingertips. Their swipes and taps tell a story and this data, if harnessed correctly, can create immense value in clienteling in much faster, more intuitive, & more sophisticated ways.
Learn more about Dynamics 365 Real Time Marketing and how it can help you achieve your business goals.