I cringe each time I receive an email from Intermix. Not because the message should be marked as spam, it’s my favorite store, but because their recommendations are so accurate that opening it causes Amazon’s 1-click syndrome, leaving me with an empty bank account.
Fortunately for Intermix, they’ve mastered Sailthru founder and CEO Neil Capel’s best advice for marketing to each consumer. As social media, apps, emails and even print post cards are utilized to market brands’ messages the most vital component companies need to integrate into their marketing strategy is building a real relationship with each customer. Just as my friend wouldn’t send me everything that’s on sale at Intermix you shouldn’t send your user content that it’s irrelevant or uninteresting to them.
The biggest misconception about customer experience, according to Neil, is brands’ inability to monitor how each user utilizes every channel thus causing them to target them with the wrong information and at the wrong time. When brands don’t monitor emailing, texting and push notifications users not only lose interest but are likely to unsubscribe.
The same mentality applies to the users’ experience on your website and in your app. The moment I log on to Intermix they should display the items I looked at last time I was browsing clothes and have my color choice and size already marked. The same personalization must extend past the website and into the app, emails and push notifications I receive. Thus if I was browsing clothes on the website my app should update accordingly.
Neil’s advice for brands to build trustworthy relationships with their customers is simple – Forget the bucket. It’s impossible to bucket each customer in one place with the same desires and needs. In fact, it’s impossible to organize them into multiple buckets. Each customer needs to be uniquely catered to on every channel you’re communicating with them and at the timing that’s appropriate for lifestyle.
Final Note: Personalize each interaction you have with a customer and you’ll have them for life.
To learn more about how you can customize your marketing strategy tune into Neil’s 33founders interview and head to Sailthru to see how they can help you achieve it.