The power of the mobile device for marketers has been validated as an incredibly effective vehicle to deliver personal, highly relevant messages, especially when those messages are delivered based on context, such as a person’s location. However, that information alone does not tell us what a potential customer might want or which message is most likely to resonate with them. ?
For example, if Sally is standing on a street corner, she might be in a rush on her way to work, impatiently waiting for the light to change, or she might be looking for a great breakfast spot while visiting a city for the first time with her family. In each scenario, knowing where someone is relative to their home, place of work and places they frequent can present more valuable insight into which products, services, apps or advertisements are most relevant to them.?
In order to take advantage of these opportunities, marketers need to tap into information beyond GPS coordinates. Customer data can enable marketers to deliver personalized campaigns that truly resonate with consumers. Here are four tips to keep in mind.?
- Treat each customer as a ?”segment of one.” Most of today’s campaigns are product-centric rather than customer-centric, where the focus is more about delivering a consistent message than the right one. Rather than sending out batch communications, marketers should adopt a true one-to-one contextual marketing approach that leverages behavioral data to determine and deliver offers that are individualized for each customer in the right context. ?
- Consider the context. In order to reach a customer when he or she is most likely to respond, be sure to identify and target a wide range of contexts. Location is just one of many available contextual parameters. Contexts can be time and location related, lifecycle related, and driven by behaviors and activity, social connectedness, as well as external circumstances. ?With the right tools that are specifically designed to predict how each of these parameters impact individual responses, one-to-one communications and offers can be precisely targeted according to the perfect time and place when individual customers are most receptive.?
- Eliminate the guesswork. The ability to market to contexts is new. As a result, the majority of marketers don’t have experience with it and many of the tools on the market today aren’t equipped to use it. What is required is a technology solution that uses machine learning to automatically determine which contexts matter for which customers. Without it, marketers are left having to guess about contexts, which can be a long, difficult road. ?
- Be creative. Contextual marketing solutions that leverage sophisticated machine-learning technology enable marketers to test an infinite number of combinations of messages and contexts. Marketers no longer have to assess who the best target is for message A or messages D, E and F, or what would happen if the price was reduced 30%, or whether message G should be delivered when a customer is at home or on their commute to work. ?Marketers should take full advantage of the opportunity to think creatively about what delivers more value to their customers and then test, learn and apply specific messages.
