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Personalisation goes beyond just having someone's name in an email, in a website's welcome message, or in some other form of marketing communication. It's time to have a one-to-one, a tête-a-tête conversation with your customers.
As a marketer you need to develop and nurture a one-to-one relationship with each B2B customer, providing them with a rewarding and bespoke experience of any form of interaction with your company. Relationships are even more crucial in business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing than they are in B2C markets.
Customisation therefore ensures that your customers feel that you know and understand their needs. So if you don't know what your customers' expectations and requirements are, you'll miss an opportunity to communicate why they should buy from you versus one of your competitors. Demonstrate that you are looking after their interests, but without making blind guesses.
Personalisation begins by understanding your customers. Talk with them and allow your customers to give you feedback through conversations with your staff, surveys, and via their interaction with each communication. Campaign analysis helps you understand the difference between what someone says their interests and concerns are, and what topics they actually read in your communications. Insight can emanate from any point of interaction with a customer.
Key reasons for using personalisation are to attract new customers, gain higher quality leads, offer relevant and timely offerings, gain more stickiness and create more loyal customers. A company that says, "Dear Owen" and focuses on the individual's needs engages clients in a more meaningful dialogue, so is more likely to win sales than one that just sends a generic message promoting products that might not even be relevant.
With effective personalisation you should also be able to differentiate your offerings and offer bespoke service levels, which can show that you recognise the value of each customer to your business.
Personalisation doesn't just happen online. When you meet someone you know, and then another, you will most probably have a different conversation with each person. There's an ever widening means of holding that conversation online and offline today. Which way suits your customers?
In the B2B environment that conversation might be even more complex. You might need to speak with several people before a decision can be made. Organisations have different mindsets, organisational cultures and structures. You therefore need to cultivate an ongoing dialogue with the key individuals within each organisation.
The best approach is an integrated one. Certain aspects can be automated using information communications technology, but it doesn't replace human interaction and other means of having the dialogue. For example, online forums work well when complemented by offline events, and email bulletins can be used within the mix.
What a customer needs today may not be what he or she requires tomorrow. To have an effective one-to-one relationship, you therefore need to keep in step with your customers. Plan for the long-term, and not just for short-term gains.
Account-based Marketing (ABM) is one way of tailoring the relationship to high value customers' needs, to stimulate an open conversation that leads to a bespoke product and service offering. So personalisation, and having a one-to-one with customers, is more than just about displaying their name on a website. True personalisation communicates your value proposition through what you do for each customer.
To talk more about how you can thrive with personalisation and ABM, even when times are economically tough, please call Think Smart Marketing on 01525 288828 or email: owen.ashby@thinksmartmarketing.co.uk
