When you look at today’s consumer landscape, it seems like brands everywhere know who you are and what you like. They’re almost like a thoughtful friend that wants you to treat yourself to another pair of shoes or those earrings that you’ve put in your shopping cart but never checked out. Brands are sending more and more personalized communications to their consumers to motivate and drive more purchases. The research has shown that this is not only working, but it is something that consumers actually want brands to do.

81% of consumers want brands to get to know them better so the brands can understand their wants and needs. Consumers are more likely to engage with brands only when messages and offers are personalized.

So how do you capitalize on personalization in your marketing strategy to boost your customer loyalty?

The Link Between Personalization and Customer Loyalty

It’s no secret that loyal customers are the best customers. There’s plenty of research highlighting that loyal customers are invaluable to brands and are usually the ones that spend the most. Acquiring new customers is often more costly than retaining existing ones so brands are better off investing in strategies for customer retention.

This is where personalization can help boost the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. One of the best ways to build customer loyalty is through loyalty programs. There are many well-known loyalty programs in the market today such as the Nike+ Membership program, Amazon Prime, and Sephora’s Beauty Insider program, to name a few. These brands have successfully developed their loyalty programs in such a way that keeps their customers coming back. Among the range of tactics involved in building these successful programs is personalization.

For example, Nike+ members can scan a QR code to check-in when they enter a Nike store to receive a personalized shopping experience. Nike’s loyalty program collects data on their consumers such as their shoe size and store preference to cater the service directly to each consumer. Members can also unlock a variety of rewards including free products and coupons. These offers are exclusive to Nike+ members so it’s no surprise that Nike has turned their shoppers into brand advocates. In the long run, personalization can increase the likelihood of members purchasing by 8 folds.

Why personalization drives customer loyalty

The goal of personalized marketing is to communicate and engage with your consumers as an individual. This allows them to feel like brands are trying to understand their wants and needs. The main reason that personalization drives customer loyalty is that it builds upon the foundational emotions of establishing strong customer-brand relationships.

1. Trust. By catering the customer experience to each individual, your customers are able to feel like you have their best interests in mind.

2. Commitment. Personalizing messages takes a lot of effort. By doing so, your customers can see that you care about them and genuinely want to build a long-lasting relationship.

3. Reciprocity. When you go out of your way to do something nice for someone, they’ll return the favor and keep your brand top of mind.

Examples of personalized loyalty programs

Consumers are increasingly expecting more personalization in their interactions with brands. Loyalty programs are an effective way to enhance personalization efforts. The program allows you to gather data on their purchasing habits and preferences so you can strategically target these consumers to reinforce their loyalty to your brand.

It may seem like a lot of work on your part, but your efforts will pay off. Here are some examples of how leading brands have successfully personalized their marketing efforts to create a meaningful experience for their customers.

Amazon

You can’t talk about personalization without mentioning Amazon. They are pioneering the movement towards personalization with their loyalty program, Amazon Prime, becoming more and more unique to each individual and their preferences. Amazon’s sophisticated engines are able to analyze consumer interactions with their platform to show more personalized content such as recommendations based on an individual purchase or searches, items that can be bundled with products in a consumer’s cart, and suggested items that the consumer may be interested in based on items that similar consumers have purchased.

Sephora

When you look at the most innovative loyalty programs in the market, Sephora’s Beauty Insider program stands out to be a truly personalized omnichannel experience for consumers. Sephora is able to link online and in-store interactions through their mobile app. Consumers can book in-store makeovers and consultations through the app. When they get their makeup done in-stores, the makeup artists input each product used into the consumer’s personal profile. The app also allows consumers to virtually try products and provides recommendations based on their beauty traits. With all these recommended products tied to each consumer’s profile, they have the flexibility to purchase it whenever they want and have that information stored in their profile for future reference.

How can you apply personalization in your marketing strategy?

Before you start personalizing your marketing material, you need to gather information about your consumers. Data analytics should be the foundation driving your personalized marketing strategy. It allows you to compile relevant data on your consumers, such as their name, age, geographic location, and interests. You can then use this information to personalize your brand messages to your consumers.

A great way to maximize your personalization efforts is through loyalty programs. The entry point of capturing consumer data starts when they register for your loyalty program. As they engage with the program, you can track their interactions and behaviors to learn more about their wants and needs. Once you have enough data on your consumers, you can start implementing some of these personalization ideas into your marketing plan to enhance your customer loyalty.

Targeted emails

Email marketing campaigns are an easy way to reach a large group of people quickly. However, consumers receive hundreds of emails daily from numerous brands offering their products and services. So you need to stand out from the crowd by showing your consumers exactly what they want.

Using your customer data, you can segment your audience based on demographics and send the relevant emails to these groups. For example, a clothing company could send emails based on gender and age to promote a particular style of clothing.

Product recommendations

This tactic relies on collecting data on consumer’s behaviors and interactions with the brand to determine what type of products, services or offers the consumer is most likely to be interested in. By understanding the consumer’s behaviors and preferences, brands can tailor recommendations to the consumer and motivate their next purchase. If the last three movies you watched were family-friendly animation films, it makes sense to recommend an animated Disney movie like Lilo & Stitch.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) messages

With the prevalence of social media, it’s become so easy to peek into the lives of others and see what they’re doing and where they’re going. It’s hard not to feel a sense of FOMO every now and again. That uneasy feeling we get when we sense that we’re missing out on something special can also be used in the context of marketing.

E-commerce websites have been implementing FOMO messages which consumers can see who’s currently looking at the product, have bought it recently, or if the product is low in stock. Personalizing those FOMO messages provides an added urgency and pressure for consumers to make a purchase.

All-in-one Personalization Marketing Solution: PLATFORM³

Before you can start effectively personalize your marketing materials, you now understand how important it is to first have an understanding of your consumers and their needs. So, where to start?

Our innovative marketing platform allows brands to host and launch their promotion and loyalty programs, whilst tracking the progress in real-time. The Data Capture & Analytics dashboard features invaluable insight on consumer purchasing behavior, consumer demographics, and brand expenditure.

We can help incorporate gamified mechanics such as on-site leaderboards and daily challenges that have shown to increase consumer engagement and overall satisfaction with the brand. Alongside the platform’s gamification component, keep your consumers coming back with our Dynamic Messaging and Rewards feature, which capitalizes on data gathered from your program and sends messages and rewards based on your consumers’ purchasing behavior through an omnichannel infrastructure. Deliver messages and offers that are uniquely relevant to each consumer to encourage more purchases. Ask our team about personalizing your promotion and loyalty programs now.