Brand and customer loyalty, once the currency in which great advertisers and marketers traded, is on the decline worldwide.
Today, consumers have multiple options at their fingertips. So when the choices are overwhelming, what can brands and businesses do to ensure they stand out from the rest – in a way that drives measurable results?
It’s a question that every marketer and advertiser worth the title in their email signature has grappled with, and one that is anecdotally answered with some version of ‘standout creative’.
But as digital increasingly becomes the go-to investment channel for marketers, it’s critical to be able to put it to its best possible use. That means particularly incorporating the personalisation and measurement capabilities, because they’re key in any integrated strategy that puts the customer first.
Put simply, personalisation, measurement and similar digital capabilities are the savvy marketer’s best defence against the clutter and the noise, allowing for the prioritisation of the customer experience.
What data hands professionals in the business is a tool that takes the guesswork out of marketing and advertising, helping them create targeted campaigns that reflect a deep understanding of who the customer is, their location, as well as their needs and preferences.
Return on investment
That ability to creatively engage customers in an authentic and relevant way significantly boosts potential return on investment for the brand, usurping the primarily useless (easy to ignore) marketing ‘fluff’.
Data has the potential to help marketers make magic. But to get to that point, it must first be transparently and effectively collected, analysed and interpreted in order to produce the kind of results that are relevant to the objectives of the brand, and the needs of the customer.
Once that has been achieved, personalisation can be applied. This gives marketers the information they need to create much more personal and “human” experiences across moments, channels and buying stages – effectively adding value by delivering a seamless, targeted customer experience.
Ultimately, data and creativity need to live side by side. Data gives relevance to creative, while creative brings ‘life’ and personality to data. And the sum of the two is growth; the data ensures that you are reaching the customer in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, while the creative delights and surprises in a winning combination to which the metrics will attest over time.
So don’t think this means brands won’t matter, or that data will replace the need for creativity. The reality is that they’ll matter even more. The technology at our disposal allows us to now serve our customers in a more personal, more sophisticated way.
By helping us get this right, the data enables us to engage our customers in a much more meaningful way, ultimately growing that much-coveted brand loyalty.
Shaune Jordaan is the co-founder and CEO of Hoorah Digital, an independent digital consultancy that believes in brand results through data. The consultancy focuses on helping internal marketing and digital teams with all things digital, from social media advertising to app design.
