Boost your marketing effectiveness with personalized customer relations!

Personalizing customer relations is one of the best practices in customer experience.

Not only does it enable you to satisfy consumers who have become more demanding, but it also builds lasting customer loyalty.

In this guide, we'll look at how you can leverage personalization to boost your marketing... and your sales 💣!

See all software Customer relationship management

Customer relationship personalization: definition

Customer relationship personalization refers to a marketing strategy aimed at offering a unique experience to each individual, according to their preferences and needs.

It involves :

• collecting and analyzing customer data to better understand :
  • their buying habits ;
  • their preferences ;
  • their behaviors;
• use this information to individualize interactions with them.

💡 Companies often use technologies such as predictive analytics and machine learning to identify patterns and trends. In this way, they create targeted offers and messages for each individual. For example, an e-commerce site might recommend products similar to those a customer has previously purchased, or send special offers aligned with their interests.

Personalizing customer relations offers many advantages, such as

• improved customer satisfaction and loyalty,
• increased sales and profits,
• reducing the cost of acquiring new customers,
• differentiation from the competition.

☝️ However, be sure to operate with complete transparency to avoid this personalization work being perceived as overly intrusive or inappropriate, particularly when it comes to collecting consumers' personal information.

Why personalize customer relations?

Control customer uniqueness to avoid losing control of costs

By personalizing customer relations, your company gains better control over costs in several ways.

Firstly, an individualized experience improves customer loyalty, making them more likely to return and make additional purchases. This in turn reduces your cost of acquisition! What's more, satisfied customers are more likely to recommend you to their friends and family, reducing your marketing and advertising costs.

What's more, personalizing customer relations means more precise targeting of offers and messages. The result is much more relevant communications, with higher conversion rates.

Finally, marketing personalization enables companies to optimize their operations. By analyzing customer data and better understanding their preferences, they gain efficiency in processes such as inventory management, production and delivery.

Stand out from the crowd and establish your brand image

Personalizing relationships helps companies stand out from the competition. By showing that they care about their customers and always listen to them, they strengthen their brand image and reputation.

They forge genuine emotional bonds with their customers, while setting themselves apart by offering products and services that are truly tailored to their customers' needs.

What's more, this marketing technique encourages communication around brand values, at a time when individuals are increasingly concerned about corporate commitments (environment, product quality, etc.).

How can we personalize customer relations throughout the 8 stages of the purchasing cycle?

Salespeople are aware that consumers go through a series of predetermined actions before making a purchase.

In other words, although digital channels can accentuate an individual's compulsive nature, buyers take predictable actions.

These actions establish a framework for retailers to design personalized messages and send them at the appropriate stage of the buying cycle.

Here they are in detail 👉

Step 1: Identifying the buyer's needs and wishes

• ✅ Situation : a specific need emerges in the consumer. This need may :
  • be pragmatic (e.g., his TV no longer works and needs replacing) ;
  • respond to a trend (e.g., a fashionable item they really want to own).
    
    
• 🚀 Opportunity: retailers are precisely designing awareness campaigns to respond to this relatively fuzzy stage in the buying cycle. At this point, the customer is only beginning to think about making a purchase. It therefore seems difficult to establish a personal relationship, especially if it's a prospect.

However, it is possible to use multi-channel promotion and engagement programs to increase exposure to your products. Send easily memorable messages and engage in conversations with potential users, prospects and existing customers.

Step 2: The buyer's search for information

• ✅ Situation: the Internet offers a wide range of tools for customers to find out about the qualities of each product and the reputation of sellers. These tools include:
  • search engines,
  • industry-specific communities,
  • rating and review sites,
  • social networks.
    
    
• 🚀 Opportunity: at this stage of the buying cycle, you have the chance to create several marketing exposure elements. These include paid search, advertising, webinars and white papers. We also advise you to implement inbound marketing and SEO techniques to move up the rankings of search engines like Google and Bing.

To respond in real time to customer searches, identify the common problems your products help solve. Then, through your content, link these problems to the keywords customers are likely to type in to find an answer to that question.

Then deploy marketing actions designed to increase your online visibility, such as paid advertisements like Ads campaigns.

Another technique is to develop information materials, such as webinars and white papers, focused on the topics your potential buyers want to know more about before making a purchase. This is called inbound marketing.

Step 3: Customer assessment of product value

• ✅ Situation: Internet users often compare items and their prices thanks to :
  • comparators such as Google shopping, MySmartPrice or shopping.com,
  • more specific comparators (by sector) such as hotels.com and trivago.
    
    
• 🚀 Opportunity: customers are more involved at this stage. They study the features and price of each offer, thus shortening the list of products to be preferred. At this stage, become more "personal" in your communications. For example, offer buyers free samples. This way, they can find out more about your merchandise and test it before making their choice.

To persuade customers, why not enhance your messages with promotions?

• 👉 In B2C, use discounts or special offers (e.g. -20% on next purchase or no shipping costs).
  
  
• 👉 In B2B, customize certain products to match a company's identity and brand, or offer discounts for certain quantities or orders.

Step 4: The purchasing decision

• ✅ Situation: the consumer selects the desired product or service, then executes the transaction.
  • In B2C, this transaction generally takes the form of a shopping cart payment or, in some cases, a sales contract.
  • In B2B, it may involve the examination and negotiation of a contract that commits to the delivery of goods or services, and specifies payment terms.
    
    
• 🚀 Opportunity: here, deliver personalized messages based on best practices in your sector. For example, a customer looking for a spare part will receive information on how to use it to reveal its full potential.

You can also expose these new customers to communities of existing customers who will accompany them through the integration process, and beyond.

This step also involves optimal internal collaboration within your organization, so you can ensure that the teams responsible for pre-sales services and delivery are aligned.

• 👉 In B2C, fulfillment teams are required to verify that certain conditions, including returns and warranties, have been implemented.
  
  
• 👉 In B2B, a clear delivery commitment should be drawn up, reflecting the customer's expectations.

Step 5: After-sales service

• ✅ Situation: companies offer customers an after-sales service that meets several objectives, for example:
  • product activation,
  • return,
  • repair, etc.
    
    
• 🚀 Opportunity: the sales cycle does not end with the purchase. The after-sales department has the opportunity to offer customers other products or services, or even an upgrade.

This stage is particularly important for personalization efforts. Distributors have shown their customers the way in the early stages of awareness-raising, and have got to know them. They now have information on consumer demographics, psychographics and behavior. What's more, they've established a relationship with them.

Thanks to this large volume of data, marketing teams can design campaigns and carry out specific actions for customers in the company's database. In this way, they develop appropriate recommendations, special offers and other relevant content.

Step 6: Customer comments and reviews

• ✅ Situation: consumers often share their opinions on the customer experience. For example, they respond to satisfaction surveys sent to them, or leave a comment on social networks and other rating and review sites.
  
  
• 🚀 Opportunity: salespeople can communicate directly with their customers and collect feedback on its products and brands.

Always respond to customer feedback and personalize your interactions with them as much as possible. And if they turn out to be unhappy, react immediately to ease tensions and prevent the rapid dissemination of negative impressions.

Step 7: Customer loyalty

• ✅ Situation: consumers who have enjoyed your products or services, and/or had a positive experience, will become attached to you. For example, they will be more inclined to buy a more expensive item if they are reassured about the quality of your offer. This strengthens their loyalty.
  
  
• 🚀 Opportunity: design sophisticated initiatives to strengthen your relationship with your loyal customers.
  • In B2C, propose loyalty programs offering free benefits or discounts.
  • In B2B, marketing teams organize reward ceremonies, advisory boards, conferences or events dedicated to certain customer communities

These initiatives make your best customers feel appreciated and rewarded.

The aim of real-time personalization is to guarantee this kind of positive outcome.

Step 8: Product promotion by brand ambassadors

• ✅ Situation: satisfied customers tend to share their experiences in person, online, via review sites or social networks. In this way, they direct prospects to their salesperson when the opportunity arises.
  
  
• 🚀 Opportunity: develop referral programs in which you award discounts or credits to your best ambassadors.

Think influencers! In exchange for remuneration or even samples, they'll share their feedback with their community.

Tools for personalizing customer relations

With real-time customer personalization, you get to know your customers and make them aware of your offer.

But to lay the foundations for knowing your customers and better addressing them, the use of technology seems essential.

Several types of software are commonly used for this purpose. For example :

• CRM, designed to manage customer relations. They centralize all information relating to your customer base, past interactions with your company, preferences and purchasing behavior. All valuable resources for more effective personalization!
  
  
• Data analysis tools. These solutions are used to analyze the data needed to identify trends, patterns and buying behaviors. They also facilitate the segmentation of customers according to their preferences.
  
  
• Marketing automation platforms. With these software programs, you can create personalized marketing campaigns based on the information collected. The tool then automates individualized e-mailings, special offers, product recommendations, etc.

🛠️ Software example:

Bloomreach is an omnichannel marketing solution designed to optimize your customers' e-commerce experience, and thus boost your conversion rate. Featuring artificial intelligence technology, it personalizes every purchase journey, connecting your customers to your products at the right time and in the right place. What's more, the platform is easy to use (high degree of automation), and you benefit from a tailored offer and support from the Bloomreach teams.

See all software Customer relationship management

Personalized customer relations: that's all there is to it!

On the Internet, information is communicated freely, using a variety of tools such as search engines, blogs, rating sites, social networks and so on. Consumers have a multitude of sources of information at every stage of the purchasing cycle.

Real-time personalization helps sales reps listen to customers and prospects, identify their interests and preferences, understand and map their behavior. They study their individual characteristics and then accompany them through the sales tunnel.

As a result, these same customers and prospects are more willing to buy, or even repurchase, from a distributor who genuinely seeks to improve their experience.