How to re-energise your customer experience

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated new digital customer behaviours across the globe. During this period, more of us have spent an increasing amount of time online, browsing through social media and video apps, live streaming entertainment content, and navigating new ecommerce experiences. This growing shift has required organisations big and small to alter their strategies, meet new client demands and priorities, and learn how to engage a digitally fatigued audience.

In the UK, the communications regulator Ofcom found that during the first lockdown of the pandemic, the average Briton spent a quarter of their waking day online. What’s more, almost everything we consume online is connected to advertising. Therefore, the volume of content can be overwhelming.

To highlight the state of this problem, research points out that almost three quarters (73%) of UK consumers have reported that they are seeing the same ads repeatedly and that just 11% say that they ‘enjoyed’ advertising. So, what does that mean for B2B marketers looking for new ways to connect with other businesses and customers?

Below are key areas every marketer must consider in order to successfully reengage with their customers in 2021.

The importance of personalisation (customer-first approach)

Providing a personalised service makes business-sense. If customers are getting suggestions and content recommendations that speak to their interests and needs, they’re more likely to engage.

Personalisation can also lead to big wins in email marketing. Our surveys have found that emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened, and marketers have found a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns.

In 2020, many businesses have had to pivot their marketing strategy as they move into crisis mode and, for some, start from scratch. This has meant that, in some cases, marketers have decided to deprioritise personalisation in favour for a ‘catch all’ Covid-response communications plan – it’s a cheaper and simpler strategy. However, now is the perfect opportunity to cut through the noise of the generic content that customers are inundated with on a regular basis.

Leverage the right customer data

Maintaining customer relationships will be critical during the Covid-19 recovery phase. In our experience, enterprise customers are looking at how they gather and contextualise their data so that the insights gleaned are robust and actionable.

By using data carefully, businesses can learn to improve their ability to communicate with their audiences at the critical moments they are most receptive. Additionally, by leaning on analytics, marketers will be able to use the data to prioritise services and content that matter the most.

Invest in new technology

According to Gartner, markets may gain bigger budgets for technology and digital advertising even as spending limits hit other functions. The organisation estimated that CMOs remain bullish about technology heading into the next 12 months, with 68% expecting their already significant outlays to increase.

What this suggests is that if you are not investing in technology, you are already falling behind compared to your competitors – from scenario planning to digital transformation. By understanding how the different types of possible futures in 2021 will potentially impact clients’ businesses, marketers would be positioned to pivot quickly to meet changing needs and situations.

In the B2B industry, traditional sales teams and leaders are accustomed to face-to-face interactions with customers, but that has now changed with Covid-19.

The world of business has changed and so has the way we do business. B2B marketers must learn from their B2C counterparts and help their sales process transform into a digital engagement model.

Revamp your onboarding process to improve cross-selling

Onboarding is an important, yet often ignored, stage in the customer journey. However, this provides a great opportunity to better understand prospects’ needs and tailor your services and solutions to those needs.

As well as providing key data to guide messaging strategy for automated and machine-learning driven communication in the future, this is also a chance to cross-sell additional opportunities.

Businesses should rethink their content strategy and customer touch points as an opportunity to turn single-service sale to multiproduct partnerships.

By taking this integrated approach, organisations can ensure that they provide customers with the kind of communication they want. In doing so, B2B marketers will give themselves the best possible chance of surviving Covid-19’s economic travails and thriving in the future beyond it.

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This article is written by Wellford Dillard and originally published here

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