Why Customer Data is Essential to the Online Experience

Data Fuels Personalized Experiences that Drive Results

1:1 personalization is now becoming standard for online businesses, especially as the adoption of AI and other technologies that support personalization have increased. This rapid adoption of personalization strategies has mostly come from consumer demand — either explicitly within surveys, or implicitly as shoppers spend more of their money with brands that offer a personalized experience. Our 2020 Benchmark Report found that campaigns using Predictive Recommendations (a form of AI-powered personalization) are 116% more effective than their non-personalized counterparts.

If personalization is the key to more effective marketing, then data is the key to more effective personalization. Marketers need a deep, real-time Single Customer View to base personalization on. This understanding must live at the center of your martech, and it needs to go beyond a 360 customer view of historic and real-time data from across all interactions. It must also include predictive intelligence about customers’ likelihood to engage, purchase, or churn as well as next best actions to guide real-time customer interactions across the platforms within the stack. Learn more about building your perfect customer-centric stack here.

See it in action: Learn how Blueshift customer, CarParts.com, increased customer engagement +400% by personalizing customer experiences based on each user’s vehicle type, historical, and real-time site behaviors.

A Solid Foundation of Data Powers Dynamic Content and Product Recommendations

Using dynamic content is not a new trick for marketers. Think of Happy Hours and Early Bird movies — to fill traditionally underperforming hours of operation, businesses instituted special prices and offerings that were time-sensitive. Dynamic content and product recommendations bring this old sales trick into the 21st century by making that experience digital. By changing content based on availability (like sales or “gone soon” content) and by customer (their specific interests and affinities), both on your site and within other marketing channels, you’ll provide a customer experience that feels more relevant and human. Blueshift customer, James Allen has seen a 30% increase in CTR through dynamic, personalized experiences.

Much like general personalization, dynamic, 1:1 recommendations rely on a solid foundation of customer data. One of the best martech platforms to achieve this is a SmartHub CDP (Customer Data Platform). The CDP takes all of your raw first-party data and unifies it into a Single Customer View, which serves as the source of truth for everything your team does.

The CDP landscape is a new one, and this can be tricky to navigate. You make your wish list, and our Smart Guide to CDP RFPs can help point you in the right direction and you can go on to find the CDP that meets all of your unique needs.

Having All Your Data Accessible Allows You to Respond Quickly and Precisely

Having all of your relevant customer data in one place and accessible by all the teams that need it can make a world of difference for your business. Not only can your marketing be more relevant and personalized than ever before, but teams across your organization can use this information to make better, more informed decisions about your customer experience.

When you have unified and activated customer data, it becomes easier to see the patterns within your customers’ behavior and make changes accordingly. This means it’s easier to pivot according to trends and changes to consumer behavior. The companies that have done remarkably well in the wake of 2020 are the ones who had the data and insights to make thoughtful decisions, quickly.

See it in action: Learn how Blueshift customer, James Allen, increased engagement with dynamic, personalized experiences based on real-time site behaviors.

Are you ready to transform your online customer experience and realize the full potential of your customer data? Chat with one of our data-driven marketing experts today, and see how Blueshift can help.