Driving marketing results through a better customer experience

Introduction

Customers expect every touch point with a brand to be personalized, seamless, and engaging. They expect brands to understand their needs and preferences and deliver value with every interaction. Here are three ways marketing leaders can connect marketing and customer experience efforts to exceed these expectations and deliver better results.

1. Understand the whole customer journey

Marketing leaders should seek to understand the entire customer journey and identify the pain points and opportunities across every touchpoint a customer has with their brand. This helps identify new audiences/segments, develop more effective campaigns, and drive results from awareness to post-purchase.

Also, marketing leaders should tie investments to customer experience metrics. They should consider performance indicators like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Satisfaction to understand the impact of their marketing investments. By understanding the long-term value of each customer, they can make more informed decisions about where to allocate resources and create engaging campaigns. By regularly measuring and analyzing these metrics, marketing leaders can continuously refine their strategy and drive better marketing outcomes.

A few examples:

• Marketing leaders can map the customer journey from online browsing to in-store purchase to understanding where customers might drop off. Then they can launch targeted campaigns to improve conversion.

• Marketing leaders can track satisfaction to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. High satisfaction levels indicate customers are happy and likely to recommend the product to others, leading to organic growth. Low scores highlight opportunities. Then they can launch campaigns that amplify these referrals.

2. Make the experience unique & personal

Customers expect you to know who they are and use technology to make every interaction personalized. By tailoring messaging and creating offers that appeal to different personas and preferences, marketing leaders can create engaging and relevant experiences that drive customer acquisition and retention. Personalization goes beyond just addressing customers by their names. It involves understanding their behaviors, preferences, and needs to deliver customized content and solutions.

Also, marketing leaders can use technology to create differentiated experiences that stand out from competitors. This might include unique offerings, tailored recommendations, and real-time personalization. These experiences can cultivate stronger customer loyalty.

A few examples:

• Netflix recommends shows based on your viewing history, making the experience feel personalized and relevant.

• Amazon uses browsing and purchase history to suggest products that match customer preferences. 

3. Predict and measure what customers want

By analyzing patterns, marketing leaders can forecast trends and anticipate customer needs and preferences. Marketing leaders can also partner with data scientists and use predictive analytics and machine learning to sift through vast amounts of data and uncover insights that drive results.

For example, Spotify uses predictive analytics to create unique playlists for customers based on their listening habits. By understanding what genres, artists, and songs a user prefers, Spotify can recommend new music that the user is likely to enjoy. This not only enhances the experience but also keeps customers engaged and loyal to the platform.

Wrapping up

Customer expectations are rapidly evolving. Marketing leaders must pay closer attention to the customer experience to continue driving results. They can do this by making the experience personalized and unique, understanding the end-to-end journey, paying attention to CX metrics like CLV and satisfaction, and using data to anticipate customer needs. 

Onward & upward!

Drew

P.s. If we haven’t met yet, hello! I’m Drew Burdick, a leader in Customer Experience (CX). For over 15 years I’ve worked with organizations of all sizes to enhance their CX and design solutions that drive business results. Have a question? Send me an email or reach out on LinkedIn.