Use Human Data to Provide True B2B Personalization

Article by Ernan Roman Featured on CMS Wire

An enormous shift is occurring in how B2B customers think about engagement and relationships. Customers expect marketers to achieve relevance by providing personalized communications based on their individual preferences, rather than continuing with irrelevant “spray and pray” marketing blasts. It’s this new way of thinking that’s unlocking the true potential of human data.

A Shift in Strategy

Gone are the days when B2B prospects and customers would sort through piles of spray and pray “stuff” to uncover the few relevant messages. They expect marketers to find them and provide relevant offers and communications based on their individual needs and preferences. This means that marketers must develop bold new strategies that achieve the delicate balance of requesting in-depth data in exchange for providing the value of significantly improved customer experiences.

That is why after careful research, The UPS Store repositioned itself as a small business peer to peer company which made it more relevant to its target audience. Its research showed that 90 percent of small-business owners would prefer to do business with other local business owners. The UPS Store targeted this small biz niche and carefully crafted its messaging to directly answer their specific requirements.

A marketing initiative was created to let UPS directly connect with this audience in order to provide personalized services, products and offers of real value. They launched a Small Business Solutions portal, offering resources for small-business owners and the Small Biz Buzz, an online community of more than 300 small-business owners.

An Exchange of Value  

Just like their B2C counterparts, B2B marketers are realizing that to be truly personalized, marketing must be based on more than transactional, overlay and inferential data. It has to be based on the individual customer’s stated needs and self-profiled preference information.

However, developing a program to gain progressively deeper levels of self-profiled data must start with a foundation of trust. Per findings from Voice of Customer research conducted by ERDM, B2B customers and prospects are willing to provide trusted brands with meaningful information in exchange for more personalized offers, communications and experiences. We call this exchange of value the “Reciprocity of Value.”

This Reciprocity of Value, built on trust, is the critical aspect of both B2B and B2C data-driven marketing. It is trust, and a perceived reciprocity, that will motivate customers to provide the preference-based information needed to drive truly relevant, engaging communication.

Keep in mind:

	Trust is the foundation and basis for obtaining deeper levels of personalized, preference-based data.
	Marketers must earn the right to obtain deeper levels of preference data by delivering on the promise of truly personalized communications.
	Marketers should strive to build sustainable relationships with customers based on trust, commitment and reciprocity, from the initial prospecting phase to every aspect of the customer lifecycle.

Microsoft's Move Beyond the Product

To better connect with B2B consumers and develop a relationship program that transcended product transactions, Microsoft sought to gain a deeper level of customer understanding. Through VoC research with Microsoft’s SMB business consumers, key factors for improvement in personalization were outlined:

	Understand my unique business needs.
	Create user levels based on business size, industry and product focus and then create targeted content based these levels.
	Develop a relationship program based on the user’s unique needs, not Microsoft’s.
	Request user feedback at every touch point. And use that feedback to evolve the customer experience and provide relevant content and communications.

After a comprehensive program of gaining data through a preference-based, easy-to-navigate opt-in process, Microsoft developed ways to deliver on the promise of an enhanced experience. Customers received a welcome email, monthly personalized e-newsletters, and ongoing personalized offers and training.

The results were powerful:

	Opt-in rates up to 95 percent.
	Open rates greater than 50 percent.
	Response rates performing in the double-digits.
	Revenue increase of 2 times.

This is what the Reciprocity of Value looked like:

Customer Benefits		Microsoft Benefits
• Deeper level of personalized experience • Customized communication, training, and services • Improved information relevant to business needs		• Opt-in Profile information to drive personalized content and communications • Ability to analyze web and email interaction behaviors • Improved Cross sell/upsell opportunities

In summary, earning the in-depth “human” preference data that drives personalized marketing is an essential strategy for B2B marketers looking to go from transactions to a long-term, value based relationships with customers.

5 Emails Which Drive Value and Response

We all struggle to create emails that are worthy of being opened.

We have to overcome the instinctive “Delete” reflex by our customers and prospects.

Following are 5 opportunities for emails that provide value, engagement and drive response.

1) Triggered messaging

Triggered messages (meaning those that are personalized, real time, or event related such as confirmations that are sent to subscribers in response to a specific action,) outperform generic emails. One of the reasons these types of emails are so effective is because they are relevant and personalized.

Ideas for triggered emails include:

• Cart abandonment reminders
• Order confirmations or shipping confirmations that include a personal thank-you with a time frame based thank you discount on their next purchase.

Additionally, according to eMarketer, for retailers, triggered emails enjoy an open rate nearly 75% higher than nontriggered emails, while clickthroughs more than tripled.

2) Transactional Messaging

According to the Experian’s “The Transactional Email Report, transaction-related emails, [prompted by] customers’ buying behavior, can provide marketers with great opportunity for improving customer service, gaining repeat sales and deepening customer engagement compared with standard bulk mailings…the average revenue per email is two to five times greater and can be up to six times greater than the all-industry average of $0.13.”

But don’t send “off the shelf” impersonal sales-based emails. Today’s transactional messaging, according to the survey is “branded, relevant and engaging...to take full advantage of the high level of customer interest and brand engagement that naturally follows a purchase.” Ideas for incorporating personalized Transactional Messaging include:

• Re-order reminders, accessory replenish reminders, or sales alerts on products or accessories that obviously relate to a previous purchase.
• Win-back emails for lapsed customers with personalized incentives based on buying history and preference data.

3) Engaging Email Subject Lines

Being engaging is more than just using your recipient’s name. Be relevant. Be “to the point” and deliver on what was promised within the body of the email. These, according to Christopher Lester, VP of sales at Emma, an email marketing platform, are the keys to successful and engaging email marketing.

Ideas for engaging email subject lines:

Lester advises that, “The email subject line is probably one of the most important pieces of a campaign... It's the beginning statement of the story… The email subject line is just a…way of giving the user [a] quick analysis... what is the value of the email compared to the amount of time dedicated to opening and reading the message? ...You're building relationships and making full connections... If you deliver [on] the value consistently, you will never have to beg for an open.”

4) Mixed Media Emails

Mobile is changing many of the rules for email. Marketers must now create messaging that is delivery-friendly to traditional email inboxes as well as those on mobile devices.

Ideas for mixed media emails include:

• Today’s consumer is multi-screen and multi-device. Make sure your email messaging provides a mobile device experience that is as good as your desktop experience.
• Be sure your landing pages are also dynamic so that mobile or tablet users can view your messaging clearly, get to forms, or be able to click with ease.

5) Personalized Emails

There is nothing more engaging than a truly personalized email that is all about you, the individual customer.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Learn from Amazon how they have taken personalized emails to a new level. The company has the ability to analyze and personalize both online and email content based on preferences, search history and previous purchases. Amazon sends its customers personalized product recommendations that entice a recipient to purchase a previously viewed item.

According to an in-depth white paper from Amazon, “The click-through and conversion rates - two important measures of Web-based and email advertising effectiveness - vastly exceed those of untargeted content.” Recommend that you read this report to gain thoughtful insights on sophisticated and effective personalization.