Marketers: Combining customer data will give a more holistic view

While once it made since to silo customer data into online and offline interactions, that time is long past. The problem? Many marketers continue looking at siloed customer views.

by Kristina Knight

Kristina: What do marketers need to do now to better understand their customers?

Eric Keating, VP of Marketing, Zaius: You can no longer look at customer behavior within a channel and rely on vanity metrics like opens, clicks and visits. A customer's experience includes touchpoints with marketing, support, sales and more, so all of that data must be brought together before you can truly understand your customers. Additionally, you should survey your customers, offer them rewards for their feedback, and meticulously gather all the information you can about them. Each customer is unique, but many also follow specific patterns. By combining data with deep customer engagement, you'll be able to better understand your customer base.

Kristina: How can this combined view of data better engage customers?

Eric: Once you truly understand your customers (and are able to directly leverage that understanding as a marketer), the level of segmentation, personalization and lifecycle automation you'll be empowered to execute all becomes a lot more relevant and compelling. For example, you can create a list of at-risk customers who have not engaged in any way with your brand for 30 days and send a targeted offer. Or you could target one-time buyers with a specific product line they purchased in the past for a replenishment campaign at just the right moment. There are a million ways to segment and personalize your marketing now that you know more about your customers.

Kristina: How can B2C marketers identify the key drivers of lifetime value?

Eric: While there are many approaches to growing your loyal customer base, B2C marketers should focus their attention on one thing: the second purchase. On average, only 20 percent of first-time buyers will ever make a second purchase. But once they make a second purchase, customers are twice as likely to make a third purchase, then a fourth, and so on. This means your biggest challenge is getting past this hurdle. But, if you can convince a customer to make a second purchase, you'll significantly increase overall lifetime value.