This summer, Planning-inc are hosting a series of webinars looking at new ways to solve old CRM challenges. In this instalment of the series, Planning-inc’s Chief Strategy Officer Stuart Russell is joined by Marie-Louise Lord and Sabine Bullmore, who bring a wealth of experience from companies such as M&S (International), New Look and Argos, and Immediate Media, BBC Studios and PlayStation, respectively.
Click the button below to learn how these marketing powerhouses tapped into personalisation to advance their customer marketing strategy. If you don’t have time to watch the full webinar, check out our highlights below and fast-forward to the timecode provided to hear the juiciest bits.
This summer, Planning-inc are hosting a series of webinars looking at new ways to solve old CRM challenges. In this instalment of the series, Planning-inc’s Chief Strategy Officer Stuart Russell is joined by Marie-Louise Lord and Sabine Bullmore, who bring a wealth of experience from companies such as M&S (International), New Look and Argos, and Immediate Media, BBC Studios and PlayStation, respectively.
Click the button below to learn how these marketing powerhouses tapped into personalisation to advance their customer marketing strategy. If you don’t have time to watch the full webinar, check out our highlights below and fast-forward to the timecode provided to hear the juiciest bits.
Watch the Webinar Watch the Webinar
Be the customer’s best friend, not a sales robot. (06:03)
When asked about the power of personalisation, Marie-Louise explains that the real value comes from the positive feeling a customer gets when they received a communication that is unique to them. Rather than inundating customers with thoughtless remarketing, Marie-Louise called out New Look as a brand that uses first-party data to be practical, convenient and helpful, offering the same kinds of suggestions and recommendations your best friend might give you. Sabine agrees, remarking that effective marketing is about creating an emotional connection with the customers. Focusing on operational or transactional data simply isn’t enough anymore.
It may seem obvious, but listening to your customers should be the first step in your personalisation strategy. (10:15)
Particularly when engaging with large customer bases, personalisation can feel like an insurmountable challenge. Whether you’re starting from scratch or are working with a messy legacy system, it’s important to take a step back and evaluate your goals for reaching your target audience. While working at PlayStation, Sabine had access to loads of data, but it wasn’t being used as effectively or efficiently as it could have been. After going through an analysis of the data with Planning-inc, she came to a powerful realisation: “The customer is trying to tell us so much, but we were totally ignoring it. We were not listening, we were not creating a dialogue – we were just pushing.” Working with Planning-inc, Sabine and her team developed Next Best Action decisioning to identify the most impactful messaging for each customer, providing value not only to the business, but to the customers.
Self-sufficiency and agility are crucial. (21:21)
Another common issue that can hinder your personalisation strategy is siloed data. As Marie-Louise notes, a personalisation strategy can fall apart if you’re relying on someone outside of your team for day-to-day data access. Having accessible data allows you to get granular with your customer segments and make tweaks to your campaign to maximise results. Further, in order to be truly omnichannel, many teams within your business need to access and understand your data. Says Sabine, it’s important to unify your content, brand, data, channel strategy, UX and platforms to best serve your customers.
In today’s omnichannel world, personalisation must go beyond email. (28:10)
Many CRM teams limit their personalisation strategy to email, but there is so much more to be done. All of the assets you create to drive personalisation – from predictive models and Next Best Action algorithms through to product recommendations – are channel agnostic and should be democratised to elevate your personalisation strategy across the business.
Industrialise personalisation to reach the 95%. (38:15)
The people who engage with your brand regularly probably only account for about 5% of your total customer base. Each of the panel members agreed that many marketers focus too much on the most engaged 5% without applying the lessons learned to the greater 95%. By industrialising your personalisation strategy, you can develop your funnel and encourage would-be one-time purchasers to re-engage with your brand down the line. Marketers should be using the lessons their 5% teach them to optimise their communications and create personalised content that is scalable to achieve bigger revenue gains.
Thank you to Marie-Louise Lord and Sabine Bullmore for sharing their expertise with us. Be sure to follow Planning-inc on LinkedIn to join us for our next webinar.
Be the customer’s best friend, not a sales robot. (06:03)
When asked about the power of personalisation, Marie-Louise explains that the real value comes from the positive feeling a customer gets when they received a communication that is unique to them. Rather than inundating customers with thoughtless remarketing, Marie-Louise called out New Look as a brand that uses first-party data to be practical, convenient and helpful, offering the same kinds of suggestions and recommendations your best friend might give you. Sabine agrees, remarking that effective marketing is about creating an emotional connection with the customers. Focusing on operational or transactional data simply isn’t enough anymore.
It may seem obvious, but listening to your customers should be the first step in your personalisation strategy. (10:15)
Particularly when engaging with large customer bases, personalisation can feel like an insurmountable challenge. Whether you’re starting from scratch or are working with a messy legacy system, it’s important to take a step back and evaluate your goals for reaching your target audience. While working at PlayStation, Sabine had access to loads of data, but it wasn’t being used as effectively or efficiently as it could have been. After going through an analysis of the data with Planning-inc, she came to a powerful realisation: “The customer is trying to tell us so much, but we were totally ignoring it. We were not listening, we were not creating a dialogue – we were just pushing.” Working with Planning-inc, Sabine and her team developed Next Best Action decisioning to identify the most impactful messaging for each customer, providing value not only to the business, but to the customers.
Self-sufficiency and agility are crucial. (21:21)
Another common issue that can hinder your personalisation strategy is siloed data. As Marie-Louise notes, a personalisation strategy can fall apart if you’re relying on someone outside of your team for day-to-day data access. Having accessible data allows you to get granular with your customer segments and make tweaks to your campaign to maximise results. Further, in order to be truly omnichannel, many teams within your business need to access and understand your data. Says Sabine, it’s important to unify your content, brand, data, channel strategy, UX and platforms to best serve your customers.
In today’s omnichannel world, personalisation must go beyond email. (28:10)
Many CRM teams limit their personalisation strategy to email, but there is so much more to be done. All of the assets you create to drive personalisation – from predictive models and Next Best Action algorithms through to product recommendations – are channel agnostic and should be democratised to elevate your personalisation strategy across the business.
Industrialise personalisation to reach the 95%. (38:15)
The people who engage with your brand regularly probably only account for about 5% of your total customer base. Each of the panel members agreed that many marketers focus too much on the most engaged 5% without applying the lessons learned to the greater 95%. By industrialising your personalisation strategy, you can develop your funnel and encourage would-be one-time purchasers to re-engage with your brand down the line. Marketers should be using the lessons their 5% teach them to optimise their communications and create personalised content that is scalable to achieve bigger revenue gains.
Thank you to Marie-Louise Lord and Sabine Bullmore for sharing their expertise with us. Be sure to follow Planning-inc on LinkedIn to join us for our next webinar.
Stuart RussellChief Customer Officer
Stuart RussellChief Customer Officer
