Analysts predict personalized marketing will continue to be a major trend for 2019 and beyond. Personalized marketing campaigns involve using data to enable marketing messages personally designed for your customer base. As a small business owner, that word “data” may be an instant turnoff. How can a small business afford to collect, analyze and plan a marketing campaign around data?
Before you dismiss the idea, think about it. Small businesses often have an advantage over larger companies when it comes to knowing and understanding their customers’ likes and needs. It’s likely you interact directly with customers on a more personal level than larger corporations do. You may have a limited product or service line. That means you have a greater knowledge about the success or failure of specific features or products or services.
Maybe you don’t need to analyze and plan a marketing campaign around big data collected by larger companies to create a personalized marketing campaign for your business after all. You can create your own personalized marketing campaign using knowledge you have about your customer base in combination with some of the many tools available today.
Campaign Tools:
You’ll want to take advantage of online tools to help create personalized marketing campaigns. In fact, many are FREE! Here are a few to consider:
- Online reviews can be rewarding and frustrating at the same time, but consistent monitoring is critical. Whether positive or negative, respond to reviews. Take any additional steps to remedy, minimize or eliminate bad reviews. Showcase good reviews through email marketing campaigns and/or social media.
- With the personal relationship you likely have with your clients, actively seek out customer testimonials. Create an ongoing campaign to highlight them on business cards, website, social media platforms, signage and email marketing campaigns.
- Launch coupon campaigns related to the community or focused on recent purchases of your client base. Examples include:
- Promotions for holiday specials, product or service offerings based on seasons or the school year, or local community achievements, if relevant.
- Using coupons to reward or entice previous customers to make another purchase.
Whatever tools you use, make sure your messages are consistent across all channels: your website, print collateral, images, videos, social media, and email marketing. After your personalized marketing campaign is complete, take the time to collect data and analyze its success. If the campaign is ongoing, check-in periodically to evaluate its performance. It’s important to build your own data set about what worked and what needs improvement. This will help when it’s time to build your next personalized marketing campaign!
