What Keeps Digital Customers Loyal?

Paige O’Neill is CMO at leading content management system and digital experience platform provider Sitecore, overseeing global marketing.

Marketers know that loyal customers are the bedrock of any successful business. But as consumer behaviors and preferences continued to shift and evolve during the pandemic, nurturing brand loyalty has become more and more of a challenge. McKinsey recently found that 40% of consumers switched brands during the survey period (with slightly higher rates among millennials and Gen Z). In another 2020 survey from Raydiant, 48% of respondents said they had replaced products they typically purchase at physical stores with online alternatives from competitors, and 25% said that they switch brands more often today than ever before.

Have you gained new customers, particularly digital customers, since the pandemic began? If so, you are likely wondering what you can do to help them stay. After all, for decades now, marketers have been saying that compared to new ones, existing customers tend to convert more easily, spend more and have a greater impact on the bottom line.

For starters, do not assume that churn is an inevitable sign of the times and that the digital doorway must be continually revolving. Maintaining ongoing solid relationships with customers is one of a marketing organization’s fundamental tasks, and now is the time to be working smarter, not harder. In other words, to be effective, you should focus your efforts on the places where customers will notice them the most. To that end, my company’s “2021 Holiday Trends Report,” which surveyed more than 14,000 consumers worldwide, shows that the top three priorities for shoppers right now are discounts (62%), exclusive deals for loyal customers (40%) and personalized suggestions that map to lifestyles and tastes (35%).

The first of these priorities is no surprise. Price has been, is and always will be important. But the next two factors — exclusive deals and personalized recommendations — point to a different area demanding your attention. They underscore that one of the keys to brand loyalty is knowing your customers really, really well. It is this understanding and this intimacy that I’ve found inspires true loyalty.

How do you achieve this level of deep understanding? You can begin by combining your direct and contextual customer data with analytics and business intelligence. Use this data to anticipate your customers’ expectations, needs and actions. Then, you should respond to these triggers in a caring and connected way.

To be successful, you need a strategy that is based on a clearly defined and researched customer journey. Progressive personalization — where companies personalize the experience and calls to action to guide users through a journey — is an effective option because it anticipates the end users’ needs and delivers content to proactively answer questions that arise during the different phases of the purchase funnel.

For example, a progressive personalization strategy should use data from past interactions as well as current visit context data. With an anonymous user, you could start with a newsletter sign-up or by collecting an email for a discount code to identify who the user is and start to understand their preferences or interests. Then, you can personalize the next call to action using past browsing activity and previous actions to ask the customer or prospect to create an account. After they create an account, you can personalize your next call to action around a customer profile where the end user indicates their communication or product preferences. The key is to continue in this step-wise fashion. Be sure to stay focused on helping the customer get to the next best action or next best experience based on their unique journey (while also helping your company achieve its overarching business objectives).

And don’t be hesitant about adopting these tactics. I have found that consumers increasingly welcome this kind of approach. In fact, our survey showed that more than half of customers (61%) want personalized offers from their favorite brands to make the holidays feel special. Likewise, many (56%) are happy to share their browsing history with brands so they can make more relevant offers. Results like these suggest that consumers recognize and accept the costs and benefits of this give-get relationship. Put another way, many are willing to give away personal details in order to get what they want from brands. Of course, consumers should also be able to trust brands to use their data responsibly and in ways that make their experience markedly better.

Since my company’s research found that 41% of U.S. marketers feel the holiday season could make or break their businesses, the stakes are high for getting the digital experience right and maintaining the customers you already have. Ultimately, a combination of price, exclusivity and personalized content could differentiate your customer experience from the competition and help you hold onto customers in the new year and beyond.

Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?