Personalizing the Customer Experience in Real Time
Consumers shopping online today are searching for more than a quick bargain. They're looking for brands that value their loyalty, provide quality service that's available when they need it, and deliver a site experience that's effortless and, most importantly, personalized to their specific needs and preferences. In fact, according to a recent IBM survey, more consumers are willing to actively share information if it means they'll receive a more personalized shopping experience. There's no denying it — providing a personalized online experience is essential for any retailer looking to win new customers and retain existing ones.
The growing popularity of mobile devices and social networks has changed consumer expectations and the way they engage with online brands. They're looking for more than a one-size-fits-all experience. To accomplish this, retailers are seeking ways to deliver an intelligent and personalized online experience, similar to an in-store experience.
The Elements of Real-Time Personalization
Data-driven personalization provides e-retailers with the opportunity to give each consumer their own unique experience based on their preferences, location, purchase history and more. In fact, new technologies can drive personalized content and messages to online visitors in real time, making the shopping experience more compelling.
LivePerson's latest application, LP Marketer, offers an intuitive user interface that allows business owners and online marketers to create and launch advanced on-site marketing campaigns quickly and effortlessly. For example, certain content can be displayed for a visitor entering a site for the first time, whereas entirely different content might be displayed for a VIP customer. Special seasonal items can be promoted on the fly or a particular service can be highlighted based on the visitor's previous purchases. Retailers can configure the system to monitor visitors based on dozens of targeting attributes and on-site behaviors.
When e-retailers use intelligent engagement tools to present site visitors with complementary products and promotions relevant to their history and preferences, they're not only creating a truly meaningful and memorable customer experience, they're building customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Offering a compelling site experience for each visitor dramatically improves conversion rates, transaction values and retention levels.
Leveraging Analytics to Provide a Superior Web Experience
Maverick Aviation Group, the leading helicopter excursion company in Las Vegas, implemented LP Marketer to promote a wedding package sold exclusively online. Using the solution's advanced segmentation tools, Maverick was able to target consumers visiting specific wedding package pages. It then delivered the special promotion to those visitors at the "right" time, maximizing the yield of this campaign. In addition, Maverick was able to achieve this in record time — without relying on development resources.
Maverick also created a marketing campaign to offer a free upgrade to customers who spent a defined length of time on a specific tour page. This special offer, when presented at the right moment, incentivizes the visitor to complete the purchase and decreases the chance of page abandonment.
"We've found that LP Marketer provides us with an effective marketing avenue, one that can be managed internally by creating segments based on geo-targeting, search keywords, landing pages and many, many more attributes," said Shanna Stenehjem, director of online sales and marketing at Maverick Aviation Group. "Additionally, the statistics available in the campaign reporting provide essential information, including clickthrough and conversion rates, that allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of our promotions and refine our marketing offers."
With the help of LP Marketer, Maverick Aviation Group was able to deploy a successful and intelligent on-site marketing campaign with very little IT dependence, enhancing the user experience and increasing sales.
Offering real-time personalization not only enhances the customer shopping experience, it increases the likelihood that customers will engage and convert, whether it's to complete a purchase, become a Facebook fan, register for a rewards membership, among many other desired business outcomes.
Just a short while ago, personalization was only available to the eBays and Amazons of the world. Now, with the emergence of cloud-based intelligent engagement platforms, personalization is quickly becoming democratized so that businesses of all sizes and marketers with limited IT resources can deploy highly targeted campaigns and offer a powerful brand experience to consumers.
Rob Deichert is the product owner of LP Marketer and head of data at LivePerson.
