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How to Build Your Context Marketing Strategy
12 July 2020
Today’s customers aren’t satisfied with being considered just a number. They want the companies with whom they do business to treat them as valued customers. Technology has advanced so that marketers can not only personalise their marketing messages, but also deliver them to the right customer at the right time.
That ability is known as context marketing. To succeed, you need a context marketing strategy. Read on to learn how you create that plan to reach your customers with what they want when they want it.
What Is Context Marketing?
Context marketing is based on the idea that marketing should respond to a buyer’s pain points when the buyer is experiencing them.
We’ll illustrate with an example. Let’s say you’ve just bought a sweater at a shop, and you walk past the same store the next day. As you’re walking, a beacon inside the store sends your phone a message – you can receive a discount on a pair of trousers that would work very well with the aforementioned sweater. This offer is very much in context, because you’ve been thinking about what you’d wear the sweater with, and now you’ve got an answer.
Context Marketing Strategy and CX Management
How does context marketing (and context marketing strategy) fit into CX management?
‘CX management’ refers to the collection of processes a company uses to track, oversee, and organise every interaction between a firm and a customer. Creating a context marketing strategy allows you to enhance your CX management efforts: with such a strategy in place, you have greater confidence that you’re giving customers relevant, timely information and offers.
How Do You Create a Context Marketing Strategy?
A context marketing strategy is built on four pillars:
- Understanding your customer
- Personalising your messaging
- Using the right tools
- Implementing your strategy effectively
Understanding Your Customer
Without understanding who your customer is, you won’t have a context for your marketing messages. Yet, the phrase ‘understanding your customer’ is rather vague – what does it really mean?
A true understanding of your customer involves gaining a 360° view of that individual: how that person has interacted with you in the past, where they are in the customer journey, how they’re reaching out to you right now, and how they’ll reach out in the future.
To gain that comprehensive view of your customers, you need a solution that brings all the information about a customer into one place so you can analyse it.
Personalising Your Messaging
When we talk about personalising your message, we don’t mean that you should just add your customer’s name to the emails you send to them. Personalisation goes beyond that. It’s about sending tailored, relevant information at the right time.
Let’s say you sign up for a webinar. Personalisation done right would be if your registration triggered an automated email containing a link to useful content related to the webinar. The recipient would appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the topic before the webinar.
Using the Right Tools
For a context marketing strategy to be effective, you need to use the right tools. What capabilities should the right tools have?
There are five capabilities:
- Personalisation at scale
- Provides a holistic view of the customer
- Ease of use
- Creates an omnichannel experience
- Integrates with a variety of third-party solutions
Personalisation at Scale
Personalisation presents a conundrum: customers want tailored, relevant marketing messages, yet how can marketers send out personalised content to more than one customer at a time? The right context marketing tools solve that problem by enabling personalisation at scale.
Marketers can automate personalisation so that it’s no longer a manual activity. They save time and effort while delighting customers with the right content at the right time.
Provides a Holistic View of the Customer
Another function the right context marketing tools have is that they provide a holistic view of the customer. As we mentioned earlier, a 360° profile gives you a deeper understanding of who your customer is, what they want, and what steps they might take in the future.
Tools that provide you with a holistic view of the customer bring all of the information about that person into one place, so it’s easier to find.
Ease of Use
Context marketing tools are only helpful if they’re easy to use. If the learning curve is too high, marketers will struggle, and your message won’t get out quickly.
Easy context marketing tools don’t require months of training. Users can start personalising content promptly, so you see a return on investment sooner.
Creates an Omnichannel Experience
Your customers want to connect with you, and they want to do it on multiple platforms. They want to interact with your brand through your website, your social media profiles, through IoT devices, and even point-of-sales solutions, augmented reality, and virtual reality.
To meet those needs, your context marketing tools will have to enable omnichannel experiences. You can deliver timely, relevant content to the channels your customers want.
Integrates with a Variety of Third-Party Solutions
No one marketing solution does everything. That’s why it’s critical that your context marketing tools integrate with a variety of third-party solutions.
Integration ensures that you can share your message quickly and easily, without wasting time, energy or other valuable resources.
Implementing Your Strategy Effectively
Once you’ve developed a context marketing strategy, your next step is implementing your strategy effectively. What does that involve?
The right context marketing tools allow you to set rules for when and how personalised content goes out to your customers. That allows you to nurture your customers and send them tailored messages according to their location or based on their usage.
Enlighten Designs: Helping You Shape Your Context Marketing Strategy
For over two decades, Enlighten Designs has created exceptional customer experiences by delivering the right messages to the right customer, at the right time. Our knowledge and expertise enable us to develop effective, successful context marketing strategies for our customers.
To learn more about our work in creating context marketing strategies, contact us!
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