Best practices for AI-powered personalization in marketing campaigns

According to market research from SAP Emarsys, 70% of consumers want some form of personalization from marketing communications, and 44% expect personalized offers and discounts in exchange for brand loyalty. Masu. Moreover, according to a study by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, companies that excel at personalization earn 40% more revenue from their activities than average companies.

SAP Emarsys, a unit of leading software producer SAP, is an omnichannel customer engagement platform that builds, launches, and scales personalized marketing campaigns across digital channels. The company partners with more than 1,500 of his brands, including Adidas Runtastic, Aldo, Brand Alley, Harrods, Innovasport, Puma, Reformation, Zumiez and more.

To power personalized marketing campaigns, SAP Emarsys collects customer data and creates AI-powered analytics to measure and drive business intelligence for end consumers. This streamlines customer lifecycle management and increases acquisition, lifetime value, purchase frequency, average order value, and retention.

Customer campaigns to drive loyalty are powered by SAP Emarsys' partners such as communications platform Sinch, which helps customers like Harrods engage with customers through conversational channels and channels like WhatsApp. We teach best-in-class practices, including how to increase your SAP Emarsys users now have access to AI-powered generation tools through the AI ​​Subject Line Generator, helping marketers streamline communications and customer engagement.

These initiatives are elements of a comprehensive omnichannel strategy that SAP Emarsys helps marketers implement. Resources such as The Omnichannel Difference, published in partnership with research and advisory firm Forrester, highlight the benefits of taking this approach. Key findings show that 89% of organizations will prioritize “personalizing experiences across channels/touchpoints” in the next 12 months. The report concludes that omnichannel is “not a nice-to-have, but a business necessity.”

Today, BoF speaks with Joanna Milliken, CEO of Emarsys, to further explore how fashion and beauty businesses are using Emarsys to drive customer loyalty and engagement.

What are the core aspects of SAP Emarsys' omnichannel strategy for fashion and beauty clients?

The world moves fast and new channel preferences change every day, so being adaptable is at the core of our strategy. Each customer has unique challenges. Therefore, it's important to us to ensure our customers can grow while remaining accountable to their business and equipped with the tools to be agile.

Connectivity is also an important aspect. Our approach is tailored to each industry, but either way we want to make sure everything is connected when it comes to solutions. Our customers work with a large partner marketing ecosystem, and it's important that we connect these solutions with our core marketing automation solutions so that we can maximize value for our customers.

The solutions we provide must be insightful. This is another pillar and being AI-driven is key. This means it can provide marketers with the insights they need to understand what to do next, which variables to change, or which combination of factors is best.

Why is personalization important in brand marketing today?

Although the way personalization is performed has changed significantly, marketers' desires and intentions toward personalization have remained fairly consistent. Because it shows your customers that you're listening. Customers are also smart and understand the concept of value exchange. If we're giving you all this information to download and use an app, we expect you to use it responsibly.

How can brands leverage SAP Emarsys to increase customer loyalty and engagement?

When we look at metrics like customer lifetime value, we're looking for genuine engagement with brands and the customers who default to them and their products. Loyalty is the end result. But there are many different types of loyalty, which we track in our annual SAP Emarsys Global Customer Loyalty Index. There may also be active or “true” loyalists who actively promote something on your behalf. There may also be “silent” supporters who have used a product for 20 years but do not necessarily endorse it. There are also “incentivized” loyalists who pledge loyalty based solely on price and promotions. Understanding these insights combined with AI can help you know which measures are right to tailor to your business.

Through our research, we found that loyalty is declining because price and product aren't the only factors companies need to compete on. They also need to compete on the overall experience, and that's where differentiation is found.

Meet your customers on the right channels, understand where they spend their time and where they want to engage, show them you're listening, and respect their preferences by delivering content that's relevant to them. can increase customer loyalty. Remove all friction and enjoy interacting with your brand.

For example, consider the new mobile wallet channel that has been adopted by City Beach and many other customers around the world. When you sign up for Loyalty on the website, your rewards card will arrive in your wallet instantly. As a result, our customers receive permission to continue communicating with consumers in that manner. With the addition of these new channels, you'll see an increase both in terms of traffic to your website and increased purchases.

How are you working with other leading service providers to improve the brand partner experience through SAP Emarsys?

Mention Me is a customer advocacy marketing expert and technology partner of SAP Emarsys. We combine our expertise to help companies understand their customer base not only through their purchasing behavior but also through advocacy efforts such as referrals and reviews. Mention Me enables brands to drive revenue growth and profitability through unique advocacy data and insights. SAP Emarsys can also leverage these insights to enhance customer engagement and personalization.

For example, in 2021, Puma, a global sports brand and SAP Emarsys customer, is growing its fan base to achieve the twin goals of acquiring new customers and fostering brand advocacy and loyalty. The aim was to turn the direct-to-consumer channel into a major growth driver. Through their partnership with Mention Me, they identified their biggest supporters and loyal customers. Previous achievements of PUMA's referral program include: Achieved 6x ROI (after 6 months of optimization). Referred customers are 4x more likely to refer new customers. Meanwhile, her 10% of referrals convert into new customers.

Why is implementing AI capabilities important to a marketing organization's success?

As marketing organizations need to accelerate time to market now and in the future, they will face challenges without leveraging AI solutions. For example, an AI-powered subject line generator can help marketers who spend hours thinking of good email subject lines. All brands need to move faster, and AI can not only automate more tasks, but also glean the insights needed to do so effectively.

Through our research, we found that loyalty is declining because price and product aren't the only factors companies need to compete on. It also has to compete on its overall experience.

Data is the currency of AI, so if you're using a marketing solution like SAP Emarsys, we collect all of that data. You need supporting data, enterprise resource planning (ERP) data and supply chain information, and customer behavior data. All of this must come together to create a practical and usable solution.

If we can't do that as a business, we won't be able to provide AI to generate the results we need to make the right decisions. For example, we help our customers predict the best time to launch a campaign based on past consumer behavior in different time zones. AI can be leveraged to provide insights into the past performance of segments and audiences, as well as future predictions about what they will do. We're always looking for places where AI can add immediate value.

What insights can you share about the evolution of the customer journey?

We have a report called “The Omnichannel Difference'' that we co-authored with research and advisory firm Forrester. It is designed to help a customer plan the different stages of his journey and provide insight into what is happening there. For example, when he researched his customers' pre-purchase process, he found that 50% of his customers struggled with his website and chatbot.

The report also found an overreliance on third-party channels such as social media and digital advertising. Email, mobile, and direct mail are not very popular among marketers, despite being great sources of first-party data. When used effectively, these channels are sufficient to inform an omnichannel strategy without relying on third-party data.

This report provides customers with insight into the importance of being effective when using these channels, real-time engagement, and the inherent need we all have to interact as humans from time to time. .

What is the next strategic business focus for SAP Emarsys?

We are experiencing one of the most rapid technological revolutions in our lifetime. We've been using AI solutions for a long time, and I think we've taken them a little bit for granted. A big part of our efforts is to continue to put AI first for our customers.

Additionally, we want to make it easier than ever to adopt all new channels for marketing. We provide mobile solutions, SMS solutions, mobile wallets, website personalization, and TikTok ads. As a result, our customers can more easily try and test new channels with our help. Supporting them with holistic adoption will be key for us.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by SAP Emarsys as part of the BoF partnership.