• by Pini Yakuel , Op-Ed Contributor, June 6, 2017

Customer loyalty is a tremendously difficult, but non-negotiable, part of a brand’s success. Loyalty impacts the bottom line: 79% of customers say they’ll take their business elsewhere if they have a subpar experience with a brand, according to Forbes. This trend will only continue as customer expectations rise; technology has made it a lot easier for consumers to find other options and take their business to a competitor. 

That doesn’t mean loyalty is dead. Successfully marketing to your existing customers comes down to two things: precision and speed. Think of your marketing messages as quality ingredients that need be tailored to different customers given their tastes and what they’re ready to consume. But even the best ingredients, chosen specifically for a particular person, will still spoil the meal if added at the wrong time. You need both. 

Harnessing precision for emotionally intelligent marketing

The only way to send messages that resonate with your customers is to understand their likes, dislikes, motivations and the situations in which they’re most likely to engage with you. This kind of precise personalization sounds great, but until recently it’s been too resource-intensive to do at scale. 

Advances in machine learning, automation and predictive analytics have made emotionally intelligent marketing much more accessible. You can get a single customer view by using tools that consolidate data across multiple systems and databases into a central hub. This will serve as your customer “pantry”—a one-stop-shop for customer intelligence that will allow you to start cooking with segmentation. 

Customer segmentation has been in use for decades, so make sure you’re using the most advanced segmentation available. Avoid stagnant rule-based segmentation, and instead choose tools that can parse your customer data dynamically and predictively. This way, your segmentation will be informed by the lifecycle stage of the customer, their RFM data and predicted LTV, and other layers that are unique to your business model and customer database, such as product preferences, tendency to return items, sensitivity to offers, etc.

Moving at the speed of your customers

Even the most personalized marketing message will fall flat if it’s sent at the wrong time. Your marketing needs to be dynamic, responding to customers’ behaviors and unforeseen events. 

For many marketers, this involves a paradigm shift. Traditionally, marketing works as an “assembly line”: Each campaign involves different managers, approvers and channel owners, and it takes anywhere from days to weeks to execute on a spark of inspiration. Analyze how long your past few campaigns have taken; if the answer is any longer than a few hours, look for ways to streamline the process by automating certain steps and/or removing approval roadblocks. Prioritize tools that help you move quickly and with precision— technology should create efficiencies rather than adding complexity to the process.

The perfect recipe for customer loyalty

Moving forward, consumers will only have more choices, and more freedom to leave behind a brand that isn’t giving them what they want. But marketers have the tools to make consumers fall in love with their brands, and customer marketing has the power to transform businesses and change bottom lines if it’s done right. Only by reevaluating your marketing processes and maximizing for speed and precision will you be able to turn your existing customers into a business and revenue growth engine, ensuring they return to your brand again and again.