How can Retailers generate value from their Customer Data

Unlock the untapped potential of customer data in the retail industry. Learn how retailers can leverage their customer data to drive value and achieve business growth on the Xeno blog. Discover proven strategies, innovative techniques, and real-world examples that empower retailers to maximize the value of their customer data. Explore actionable insights and unleash the power of data-driven decision-making.

Welcome to the exciting world of data-driven marketing!

No matter which business you work in, I’m sure data is a crucial part of it. This is even more true for retail brands.
There is doubt that the fact that, Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined, it cannot really be used. Let’s face it, there is little use for having data if you don’t know how to use it right.

41% of companies still struggle to tie customer data to business action, according to Search Business Analytics.
According to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, the percentage of marketing budgets companies plan to allocate to analytics over the next three years will increase by a whopping 198%!

Clearly, brands have started to identify the value associated with data and have started investing in it.

Now the question is, how can you get the desired value out of data? And what exactly does one mean by generating value from customer data?

This is where a CRM platform comes into use.

The right CRM technology is your cheat sheet to the hidden customer analytics & insights that can be turned into actionable business strategies.

This blog covers everything you need to know about generating value from customer data. So, without any further hold, Let's dive straight into the reading!!

The Challenges of Using Data in Marketing

It's no secret that data is becoming increasingly important in marketing. But many people need to realize how tricky it can be to gather and use data effectively. There are a few significant challenges that marketers face when it comes to data:

These include:-

1. Ensuring data quality: Data quality is a significant challenge when using data in marketing. Companies must ensure that their data is accurate and up-to-date to make effective decisions.

2. Managing data volume: The data that companies have to deal with can be overwhelming. Therefore, companies must have systems and processes to manage large data sets effectively.

3. Analyzing data: Once data is collected, it needs to be analyzed to be used effectively. This can be a challenge, particularly for companies that need more skills, resources, and the right technology to supplement the need.

4. Acting on data: Even if companies can collect and analyze data effectively, they may need help to take action on it. This requires implementation of different technologies that can facilitate this change

Despite these challenges, data is still an essential part of marketing. By understanding the above challenges and finding ways to overcome them, you can use data to your advantage and drive accurate results for your business. Here’s how:

How can your CRM platform enable you to unlock Customer Secrets?

1. Building a Marketing-ready Customer Database

The first & foremost thing before generating any customer insight is to have a clean database with ample customer data in place.

The majority of the POS & ERP systems do not store data in a marketable ready format since they are only used for operational purposes. The dream of understanding your customer base & running a personalized campaign stops here itself.

A CRM technology can not only enable you to reorganize, re-name & re-create your product hierarchy in a marketing-ready format in minutes but also stay on top of it with its Data Collection Reports.

2. Bring all customer data to one place

Any brand typically has data flowing in from multiple sources which includes:

Transactional store data, Transactional & Behavioral data from eCommerce, Loyalty data and so much more. A Customer Data Platform lets you integrate data from all of these multiple sources into one single repository. Data aggregated in a CDP can include the following:
- Transactional data about past purchases
- Browsing history
- Demographic data
- Behavioral data
- Event data (clicks and file downloads, etc.)
- Data about product usage
- Partner and third-party data (optional)

Xeno’s technology allows you to integrate multiple data sources & create a single repository of all your data.

3. Bring all customer data to one place

Once you’ve cleaned your data, you want to understand each consumer better. You want to visualize their 360* view.

Here’s when a Persona Creation Tool acts its magic empowering marketers to visualize a singular 360* view of each & every individual customer & use those insights to better understand customer behavior under personas like favorite products, favorite time of day, next best recommendations, favorite channel, etc.

Here’s a snapshot of Xeno’s 360* customer profile.

On top of that, A CRM can allow you to have access to real-time ready-made dashboards & reports across your offline & online data to make sense of your customer base & deeply understand the different types of customer behavior in order to strategize your marketing campaigns better.

Xeno Marketing Cloud gives to access to reports like:

- Persona Dashboard
- Product Behaviour Dashboard
- Customer Behaviour Dashboard
- Loyalty Dashboard, etc

4. Customer Segmentation & Audience Selection

Now is the time to act on the insights gained & get your marketing campaigns running. The first step here is dividing your customer base into different groups or categories based on certain characteristics that they have in common i.e Customer Segmentation.
Here are the different types of Segmentation available:

A. RFM Analysis

It is a marketing technique used to quantitatively rank and group customers based on the recency, frequency, and monetary total of their recent transactions to identify the best customers and perform targeted marketing campaigns. RFM stands for:

Recency: How recently a customer has visited or purchased with a brand
Frequency: The frequency of the customer transactions or visits
Monetary Value: The intention of the customer to spend or purchasing power of the customer

Using RFM analysis, you can segment customers into various segments like, Core, Loyal, Dormant, Slipping High Value Repeater, etc.

Read more about using RFM analysis in your segmentation strategy here.

B. Rule-based Segmentation

- Behavioral Segmentation

This refers to monitoring the shopping behaviors of the customers and determining what kind of products they will prefer/like. For instance, you can categorize customers based on the following:

Whether the customer is a new customer, a loyal customer, or a dormant customer, etc.
Discount-seeking behavior
Preferable mode of shopping: Online vs Offline
Customers who shop only during specific events such as New year, Diwali, etc.
How frequently does the customer shop from your brand and so on.

- Behavioral Segmentation

Based on the different phases of your customer lifecycle, you can divide your customer into groups and target each group with a different strategy. Here are a few examples of customer journeys:

Customers who bought something from your brand 60 days ago
Customers who bought something from your brand 90 days ago
Customers who only buy something when it is on sale or discount
Customers who have some products in their cart but have not completed the purchase

More about Customer Journey Builder here

- Other types of segmentation include Demographic segmentation based on Age, Gender, etc and Geographical Segmentation based on City, State, Country, etc for an even refined targeting.

Xeno allows you to create all the above segments in seconds using its easy-to-use segmentation rules:

C. AI-Audience Segmentation

This is yet another type where you rely on AI to suggest you the best possible audience for your marketing campaign.

Xeno’s AI-Audience selection tool works allows you to create an audience with just 3-easy clips in seconds.

5. Running Personalised Predictive Marketing Campaigns

The next step is to Run Relevant Digital Campaigns by reaching out to your customers with the right offer on the right channel at the right time.

You don’t need to sync your customer segments to different marketing channels like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc. Xeno allows you to create & track ads across multiple channels in one singular flow.

6. Better ROI tracking & Campaign Optimization

Most marketers think their job is done once a campaign goes live. But the real task starts just after that! The struggle to analyze campaign effectiveness & getting the data in place

The right CRM technology will allow you to combine data from across multiple channels into one single platform & track campaigns performance in real-time. These insights enables marketers to stay on top their campaigns with real-time reports & optimize the campaigns according to these insights for better results.

Xeno’s Campaign Dashboard&Business Report feature will allow you to track your campaign & business performance with reports like Campaign Performance Dashboard, Channel Performance Dashboard, Business Performance Report, Product Performance Report among many others.

Data is the Future of Marketing

With the rise of social media, digital marketing, omnichannel strategy, and online shopping, it is much easier for customers to find new brands and experience various product options. As a result, the need to retain customers and build relationships is rising rapidly.

The only way to create your path towards customer retention can only be done through using your customer data to the best possible advantage. And a CRM can help you achieve that!!