Fast forward to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile in the year 2054. Thousands of shoppers wade through crowded storefronts. Special contact lenses project a heads up display for each shopper, creating a unique experience in each store based on previous shopping habits and personal preferences. Store windows and advertisements greet visitors by name and fast track them to the most likely reason for visiting. These technologies work together to pull consumer data and display a message that resonates with each individual, truly reducing the gap between marketing and sales.
Replace futuristic contact lenses with smartphone, tablet or desktop screens. Replace brick and mortar with online storefronts. To a large degree, the future is closer than we think.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx9IEP8pmiI ]
(Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report shows us a future that is already happening online)
Leapfrog Online believes the intelligent use of data can be directly applied to bottom line results at an individual level by using a closed loop approach. Successfully guiding a potential customer through the process of first contact with your brand to the action that you want them to take—be it a click, a “like,” an inquiry or a sale—requires a constant effort to be consumer centric. As you see in the graphic below, the closed loop is following consumer preferences, collecting data at every touch point, and using the data to effectively customize the experience based on who the consumer is and how they want to buy.
Sounds easy, right? It’s not. Here are three questions you should ask yourself at each step in the cycle.
1. Is my experience focused on what the consumer wants to buy or what I want to sell?
2. Am I giving the consumer an easy way to “buy” what they are looking to buy?
3. Is my consumer experience leveraging the right data to provide a relevant and personalized experience to the consumer?
Consumers come from and end up in many different channels, so developing a more relevant experience for many unique purchase paths is no simple task. And barring technology from the future, the challenge for some may seem insurmountable.
Indeed, even big companies struggle with executing this strategy, often hindered by silos and organizational challenges that result in product-centered—rather than consumer-centered—execution. Small companies and start-ups have the opportunity to build a closed loop with less departmental challenges, but it can be hard to allocate dollars to technology and people when working with limited resources.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing insights on how a closed loop approach can help your business. Key learnings will be around
- How to evaluate media channels, discreetly and as part of an overall mix
- How you use data to better understand consumer preferences and values
- Ways to put data into action within your customer experience—both online and offline
It’s not science fiction, but the new way smart marketers are approaching their daily challenges.
With all this future talk, let’s talk about future topics. We want to make sure our discussions are relevant to you. Get in touch and let us know what topics you’d like to see discussed here in future posts!
