Andrew Steele, CEO of LighthousePE, discusses how mobile technology can be one of the most effective channels to reach and engage customers in highly personalized ways.
What if you had a surefire way to reach your customers? If you knew the messages you sent actually reached them and more importantly, engaged them? And what if that engagement deepened their loyalty to your brand?
Sound too good to be true? Well, it is possible and many marketers and brands are proving that mobile can be one of the most effective channels to reach and engage customers in highly personalized ways. When customers feel their unique preferences have been taken into consideration, they tend to feel more valued, which in turn deepens their loyalty.
With that in mind, how can you use mobile effectively to engage customers and create unique experiences?
Think beyond the mass text messages
When you think about mobile marketing, it likely conjures up the image of the mass text messages sent out by spam marketers or brands you have no affinity to. But there is a way to use mobile to actually surprise and delight your customers and that’s using proximity engagement technology. Proximity engagement is a more precise and personalized form of communication with very specific customers. It combines geographic location with other known data about the customer to engage them with timely and relevant messages or offers. It’s a way of using customer insights to deliver a message they actually want at the moment it is most relevant.
As an example, a spa in Denver uses proximity engagement to send personalized massage specials to customers who arrive at Denver International Airport. The message acknowledges that travel can be stressful and invites them in for a free upgrade on their next massage when they return. The communication is tailored to the individual receiving it––and it’s unexpected and provides an element of surprise and delight.
This is real-time marketing that matches the customer’s immediate and personal needs, and it’s a way for businesses to engage customers in more meaningful ways. When done right, mobile push notifications using the elements of proximity engagement can make the customer feel understood and valued, which is powerful in a time when competition is high, and attention and loyalty are continually declining.
Use mobile to engage employees
Beyond promotional messages, push notifications can also be used to set the tone for the level of service they are going to receive the instant they step into your spa. Welcome messages can be sent to their device the moment they arrive, but taking it a step further, your staff can also be alerted via mobile notification about the client’s arrival. The notification can include specific notes about the client’s preferences to empower your staff to deliver a more personalized experience.
They’d know, for example, that the client prefers chilled cucumber water rather than tea, that they recently had a baby and this is their only time for some R&R, and that they like to read business magazines. Armed with that information on their phones, how much more of a tailored experience could they create? How would that shape the way your client experiences your spa?
It’s these types of high-touch experiences that customers don’t soon forget, and they often turn into your most vocal brand ambassadors when they share the experience with their friends or family. This is a way of using mobile push notifications and proximity engagement to further deepen the experience and engage your staff at the same time.
Supercharge other marketing tactics
You’re likely marketing your business via other methods such as social, email, direct mail, and perhaps advertising and PR. And this marketing mix is important, especially since, according to the “marketing rule of 7,” customers must see a message at least seven times before they are provoked to take action. Mobile push notifications, however, provide a way to connect other marketing tactics and prompt customers and potential customers at the optimal time to take action.
Email, direct mail and social typically reach customers at in-opportune times. You have little control over when they get that flyer in the mail or when they choose to open your thoughtfully timed email. Proximity engagement accounts for a customer’s location and their preferences based on data you already know about them. And it provides a way to further connect the marketing messages across your various tactics.
For example, say you sent a promotional email or direct mail piece to some of your top customers. Would it be enough to get them to make the journey to your spa? What if, in addition to the email, you also sent a well-timed and personalized push notification to their mobile device when they were within a couple miles of your spa during the time of day they typically come in, and it had been a few weeks since their last visit?
This is proximity engagement, and it takes into account the principles of human behavior design, which follows the theory that a person is most likely to perform a behavior when their motivation and ability to do so are most closely aligned. Then, it just takes the right prompt to make it happen. In this case, their motivation may be higher since it had been several weeks since their last visit. And their ability to take action is likely higher if they are within close proximity and it’s during a time they typically visit. Using proximity engagement in tandem with other marketing efforts can significantly improve the results.
How do you get to that level of personalization and how do you implement it on a large scale without spending hours tailoring individual messages to every customer?
Until more recently, this type of personalized marketing was challenging to achieve without a significant marketing budget. But now there are budget-friendly mobile marketing tools that can automatically use data from your other systems like your scheduling and business management software to send personalized push notifications to customers.
The key here, however, is personalization. For push notifications to be effective, incorporate the principles of proximity engagement:
● Avoid generic messages. Focus on providing value.
● Be personal. Consider the client's service or purchase history, preferences, time of day and other known information.
● Create a win-win. If you suddenly have whitespace on your schedule, you can send notifications to your clients who are within a specific radius of your spa and who have been in for similar services in the past to let them know you have availability.
● Think beyond the marketing message. Push notifications don’t always have to be promotional. They can include welcome messages or even daily inspirations or self-care tips during high-stress seasons.
● Turn to technology. Use technology that can make light work of all this. A good tool will integrate with your other business systems to better understand each customer and allow for automations to be put in place.
The bottom line: Respect your client’s information and their preferences, and focus on delivering consistent value to them. This will go a long way in creating a loyal client base that in turn will create long-term value for your business.