As the number of ecommerce brands continues to grow, so do efforts to reach new audiences. Brands are finding success selling beyond a single outlet (their owned ecommerce site) and are identifying diversified revenue streams through additional sales channels – Amazon, retail, social commerce, etc. Likewise, customers are connected in more meaningful ways with a convenient shopping experience that aligns with their preferences. Understanding how different personas are engaged on these different channels is essential to successfully encourage them through the customer journey.
These brands are often met with additional challenges; they rarely are given access to their customer data through these additional sales streams. It can become difficult to identify where and how to reach those customers again, adding a roadblock to marketers’ retention efforts.
So, what’s a brand to do when they feel at a loss to understand these varying customer bases? By appending first-party data with hundreds of additional insights, marketers can effectively analyze how customers behave on their owned channels. Leverage insights about your customer base at large and apply them to those who purchased from your brand outside of your ecommerce site.
Analyzing Your Data
Who are your customers?
Even if you don’t have data on customers who purchased outside of your ecommerce site, you can still analyze the customers that you do have insights on and make educated assumptions. For example, you may know that your highest value customer personas are “High Income Suburban Moms” and “Retired Baby Boomers.” While there may be slight variations in spending habits on different sales channels, your primary personas will likely stay consistent. This information can be used to target audiences that resemble your existing customers on your advertising platforms, and identify their predicted lifetime value.
Where are they spending?
You may already know that your persona labeled “Gen X Singles” as a whole is likely to purchase on Amazon and “Retired Baby Boomers” are most likely to shop at retail stores. When allocating marketing spend, you can focus a larger portion of your digital budget towards “Gen X Singles.” Since “Retired Baby Boomers” are less likely to purchase online, you may look into other avenues of advertising to them – like in-store promotions or direct mail offers – while allocating a smaller portion of spend with highly targeted messaging towards digital. It is important to remember that though they may be ultimately purchasing in store, they may be doing preliminary research on Amazon or your ecommerce site. While it’s recommended that the bulk of your budget go towards the channel where each persona spends the most time, cross-channel marketing creates a more holistic experience.
What types of products are they buying?
Now that you’ve analyzed your customer personas and typical spending habits, you can tie this information to optimize your product offerings. Using the example of “Gen X Singles,” you may know from their first-party data that they are most likely to purchase your restorative products. This can inform which products to promote on a non-owned channel, the types of visuals and messaging that should be used to resonate with this audience.
Making Informed Decisions - The TLDR
Based on the first-party data you already have, you can infer that your customers within the same target audience will behave similarly.
- Understand your customer personas. Use this information for audience targeting, finding customers who share similar characteristics. You can also use customer personas to identify high lifetime value groups and pinpoint areas of opportunity.
- Inform spending habits. What channels are customers most likely to purchase through? Where should you focus your marketing efforts, and which platforms are customers less likely to use?
- Analyze products purchased to inform messaging and creative. What types of images are being used? Does language used resonate with the target audience?
You won’t always have data directly from sources like Amazon or brick and mortar retail, so your first-party data is as important as ever. Your customer personas are more than likely going to be similar across channels; the difference is reaching them at their convenience. By applying ecommerce customer data you already have across your multi-channel strategy, you will successfully resonate with new customers and improve customer retention.
Need help with your first-party data and retention strategy? Contact Decile to book a demo!