Author: Franz Malten Buemann

 

 

Knowing your customer and knowing your partner is not all that dissimilar. The difference between them, however, is that knowing your customers is easier. With customer expectations changing, it’s a great time for brands to assess how to create lasting customer relationships. 

With the rising trend of authentic marketing, consumers are more interested in brands that understand their needs. But true value comes from creating intimacy on a one-to-one level. Consistency, authenticity and personalisation are key principles in creating this connection and enhancing a brand’s level of customer intimacy. For online retailers, adopting lean marketing strategies and customer data platforms could deliver just this.

If brands can analyse and understand consumer behaviour, both parties can have a smooth experience and a mutually beneficial relationship. So, how can you create this perfect match?

 

Ensure you understand customers’ changing expectations

 

The online world is full of algorithms presenting personalised content to users. How often have you been scrolling through your instagram feed and products have appeared that you have been discussing or browsing for? It’s a daily occurrence, and it embodies a growing shift in customer expectations, showing what they have grown accustomed to and now expect from brands – and that’s tailored, personalised content.

The pandemic initiated an ecommerce boom that, while still at strong levels, has begun to level off as people return to brick-and-mortar shops and cost-of-living repercussions tighten budgets.

In an increasingly competitive ecommerce market,  it’s even more essential for brands to understand their customers’ needs, with 72% of shoppers expecting brands “to recognise them as individuals and know their interests”.

This highlights two things in particular. One, that you need to make the experience as convenient as possible, helping the customer to find and purchase their desired product(s) with ease. And two, this comes from accruing a deep understanding of each customer’s specific preferences, needs, likes and dislikes. But how do you execute such a strategy to its full effect?

 

Personalise your strategy with lean marketing

 

To achieve true customer intimacy, every aspect of your marketing strategy needs to be catered towards this. In order for your content to be streamlined and tailored to customers, your overall strategy needs to be as well. This is approaching marketing the lean way.

By taking the lean route, you’re streamlining the entire process to remove any unnecessary activities that don’t deliver value to the customer. Instead, you’re developing a coherent, optimised and adaptable strategy that focuses on what the consumer really cares about, saving massive amounts of time and costs.

Personalisation has risen to become a vital marketing tool. From emails and live chats to website popups and social media, you’re creating consistent and authentic communication specific to each individual customer across all touchpoints. However, to create such personalised communication, you need access to customer data, behaviour and trends.

This insight also needs to be joined with an adaptable and reactive strategy. How often have you been browsing a website and been presented with previous searches, suggestions for products and ‘we think you might like this’ options. Habits change, and your strategy and content needs to adapt accordingly.

 

Use customer data platforms to collect data and adapt in real-time

 

Knowing your customers has always been a gold standard for marketing. But strategies shift quickly. Days gone by of using research groups to acquire consumer knowledge and produce more generalised campaigns have been transported into an online world of data and website activity for a more targeted approach.

Customer data is now marketing’s gold standard. Marketers have the ability to do more with less, and this should be a key ambition. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are able to accrue data on customer activity and behaviour to create personalised communication and content. But even with this data, opportunities are being missed. The evolution of CDPs, AI and zero-party data is delivering a new level of intimacy.

For example, CDPs are able to accrue first-party data that shows crucial website activity metrics, opening your eyes to how customers interact with your site and what products they are interested in. But where you can develop true customer intimacy is by collecting zero-party data.

This refers to information requested by brands that is willingly and directly provided by customers – for example, how often customers want to be communicated with and what items they wish to hear about.

Armed with all of this data, brands can then create fully rounded customer profiles to personalise all aspects of their website, content and communication. Not only this, but these CDPs can respond in real-time to customer website activity.

This real-time personalisation allows you, for instance, to retain customer interest in watched products as they browse, and subsequently offer further recommendations. If they like what they see, the trust and intimacy between brand and customer will grow.

 

Forming the perfect match

 

Customer intimacy is everything. With so much content being flashed on our screens, being able to offer true personalisation can set you apart. This comes from acquiring a deep understanding of your customers’ specific needs and developing targeted campaigns and communication to meet these needs. For this to thrive, a lean marketing strategy that is driven by technology like customer data platforms can open the doors to new levels of intimacy.

If online retailers aren’t taking advantage of personalisation, then both parties in the relationship are missing out. Customers aren’t receiving the personalised experience, missing out on products they may like, and ecommerce retailers are missing out on valuable revenue gains, efficiency and loyalty metrics.

And for relationships to work, you need to be fulfilling each other’s needs. That way, you may just find your perfect match.

 

Question: I’ve been noticing that many of the TikToks and Reels I watch are part of an ongoing social media series. How can I start one myself?Whether you have a specific niche as a content creator or not, you probably post about a handful of similar topics on your Instagram and TikTok that your followers want to hear about. An easy way to generate more content revolving around these very ideas is by creating a social media series. A series allows you to put a twist on the content you normally share.TikTok has even recently introduced its Series feature which allows creators to share collections of posts behind a paywall. We’ll go over some examples of successful series from other content creators and provide some tips for starting your own.What exactly is a social media series?A social media series is essentially a new take on the primary content you’re already creating for your TikTok and Instagram. With a series, the point is to create multiple videos revolving around one specific topic. The subtopic should still be similar enough to your usual content – to ensure it still resonates with your followers – but also provide new information. Ambitious Kitchen, a food blog run by cookbook author Monique Volz and her team, primarily shares recipes from their website in the form of videos on Instagram and TikTok. But they’ve recently introduced two new series on their Instagram to diversify their content. The first is their Trader Joe’s series where Monique takes a few items from the beloved grocery store and makes a quick and easy meal with them like this naan pizza. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monique: Ambitious Kitchen (@ambitiouskitchen) The next is their Leftovers Series, which is all about food waste. Ambitious Kitchen’s social media manager Rebecca provides useful tips and recipes to help followers use up all of their groceries instead of throwing them out. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monique: Ambitious Kitchen (@ambitiouskitchen) As you can see, these qualify as series because the Ambitious Kitchen team can generate tons of content for both ideas, making them more than just standalone posts. They’re also topics that revolve around their main niche – food – but allow them to branch out from simply posting blog recipes again and again. A fan even applauded the team for their leftover series in the comments and said, “Really love that y’all promote food waste reduction in addition to your amazing recipes! 🙌👏”Why should you start your own social media series?A social media series is not only a convenient way to generate new content for your Instagram and TikTok accounts, but it can also help you attract new followers by diversifying your posts. Here are the benefits of adding a series to your social media posts.Create more contentThe biggest benefit to starting a social media series is that it allows you to generate a ton of new content. In order for something to be a series, you’ll need to plan out several Reels and TikToks that will help you fill out your social media calendar. This should hopefully mean you’ll have a ton of content and ideas ready to share.Spur more creativityYou might be wanting to branch out or share something different from your usual posts, and a series forces you to come up with creative ways to make your content.Influencer Radhi Devlukia posts cooking reels along with her other health and wellness content but decided to try something different and shared a recipe that did not turn out well. She told her followers that she’d be making a new series all about recipes people shouldn’t try. This is a fun way twist on the popular cooking content that is all over Instagram and TikTok and helps Radhi’s series stand out. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Radhi Devlukia-Shetty (@radhidevlukia) The more creative you get with your content, the more likely you are to attract new followers and grow your social media community.Organize your postsAnother plus to a series is that it can allow you to organize your content more effectively. If a follower of yours is interested in one particular aspect of your work, you can easily direct them to a specific series of yours. You can also categorize each series with hashtags making it easier to appear in searches.How to create your own social media seriesIf you’re unsure how to go about creating your own social media series, here are some steps to help you get started.BrainstormBrainstorming ideas may seem daunting, but the good news is a series can essentially be built off of your existing content. Look at what you’re already posting, and see how you can do something new with it. Here are some ideas for potential series you can create with examples.Advice/How To seriesCaliFullerfit posts content all about exercise, mainly in the form of workout reels and gym clothing hauls. But she’s recently changed things up with a new series discussing gym anxiety. In the first episode of the series, she walks followers through a detailed plan for what they should do when they enter a gym and feel anxious. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CALI FULLER (@califullerfit) She’s also asked her followers for their input on Instagram Stories, which is a great way to brainstorm potential ideas for your series. Cali asks her followers for suggestions for her new seriesConsider creating a series that provides advice and tips to showcase your expertise.A “3 things to try” seriesMakeup artist Katie Jane Hughes posts mostly makeup looks and tutorials on her Instagram account. Recently, however, she’s tried out a new series called “three things to try,” where she highlights three makeup items from a brand and explains why she loves them. View this post on Instagram A post shared by KATIE JANE HUGHES (@katiejanehughes) Similarly, you could create a series highlighting and reviewing products. These can be products that you’re already using in your daily life, products you’ve created, or products that are similar to yours.Vlog seriesContent creator Nabela Noor went viral in 2020 when she started her pockets of peace series on TikTok where she films an aesthetically pleasing glimpse into her happiest moments. This year, she decided to create a new vlog series where she could connect more with her audience after receiving feedback from her followers that her pockets of peace series felt a bit too produced.  In this new series titled #PopVlogs aka pockets of peace vlogs, Nabela does a mini vlog where she talks directly to her followers and walks them through her day. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nabela Noor Home (@nabelanoorhome) A vlog series is a great way for you to have a direct dialogue with your community and show them a glimpse into your life.Other ideas for a social media seriesThe good news is a series can really be about anything! Here are a few other ideas to consider when launching a series. A product development series – take viewers behind the scenes of your latest product or launchA meet the team series – interview your team members and show a day in their lifeAn ASMR series –  create soothing and relaxing content ASMR styleA behind-the-scenes series – take viewers behind the scenes of your work or show them how exactly you create your contentTrying out a new restaurant/activities series – film your experience when trying out a new product or activity If you’re feeling like you need more help with brainstorming, we recommend using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to bounce ideas off of. Buffer’s AI Assistant can be a great resource when you’re having a creative block. I’ve even used AI writing tools to assist me with the ideation process for some of my blog posts.CreateNow comes the time to plan out the content for your series. This is where you take everything from your brainstorming sessions and turn it into reality. Gather all of the equipment, items, and whatever else is necessary to make your videos. When you’re in this phase, we recommend batch-creating your content for your series to save time and film everything efficiently.OrganizeHere are a few things you can do to organize your series and make it stand out when people come to your Instagram and TikTok accounts. Use the same cover photo – when posting videos in your series, we recommend creating a specific cover photo for all of the content so people can easily spot it on your Instagram and TikTok feedTitle the series  – each time you post a new Reel or TikTok in your series, use the same title and include ep. 1, ep.2, etc, to show the continuation and that the video is part of a larger series.Include Hashtags – using specific hashtags for your series is an easy way to tag your posts and mark which ones are part of a series.If you’re posting TikToks, you can also take advantage of their playlist feature, where you can categorize your videos into various collections. Note, not everyone currently has access to this feature. Here, content creator Sahar Ayar has various playlists including, reviews, brown girl must-haves, and makeup tutorials at the top of her TikTok profile.This makes it easier for your followers to find your various series.ShareOnce you have everything filmed and ready to go, it’s time to share your series with the world! We recommend making an announcement and teasing your series in advance to get your followers excited about it.EvaluateAfter you’ve launched your series, it’s best to examine the metrics and see if it’s successful or not. In order to do so you should look at the engagement rate, likes, comments, and how often the video has been saved. Buffer’s analytics feature is a great tool to gauge how well your content is performing. Hopefully, your series will be a hit, but if not then it’s best to take a step back and consider why.It may be an issue of your followers needing to be made aware of the series, which means you may need to do a better job advertising and promoting it. We recommend sticking it out and at least posting two to three videos for the series as it sometimes takes a few tries before you really get the hang of something. Asking your followers for their input on the series through Instagram Stories and other mediums is also a great way to get feedback from your community and make tweaks if needed.  If you really feel like the series is missing the mark, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm new ideas. Luckily, there are so many great social media series all over TikTok and Instagram that can hopefully inspire you to come up with a new idea. Hopefully, this Ask Buffer has motivated you to start your own TikTok or Instagram series! If you have a social media question for us, use #AskBuffer and let us know on Twitter!

Access to relevant information is, without a doubt, the number one requirement for making good business decisions. For this reason, most companies use tools that help them gather and analyze customer data.

There are three types of platforms that are particularly popular — CDPs, CRMs, and DMPs. But what do these abbreviations stand for? How do these solutions differ, and which is best for you?
This guide shares the key features of each platform, as well advantages and disadvantages. Let’s get started.
CDP vs CRM vs DMP
CDPs: How do they work?
CRMs: How do they work?
DMPs: How do they work?

Before we dive into details, let’s take a quick look at what CDP, CRM, and DMP are.
Customer Data Platforms
Customer data platforms (CDPs) are tools for gathering first-party data from various sources to gain a full view of each customer. The data is then used by marketers to create personalized marketing campaigns. CDPs are specifically designed for marketers.
While HubSpot’s known for its CRM, some customers can use it as a CDP alternative as some packages track data like:

Contact-level interactions with your site, landing pages, emails, social posts, and reps.
Website and various inbound marketing analytics.
Payments or deal progress of those purchasing products.

Customer Relationship Management Platforms
Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms track and manage interactions with customers and prospects throughout their entire lifecycle.
CRMs have a positive impact on improving business relationships, which translates into the company’s growth. It can be used by sales, marketing, and customer success alike.
For example, CRMs like HubSpot help sales teams automate processes like data entry, email sequences, logging interactions, and customer service.
For more on CRMs, check out this guide.

Data Management Platform
Data management platforms (DMP) collect and organize data from first-, second-, and third-party sources including online, offline, and mobile. It includes data like demographics, browsing behavior, location, and device.
DMPs enable businesses to effectively segment customers, which in turn helps with creating a more personalized offering.
All of the above-mentioned platforms share the same goal: Improving the customer experience through data. However, they each use a different approach to achieve it.
While both CRMs and CDPs collect customer data, the former focuses on customer interactions with your team and the latter collects data on customers’ interactions with your product or service.
Similarly, CDPs are often confused with DMPs, as both of these platforms focus on gathering information. DMPs, however, usually anonymize customer data gathered from second- and third-party sources.

Customer Data Platforms: How do they work?
A CDP is a platform for collecting data from online and offline sources. This information is then used to build a 360° view of customers. The data can be stored for as long as necessary.
When it comes to data updates, you don’t have to do them manually in the platform. A CDP pulls data automatically from other systems and aggregates it.
Now, let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of working with a CDP.
Advantages of CDPs
1. Building Unified Ideal Customer Profiles
A CDP comes in handy when building ideal customer profiles (ICPs) as it stores all your customer data. Regardless of your campaign source — be it social media, email, or search — you can gather all the data in a single place. This helps with two things:

You can gain a better understanding of each customer’s journey.
You can create effective strategies for reaching them.

CPDs have become even more important now that companies use multiple touchpoints to communicate with customers. Using various platforms to collect data and make sense of it can be counterproductive and confusing. Turning to a CDP is a much better option.
2. Better Personalization
The more data you have, the more personalization opportunities you get. As marketers, we know that that’s exactly what customers want. In fact, 60% of customers admit they’ll become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience.
While the stakes are high, a lot of businesses struggle with personalization due to insufficient customer data. A customer data platform can be a solution to this problem.
3. Higher Revenue
CDPs can boost customer satisfaction and intelligent targeting, which results in higher revenue. By collecting data from a number of sources you get a full view of each customer. You can then adjust your offers and your messaging to match their preferences.
That should result in better brand recognition and customer engagement, all of which positively impact conversion rates and your revenue.
Disadvantages of CDPs
1. Hard to Scale
Not all CDPs are created equal. If you use a CDP designed to process smaller amounts of data, then you might face scaling issues when your customer base starts to grow. The processing speed decreases significantly and you might even come across redundancies.
Initially, it might not seem like a big issue. However, if you want to make the most of your customer data, it’s best to select a platform that can handle a growing data volume.
2. Difficult to Extract Data from Source Systems
As mentioned earlier, a CDP is priceless when it comes to creating ICPs, provided that it effectively extracts data from various sources. Unfortunately, some platforms lack key technology components to do that. They may not integrate with third-party software.
In such a scenario, the IT team has to manually extract structured and unstructured data from different sources and input it into the CDP. This is very time-consuming and inefficient. Alternatively, they can write custom code to automatically extract information.
To learn more about CDPs, look at our customer data platform guide.

Customer Relationship Management Platforms: How do they work?
CRMs are where your marketing, sales, and support teams enter information about their interactions with customers. These commonly include notes from all calls and video meetings, support request tickets, live chat conversations, and customer satisfaction survey scores.
In essence, CRMs are your single source of truth where you consolidate all the insights on a client. This allows everyone to stay informed and, ultimately, build stronger business relationships.
Advantages of CRMs
1. Improved Customer Service
Let’s begin with the goal CRMs were built for and, simultaneously, their biggest advantage: They strengthen the bonds between the company and the customer.
Let’s say there’s a new account manager at your B2B company about to contact one of your clients. To find out who they’re reaching out to, they open the customer’s profile in the CRM. They see a history of all actions, like purchases and when they last called your support team.
The profile also features firmographic information, like their industry, the primary contact person’s job position, and company size. There might even be information on when the company last received funding. And this is truly just the tip of the iceberg.
The easier it is for your team to learn about a customer, the higher the chances of keeping them happy. And this boosts the chances of selling.
2. Reduced Business Silos
Did you know that support agents who don’t have access to unified tools dedicate 15% of their time to searching for customer information? That’s about six hours a week, which could be spent more productively. A CRM counters this issue, but it also supports a higher company objective — minimizing business silos.
Teams that contribute to and use CRMs for information are better at collaborating. They understand where each team’s role starts, ends, and overlaps.
Plus, if they have a question regarding a recent interaction, they’ll know exactly whom to reach out to for answers.
3. Higher Productivity and Efficiency
CRMs leverage marketing automation, which makes your employees’ daily work much easier and more productive. These tools can help you with repetitive tasks like clicking “send” on emails to relevant customer segments on the right day and time. As a result, your team can focus on tasks that require creativity and human attention — for instance, attending a conference or writing a report.
What’s more, you can use it to spot any patterns that need more attention from the business. For example, if you see a drop in CSAT scores for a customer segment, you can look into the reasons and discuss how to address them.
Disadvantages of CRMs
1. Potentially High Cost
While CRMs are a data gold mine, those that offer advanced features and lots of integrations can be costly. There are a few factors you need to account for to figure out the total cost of CRM software:

Subscriptions.
Cost of upgrades.
Potential customization, especially if the tool lacks integrations.
Staff training.
IT resources required for software maintenance and implementation.

Additionally, data migration and potential disruptions in business operations might add to the total implementation costs.
2. Integration Problems
Truth be told, your CRM is as good as the data it collects. So if the CRM you use lacks integrations, it won’t properly fulfill its role.
You might also have to spend significant time and money trying to customize your CRM, which might result in a lot of frustration. It’s crucial to ensure that the CRM you’re planning to purchase integrates with the rest of your software before you implement it.

DMPs: How do they work?
DMPs allow for high-level data management, like collecting demographic info for better customer segmentation. As these platforms don’t need to bind data to specific customer profiles, all information is anonymized.
In addition, DMPs don’t retain historical data, unlike CRMs where keeping history is the main objective.
Advantages of DMP
1. Streamlined Data
The larger the company, the more platforms marketers need to use. In fact, those working at enterprises use an average of 52 tools. With so much technology, it’s virtually impossible to keep an eye out for all critical customer insights.
Here’s where DMPs step in. They allow you to collect data from numerous sources and create accurate audience segments. This means you can build your campaigns and other strategic work on cohesive data.
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2. Gaining Access to Second- and Third-Party Data
When we compare CDPs versus DMPs, there’s one key difference — the latter collects and integrates data from second- and third-party sources. It’s also one of its biggest advantages.
This is ideal if you need more information for your personas than what you’ve collected internally. The insights you can access via DMPs come from reputable external sources, which also match your customer profile.
3. Efficient Budget Management
DMPs help you lower advertising spending. How so? You don’t have to run multiple ads simultaneously to boost your chances of reaching the right audience.
DMPs let you engage in re-targeting. For example, you can reach out to prospects who visited your “pricing” page. Or, if you aren’t a subscription-based business, you can even re-target those who bought your product or service in the past.
Each of these groups can be reached through the right channel with tailored messaging.
Disadvantages of DMP
1. Complexity
One of the potential downsides is that DMPs can offer complex functionalities and dependencies, particularly if it has tens or hundreds of integrations. This means that it might have a steep learning curve to use properly (or to its full potential).
Some platforms might also require help from technical teams, like administrators and developers, whenever you need to tweak settings.
2. High Maintenance
As you handle vast amounts of data, you must ensure high-end security to prevent data breaches or cyber-attacks.
That’s not to say that DMPs come unprotected. Quite the contrary — their developers are compliant with the latest protocols. However, you’ll need a security expert to make sure your internal systems are also bulletproof.
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Making the Right Choice for Your Team
When it comes to deciding between CDP, CRM, and DMP, it’s not a matter of choosing one or the other. These platforms fulfill different roles and complement each other.
DMPs can help you with lead generation. CDPs are great for engaging with leads and prospects, while CRMs are made for managing the relationship with your customers. They work best when used together.
All of these tools help you better understand your customers and, as a result, create more personalized experiences, positively impacting revenue.
Whichever solution you go with, make sure it fulfills your needs and, most importantly, that it integrates with your software. Only then you’ll be able to make the most of your data and save yourself from unnecessary frustration and costs.

Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team.
This week, fashion brand Telfar took its reputation for price accessibility to the next level.
During its latest clothing drop on March 27, the brand began testing a dynamic pricing model, letting customers determine how much they wanted to pay.
Here’s how it worked:

When pieces from the collection dropped, they were listed at wholesale prices (around 50% less than retail).
Prices raised incrementally each second, capping at the full retail listing.
The price pieces sold out at then became the final price.

In other words, the more popular an item was, the lower the price was for everyone.
This style of pricing could be a win-win for the brand and customers. The brand now knows exactly how many units to order from manufacturers and won’t have to rely on steep price cuts to move product, and customers are able to get designer pieces that fit into their budgets. With this model, Telfar can immediately gauge which items its customers like most and gain valuable insights that will help influence future designs and prices.
Affordability has been a part of Telfar’s ethos since the brand launched in 2005. Founder Telfar Clemons told Fast Company, “Many brands use price as a barrier for entry. I never wanted that for my brand.”
Telfar will continue testing the dynamic pricing model on its clothing drops through April 24. By allowing consumers to choose their own pricing, Telfar is emphasizing its commitment to accessibility in real time.
Elsewhere in Marketing
The latest marketing news and strategy insights.
Levi’s is receiving backlash for using AI-generated models in its ads instead of hiring diverse human models.
Substack just announced its opening a community fundraising round to support platform growth.
Twitter’s For You page will soon only show tweets from Twitter Blue subscribers, per Elon Musk.
Instagram just introduced a collaborative collections feature, allowing users to share saved posts with up to 250 people.
Save time with AI: here are five AI-powered tools that make social media marketing a little easier.
Spotify is partnering with Creative Juice to invest in video podcasting.

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So i teach kids but recently started teaching online How would i find / use a tool to promote my tutoring I have moderate coding skills ( know dsa / b trees n all ) so complex software is not an issue My only concern is that i cant buy costly software so i need one that is free / open source / self hosted submitted by /u/xXWarMachineRoXx [link] [comments]

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