How businesses are converting data to actual customer engagement

Customer engagement isn't always about what she browses. Just because one has looked up an article about stress relief doesn't mean she'd appreciate ads for private massage sessions

So data is everywhere. Every product you browse, every piece of content you watch or read online is channeling data back to the source to tell businesses a little more about what you would like to see. But what does it take for brands to engage with customers, convert the gigabytes into revenue? For that businesses need the elixir of emotional connections because say experts and a bunch of customer research reports, technology is only as good as the emotional response it can evoke when it comes to digital marketing.

What does this mean? To put it simply, as some businesses have discovered the hard way, customer engagement is not always a function of what she browses. Just because one has looked up an article about stress relief does not mean the same person would appreciate advertisements for private massage sessions. To distinguish between what the customer does, says and what she really wants online, brands must do more.

"Data analytics needs to be combined with the customised content creation and marketing automation. Else data is just graphs and pie charts and brings nothing tangible to the organisation," said Vaibhav Vats, co-founder, Digiperform.com. Digital marketing training company Digiperform customises data at multiple levels before using it to reach out to customers. But how do businesses in the digital world use this avalanche of information to establish a stronger content with their consumers without overwhelming them or worse, disappointing them?

While businesses are leveraging consumer behaviour data from various sources, are they armed with enough expertise to turn this data into targeted content for individual consumers or viewers? Media and Tech giants like Facebook and Google are already well ahead on this technology as they convert millions of customer data points into carefully mapped analysis of the retail psyche.

Online reseller portal Quikr has been using users' search patterns, browsing history, choice of filters and even location information to build a user profile that subsequently helps them pitch relevant products and services.

“We use this analysis to personalise the content on our platform and send "data driven alerts" to our consumers and address their specific needs. Brands or businesses benefit from the association as they are able to target consumers who come to our platform with a clear intent," said Prasun Mandal, head of Analytics, Quikr. Elaborating on the success of their formulae, he speaks numbers. In January, 61 per cent of Quikr consumers transacted on more than one category across the platform. For example QuikrJobs canndidates looked for two-wheelers on QuikrBazaar or people who bought home decor went for "at home" salon services on Quikr AtHomeDiva.

Digiperform helps brands understand the data footprint that customers leave behind to build and emotional connection. For every action (search, browse etc.) Digiperform has pre-loaded content in their software. Their target segment is divided into three major categories: Working professionals, business owners and fresh graduates, which are further divided into personas based on their financial and emotional activities. The marketing team constantly updates its content based on customer data collected and key buying triggers found at every admission cycle completion.

How does one sort out the customer responses to create a discernible pattern? The tech team at Digiperform says that they rate customer actions such as: Email open rate, SMS and WhatsApp engagement and repeat website visits. Each positive engagement leads to a score being added and each negative engagement (not picking calls or responding) leads to a negative score. For a brand it helps create customer profiles based on how keen they are on a purchase, how interested they are in just knowing more and what really makes them want more.

Brands are also being advised by several data analytics firms on how to keep the customer engaged beyond the purchase lifecycle. Today brands and customers are no longer tied in a purely transactional relationship. Customers want more, they want to know what the brand stands for, what is its tone on popular causes and so on. It is important therefore for brands to become mini-media entities by creating content that draws in readers and likes and shares just as much as they convert this following to loyal customers.

Online original content producer Pocket Aces says it has built proprietary data monitoring and analytics tools which help them monitor the performance of the content created by in-house and of the content created by peers.  This system also sends regular notifications to the content creators through intra-office messaging software, which allows them to respond in an agile fashion if required.

The data analytics system also informs our automatic performance marketing tool, which has also been developed in-house. The data, when transformed into actual content can be tested in a number of different ways for effectiveness.

"We often test content ideas and jokes through memes and articles, which doesn't cost us much. We also test new acting talent in the same way. This then informs our decision on what content to make and which actors to work with. The process is not obviously 100 per cent data but it is all about improving the quality of our decisions to ensure that our probability of success increases," said Anirudh Pandita, Founder, Pocket Aces.

Within all of the emotional connect that brands are looking to build with their customers, there is another question that is keeping them busy. How does one build trust when it comes to data exchange with consumers? Speaking to Business Standard earlier, Anusheel Shrivastava, executive vice president, India, Kantar TNS said: “Brands need to act responsibly online to maintain the trust that they currently hold. To build and protect trust, brands need to put the customer first. That means valuing their time, understanding the right moments to engage with them, being more transparent about how and when they collect and use their personal data, showcase their high safety standards, and express gratitude by appropriately incentivizing them for data exchange.”

Mind map

• Brands use data to drive customer alerts on cross-category sales or new launches

• Many businesses test content ideas via memes and articles to gauge what works best with the customer

• To win trust, brands are advised to be transparent about  data collection and its use. Trust is the first step towards loyalty