Author name: lhansen@ascent360.com

There are a lot of ways to communicate with your customers, but the key element is communicating with them in the right way. Mass marketing will reach your database, but it’s not likely to engage them or convince them to make a purchase. Instead, if you have data that tells you something about your customers (e.g., female, 55 years old, who just purchased a road bike), you can use it to market in a much more familiar and friendly way.

Recently, Scott Buelter, CEO of Ascent360, sat down with Lee Miller of FISH307 to discuss the specialty retail industry and how data driven marketing automation has created new paths of growth for their company. They have also found that upgrading to a next level tool that seamlessly integrates with their existing systems makes all the difference in creating a unique customer experience and driving more sales.

Creating a prospect conversion journey can be quite simple, but only if you’re using the right marketing tool. Most email service providers like MailChimp and Constant Contact don’t put an emphasis on data and therefore limit what you can do with it. While other tools allow you to add a single subscriber to an audience, they don’t provide any additional information about who your customers or prospects are. As a result, you end up sending blanketed emails or newsletters without understanding where they are in the conversion journey. Are they a first-time shopper or a returning VIP customer? Knowing and using these data points can be (and often times are) the difference between a sale lost and a sale made.

The beginning of a new year is when many retailers are strategizing fresh, new ways to accelerate sales and maximize customer retention. While there are many tactics out there, creating a unique and engaging customer experience starts with cleansed and enriched data. Today’s consumers no longer consider their shopping and buying experiences as simply transactional — instead, they are looking for a more personalized, “made for me” experience that makes them feel truly valued as a customer.