Data Management is the Key to Powerful Customer Engagement

Customers engage with brands for an evolving number of reasons. Marketers must keep up with ever-changing trends so that content remains fresh, relevant, and personalized. The best way to do this in 2022? Create a vibrant omni-channel presence that leaves no customer behind. 

In the Braze 2022 Global Customer Engagement Review, the customer engagement platform digs deep into what’s working and what’s not in the world of marketing personalization. Between Apple’s privacy changes and Google’s plan to eventually retire third-party cookies, 2021 had no shortage of twists and turns for marketers — but what’s marketing without the anticipation of what’s to come? 

The engagement review argues that data management is one of the biggest challenges for brands, as they grapple with solely using zero- and first-party data to create the most sophisticated experience for customers. In fact, 32% of marketers are concerned about collecting, integrating, and managing their data.

With massive amounts of data at marketers’ fingertips, expanding “as customers interact with new and varied touchpoints,” it’s critical to package it in a way that is valuable across channels. This is how top-performing brands across industries are doing it:

Never Stop Experimenting

There’s no innovation without experimentation. Even the most successful brands that deliver on their goal metrics continue to test new channels, campaigns, or messaging strategies. There is always an opportunity to try something that hasn’t been done yet. If customer engagement is constantly changing, the way that brands experiment must change along with it. Testing also allows marketers to analyze the data that is being prioritized and if it needs to shift to fit customer needs. The Braze engagement review found that 35% of brands report having top-notch experimentation processes in place, with 46% partnering with their data analysis teams to plan A/B tests.

Evaluate Cross-Departmental Efforts

When teams join together to create engaging content, magical marketing happens. Prioritizing cross-team communication and collaboration helps brands reach their overall business goals, such as promptly accessing relevant data. For example, a product manager optimizing the customer experience of a brand’s mobile products will greatly benefit when they sync with a marketer’s A/B tests for lifecycle emails. Sharing this data allows teams to keep up with shifting customer needs at all angles. 

Cross-functional teams are innovative teams, especially when customer-centricity and engagement are top of mind from the start. The Braze engagement review found that 42% of top-performing brands are likely to have employees trained on customer engagement technologies and approaches.  

Pay Attention to Anonymous Users

Relying on third–party data is becoming a thing of the past, and as the landscape continues to set its sights on the sole use of zero- and first-party data, it’s critical for marketers to understand anonymous users’ behavior. These users take action on websites without logging in, or opt to “continue as a guest.” In 2021, over 57% of new users fit into this category, “reflecting a major untapped audience” according to Braze. Brands that are prioritizing first-party data are capable of engaging with anonymous users and their behaviors. However, last year, “80% of anonymous users received no messages at all from brands, likely driving down overall results and potentially costing brands millions in unrealized revenue.” 

Learn how Movable Ink can use AI powered personalization to up your customer engagement. Request a free demo today.