The martech ecosystem is complicated. It’s hard to decipher how one platform is different from another from a basic moniker alone. For example: SessionM is a customer engagement platform. What does that actually mean though? In this blog post, we’re lifting the mystique. Keep reading for a comprehensive answer to a burning question: what is a customer engagement platform?
At the highest level, a customer engagement platform offers the tools brands need in order to forge stronger, more loyal and profitable customer relationships. Customer engagement platforms are comprised of tools for customer data management, data activation and engagement, and data-driven loyalty and offer management. All of those components play a critical role in achieving the mission described above. Now let’s go a bit deeper into each piece.
Customer data management
Many brands struggle with disparate systems that house their customer data. Customer data management tools solve this problem by ingesting and unifying customer data into one unique profile for each customer. By integrating with systems such as e-commerce platforms, mobile apps/ordering, email service providers, data warehouses, and in-store point of sale systems, brands gain a holistic view of every customer.
Customer data management also relies on predictive and historical metrics, such as customer lifetime value, risk of churn and product affinity, all of which enrich each customer profile and enable marketers and other business units across the organization to derive value from first-party customer data.
Data activation and engagement
Once a customer engagement platform has ingested, synchronized and enriched customer data, it becomes available in the platform for marketers to leverage in compelling messaging and promotional campaigns. Most customer engagement platforms allow messages to be scheduled or triggered if a customer takes an action.
With a customer engagement platform, marketers have the ability to encourage specific behaviors that map to key performance indicators, such as motivating a SKU purchase, increasing frequency or referring a friend.
Data-driven loyalty and offer management
There are thousands of loyalty programs in the marketplace, many of which have similar benefits and fail to differentiate. The consequence is that these loyalty programs don’t actually help brands retain or deepen relationships with customers. Brands need to redesign their strategies to motivate incremental habits, such as increasing customer frequency or average order size, while providing customers with a personalized experience. A customer engagement platform provides the tools brands need in order to create an engaging program that excites and drives high-value behaviors.
One way that a customer engagement platform helps marketers drive high-value behaviors is with closed loop offers. By integrating with in-store POS systems and e-commerce sites, marketers can build out different types of offers, which can be immediately validated at the point-of-sale upon use. Offers help marketers drive incremental spend and customer profitability. Each time an offer is redeemed, customer profiles are updated to inform future offers, promotions and outreach.
A customer engagement platform provides brands with a single intuitive tool where all customer data is ingested into an operational profile, giving marketers the ability to create targeted campaigns based on specific attributes and behavior. With customer data unlocked, brands can construct intelligent loyalty programs that drive engagement and incremental spend. Interested in learning more about more specific ways a customer engagement platform can help your business? Contact us today for a demo.
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