h Star’s goals for category leaders are: One-to-1, omnichannel personalization

This article is part 1 of 4 on the North Star goals. They are what set category leaders apart among their peers.

Marketers must balance the ideal and the practical and realizable. This is amidst a multitude of competing priorities such as:

• Shareholders may demand short-term financial results.
• Leaders must achieve business goals.
• Customers expect the best experience.
• The competition is catching up to you or pulling ahead.
• All the talk from our community about the latest technology and how fast every brand can adopt the newest three letter marketing acronym.

All of this can lead to a loss of sight of long-term goals that will allow us to continue our success and create loyal customers over the years.

The term “North Star” goals is used to refer to the ideal points that we should be heading towards, even though they may seem impossible at the moment. These marketing goals, just like how the North Star guided travelers through history, will guide marketers today to the best way to provide the customer experience of tomorrow.

As a consultant and advisor to top-ranking brands’ marketing leaders, I have witnessed four trends that distinguish category leaders from their peers. These four trends were my inspiration and I turned them into a set of North Star objectives that I explore in my most recent book , “House of the Customer “.

This article series, consisting of four parts, will examine each trend and goal in detail. It will also discuss how realistic they are for brands, and what the first steps are to reach them.

This is the first article of the series. It will focus on the first North Star goal, which provides a personalized, one-to-one experience across all channels.

Let’s look at this in detail. We’ll break down each part of this goal, then tie it all together to see how realistic this is for most brands.

It’s time to break it down

Let’s start the discussion on one-to-one, Omnichannel Personalization by making sure we understand and have an example of each component.

One-to-one personalization

Our first goal is to think beyond the larger audience and treat each customer as an individual. They may have similar traits and behaviors to other customers but what we do for them is different.

If you’re doing broad personalization, such as sending emails to customers who purchased a product in the past 10 days, this segmentation is used. The message is tailored to the recipient, but doesn’t include any details beyond the purchase date.

In an email to me, simply saying “Hello Greg” is what I refer too as a simple substitute. It’s one step above “Hello Customer.”

To send a personalized email message, you must use the information that I already have about me. For example, the product or service that I just purchased or reviewed.

Send me a reminder if I have not heard from you in a while. You can also consider my SMS response rate, even though I don’t respond to emails very often.

Also, please give me more than a generic message that could be applied to everyone based on my knowledge and what I may want to see.

Omnichannel engagement

Brands that are able to deliver valuable personalized content, offers, or experiences via a channel such as a website or mobile app, or in-person, will likely make a lasting impression.

Today’s customers don’t use one channel or method to research, purchase or use our products and services. Brands must provide consistent and seamless experiences across all channels, or omnichannel.

Omnichannel success requires consistent messaging across all channels. Customers data can be used to tailor content, offers, and experiences in digital and offline environments.

Unlock more: Personalized experiences and the ROI: Audience measurements

This is a realistic expectation for most marketers.

All this may sound great but is it realistic to provide a personalized, one-to-one experience for all customers across all channels?

Anybody who has worked on such an effort can confirm that it remains a lofty goal for even the most sophisticated organizations. Let’s talk about the obstacles that can often prevent us from achieving our goals.

Platform silos and data silos

Let’s get to the technical first. Large and small companies face common problems with accessing customer data, platforms, or access to both.

These issues make it difficult to connect the dots for both customers and ourselves as marketers.

Get deeper: How do you overcome data silos & fragmentation

Silos within organizations

Similar to the silos of data and platforms, bureaucracy and lack of communication or planning channels can also get in the way.

How can you create an omnichannel experience if the email team, the website team and the advertising department are not able to coordinate?

Cost versus benefit

When evaluating how realistic this may be, it is important to weigh the costs against the benefits.

We’ve seen statistics that show consumers are more likely than others to purchase based on personal experiences. Now it is up to you to determine how to incrementally work towards this one-to-1 omnichannel approach and make smart investments over time.

There may be significant benefits to certain improvements while others might not. This test and-learn, iterative approach can be very beneficial to your business.

How can I get started?

We have just discussed a few reasons this goal might not be possible immediately, but there is still hope.

Good news: “One-to-one” or “omnichannel” are not the ultimate goals. However, it is possible to start slowly and work your way towards them. Let’s look at a few options.

Instead of starting with one-to-one, start with segments

Personalization for each person is our goal. However, we sometimes need to start somewhere. We can begin with audience segmentation.

You are probably already segmenting your users in some way. Instead of focusing on large categories, you can create more specific segments based on behavioral or other data-driven factors. A bridge to personalization can be made by getting more specific with your segments.

Multi-channel marketing is possible.

Omnichannel is a great idea, but it can be difficult for even larger organizations that have more resources. Larger organizations will have to work in more languages and countries, as well as with more third parties like platforms and distribution partners.

It is best to move from single channels that are disconnected to multi-channels. To create a seamless experience, add one channel at the time. This will allow your brand to concentrate on optimizing that channel.

Do not try to address everything at once. This could cause indefinite delays and make it difficult to resolve the data, platform, and organizational obstacles discussed earlier.

Dig deeper: How brands can create omnichannel customer experiences

Create connections with your partner groups

Building connections with other departments in your company is essential, just like connecting dots between data and platforms. To move towards a one-to-1, omnichannel personalization approach, you will need to have allies.

Marketing professionals should know their key partners on the data and technology teams. Talk to your North Star goals and get them involved in the solution.

Start with a proof-of-concept

You may find yourself in a situation where it is not possible to convert all viewers or every channel.

It may be more beneficial to start with a segment of your audience or one product type if you have multiple audiences.

Take, for example:

• You might consider starting with your consumers audience if your company sells both business and consumer products.
• You might sell headphones and computers if you have a large customer base.

However, this doesn’t mean you won’t eventually get to all of them.

You can start with a proof-of-concept such as “We will personalize the experience for consumer headphones customers across three channels.” This allows you to collect data and identify internal problems in the setting up of the initiative. All this while still achieving a specific goal in a manageable amount of time and budget.

The pathway to one-to-1, omnichannel personalization

Your organization may not be able to achieve one-to-one personalization across all channels immediately. However, it is possible to work towards this goal by creating a consistent experience for each channel, platform, and audience. You can also make steady progress in achieving that goal.

The next article in this series of four will be about the importance and second North Star goal, a first-party strategy for data.

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