In today’s multi-device and multimedia world, customer journeys are far from linear. Customers are getting signals from all over – advertisements online, social media, email campaigns, websites, TV ads – and this is making their journey look more like a plate of spaghetti than a straight line.
It is no longer worthwhile to just ask consumers what they are doing online. It would be impossible for an individual consumer to recall the hoards of digital activities they perform online in a typical day, let alone in a week or month. Marketers must be tracking what their customers are doing online without interfering with those activities. The best marketers don’t settle for just activity though, they dig deeper to get at the why behind those behaviors.
In today’s multi-device and multimedia world, customer journeys are far from linear. Customers are getting signals from all over – advertisements online, social media, email campaigns, websites, TV ads – and this is making their journey look more like a plate of spaghetti than a straight line.
It is no longer worthwhile to just ask consumers what they are doing online. It would be impossible for an individual consumer to recall the hoards of digital activities they perform online in a typical day, let alone in a week or month. Marketers must be tracking what their customers are doing online without interfering with those activities. The best marketers don’t settle for just activity though, they dig deeper to get at the why behind those behaviors.
Consumers are demanding easy and customized paths now more than ever. Consumers are less loyal than they once were and “shopping around” is performed by most everyone – an easy shopping experience is critical to ensuring that a company stays in the running. There is also a high demand from shoppers to have an experience personalized to their needs. The only way to personalize a customer journey is to have adequate consumer insights and a deep understanding of your audience’s buying process.
Consumers know that their data is being monitored, and they want something for it. Research shows that personalization results in greater consumer engagement, repeat sales, and brand advocacy.
This is why Amazon, the pioneer in eCommerce personalization, offers fully tailored experiences to users based on their shopping preferences, habits, browsing history, search queries, and countless other factors. The relevant product recommendations on your Amazon homepage and product pages are personalization at its best.
Other personalization experts like Facebook and Google do the same by showing the most relevant social posts or the most relevant search results first. Amazon, Facebook and Google base these personalization tactics on consumer behavior studies and data.
While obtaining behavior tracking data to guide strategy is critical, getting at the why behind these behaviors is just as important as the shopper journey. Melanie Courtwright, CEO of the Insights Association, reminds us of how important it is to put our data into context.
A mixed methodology of digital behavior tracking in conjunction with a survey provides this valuable “why”. Single source panels that can get the data from digital behavior tracking and reach out to their members are the best resources. These panels allow researchers to survey the actual consumer that performed the specific activity of interest. Combining multiple methodologies enables researchers to understand what the path to purchase looks like and why shoppers behave the way they do. This triangulation of data builds confidence in the results and offers better sightlines for developing actionable strategies whether you are a brand or a retailer.
Digital behavior tracking and surveys allow you the deep dive that is needed to understand today’s shopper. And today’s shopper is just begging to be understood so that their shopping experiences are smoother and more personalized to their needs. Ensure that you’re able to do so by understanding the actions people make and the reasons behind them.
To learn more about what can be discovered with behavior tracking download our free guide to understand what can be tracked and the different journey types you should be aware of in order to turn your valuable insights into action.
