According to a recent study by Forbes, 87% of marketers consider data to be the most underutilized asset in marketing organizations. The strongest marketers know that making the most of their data is the key to acquisition, retention and, above all, engagement. This is more than demographic and transaction information—you need to examine how customers respond to each and every experience and touchpoint in order to learn and optimize.
Rosetta Consulting’s recent study on “Customer Engagement from the Marketer’s Perspective” showed that the brands that best engage their customers rely heavily on data to tell them who their customers are and what they want. Strong performers in customer engagement were 2.5 more likely than others to “collect an exhaustive amount of data, providing a complete picture of the individual” and 6 times more likely to leverage real-time data to customize marketing efforts. But gathering information is not enough—you need to gather the right data, consolidate it in a meaningful way, and then use that information to create more relevant experiences for customers in a way that scales.
Identifying Signals in the Noise
All this data can be overwhelming. A leading video game client was collecting more than 7 trillion data points per day from gamers, but needed a way to use that data to create relevant, personalized experiences at massive scale. By understanding what makes different types of players tick, and identifying these players in real time, we were able to provide the gaming experience most likely to keep the gamers playing, encourage in-game transactions and increase the likelihood that they will purchase the next release of the game.
To accomplish this, we created an engagement engine that consolidated the data, then applied rule-based logic and predictive models to automatically generate over three-quarters of a million newly personalized experiences. We measured the results in real time and used player feedback to continually refine and optimize the process.
As a result, the client saw a 350% increase in gameplay, a 533% return on investment, and millions of dollars of found revenue.
Bringing it All Together
The personalization that an engagement engine provides is absolutely critical in engaging customers. Rosetta Consulting’s “Customer Engagement from the Consumer’s Perspective” study found that highly engaged consumers are four times more likely than others to feel the “brand’s communications are relevant.” They are also 4 times more likely to feel that “the brand knows how I prefer to interact.”
In order to provide contextually relevant experiences, information from any number of channels, as well as second- and third-party data, must be meaningfully combined in order to present a clear picture of the customer’s wants and needs.