The Moments that Move People: How Data Drives Emotion in Marketing

Emotions have been running high for months now. The global uncertainty created by Covid-19 has paused some industries while fast-tracking others. We’ve seen creativity take center stage as brands work to stay connected to their customers. (A favorite example: Ikea’s step-by-step instructions for making a fort.)

Marketers everywhere tossed out their plans for the year and started again at square one with some questions. What moves my customers? Is it delight related to a perfectly-timed sales promotion? Are they more likely to click an ad if it features a puppy or a baby—or a baby with a puppy? Are they driven to place an order when time or supply are limited?

Emotions drive our decisions, and creating the right type of emotional moments can help marketers lock in superior results.

In an interview with Social Magnets CEO Ross Quintana, he argued in favor of more emotional marketing. “You have to understand the moments that move people. It is an art to create emotion in groups of people,” Ross said.

While tapping into the emotions of millions of consumers may seem like an impossible task, it can be done. Using the wealth of customer data that exists in the world, we can create more memorable, moving experiences.

Read on for four ways you can use data to create moments that make a difference.

#1. Tighter Targeting for More Relevant Messaging

Marketers used to rely on generic messaging to broadcast to as big of an audience as possible, hoping to bring in the relevant few through sheer numbers. Fortunately, modern advertising has replaced spray-and-pray with demographic and behavior-based data for targeting.

According to Marsha Collier, president of The Collier Company, Inc., we can still do more, however: “If you want to reach your customer, you really have to listen to the data, see who it is that’s shopping with you,” she says.

Marsha believes that it’s no longer enough to use traditional demographics like gender, zip code, and income. Instead, marketers need to ask more questions: “Who is your customer? What are their interests? What are their hobbies? What websites are they visiting? All that data is available,” Marsha says. “You just have to take it, put it all together, draw a picture, and see the customer journey. Because unless you see the customer for who they are, you can’t sell them what they want,” she said.

Systems like a customer data platform can help you collect and analyze the data needed to create a highly-targeted customer experience across the web, from platform to platform, and through online and offline experience.

#2. A Better Understanding of Customer Motivations

Customer behaviors can be perplexing. Why does a consumer ultimately buy Product A instead of Product B? Why do orders drop off between April 1st and April 15th? Why do customers churn?

Thankfully, there has never been more data available to help companies understand buyer behavior.

Stephanie Thum, founding principal at Practical CX, breaks the types of data down like this:  “Experience data comes straight from customers—it’s feedback about their experiences, and it may come from surveys, emails, interviews, contact center recordings, focus groups, or even advisory boards,” she said. “But you need both operational and experience data to power your business decisions. Operational data tells you what’s happening. Experience data can help you to understand why.”

While companies typically have no shortage of experiential data from customers, it’s critical to distinguish between good and bad data. A customer data platform can help focus on the most significant data trends for the best insight into customer motivation.

#3. Amazing Omnichannel Customer Service

“The concept of amazement is within the grasp of every person. It’s this: Better than average, but better than average all of the time. Anybody can be better than average once in a while. But the goal is to be consistently and predictably above average,” said Chief Amazement Officer for Shepard Presentations Shep Hyken during a recent interview.

It makes sense, right? No company would be satisfied delivering exemplary service just on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other weekend. We all know that being amazing is not a part-time gig. And yet, companies still struggle to deliver consistent interactions across marketing channels—resulting in some severe dings in the customer’s overall experience with the brand.

However, with better data management, companies can improve the omnichannel customer experience. By cultivating a single view of the customer, brands can deliver marketing messages tailored to individuals instead of channels.

Of course, achieving a 360-view of customers takes time and, chances are, you’ll probably have some missteps along the way,  But, according to Shep, that’s okay.

“Nobody’s perfect. So, there’s going to be days when you have a problem,” he says. “It’s the way you solve that problem—that’s what gets people back and restores their confidence. What you want people to say is, ‘I like working with them because they’re always knowledgeable. They’re always helpful. They always return my call quickly. Even when there’s a problem, I know I can always count on them.'”

#4. Next-Level Personalization

Marketing isn’t magic, but with personalization driven by real-time data, it can seem pretty close.

“The more we invest in data to personalize the recommendation experience, the more we see improvement in conversion rates,” said Peter Szulczewski, CEO and co-founder of Wish, an online shopping site with 15 million daily active users.

By using Treasure Data Customer Data Platform (CDP), the Wish team has been able to deliver next-level personalization at a massive scale. When shoppers don’t know what they want—brand or item—the Wish algorithms have an uncanny knack of displaying products that appeal to them. An estimated 95 percent of the products that end up in a consumer’s feed are relevant to their desires.

With its eerily accurate recommendation engine, Wish.com is an impulse buyer’s dream come true: nine out of 10 mobile purchases come from tapping a recommendation, not by searching through the store’s inventory.

Make An Emotional Connection

Customer data allows companies to create marketing strategies that move audiences to action.  By understanding the specific motivations associated with the narrowest of segments, companies can exceed customer expectations with a highly personalized omnichannel experience.

For a deep dive on uncovering insights and connecting with customers, check out our Data-Driven Marketer’s Guide Series. We have focused on four areas to help you improve marketing efficiency and deliver better customer experiences: Identity Resolution, Multi-touch Attribution, Predictive Analytics, and Marketing Data Enrichment.