The secret to making customers respond to one ad and ignore another? Megan Jones, Senior Director at January Digital, believes it’s how brands speak to consumers that matters most.

1. Customers are individuals. Ads should be too. 

Show customers you understand them by determining the appropriate language, imagery, platform and even time of day for messaging. For example, gather data on how your customer interacts with your brand and meet them where they are. If your customer comments on your Instagram ads, leverage direct messaging in Instagram to reach out to them and try to engage them to purchase based on their comment.

2. Be prepared to engage with shoppers wherever they are (and remember, they’re everywhere) 

From apps to news sites, shoppers are online all day every day. This is great because you have numerous opportunities to engage directly, but not so great because it means customer service teams have to be prepared for numerous points of customer interaction. To ensure a seamless customer experience from start to finish, marketing and customer service teams must work together and use a cohesive tone.



3. Think of your customer and their experience first, then specific marketing channels second

Gather customer data then use that data to prioritize your spend against it. This way, you can prioritize high value, high lifetime value, lapsed and other customer groups based on the value of the customer instead of prioritizing spend against a particular channel. Since where a customer spends time will change often, relying on your own first-party data will allow you to inherently follow the customer wherever they are.

4. Sometimes, marketing is market research. 

Of course sales matter, but spending money against insightful first-party data collection is more valuable than a quick sale, as it allows for long-term customer growth. Taking the opportunity to learn about your customer allows you to position that customer for lifetime growth instead of a one time purchase.