The average American’s attention span has plummeted over the past decade from 12 minutes to a shockingly brief eight seconds — shorter than that of a goldfish — according to a recent study. This means people spend significantly less time in any one place and spread their attention thinly over many sites, apps and information sources. In this climate, it can be a real challenge for businesses to compete for consumer attention.
Digital natives, in particular, can be difficult to reach. They have largely grown up with computers and have a practically innate ability to filter out content that doesn’t interest them. For business owners who want to succeed today, it’s imperative to figure out how to stand out from the crowd and grab a small slice of this already-miniscule attention span.
But just as information technology has created more competition for consumer attention, it has also provided a brand new set of tools to help businesses better connect with customers.
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Here are 8 tips for getting through to customers and transforming them from flitting butterflies into loyal honeybees that visit your hive day after day:
1. Know What They Buy And Where
One important way you can cut through the clutter is by understanding your customers better. Studying their behavior patterns, such as what types of items they prefer to buy in-person versus online can help you decide how to allocate your marketing spend effectively. For example, when we conducted a study in late 2013, we discovered that people in the 18 to 29 age group largely prefer to shop in-store for: Apparel (73%), footwear (76%), home goods (62%), furniture (81%) and jewelry (62%.) On the other hand, 84% of people in this age group prefer to buy electronics online. These nuances are not necessarily intuitive, so having the facts can help businesses determine what to advertise online and which promotions will perform best in-store, among other marketing decisions.
2. Offer Relevant Deals
It’s vital to make sure your marketing is relevant and that deals are sufficient to drive purchases. For example, in our study, almost 50% of Millennial consumers reported they’d only be willing to go to a retailer location to use a coupon if it offered at least 20% off. It’s important to test discount thresholds to find out what it takes to get people to visit and purchase. For example, a personalized “buy 10, get one free” for specific products and services that an individual customer has demonstrated a preference for can be a great way to achieve loyalty and not just one visit. LevelUp has also perfected the art of layering this on top of the POS system, offering loyalty-driven deals like a $10 credit for every $100 spent over time at any given store.
3. Understand The Real Value Of Loyalty
If you can incentivize customers to sign up for a loyalty program or register on your e-Commerce platform, you can collect data that will help you better understand your customers and thus, offer more relevant deals. Knowing who your customers are can help you attract their attention and stand out from the many irrelevant offers we’re bombarded with every day. In other words, loyalty programs shouldn’t just be about discounts. Want to see a company doing loyalty right? At Kroger, 97% of transactions involve a store loyalty card. They know that the more transactions that are tied to a loyalty program, the more they can learn about their customers.
4. Go Beyond The Discount
5. Personalize Your Marketing
Segmenting is a good place to start developing a more responsive marketing program. But it’s not the place to stop. Kroger likes to describe its direct-response marketing campaigns as “snowflakes” because no two customer programs are exactly alike. Instead, Kroger tracks customers as individuals and offers tailored promotions and information related to what they have purchased or might like to buy. This program has created a massively loyal consumer base for them (and generated $10 billion in revenue to boot). Kroger’s success here can be attributed to a focus on seeing customers as individuals rather than crudely segmenting them.
6. Embrace Omnichannel
Our survey found 53% of Millennial consumer respondents consider their shopping experiences to be seamless across channels with their favorite retailer. But they also reported that retailer sites are often lacking in extensive functionality. The real goal of omnichannel is for businesses to be able to track customers as they move across channels, recognizing an individual whether he’s searching on a tablet at night or shopping on a computer at lunchtime. Ideally, businesses should offer a seamless experience across the board. The best way to do this is to implement tracking that lets you identify customers no matter what platform they’re using.
7. Let Them Pay How They Want
You might see payment options as a minor aspect of the transaction, but it actually can have a huge impact on the customer experience and your ability as a business to learn from your customers. According to Karen Webster, “the payments experience can actually make or break a ‘loyalty’ experience, not to mention being a pretty critical part of closing the loop and capturing data that helps enrich the data set about a customer’s preferences.” Kroger’s marketing firm dunnhumby uses ISIS to help the grocery chain better understand how customers choose to spend money and deliver coupons directly to them via the app.
8. Don’t Oversaturate
Finally, as tempting as it can be to reach out to your customers constantly to remain top of mind, you can establish far more trust and value by not oversaturating them. We all have to deal with a flood of emails, tweets, text messages, push notifications and more. The last thing your customers want is one more piece of communication that doesn’t hold real value for them. Instead, pair a “less is more” approach with a commitment to personalization and relevance. You’ll cut through the clutter by ruthlessly paring down your marketing to only the things that you know will make your customers feel valued and believe you have their best interests in mind.
What are you doing to generate loyalty in today’s “ADD” world?
As Senior Director of Corporate Marketing, Jenn Reichenbacher leads the organization’s public relations and content marketing efforts, focused on leveraging thought leadership to support existing customers and expand the organizations reach in the world of mobile commerce.
