Have you ever been scrolling through your social media feed and stumbled upon an ad that seems to address your exact needs at that moment? It’s not sorcery; it’s the power of performance marketing.
Performance marketing is a digital advertising strategy that allows brands to pay only when a specific action such as a click, conversion, or sale occurs.
The accuracy and efficacy of a performance marketing strategy depend on the customer data collected through Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. CRM data is rich with customer interactions and behavior insights, which brands can leverage to enhance their targeting strategies.
In this article, let’s look at how performance marketers can harness CRM data to create compelling, personalized advertising campaigns that drive targeted customer engagement.
What is CRM Data and Performance Marketing?
CRM data is a collection of customer information you’ve gathered over time, such as their contact information, what they’ve purchased, how they responded to previous marketing campaigns, and their conversations with customer support.
Imagine, for instance, a customer named Maria who recently purchased a coffee machine from your online store. She also engaged with your newsletter featuring new coffee recipes. All of this her name, purchase orders, and subscription to your newsletter are CRM data.
Now, let’s talk about performance marketing. It’s a straightforward approach where you only pay when a specific action a click, a sale, a form submission is taken.
Performance marketing uses this CRM data to help brands maximize the reach and efficiency of their ad campaigns. These ad campaigns run on various performance marketing challenges such as social media platforms, a search engine, or any place where your customers spend their time online.
Essentially, CRM data gives you the ‘who’ and ‘what’ to target, and performance marketing provides you the ‘where’ and ‘how’ to do it.
Performance marketing campaigns supported by CRM data are a great option for brands of all sizes, particularly small-to-medium businesses because you’re not shooting an arrow in the dark; you’re zeroing in on the people most likely to be interested in what you’re offering.
How to utilize CRM data to target customers
1. Lead Scoring
Lead scoring assigns numerical values to each of your leads that denote their likelihood to convert. These values are calculated by considering several factors, such as the lead’s behavior on your website, their engagement with your marketing efforts, or their overall fit with your target customer profile.
For instance, a lead who regularly interacts with your brand via social media will have a higher score than one who visited your website only once.
These scores help you create customized campaigns for both high and low-scoring leads to nurture them appropriately towards conversion.
2. Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation is the process of dividing your customer base into various groups based on common traits, such as buying behavior, demographics, or personal interests. This allows businesses to treat their customers not as a homogenous mass but as unique individuals with unique preferences.
This strategy is essential for identifying different customer groups, such as loyal customers who are ready for upsell or disappointed customers who need attention to prevent churn.
By segmenting customers, performance marketers can create campaigns that resonate more deeply with each customer’s specific needs and preferences, thereby improving engagement and driving conversions.
3. Geo-targeting
Geo-targeting helps brands tailor their marketing efforts based on the geographic location of their audience. While it’s particularly relevant for local businesses aiming to attract nearby customers, it’s also advantageous for larger brands.
For instance, geo-targeting allows these brands to create more resonant and impactful campaigns based on the local trends of their target audience.
For example, Amazon India creates ad campaigns based on local festivals to resonate with relevant customer segments which helps them drive engagement and sales.
4. Re-targeting
Re-targeting or remarketing is a method through which businesses track their leads and site visitors across the web and re-engage with them through relevant content and ad messages.
This allows them to stay on top of their audience’s mind resulting in increased brand affinity and sales probability.
For instance, let’s say you are traveling somewhere and are looking at airline tickets and hotel accommodation rates on the internet. After a while, you decide to take a break by checking your Facebook feed only to encounter an ad from a booking platform like Expedia:
5. Improving Products and Services
CRM data allows businesses to gather insights based on customer preferences, behavior patterns, and feedback that helps refine their offerings for long-term growth and customer retention.
Additionally, this solidifies brand reputation and ensures that the business stays relevant and competitive. For instance, Medium.com, a publishing platform, constantly analyzes user behavior to discover common pain points or desired features, guiding the development of an improved reading experience.
Wrapping up
Performance marketing campaigns backed by CRM data help brands reach their customers with engaging and personalized content that resonates.
Lead scoring and focusing on high-potential customers, segmenting audiences for precise personalization, and leveraging geo-targeting to tap into local trends are a few of the many ways performance marketers can use CRM data to target their customers effectively.
Beyond this, CRM data is also a valuable resource for continuous product and service improvements, driving long-term growth.