“Everyone knows that firms are being challenged to rethink how they have interaction with more and more linked, empowered, and discerning prospects,” mentioned Veda Kumarjiguda, senior product advertising and marketing supervisor at Salesforce, in her presentation at The MarTech Convention. “From Salesforce’s State of the Related Buyer report, we will see that 74% of shoppers have used a number of channels to finish a transaction, 76% of shoppers favor completely different channels relying on the context, and 66% of shoppers have used a number of gadgets.”
She added, “I like these stats as a result of they present that omnichannel communication is predicted they usually additionally present the individuality of every subscriber.”
Excessive-quality, custom-made model experiences are what prospects count on in at present’s digital panorama. As a part of its effort to enhance these interactions, Belk labored with Salesforce to ship extra personalization.
Understanding omnichannel wants
“A significant a part of advertising and marketing is knowing the client’s omnichannel wants,” mentioned Colby Eire, lead advertising and marketing analyst at Belk, in the identical presentation. “This involves life in a number of completely different varieties. The primary of that being two new supply strategies that we’ve got established previously couple of years, one in all which was curbside pickup.”
Belk additionally addressed these omnichannel wants by means of same-day supply choices, responding to prospects’ want for immediacy.

“In-store, we’re all the time making an attempt to drive e mail signups,” Eire mentioned. “There are indicators the place prospects can textual content a specialised quantity with their e mail tackle after which robotically be subscribed to our e mail packages.”
“We’ve seen a variety of new e mail subscribers by means of these indicators,” she added.
Belk clearly tailored properly after the pandemic hit — nevertheless it wished to transcend merely assembly omnichannel wants. It wished to extend personalization throughout all buyer experiences.
Customized buyer experiences
“Certainly one of Belk’s most engaged segments is our bank card holder,” Eire mentioned. “We presently have over 2,000,000 energetic e mail subscribers who even have the Belk bank card. These prospects sometimes have the Belk app on their telephones. They comply with Belk on social media, they usually make frequent procuring journeys to their native Belk.”
To thank these prospects for his or her loyalty and enhance personalization, Belk arrange an e mail advertising and marketing marketing campaign that acknowledged birthdays. The advertising and marketing staff created a buyer journey that offers prospects a singular coupon they will use on something within the retailer throughout their birthday month. The coupon is shipped on the primary day of these months, and if a buyer doesn’t use their coupon code, they obtain one other reminder a number of weeks later.
If the client nonetheless doesn’t use their customized coupon, Belk reminds them about it a number of days earlier than it expires. After the month ends, the shoppers who haven’t used the coupon are faraway from the journey.
These extremely customized e mail campaigns present prospects Belk cares about their wants, each within the custom-made coupons and its willingness to let prospects depart the funnel in the event that they’re not partaking.
“Due to this personalization, we’ve got seen nice outcomes, together with an over 6% enhance in conversion fee for every touchpoint,” Eire mentioned.

Eire and the Belk advertising and marketing staff additionally employed a rewards stability system that retains prospects knowledgeable about their unused advantages.
“We are going to present a buyer if they’ve any rewards {dollars} that they will use for his or her subsequent buy,” she mentioned. “If a buyer doesn’t meet that first situation, we then transfer on to the second situation, which might present them how a lot they really must spend to earn that subsequent reward, and if neither situation is met, we present prospects how a lot they would wish to spend to maneuver as much as the subsequent tier.”
“These [messages] have elevated conversions for our every day advertising and marketing campaigns by about 5%,” she added.

Ways like these might help maintain prospects engaged, enhancing their expertise and inspiring buy-in.
Related content material for every advertising and marketing channel
Manufacturers partaking with audiences on e mail, social media, or every other advertising and marketing channel want to ensure their communications resonate with audiences. The messages and medium entrepreneurs select must be based mostly on buyer preferences and their advertising and marketing objectives.
“You need to give it some thought from a perspective of the particular intent behind the messaging,” Eire mentioned. “E-mail and SMS are retention channels, and we’re very transactional. We’re making an attempt to drive the shoppers to transform. We’re making an attempt to maintain them glad making an attempt to retain them and so our content material is slightly bit extra geared towards that goal versus social media.”
She added, “I feel all of it comes again to personalization, having that knowledge on the client and seeing what channel they like.”