4 Trends for Personalizing the Consumer Experience

Consumer expectations have shifted, almost two years into a worldwide pandemic, high-quality experiences are now par for the course. Consumers have a better eye for design and for appealing copy and are becoming more cognizant of the marketing that is constantly being served to them. Customers want to be uniquely catered to without feeling like they’re being constantly monitored. 

The first engagement you have with a customer is pivotal; it will be where you offer your value proposition. But with a changing third-party data landscape, it will be the time to discover details about them to better qualify and understand your customer. The customer should then be incrementally sharing data as the relationship builds, understanding  preferences when it comes to marketing strategies, like email. The differentiator in this landscape will be the company’s employment of personalization tactics; through the development of trust, you’ll come to earn more customer data, a converted customer, and then an advocate.

Consumers expect more and trust even less. Entering the third year of the pandemic, many have turned their sights on consumerism as an escape route. The pandemic has given fuel to a changing customer experience and brought about key tactics that can enhance digital marketing and reach target audiences. 

Recognizing the QR Code's Resurgence 

Many haven’t been able to live the life they’ve wanted. Instead, we’ve become more engaged with our smartphones and more reliant on the internet. Many governments have struggled with tracking the virus, and consumers aren’t immediately jumping on board with many of the applications designed to serve public health. While this spelled bad news for the government, there has been a winner: the humble QR code. In its first attempt to break into mainstream technology the QR code didn’t manage to become widely used. The pandemic created the conditions for the QR code to make a resurgence, and as it becomes more frequently used, marketers have the opportunity to harness it to deliver more dynamic experiences. 

Joining the Video Boom

TikTok boomed with its use of short-form video, and all the streaming services made use of millions of people locked in their homes. We’re far more accustomed to video, and it’ll start showing up far more. This increase in video won’t just be within social media, but within websites, signup flows, onboarding, and advertising. Attention span is becoming shorter and shorter, and video is going to be the method to stand out. Video, through powerful storytelling, will help businesses appeal to their potential customers. A video centered on the company’s why or allowing for storytelling will do wonders in establishing trust in a digital environment where trust is extremely limited. 

Enhancing Customer Experience with AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been sneaking its way into more industries, and it will fuel the enhancement of customer experience. Forms and signup flows are a perfect example of using AI to predictively “fill in the blanks” when collecting customer information. Using machine learning to personalize the process, we can get smarter about collecting only what information is absolutely essential for the most streamlined experience. This ability to use AI to understand preferences and give recommendations can really help enhance and refine customer journeys. Businesses will see engagement and conversion rates go up as journeys are shortened and experiences are more personalized with the added benefit of great insight and predictive improvements automatically applied and iterated on many times more than what a human could do. AI can make the customer experience seamless, personal, insightful, and delightful. 

Exploring the New Frontier of the Metaverse

At this very moment, the metaverse inspires a lot of discussions and debates. We could be standing on the precipice of an entirely new way to interact with each other, similar to how life was just before the internet really became mainstream and accessible. The trend that will make or break this particular endeavor will be the adoption and accessibility of virtual reality technology. As the last two years have brought us closer and closer to technology, and our ability to experience all that we want has been limited, the chance for virtual experiences could be a solution. In the midst of lockdowns and restrictions, all so many could think about was escaping. Glimpses of something novel seemed impossible and all the more desirable. We tried to be social with Zoom calls and Google hangouts, but a 3-D experience could change the game. 

The marketing industry has experienced numerous significant shifts in adapting to the new normal of putting the customer experience first, and the companies that seize these changing trends brought on by the pandemic will be the ones to deliver a more relevant and meaningful experience that helps them win. 

Stewart Barrett joined Upflowy as the head of growth in July 2021. Barrett is a data-driven digital strategist with more than 15 years of experience designing, building, and marketing web and mobile platforms. Upflowy is a business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) that personalizes your signup flow to maximize conversions. It uses an innovative approach to simplify the process, creating more time for other tasks.