Picture this scenario. During the lockdown triggered by Covid-19, a customer had to shop for clothes. As it falls under the non-essentials category, most retailers had downed shutters. As a result, the customer went to the retailer of the last resort — his mobile phone. The results from a casual search on the retailer’s app, made him a fan for life. Based on his previous shopping behaviour, the unsung hero, AI, was silently working in the background to show recommendations that were based on his style and choice of colours from his past shopping behaviour. This scenario is playing out in industries as diverse as fashion to insurance. Hence, it brings the role of contextual marketing with the right content, up, front and centre.

Content plays an important role in the digital platform. “When the customer finds relevant content when he is shopping online, the trust builds automatically. However, always staying relevant to customers across different geographies and categories, becomes the biggest challenge,” said Kishore Mardikar, chief marketing officer, Tata Unistore (TATACLIQ).

Mardikar was part of the panel discussion, ‘meaningful engagement through automation’ at the Market Automation Virtual Summit. The panel included, Anuj Ranka, digital marketing head, EarlySalary, Abhishek Gupta, chief marketing officer, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Company Limited, Nicholas Kontopoulos, APAC regional head of marketing, Adobe DX Commercial and Kashyap Kompella, chief financial officer, chief executive officer and chief analyst, RPA2AI Research, discussed how automation can be used for delivering a superior customer experience.

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Moderated by Kompella, the discussion started with Mardikar talking about how trust and loyalty of customers manifests itself in the digital world. He stated the advantages of omnichannel retail. “Omnichannel helps us in building trust by building direct connections,” he said. He quickly added that trust is based on customer insights and these insights need to be translated into something more actionable.

Kompella said that customer’s context and behavior is important in providing a meaningful experience. Kontopoulos added, “Contextual marketing is becoming increasingly important. Experiential is without a doubt very critical.” He stated that it becomes the responsibility of the marketer to use the data provided by the customers, in a way that it drives a service-oriented engagement model.

The discussion progressed from content and context to channels. Ranka added that the existence of the different kinds of channels depends on the kind of information and the pace at which the consumer wants the information. He stated that depending on businesses, it is important to understand the stage at which a consumer is, and at each stage the event needs to be defined. That will bring in value, was his submission.

Read Also: Marketing Automation Virtual Summit: We have chosen content to get in quality leadsGupta spoke about the increasing need to integrate online and offline channels. In the insurance business, it was believed that consumers often needed a face-to-face advisory which could happen more in an offline scenario. However, in the current situation, he mentioned that the gap between online and offline has narrowed down significantly and that offline advisors are now understanding that the advisory can happen online as well and the customers are also increasingly shifting to the online mode. “The belief of the offline team was that online sales do not happen or online sales are just a very small component. That belief is getting shattered now,” he said.

The conversation shifted to technology playing cupid for delivering a superior customer experience. To this,
Kontopoulos said that old process when used with new technology would result in an expensive old process.

Ranka put forth an argument that digital first businesses could have a deeper engagement as compared to businesses that are both offline and online, because the customer gets more than what he expects. The challenge, according to him, is that the digital platforms need to level up, because consumers now have a standard of expectations from brands.

Kompella points out the need to balance the human connection with technological intervention. Mardikar said, “It is important to build a conversation rather than simply being too persuasive. He added that being a digital brand doesn’t mean being distant. “It’s necessary to assure the customers of their presence,” he said.