Predictive marketing is a new trend in today’s marketing world. As many companies are looking for ways to improve personalization and better the customer experience, the use of predictive technology is becoming more and more relevant — and for good reason.
Having the knowledge and technology to predict the next steps of your customers allows you to stay ahead of their wants and needs. You can then provide them with the most relevant content, at the perfect time.
While it might sound too good to be true, with the help of advanced predictive marketing software, it’s easier than ever to foresee what your customers will need from you in the near future. The top 91% of marketers are using software to harness the power of AI and predictive analytics will help you take your marketing to the next level.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what predictive marketing software is and a few ways it can benefit you.
Looking to skip ahead? Here’s a quick look at the 3 benefits of predictive marketing that we’ll discuss:
- You can better understand the future needs of your customers
- You can improve customer retention and reduce churn rates
- You will make your marketing efforts more efficient and successful
What is predictive marketing?
At this point, you may be wondering what predictive marketing is.
Predictive marketing isn’t just your run of the mill marketing. It’s a way for you to connect with your customers on an entirely new level and provide them with the best brand experience. So let’s take a step back and talk a little more about predictive marketing and how it differs from the digital marketing you’re already doing.
Predictive marketing taps into the world of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and predictive analytics to help you better understand your customer base. With this technology, you have the ability to mine mass amounts of data that would take a person months to interpret.
Once this data has been identified, you’ll begin to see customer behavior and trends appear. You can then use this information to help you form data-driven marketing decisions that are much more likely to resonate with your customers.
More and more companies are realizing the power of predictive analytics. The number of people investing in predictive technology continues to grow year over year across various industries.
Understanding the future actions of your customers based on their historical data such as purchase and browsing behavior will allow you to market to them on an entirely new level. That’s why the predictive analytics market continues to grow as more companies begin to understand the power of understanding their customers on a more granular level.
How does predictive marketing software improve marketing?
Knowing that predictive marketing is driven through advanced technology, it’s most likely not something you can do alone.
That’s where predictive marketing software comes into the picture. Similarly to the programs you probably already use, it’s designed to make it simpler to analyze and utilize predictive marketing.
Predictive marketing is already being adopted by top marketers. It’s something they’ve invested time and money into implementing to better their marketing efforts.
A predictive marketing software will help you analyze your customer data in real-time and will generate predictions based on this information. From there, it can begin to automate your marketing efforts a step further by automatically sending emails and communication based on customer behaviors.
Here are a few common use cases for predictive marketing:
- Identify trends among your customers
- Build your list segmentation
- Initiate cross-selling and upselling techniques
- As a sales enablement tool
Machine learning technology allows these systems to continuously change as your customers do. Updating preferences, segmentation, and lifecycle stages in real-time as the behaviors and actions of your customers change.
And that’s the true power of predictive marketing software. It allows you to leverage the insights from AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics to continuously grow and change with your customers.
How can predictive marketing benefit you?
Predict marketing can benefit your company in a plethora of ways. With the backing of this advanced technology, you can start to make data-driven marketing decisions that provide you with real results.
Take the guesswork out of your current model and let your predictive marketing software help you predict what your customers want next. By leveraging these predictions, you can expect to see results including improved conversions, lower churn rates, and more successful marketing campaigns.
Predictive analytics is one of the most common ways marketers are using predictive technology. When you compare predictive analytic users to non-users, it’s easy to see who the winner is.
Now that you have a better understanding of what predictive marketing is and how utilizing software can help improve your current marketing efforts. Let’s take a deeper dive into exactly how predictive marketing tactics can help benefit your company.
1. Better Understand the Future Needs of Your Customers
As we’ve already discussed, utilizing predictive marketing software will allow you to understand your customers on a more granular level. With this knowledge, you can then begin to predict their future needs and provide them with the right content at the right time.
So how does this benefit your marketing efforts? By forecasting what products a customer may need or learning their activity trends, you can expect to see an increase in engagement and conversions.
It’s done by honing in on the unique needs of your customers based on data such as shopping and browsing history, expected lifetime value, and where they are in the customer lifecycle. From there, you can implement tactics such as upselling and cross-selling to increase your revenue numbers.
Predictive marketing tools allow you to identify what items are most relevant to a customer’s interests and previous purchases. You can use that information to cross-sell related products and upsell on the products they may already be purchasing.
Knowing this information provides you with everything you need to know to provide your customers with an improved experience and you can expect to see improved metrics across the board.
2. Improve Customer Retention and Reduce Churn Rates
It’s much more cost-effective to retain current customers than it is to target new customers. In fact, increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase your profits by 25%, if not more.
Taking the time to reach out to customers on the verge of churning is a big opportunity. When you consider that just a small change in retention can result in big revenue adjustments, it’s worth your time.
By using predictive marketing software, you have the ability to identify and target customers who are on the path to churning. It will then enroll customers who have been inactive for a specified timeframe, say 30, 60, or 90 days, and enroll them into a retention campaign.
With the right software, this can all be done automatically and behind the scenes. You won’t have to physically mine through your customer data to determine who is currently inactive and who is expected to become inactive in the coming months — your predictive marketing platform handles and predicts all of this for you.
All you have to do is make the decision to invest in the right software, develop your retention campaign tactics, and hit go. The predictive marketing technology will take it from there. You’ll quickly see the benefits of retaining customers.
3. Make Your Marketing Efforts More Efficient and Successful
While this third benefit encompasses everything we’ve already discussed, it’s important to mention. Predictive marketing will make your overall marketing efforts more efficient and successful.
Through automation and leveraging technology that allows you to mine mass amounts of data, you’ll be able to learn more about your customers than ever before. You’ll no longer have to waste your marketing budget on ineffective campaigns that no one opens or reads — you’ll know exactly what content your customers will engage with.
With better targeting and customer segmentation, you can reach larger audiences with a more personalized experience and increase engagement. If you are not taking the time to personalize your emails, it’s been said that 52% of your customers may be choosing to go elsewhere with their business.
The benefits of predictive marketing are endless. With one simple software investment, you have the ability to understand your customers on a new level and improve your current marketing efforts like never before.
Are you ready to invest in predictive marketing software?
Knowing when it’s time to invest in predictive marketing can vary for everyone. But if you’re ready to take your marketing to the next level and see improved customer engagement — predictive marketing software is the perfect way to do it.
Whether you’re looking to better understand your customers’ needs, improve retention rates, or just make your marketing efforts more successful, now’s the time to get started. Don’t waste any more time! Start predicting the future and providing your customers with the content they want today.
