Every so often, B2C marketers come across innovative techniques that resonate strongly with consumers and help drive significant results. And today, when most marketers are battling against a noisy market, having resources available to combat overwhelmed or distracted consumers is a must.
Through our research on how marketing can cut through the noise, we noticed a trend in the types of solutions brands are offering: Each has to be immersive and spark consumer interest. Many also revolve around one or more of these themes: gamification, personalization and brand humanization.
Below, we’ve detailed how each theme can be used to enhance interactions between brands and consumers. You’ll find benefits and strategies you can use to improve communication with consumers and, of course, distinguish your brand in all of today's noise.
1. Gamification
Gamification is the process of implementing game-like tactics (competition, levels, points, teams, rules, etc.) into traditionally non-gamified arenas, like marketing, to encourage a more playful atmosphere. That element of play coincides with consumers’ natural desire to compete. Consumers are goal-oriented and having an objective to achieve is often a major component in whether or not they engage in something.
Being rewarded for their engagement is also important to consumers; they thrive on incentives and positive reinforcement. Gamification is inherently designed to provide those psychological ego boosts consumers need to participate in a marketing activity.
To cut through the noise with gamification, you’ll have to rely on some of those game-like tactics we mentioned earlier. Having a point system, progress bars, levels or badges are some fun examples of gamification strategies that allow consumers to set a goal and keep track of their progress.
2. Personalization
The customer journey is a personal experience by nature. Consumers buy products and pick brands based on their interests. With so many factors pointing towards consumers’ appreciation of personalized events, it only makes sense that marketers would tailor their experiences to consumers.
Personalization is the act of creating tailored marketing content that specifically caters to the needs and wants of your audience. Considering personalized marketing is designed to focus on individual desires of a consumer, tactics are often specific and vary with each case. However, personalization can still be used across many marketing channels to promote strong customer relationships.
Personalized email marketing may look like personalized subject lines, segmented audiences or messages crafted based on consumer shopping habits. Using personalization in mobile app marketing could include tactics such as real-time updates on orders, wishlist notifications and recommendations.
3. Brand humanization
When attempting to cut through the noise in today’s market, you’ll have to understand many things about consumer behavior, one of which is that consumers don’t easily trust brands. In fact, consumers are known to trust other humans much more than companies or corporations. Fortunately, there’s a way you can ease consumers into building a better relationship with your brand. It’s known as brand humanization.
A well-known concept in consumer psychology, brand humanization is the process of incorporating humanistic qualities into brand marketing to increase reliability and proximity with consumers. Humanizing your brand will require you to have a personality that meshes well with your customers. You’ll want to consider the state of mind they're likely to be in when interacting with you. That might be cute and bubbly, or professional and corporate. Either way, if you communicate with your customers as another human would, it’ll be much easier for them to spot you in a noisy market.
Cutting through the noise can seem impossible, but there are resources available to help you on your journey. Gamification, personalization and brand humanization are just a few of the tools you can use to engage your customers.
