Technology and data are changing the world and have changed marketing as we know it. The new age of marketing is all about providing a humanized experience. Retailers that can create an immersive retail experience by offering an interactive and personalized experience at every customer touch point are winning the game. But to make this type of real-time personalization possible, retailers need to invest in a comprehensive marketing solution that will gather precious customer data and analyze it to make it actionable. True personalization is not enabled by simply knowing what choices customers make; you must understand why they make them. The artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that power recommendations and predictive models are trained on huge data sets that enable them to deduce which products your shoppers are most likely to be interested in. Early-stage businesses have limited resources and big wish lists, so automation and personalization may seem like a luxury. But here’s all the convincing you might need to take the leap and start with marketing automation early. 1. Start small, start early It takes a while to collect enough data to enable you to act on it. Like brand reputation, the value of data builds up over time. Initially, you won’t have sufficient data to perform even basic segmentation to personalize your campaigns, but you can focus on list building in the meantime. Engaging your audience early can prove to be a huge advantage, and then it will be just a matter of time before you can start personalizing and automating your campaigns. 2. Own your data One of the biggest problems marketers face is data that’s segregated into silos. Instead of integrating disjointed marketing tools that each serve a separate purpose, marketers should adopt a centralized marketing platform to serve all their marketing […]

Read Full Story:  6 reasons SMBs should adopt marketing automation early

Source:  MartechToday