How connecting customer data can make all the difference

Personalisation is key to success in the digital age. Research by McKinsey has shown that curating your messaging to each customer can boost revenue by 10 to 30 per cent and create enduring loyalty. An abundance of customer data at our fingertips means we can tailor our messages relatively effectively, but there’s always room to be more precise.

With most consumers now using multiple devices to connect to the internet and browse, it’s more difficult to build an accurate, comprehensive view of each customer’s behaviour. For example, if a person views your site on their mobile, laptop and tablet, your data analytics programme might count them as three separate customers. You may be serving a customer with the same message multiple times, wasting money or failing to deliver a cohesive customer journey.

So how can you be sure visits come from the same person and give everyone the full customer experience? The answer is visitor stitching. It collates data across platforms, devices and browsers to associate activity with the same person. Here’s what you need to know.

How does visitor stitching work?

Visitor stitching offers a clever way to track customers using different devices to view your products. By mapping identifiers together, you can understand that the person who browsed your website last week is the same person who put a vacuum cleaner in their cart on your Instagram store today —even if they didn’t log in and identify themselves.

A customer data platform (CDP) like Tealium is a crucial piece of the puzzle. This tech lets you recognise customers on any device and channel and combine their interactions into one profile. When a new visitor interacts with your brand on your website or app, your CDP generates an anonymous ID and includes it in the new visitor profile. The same visitor might have several anonymous profiles in the CDP, one for each device or browser. The more that person logs in, browses your site, communicates using their email, or otherwise identifies themselves to the Tealium CDP, the more identifiers the programme collects. These are then ‘stitched’ together to create a fuller profile of that customer. Then, you can identify that individual from any datapoint, and serve relevant content throughout the customer journey.

The value of visitor stitching

Visitor stitching helps you understand the sum of your customer behaviour. You can create a tailored message across all touch points and present unique experiences for new and existing customers.

Here are two common scenarios where visitor stitching would leverage your data, improve conversions and boost customer loyalty:

A visitor you thought was just a tyre-kicking prospect turns out to be a lapsed customer showing renewed interest. With that information, you can ramp up targeting around a specific product or service. For example, now that you know they’re further down the shopping journey, you can remind them of their cart items, show them complementary products and tailor your copy to speak to their future intentions.

A visitor who seemed uninterested, as they regularly bounced off your website (via their phone), showed some serious product interest on their laptop and now qualifies for your retargeting efforts. This signals that they are more likely to complete a purchase on a computer rather than mobile. To push conversion, tweak your mobile calls-to-action to be fun reminders, rather than shopping links.

Target with 20/20 vision

The ‘single customer view’ has been the dream for marketers for decades – but it’s been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve until now. That’s where visitor stitching comes in. With this new tech, you get a complete and accurate view of trackable behaviour across all devices, browsers and touch points, for a fully-realised customer profile and powerful targeting information.

As with any new marketing tech, if you take advantage early, you can gain a competitive edge over businesses left behind. Stitching can help take your personalisation efforts from good to great, delivering relevant content to every customer, boosting conversions and sales numbers, and ultimately upping revenue.

To find out how visitor stitching could work for you, book a call with SpeakData.