Recognize Known Customers Across Channels

It’s common practice in the marketing communications world to use paid ads—social, video, display, and search—to generate leads and acquire new prospects, and then to bombard acquired customers with emails or direct mail. 

This practice raises two concerns: 

• First, whether someone is a prospect or a known customer, his or her shopping experiences are complicated, cyclical in nature, and involve multiple channels and screens. Why do we arbitrarily split channels between prospects and know customers? 

• Second, a growing number of known customers expect a brand to consistently understand their needs and anticipate their desires—regardless of whether they are shopping in a store or on a phone; visiting Facebook, Google, or the brand’s website; reading an email, mobile app, etc. Wherever they are, known customers don’t want to be treated inconsistently. So why do we personalize our messages in direct marketing channels, yet treat these same customers as strangers elsewhere?