For example, a person may see a product they like while scrolling on social media, head over to a retail website to make a purchase, and then manage in-store pickup or delivery from an app on their mobile device. A brand could recommend in-store deals or related items in stock at their pickup location that they may want to add to their shopping list ahead of collecting their online order.

Relevant messaging, services and offers delivered at the right moments provides clear value to shoppers, delighting them when they’re best positioned to make a purchase decision, sign up for a loyalty program or check out a new product.

First-party data enables brands to create new customer experiences and evolve the customer journey, with opportunities to engage and increase revenue in innovative ways. One global CPG firm did exactly that. Using a customer data platform, the brand was able to consolidate their customer data to uncover insights on purchase behavior and product preferences. This enabled the company to launch a D2C subscription business and deliver new experiences to their customers by offering auto-replenishment notifications and product recommendations that could be accessed directly through a new line of smart home appliances – giving the brand an always-on way to continuously build relationships with their customers.

Implementing always-on engagement requires core data and technology capabilities. A test-and-learn process lets brands identify areas of opportunity and what technology solutions are needed to achieve the best results.

Most organizations will move through a four-step process:

Work within the organization to define how the business needs to change in regard to digital maturity, evaluate market readiness and identify opportunities that may be relevant for your brand. This will help establish what always-on looks like within your organization and what needs to be done to elevate or augment existing marketing efforts.

Identify and develop a portfolio of pilot programs that account for nuances across the entire organization, along with potential partners or infrastructure that may be needed to achieve the vision. Then, design a model that will allow the organization to test these programs to see if they have the potential to achieve overall business goals.

With a structure in place, goals set, and needs identified, you can begin to build out an enterprise-wide plan to roll our your always-on strategy. Develop a library of use cases for always-on capabilities you aim to deliver and prioritize initiatives in a way that balances both short-term returns and long-term investments. Then, create a roadmap that will allow your organization to achieve your goals while creating new value.

Always-on is inherently iterative – and the process for optimizing should be too. As you continue to scale your strategy, keep an eye on challenges, areas of improvement and feedback to quickly adjust as you scale. Feedback from employees can be used to help develop training on new tools, technology or processes that guide the organizational shift.

Conclusion

The relationship consumers have with brands and how they choose to shop is changing, with added value beyond the transactional playing a key role in building lasting loyalty. For brands, this may seem like a massive shift – but with an intentional, data-driven approach to engagement, organizations can establish a foundation that will enable them to scale and evolve just as rapidly as consumer preferences do.