When it comes to digital experiences for customers, many companies face a kind of paradox. On paper, it seems customers want a relatively “distant” experience – the ability to browse products via their phone and avoid setting foot in a brick-and-mortar store. However, a company that treats them like “just another customer” is viewed by that customer as “just another company.” Marketing automation software lets you and the customer have it both ways: a tailored, personal experience with the benefits of one-on-one marketing and the speedy convenience of online interaction. Here are three reasons to make online business personal and to improve the customer journey.

1: Customers Want a Personalized Experience

Marketing automation software is able to provide a wealth of customer data for you to analyze. However, if you’re not maximizing this data for the customer experience, you’re wasting your time (and your customer’s). The key to using this data effectively is making sure that each customer enjoys a unique experience at every step of his journey through your sales funnel. For example, it’s not uncommon for customers to visit your site multiple times before making purchasing decisions. When paired with marketing automation software, your CRM can detect behavior during visits to your website and begin to build a more complete picture of each individual customer. As you learn more about the customer through their online behavior, you can build personal relationships by offering information and solutions that are relevant to the customer’s unique interests. At the end of the day, the customer is impressed that you seem to always know what they might be interested in … sometimes before they do.

2: One-On-One Marketing Doesn’t Have to Mean Brick and Mortar

The goal of marketing automation is to take the typical experience of visiting a website (in which the customer is one of thousands of visitors) and make it feel more like they are doing business with a trusted advisor. In this sense, the CRM software and its ability to offer the customer relevant information and related solutions does more than send the right information at the right time. Rather, it lets you both have the best of both worlds: the customer experiences the tailored, one-on-one experience of working closely with a business while enjoying the speed of faster research and purchasing via the internet. Put together, this means customer loyalty … which means, of course, repeat business.

3: CRM Software Benefits Both the Customers and Your Business

The use of marketing automation software puts people first, and that experience does not end with the customers. CRM software improves the experience at every level, from tailored communication to interactions with employees who know exactly what the customer wants. This benefits your employees as well: having instant access to organized information about each customer means faster and more fruitful transactions, whether the employee is selling products or offering technical support. And, this personalized, one-on-one approach ends up benefiting your company as well. According to studies, use of CRM software can improve sales revenue by 41 percent per person, improve customer retention by 27 percent, and improve lead conversion by an impressive 300 percent.

Making online business personal again is just one step you can take to see your business thrive. Tailored customer journeys are an absolute essential to differentiate your business from your competitors.