Customers in this data-driven world expect tailored and personalized experiences that cater to our particular needs. Brands like New York Road Runners (NYRR) and AXAXL set that tone, providing us what we want and when we want it. This "have it your way" customer experience has shifted the way the business world thinks about marketing.

Now, brands want to approach customers with relevant offers at the right moment, not when it is convenient. Marketing professionals are utilizing new techniques, tools, and strategies that enable personalized experiences at scale. In other words, they are using contextual marketing.

So, what is contextual marketing?

Contextual marketing is all about delivering the right content at the right time to the right audience. It uses behavioral targeting, brand awareness, appeal, and engagement. Furthermore, it provides targeted content depending on user information, such as recent searches and browser histories.

For instance, a potential customer searches on Google for the best cars for commute based on fuel efficiency. Then they check their daily dose of news, and the ads show up alongside the information for fuel-efficient vehicles. This customer, interested in saving extra fuel on their daily commute, clicks on the ad to check out the latest range of cars. The purpose here is to deliver products and services to customers who are already interested in them.

Let's now unpack what it truly means and explore the advantages of it!

What is the importance of contextual marketing and how to get started?

With contextual marketing's all-encompassing scope, what does it mean for brands? How do they incorporate contextual marketing possibilities into their discipline?

Contextual marketing is more effective when your potential customers are spending more time online through mobile devices. Because contextual marketing gathers and preserves valuable information about users. This means the more comfortable a user is with online shopping, the more responsive they can be to contextual marketing.

Contextual marketing creates an excellent opportunity for brands and marketers to partner on every step of the journey, create unwavering loyalty, and unleash total customer value.

8 ways contextual marketing unlocks the more growth possibilities

Contextual marketing is essential for many reasons. For instance when you have more context around your relationship with a customer, you're able to deliver personalized and relevant marketing content that caters to their requirements. This is the foundation for creating content that your audience loves! Contextual marketing is typically not the kind of marketing that annoys customers by clicking the "subscribe or unsubscribe" button. That's a win-win!

Marketing that is targeted at customer's points of need will always perform much better for the brand. Because you're not providing marketing content that's not catering to their interests in the sales cycle.

Contextual marketing has myriads of advantages to offer, including;

• Improved the customer experience: As we already know, contextual marketing is highly personalized. The message that is conveyed to customers is appropriately timed and strategically placed.
• Targeted traffic: By emphasizing particular behavior and demographics, you can target your prospects just when they are about to make a buying decision.
• Cost-effective: It doesn't require a massive investment. Simply gather the correct data in the right CRM tool.
• More consumer involvement: Now, your messages can be reached at the right time to customers to encourage better participation with your brand.
• Better ROI: Because of contextual marketing's targeted effort, conversion rates will go up, and sales will increase exponentially.
• Customized advertising: Contextual marketing enables customized advertising means that based on user interest and preferences, the brands can customize the advertised material to attract more leads.
• Better brand awareness: Since you have a better hold on the marketing tactics such as advertising content, and its exposure to users, you have more opportunities to develop better public brand awareness.
• Reduced Ad aversions: Lately, due to security and encryption advancements, users feel more safe, and thus have become more open towards ads that are more personalized for their needs. Since the advertisement material in contextual marketing is more about the service or product than the user's personal information, the user trust strengthens, and the ad aversions automatically reduce. 

How can brands leverage contextual marketing for inclusive growth with Sitecore?

When it comes to contextual marketing, Sitecore is the most perfect option to go ahead with. Sitecore's contextual marketing has the solution to resolve most of the issues related to customer experiences. It says that the best way to deliver a personalized experience is by marketing in the context of the person's past and present history of interaction with your brand.

Here's how?

1. Sitecore 10.2

Creating connections, driving conversions, and fostering customer relationships are amongst the top priorities of growth brands. Sitecore 10.2 has a range of secure and modern commerce solutions, including everything you need to run a global digital commerce storefront. Sitecore makes it easy to consistently refine customer experience from all interactions, even if it's spread over various places, times, and devices. Now, it is easy to turn your customers into brand advocates. Crafting refined targeting marketing campaigns along with a comprehensive customer data repository can make it possible for marketers to provide a seamless CX.

2. Sitecore content hub

To make the most of contextual marketing, brands need to take charge of their complete content lifecycle. Sitecore Content Hub makes it possible by integrating digital asset management with content marketing, digital rights management, product content management, and marketing resource management in one platform. This enables your whole marketing department to work in conjunction. With this single and integrated solution, you can leverage personalization and respond to the content that feeds it.

3. Sitecore experience commerce

Winning your customers starts with delivering a seamless experience. Sitecore Experience Commerce™ (XC) makes it happen by its experience-focused commerce solution. This approach consists of blended content, contextual intelligence, and commerce to deliver the perfect personalized experience that nurtures your customers. This integrates content and marketing on one platform to provide Omnichannel retail experiences that make the right customer happy with the ideal offer to boost profitability.

4. Customer data platforms

CDP is a type of software that helps maintain unified and a persistent customer repository that can be accessed by all other applications. As this database works 24/7 in the background to process, manage and analyze the data and stats, you can convert the findings into effective customer experience strategies. Moreover, CDPs assist marketers so they can embed the generated insights into developing fruitful marketing strategies that help acquire seamless CX.

5. Personalized forms

Now, your brand can create personalized forms on landing pages with Sitecore 10. This is also called Progressive Profiling which means the next time your users fill out the forms; you will get more information about them. Creating a personalized layout on Sitecore is easy. Contextual marketing can be expanded easily with Sitecore by building short, multi-page forms or creating more landing pages for forms.

Exploit the power of contextual marketing

Undoubtedly, customer experience has dominated over the past few years. Because it holds the potential to meet the ever-increasing expectations of customers, with interactions that delight them and distinguish brands. And contextual marketing can make it happen by using behavioral data and insights to drive desired behaviors in your existing customers.

Need appropriate ideas for your business? Explore Icreon’s Sitecore Services.