A Point of View KYCS - Integrating KYC with Identity: The Future-Ready Marketing Approach Abstract media has empowered us to voice and share our opinion on things that impact our lives. It has reshaped communication methods, with brands offering targeted marketing initiatives to enhance customer reach. However, these promotions can be made far more effective if they are integrated with the comprehensive profile of the customer, instead of just being driven through social media activity. This paper discusses how the social profile of a customer can effectively be connected with his or her formal identification details, to gain an in-depth understanding of the customer and offer relevant products and services. Adapting the 'KYCS - Know Your Customer ly' Strategy Know Your Customer, more commonly referred to as KYC, is a regulatory requirement for most companies, especially the banking and financial services organizations which have strict norms to adhere to. Other industries also maintain similar records of customer information for a better understanding of their needs and to accelerate targeted initiatives for incremental revenue opportunities. However, this exercise is still confined to basic details like name, address, mobile number, email ID, and demographic data like gender, marital status, and age. Organizations miss out on the goldmine of social data which customers share today. This is the mega trend, which most business-to-customer (B2C) marketers across verticals, from banking and financial services to retail and telecom are now chasing to gain actionable insights. Consumers are increasingly sharing a lot of information online via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, with blogs and discussion forums reflecting the individual's views, preferences, and interest areas. From a brand's perspective, this data offers immense potential to brands if exploited correctly. Organizations can integrate this data with the existing customer information and predict the best target offer, which will then have a much higher chance of conversion. This has become the most sought after data that marketers are chasing in today's hyper-competitive world. It is applicable to all companies across all verticals, with B2C customer-connect offering an enhanced understanding of their customers' preferences, likes and dislikes.
So, from an organizational perspective, what is it that you can do to make your current social media ads and other promotions effective? This is where KYC, a method traditionally employed in the banking domain can be used along with social insights. Let us understand the business flow of the KYCS system through the diagrammatic representation in Figure 1. It shows how such a system can better target the individual with relevant offers and increase the chances of conversion in the case of a retail company. At first, the customer's basic data name, address, city, and so on is integrated with his or her social media profile. Then, the organization carefully analyzes the customer's activity on social media to track preferences. Finally, this data is integrated with the retail portal to offer targeted marketing campaigns. 1 2 3 4 Map social profiles to customer's Listen to and analyze social media mentions Identify customer preferences and create personas Integrate with portal for targeted digital and social campaigns Customer Data First name Last name Address 1 City Customer ID... Profile Facebook ID Twitter Handle Yelp ID Foursquare ID Blog URL... Customer Transaction Data Likes Samsung HTC Dislikes Blackberry iphone Use Case 1: Personalized customer experience on web commerce site Use Case 2: Targeted social and digital campaigns and email offers Figure 1: Customer profiling on social media for retail companies Assessing Use Cases through the KYCS Approach Figure 1 illustrates how organizations can benefit from a social profile based targeting approach. It further depicts how an enhanced understanding of the potential customer's social handle, transactional data, and social influencing capability can increase the reach of marketing strategies and improve customer conversion. It shows how an enhanced understanding of the potential customer's social handle, transactional data, and social influencing capability can increase the reach of marketing strategies and improve customer conversion. As presented above, to successfully employ the KYCS scenario, there are multiple process steps which need to be followed within an integrated system. The systemic flow of processes to target relevant online customers is demonstrated in Figure 2. 2
Profiling Listening CRM Integration and Digital Personalized Campaigns Figure 2: An overview of the KYCS process KYCS versus SEM This KYCS system closely resembles the current SEM (Search Engine Marketing) system, where targeted ads are based on the user's search patterns or browsing history. Targeted offers in the case of KYCS are for aspirational goals as well, which customers may tweet, share on social media, or discuss online in addition to all the customer information available online. These two different methods of targeted personalized ads are complementary to each other, and when deployed together can improve the chances of conversion greatly. KYCS adds greater intelligence on the inherent interest areas and preferences of an individual, as opposed to just the immediate search patterns of the SEM technique. A technical flow diagram with systems (Figure 3) highlights the need for integrating technology and systems already in place to make it successful and to make social insights actionable as part of the digital marketing strategy CRM Data (Details like customer name, email address, telephone number, address, and so on ) Email ID Handles Profiling Tool Monitor Networking Sites for Appended Contacts Handles Listening Tool Crawled Data Influence Scoring Tool Text and Sentiment Analytics Algorithms CRM Data + Data + Conversations Marketing or Promotion Campaign Systems Ads Figure 3: Understanding the KYCS system 3
For a successful KYCS system, it is important to identify the social handles of the customers, following which the brand can listen in on various social channels. Based on the various relevant segmentation and analytical criteria, the company can target customers on specific channels, with relevant offers to increase brand connect with end consumers. About the Author Nishith Mathur Domain Consultant, Digital Enterprise Nishith has over nine years of IT experience, with a focus on social media products consulting, sales, and customer engagement. A keen follower of trends in the digital and social business landscape, Nishith holds a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication from Gujarat University, and a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from the S. P. Jain Center of Management. 4
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