Welcome to our five-part series on modernizing your martech. Previously, we introduced why now’s the time to upgrade your legacy technology. In this second installment, we’re discussing the role martech plays in increasing customer lifetime value (LTV).
In this blog post, we’ll cover the following:
- Why you risk falling behind with outdated systems
- The continued importance of customer lifetime value
- How legacy martech limits your LTV
- The benefits of martech modernization on customer loyalty
- Real-world success stories of making the switch
- Quantifying the impact of modern martech
Want to skip ahead and give your LTV a major boost? We have a brand-new tool that can help. Try out the Iterable Value Calculator to assess the business value of martech modernization.
Modernize or Get Left Behind
As we covered in our first installment, legacy martech tools no longer meet the rising consumer expectations for seamlessly individualized customer-centric experiences. The evolution in consumer behaviors coupled with the proliferation of available data, expanded marketing channels, and the advancement of artificial intelligence have led to a transformation in the marketing landscape.
Outdated systems struggle with activating real-time data and adapting to customer behaviors, and brands that cling to them are missing out on both agility and innovation, while struggling to scale efficiency of their efforts.
In fact, 89% of marketing leaders reported that AI-driven initiatives have directly contributed to revenue increases within the last year. Yet, legacy providers struggle to provide the speed-to-market on innovation, as well as the flexible integrations that enable brands to capitalize on these innovations.
By upgrading to a future-ready martech stack, your team can:
- Build stronger, more meaningful customer connections
- Increase loyalty and purchase frequency
- Outpace the competition with agile, adaptive technology
Modern martech allows brands to capitalize on data and AI-driven personalization, evolving in lockstep with customer needs. And that’s critical when it comes to boosting customer lifetime value.
The Rising Importance of Customer Lifetime Value
Lifetime value (LTV) is a measure of the total revenue a business can expect from a customer throughout their relationship. Increasing LTV is crucial for long-term growth and profitability, as acquiring new customers is 5-7x more costly than retaining existing ones.
This is largely because today’s consumers have countless options at their fingertips—in fact, 73% of them will jump ship after one bad brand experience, making LTV more important than ever.
With integrated, explainable AI and real-time data activation, modern martech like Iterable’s AI Suite enables brands to maximize the value of every customer interaction, optimizing the entire lifecycle with applied contextual intelligence rooted in customer behaviors and preferences. By understanding their audiences’ behavioral data and automating personalized journeys based on their propensity to engage, marketing leaders can ensure their customers keep coming back for more.
Let’s dive deeper into why legacy tools aren’t cutting it anymore.
The Limitations of Legacy Martech
Legacy martech systems aren’t just draining your IT budget. They limit your ability to strengthen customer relationships and increase customer lifetime value.
Here’s how outdated technology is holding your business back:
- A disjointed view of the customer. The rigid architecture of relational databases limit a marketer’s ability to create a unified customer view. Without a full picture of customer behaviors and preferences, updated in real time, legacy martech can’t proactively identify brand sentiment and keep customers engaged, which leads to a higher risk of churn.
- Delayed data sync. Because traditional tools can’t activate customer data in real time, they’re inherently slower and clunkier, negatively affecting campaign agility. Only API-first, cloud-native solutions can maximize the value of real-time data, shifting from point-in-time campaigns to adaptive experiences rooted in individualized relevance for the moments that matter.
- Significant engineering resources required. Simply maintaining basic functionality with legacy systems becomes resource-intensive, as technical teams are needed to achieve sophisticated personalization. Modern, no-code solutions enable marketers with direct access to data, allowing them to automate personalized customer journeys at scale.
To maximize LTV, brands need platforms that remove these limitations and allow marketers to unleash the full potential of their customer data.
So how exactly does martech modernization lead to customer loyalty? Let’s discuss the benefits.
The Benefits of Martech Modernization on Customer Loyalty
On the flip side, modernizing your martech unlocks powerful opportunities to enhance customer loyalty and boost LTV.
- AI-driven, dynamic personalization leads to higher engagement in the long term. Modern martech platforms leverage AI-powered propensity models with glass-box insights to identify at-risk customers and support re-engagement efforts. This increases the likelihood of reducing churn and promoting loyalty for the long haul.
- Flexible platforms with real-time data activation enable stronger loyalty. Innovative, more agile solutions enable marketers to quickly capitalize on known behavioral insights, allowing them to individualize lifecycle engagement and promotional offerings to increase purchase frequency and spend.
- Marketing ease of use means better campaign strategy and velocity. By reducing the time spent on manually building campaigns in clunky systems, marketing leaders can increase their teams’ efficiency and free up their brainspace for strategic initiatives and campaigns that move the needle.
Real-World Success Stories
Leading brands are already realizing these benefits by switching from their legacy solutions to Iterable’s modern alternative.
Care.com Harnesses AI to Boost CLV
Care.com replaced its standalone messaging platforms with Iterable for automating customer journeys across email, SMS, mobile push, and in-app communications. This gave the team the full picture of their customer experience, allowing them to continually optimize based on user behavior.
By utilizing Iterable’s AI-driven Channel Optimization, Care.com can now automatically communicate with customers on the channels they are most likely to engage with. With Channel Optimization, Care.com has achieved a 30% lift in care-seeker bookings on the platform.
“I now spend less than five minutes pulling the data for my sites on a weekly and monthly basis. The rest of the time, I focus on actually understanding the customer behavior. These tools save time in the long run and allow your team to create the best experiences for your customers.” ~ Matthew Naturman, Associate Marketing Manager, Lifecycle Marketing at Care.com
Jersey Mike’s Modernizes to Drive Customer Loyalty
Jersey Mike’s Subs built a modern martech stack around its new mobile app to enable personalized end-to-end digital experiences that customers expect. By unlocking mobile engagement data with Iterable, the team saw a 13% increase in loyalty member purchase frequency.
“We’re able to use the data we’re getting from our app to send more targeted, relevant messages. We’re able to see what channel people interact with the most. We currently use push and email with Iterable, and we’re able to engage with our customers where they want to engage with us.” ~ Kelly McGee, Director of Digital Marketing at Jersey Mike’s Subs
These success stories demonstrate how a modern martech stack turns customer data insights into action, creating tangible improvements to lifetime value.
Quantifying the Impact of Modern Martech
At Iterable, we believe in measurable results. Our customizable, AI-powered journey orchestration is fueled by rich data activation. This helps brands:
- Create individualized messaging experiences
- Increase purchase frequency across the customer lifecycle
- Promote loyalty through seamless, personalized campaigns
- Reduce churn with proactive, data-driven re-engagement strategies
Ready to see what modern martech can do for your brand? Use the Iterable Value Calculator to quantify the impact of making the switch, and take the first step toward transforming your customer relationships.
The time to boost LTV is ASAP. Try out the Iterable Value Calculator and step into the new era of modern martech.
