Testimonials

Marketing automation and customer segmentation were Halti’s reasons for the Custobar Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Marketing automation and customer segmentation were Halti’s reasons for the Custobar Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Targeted campaigns and marketing automation have been invaluable for Halti’s ecommerce business. Choosing the right Customer Data Platform (CDP) has been invaluable for their targeted campaigns and marketing automation.

From mass messaging to targeted advertising

The premium Finnish outdoor brand Halti started looking for a Customer Data Platform (CDP) when mass messaging was no longer a viable plan for today’s marketing needs.

We needed to get to know our customers more profoundly in order to service them better and to do targeted marketing. One important criteria was also that the CDP of choice would need to identify customers in our physical stores. The Custobar CDP does. - Pirita Hietalahti, Ecommerce and digital Marketing Manager at Halti

Halti’s challenge was that with inferior marketing technologies, every customer was getting the same message without any real possibility of targeting, personalisation, or marketing automation.

"There are customers who are into downhill skiing and then there are customers who are looking for plus size activewear. We needed a system that would allow us to create targeted campaigns and utilise marketing automation," Ecommerce manager Teemu Räsänen says.

Customer segmentation is in part based on the sport of choice.

{{}}Teemu Räsänen{{}}

"When a new customer subscribes to our newsletter, we ask whether their interest is in men’s or women’s clothing. We have also done surveys to establish if a customer is into cross-country or downhill skiing, etc."

{{}}Halti asks for customers' interests{{}}

In more technical terms, the Custobar CTA module is used to map the customer’s interests on the newsletter.

With the Custobar Customer Data Platform, Halti can also utilise browsing data.

"With the browsing data we can create targeted campaigns for, let’s say, people who browse plus size women’s activewear," Räsänen says.

Targeted and personalised campaigns are definitely the way forward with profitable marketing.

"All our targeted campaigns have reached their right audience, since every targeted campaign that is based on customer segments have had superb open rates and great sales numbers."

From targeted advertising to omnichannel marketing

Halti offers a wide variety of outdoor activities and sports gear. Since customer segments are made based on gender, clothing size and sporting interests, it’s easy to create a segment for customers interested in camping equipment, for instance.

With the Custobar CDP, Halti has moved not only from mass messages to targeted advertising, but also to omnichannel marketing.

"We make good use of our customer data in Google and Facebook," Räsänen says.

In practice, Halti targets Google Ads and Facebook campaigns to their customers who are not newsletter subscribers, for instance.

"Our most important ecommerce sales channels are Google and paid advertising, organic search results, and email marketing."

Räsänen is pleased with the Custobar CDP’s versatility and wide variety of features. Automation is another asset.

"Our customer’s ecommerce behaviour triggers automated, targeted messages, which really work. Furthermore, post-purchasing assessments have also converted well. The stars we get from our customers have a direct impact on other potential customers with similar interests as well as our organic search results."

Marketing automation, easy integrations, browsing data and user experience reasons for choosing the Custobar CDP

As stated above, marketing automation was big on Halti’s list of marketing technology features that they were looking for. The Custobar CDP is one of the CDPs that has marketing automation as an integrated part of the software.

"Another important criteria was that we could easily integrate our point-of-sale system into Custobar," Räsänen says.

Because a CDP can utilize first-party browser data with server-side data management, the Custobar CDP is not dependent on the soon-to-be-obsolete third-party cookies. Browsing data will be one of the customer data sources also moving forward. It is, after all, one of the important touchpoints that customer data is gathered from.

Using the Custobar CDP has been relatively easy.

"The basic features are super simple to use. We have been very happy with the way our email marketing has grown since we implemented the Custobar CDP and started to create automated targeted campaigns."

Still, there are also more advanced features that are a bit more complicated to master. Räsänen thinks that there are still features he is not quite comfortable with. Luckily, help is never far.

"I must commend your technical and customer support. They are great at replying to customer service tickets and at helping out. If you need help, you’ll get it," Räsänen says.

All in all, according to Teemu Räsänen, the Custobar CDP is all that a serious ecommerce business needs.

"I whole-heartedly recommend Custobar. It’s so multifunctional and important, if you are serious about your ecommerce business. The things that you can achieve using it are astonishing."

Halti is a premium Nordic outdoor brand that has grown from one man’s dream to connect people with nature to a global force in active gear in the last 45 years. Halti has equipped and sponsored world’s top athletes “in some of the most starkly beautiful and unforgiving places on earth.” Despite the high professionalism, Halti still wants to make the outdoors and an active lifestyle available for everyone.

M Room also uses Custobar to serve their customers better and value Custobar’s cost-effective marketing automation.

Levykauppa Äx’s staff is turned into sales champions by giving them easy access to customer data as well. That is why Levykauppa Äx is the master of its own data and destiny.