Big Data Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Omnichannel Personalization SaaS Solution

12 Jul
2016

4 Ultimate Personalization Tools and How To Use Them

Personalization can be a powerful tool in all facets of your business. From growing your e-mail list to increasing sales, giving your audience targeted content can thrust your business to a new level. In fact, by not personalizing you could be sacrificing prospective customers.

Look at it like this. You’ve gone to a site in order to learn how to increase traffic on your blog. You’ve read a couple of articles, but a pop up on the site keeps urging you to sign up for a free guide on e-mail marketing. You don’t even have an e-mail list yet. It seems pointless right?

If the pop up would have targeted you with a guide to using social media for increased traffic, you would have jumped on it, supplying your e-mail and potentially reading more from the site. But instead they lost a potential customer.

The ability to collect behavioral information about your clients is becoming pivotal in creating a successful enterprise. Marketing trends are proving this. Previously, the ability to capture all this data was limited to the Fortune 50 and those who could spend the money. Now, there are attainable options to collect the information yourself, so creating an omni-channel personalization strategy has never been easier.

To further drive the point that personalization is important, look at this article from BCG. It’s expected that by 2020, “roughly 8 percent of the combined GDP of the EU-27” will be from using personalization. That’s a huge percentage when looking at all the other contributors to the GDP.

Personalization and Privacy

Prior to any strategic execution, offer full disclosure to what information you’re collecting and how you’re using it. Also, allow them to control what or how much data you’re able to extract via a preference center. Giving them these choices, along with the ability to opt-out at any time, will keep your business’s integrity and establish greater trust between you and the customer. You’ll be surprised at how many people see the disclosure and quickly accept it. This is a sign of the times we’re in. There is an audience segment that wants nothing to do with their activities being tracked, but the overwhelming majority know giving this information translates to better, more relevant content and services.

When using social media, the platforms do most of this work for you. Sites like Facebook allow the user to determine who sees their profile and who can interact with it. By leaving their personal page open to the public, they’re allowing businesses to collect information from their posts, likes, and interactions. This information can be translated into data for your personalization strategy.

Now that you have that figured out, let’s get to the list of channels you should be considering…

1. Web Content

The old adage that, “It’s only advertising if you don’t want it,” still stands true. Consumers know their data has a value and they’re willing to share it if you provide them value in return. This is where content upgrades, lead magnets like offers, and custom calls to action come into play. They are the currency you’ll use in exchange for better information about your target consumer and customers.

Like in the example above, you need to identify the obvious ‘why’. Learning why a customer is on a particular page of your site is the most basic form of personalization. Without needing to pick up any actual information on the user, you can arrange a pop-up to offer a related product or content upgrade as soon as they read a percentage of the page. The percentage verifies they’re interested in the material, since they’re actually reading it, and it also let’s them get hooked before the pop-up arrives, making it more than a pesky distraction.

On top of this, you can arrange for different versions of your site based off the information collected. For instance, the experience of a user from Denver through a Google search will be offered content for the area and pop ups directed towards the keywords they searched. If the customer is searching for a product, tailor the pop-ups for that item. When a user from Montreal arrives through a Facebook post, they’ll have a different set of content elements, and the specific article they were looking at with content upgrades related to the topic.

A lot of sites do a basic version of this by storing cookies. You’ve seen these, right? Every 7 days, you’ll be asked to join the e-mail list until you do. Some will take it further and use a different style of pop-up for each visitation. Is this right for your brand? That depends on your “brand promise” or the “pillars” your brand has been built upon and the specific use case, but there has to be that exchange.

The important thing to remember is you should always be testing and learning. The way to do that, as you develop your personalization strategy, is by using dynamic content and presenting it as close to real-time as possible using algorithms to identify the effectiveness.

A static page with related content may generally work in the beginning, but that will start to fade. If a viewer reads an article about horses and is offered an ebook on horses, great. If he immediately returns and reads an article about cows and gets an offer for a guide on raising cattle, less great. You could be missing out on an opportunity to sell the Ultimate Guide to Raising Farm Animals. Perhaps the customer arrived through a Google search for the top 10 animals to raise on a farm. Missing that key piece of personalization could cost a sale.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of The 4 Personalization Channels and How To Leverage Them

There are a lot of ‘ifs’ in this scenario, but the point is that you need to be constantly using the data that’s available to you in order to maximize the effect.

Creating a website that tracks the behaviors of customers is very manageable now with various approaches. It may take some initial work, but you will know the value of the content you’re serving and you’ll know it by the individual vs. trying to make all content resonate with all visitors. And it’s worth the effort. Optimizing your site to target specific actions and interests of specific individuals can increase your profits as much as 15-25%.

2. Social Media

The benefits of social media outweigh the issues every day of the week. Along with the free platform to engage with your audience, you can also pick up a lot of great information to better your sales. Don’t confuse personalization with socialization, however. Where personalization uses data from an individual to custom tailor an experience, socialization uses a group to apply pressure.

Being recommended to ‘like’ horses, because you like ponies, is personalization. Being recommended to ‘like’ horses, because 11 of your friends do, is socialization.

Facebook is quite likely the strongest social media platform when it comes to personalization. Everything on site collects data. Even if a business can’t collect information from the users, Facebook can.

Ads purchased through Facebook can appear in sidebars along your newsfeed and profile. Featured posts can become embedded into your newsfeed, appearing as though a friend has had a great experience with Tide. Facebook all but monopolizes the market by personalizing the content. Digital marketers know they can efficiently target customers through this system.

When creating ads, you have the ability to target key demographics. Things like location, likes, and interests can be selected to fine tune who sees your ads. Facebook’s ad campaigns also allow you to see your ROI on personalization. They show the amount spent, the number of impressions, and the dollar value of engagements.

Twitter is a different beast. Like Facebook, Twitter collects data from all of their users. The issue is that a tweet is seen for a significantly smaller amount of time than a post. Because of this, understanding your community is essential.

Since the average tweet stays ‘alive’ for only 18 minutes, marketers need to identify when their users are most likely to be online. Study the amount of impressions based off the times of given tweets to know when is best. Take into consideration what time zone a majority of your followers are in. Posting multiple times may be the best course of action.

Ads works generally the same way as Facebook, but stand out more, because of the amount of traffic a feed on Twitter receives. Look over your business’s feed and see what people are sharing the most. You can use the most searched hashtags to forecast marketing trends and coordinate your ads to show up more often.

Social media is your ticket to some easy personalization. Harness its strength to start converting at a faster rate.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of The 4 Personalization Channels and How To Leverage Them

3. E-Mail

This is one of the most used and undervalued channels for creating consumer engagement.. By collect data on what products the customer has previously purchased, you can custom target e-mails to meet their needs. eConsultancy reports that 77% of business owners claim that “personalization based on purchase history has a high impact.” A percentage that large illustrates that it’s vital you don’t ignore it.

When a customer makes an entry into the sales funnel, they make the statement, “I am willing to spend money.” That’s the point where you need to identify what other items they’ll be willing to buy. Targeting them with products that don’t pertain to their interest will waste time. After they purchase that horse, send an e-mail offering brushes or feed. You know where their interests sit. Now it’s time to pour gas on the fire.

With modern e-mail automation, it’s easier than ever to have pre-written messages for when a customer buys specific products (i.e., triggers). Strong copywriting can let you capitalize on a customer already willing to spend money.

Creating targeted e-mail lists can benefit your audience, as well. Maintain a massive distribution group for general company information or other stuff you may want to send out, but keep smaller segmented lists for targeted content. One group for horses, one for chickens, but a large for your barnyard news. Your audience will be more likely to open and read emails focused on their interests, giving you more opportunities to make impressions and conversions.

4. Single View of Customer (SVOC)

If 60% of consumers are saying they want personally relevant content and offers, you would think every company would start doing that, right? Well, only a third of corporations report their technology and platforms are providing them an adequate single view of their customer so that 60% is going to be waiting a while.

SVOC is the centerpiece of great omnichannel personalization and it’s a mindset shift for a lot of companies. For years corporate marketing has been built on the concept of mass campaigns and channel programs. The two rarely shared a database and even more rarely combined sales data with them. Today, organizations can truly get to that SVOC with solutions like NectarClickstream and the next step is on the mindshift of marketing to an individual based on their behaviors, as opposed to working against massive segments.

Whatever solution you use, make sure it’s not completely dependent on third party pixels. The ideal tracking platform will incorporate 1st party pixels, redirect links, social data and operational data. This will take some coordination, but when you start seeing that data flow around each individual platform you’ll immediately understand the value and the questions (and corresponding use cases) will start flowing.

Bringing It All Together with Omni-channel Personalization

What good are any of these channels if they’re not slotted into the larger puzzle?

Omni-channel personalization is your strategy that intertwines the various platforms into a single stream of effort. Getting the systems to play nicely together is more of a challenge than setting up any one individually, but it can drastically increase your ROI.

Remember earlier, when we lost the sale for the Ultimate Guide to Raising Farm Animals? If you can get the systems to talk to each other, you wouldn’t miss that sale. The customer would still provide you with his e-mail for the ebook on horses, but you could follow up with a message for the guide. This method converts interested readers into buyers.

Whatever strategy you use to personalize your channels and improve your customer relationship management, make sure you have a backup plan. Constant A/B testing will allow you to stay proactive with what’s working and you can essentially remove any lull in your sales.

Personalization is your ticket to quicker conversions, higher profits and a more satisfied audience. As long as you operate with your customer’s privacy as top of mind, focus on making their interaction with your business a pleasant experience and you stay curious you’ll be successful in your personalization efforts.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of The 4 Personalization Channels and How To Leverage Them

28 Jun
2016

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common?

These 4 Billion-Dollar Companies Are Leaving the Competition In the Dust…

The customer is always right, right? Well, it all depends on what kind of experience customers have with your brand. Their experience will not only dictate how often they’ll complain, but how successful your company will be. Think of some of the biggest new brands – ones like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon. All started within 15-20 years, but all have seen incredible success. Want to know why? Because they spent a lot of time and money making the customer experience the best it can be.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

Recently, taking the customer experience to the next level is possible through personalizing the content. It’s been an important cornerstone of successful marketing for some time now.

Think back to how this got done before the web. Companies were talking to customers, giving them surveys to try and find out as much as they could about them.

These days companies have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, and are embracing data to make it work for them. This article will explore how four companies (Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Best Buy) adapted over the past five years to see amazing growth, largely because of personalization.

Google

This company needs no introduction, and I bet you can already start to connect the dots on how they’ve managed to leverage personalization to great success. First, we need to take a step back and understand how Google makes its money. 89% of it comes from ad revenues, so for all intents and purposes, we’re only going to focus on that. So the question is, how do they leverage personalization to see the 66-billion-dollar revenue they pulled in last year.

Personalized Search

Google works best as a profile-based service, which means that to get the most out of it, you’ll need to sign into an account. From Gmail to YouTube, Google accounts work with a lot of services that people use regularly. Sure, you can still use it without signing in, but that is where the real personalization begins. This first point is pretty obvious. Depending on what you search for, and what your browsing history is, Google will serve you different sites.

Despite this fact, most people still don’t mind using it. By knowing what you’re searching for, they can offer products they think you’ll want to see. Yes, they are skewing the data. If you want a completely unbiased web search, consider using something like duckduckgo.com. Google is banking on a complex algorithm that takes sites you’ve visited and continues to show similar ones. If they know the type of sites you enjoy, why not show you more of the same?

Personalized Ads

This takes the first point to the next level and is made obviously clear after searching for a specific topic that you wouldn’t usually search. As an interesting experiment to illustrate this, I changed up my searches for a week. I love cars and do a lot of car-related searches. Understandably, most of my ads (when ad blocker was turned off) were for car-related products. I tried searching for something completely unrelated to cars: bird watching. Google noticed and then started showing me tranquil ads for bird watching equipment. Anyone can run this experiment, and it’s interesting to see how your search affects everything around you.

Though this may come off as creepy to some, it makes sense. If I am genuinely interested in all this bird watching stuff, maybe a company is offering a sale on those killer binoculars that I was looking for; so, I’ll click an ad, Google will get paid, and I’ll have some nice binoculars. Thanks, Google!

Personalized Videos

This last example is the natural progression from search and ad personalization. Since Google owns YouTube, it’s already happening. Depending on what you usually watch, it will curate your content to show you related videos.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

Though most, or all, of us, hate video ads, they know it’s a numbers game. Sure, you may close an ad every time, but 1 in 100 people might click it, and 1 in 1,000 might go on to buy the product. With these ads being served to millions of people every day, there is a lot of money to be made.

Google has mastered personalization to try and give you what you’re looking for before you even look, and the numbers speak for themselves. If this approach weren’t working, they wouldn’t be doing it.

Next, let’s look at everyone’s favorite streaming site: Netflix.

Netflix

“Netflix and chill,” may be a popular saying, but they are not chill about their dedication to providing you with shows you want to watch. Unlike Google, Netflix doesn’t make their money through ads, but through subscriptions, so their main focus is retention and keeping existing customers happy. They do this by filtering through their sea of available content to give you only what you want to watch.

Let’s look at how they’ve managed to leverage personalization to create a unique experience for all of their 81.5 million subscribers.

Recommendations

The “Recommended Shows” sections of Netflix aren’t new. In fact, they were working on improving their recommendation algorithm when they were still mailing out DVDs. Way back in 2006, they announced a $1 million prize to any team who could help improve their recommendation algorithm by just 10%. It’s clear they’re serious about constantly improving recommendations, and things have only gotten better for them since they made the jump to streaming in 2007.

Compared to a DVD watch list, instantly streaming content gave them a lot more data about people’s viewing habits. While they only had a list to work with in the past, now they can see what shows you watch, how much of each show you watch, what time you watch, and a lot more. This knowledge about your viewing habits helps them keep you engaged by ensuring you always have something new to watch.

Multiple Devices

Once Netflix made the jump to streaming, it opened up a whole new platform to reach new potential users. The thing is, not everyone’s the same, and different people prefer to watch movies or TV on different media. Netflix quickly understood this dilemma and saw the potential to have their service on different platforms. Rather than just being available through their site on a PC, they opened it up to Roku, Xbox, Apple TV and many others.

Netflix has one thing down: they are available to personalize content wherever and however their customers want it. From laptops, to phones, and even gaming consoles, Netflix is available wherever you want to use it.

Breaking The 4th Wall

The last piece of personalization that helps Netflix deliver a seamless customer experience is by now bringing recommendations right to your inbox. They knew people spent a lot of time just browsing for something to new watch, so now they help out by emailing suggestions directly to you. By using all of the data from your account, if a new show or movie that they think you’ll like comes out, they’ll let you know. You can even add it to your list from your phone!

Delivering useful content and recommendations is the type of omni channel personalization that has separated Netflix from the competition. They’re able to deliver a seamless experience from start to finish.

Amazon

You may have heard of this company. They used to sell books online, but are now the largest marketplace in the world, and are a perfect e-commerce example for how personalization helped them dominate the marketplace. As an e-commerce site, they make their money by selling products, and make even more money by recommending other items.

The motivation for recommendation is getting you to purchase more items. As the web grew, and more data points became available about their users, they were able to track more and more information, and make appropriate recommendations.

Frequently Bought Together

If you’ve ever used Amazon, you’ve seen this section, and it’s an ingenious piece of personalization. These recommendations are not serendipitous or a fluke. They are cold and calculated. Fortune describes it pretty well:

The company reported a 29% sales increase to $12.83 billion during its second fiscal quarter, up from $9.9 billion during the same time last year. A lot of that growth arguably has to do with the way Amazon has integrated recommendations into nearly every part of the purchasing process from product discovery to checkout.

Not only does this work, but they have multiple areas, each offering different suggestions: frequently bought together, customers who bought this item also bought, sponsored products relating to this item, and what other items do customers buy after viewing this item.

Those are four other suggestions to upsell and get you to buy more products. It’s no wonder why Amazon is the leader in the marketplace. This alone shows their understanding and value of customer data.

Follow Up Emails

If you’re running an e-commerce business, then you know that it’s a fact that a certain percentage of people will abandon their carts before purchasing. It doesn’t mean that they hate your brand or don’t want the product; life is complicated, and lots of things are vying for our attention.

With nearly 44% of cart abandonment emails being opened, a good percentage of those result in sales. This kind of personalization and customer experience isn’t hard to achieve, and any e-commerce business should be doing it. All it takes is a simple email with the items they left in the cart to try and rekindle the relationship and emotion felt in the first place.

Amazon Dash

This last product of Amazon’s takes personalization from the digital into the real world. If you’ve been following along, then you understand that people like to interact with brands on their terms, and that repeat business is key for a successful brand.

Amazon took their one-click checkout feature and made it into a real button. They realized that certain people would buy the same staples like Tide, Gatorade, or razors, so they made it even easier for you to buy them with one touch. Going from multiple steps to one press of a button is the next step in personalization and takes the customer experience to the next level. I’m excited to see what else they have up their sleeves.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

Not mentioned in the title, but equally as interesting is Best Buy, and they’re the last example of how a brick-and-mortar company can also adapt to the online data revolution and go toe-to-toe with the best of them. Worldwide, they have a 22% hold in the electronics market and are trying to close the gap with Amazon. To do so, they’re implementing similar tactics as Amazon and capitalizing on the shift to personalization.

Catching Up With The Rest

If you’ve bought something at Best Buy recently, you’ll notice that they too are sending recommendation emails. If you bought an Xbox and they have your email address, you might get emails suggesting new game titles you might like.

Of course, Best Buy stores benefit from the ability to offer instant gratification, but they also separate themselves from other online retailers by offering store-exclusive content. That means if you preorder a game at Best Buy, you’ll get exclusive access to limited-edition content, not available to anyone else. With prices being pretty consistent for video games, offering the bonus of additional content is an interesting approach to helping close the gap with online retailers.

Price Match

Around 70% of Best Buy’s inventory is available cheaper elsewhere online (Amazon, eBay), so how do they still manage to compete? To combat this, they’ve implemented a pretty liberal price-match policy for brick-and-mortar as well as online retailers. This policy is a pretty bold statement and makes a strong case for those who prefer to buy all of their electronics at once to do it all at Best Buy. If online retailers can’t compete with price, then they’ll have to get creative to compete with Best Buy moving forward.

Personal Contact

Though brick-and-mortar can seem like an excessive overhead in our digital society, Best Buy uses it to leverage their “blue shirt” experts and staff, who give a real personal touch. This is something an online store just can’t do on the same level. Sure, they could have a pop-up live chat window, but it just can’t replace actual face-to-face, human contact. Their staff is well versed in what they’re selling (sometimes that’s because they are actually employees of the brands they are recommending, instead of being Best Buy employees), and can usually understand your concerns and make real-time recommendations.

Though large businesses are generally not known for their speed in implementing change, all of these companies have done a great job of using data to their advantage to keep things personal for their customers and deliver an amazing overall experience. And as far as it looks, the customers have returned the favor by staying loyal to them and purchasing time after time.

21 Jun
2016

The Best ROI In Marketing: Personalization

Omni channel personalization is here to stay. Nearly 50% of U.S. brands are working to streamline their brand experience within the next five years, as they chase industry leaders like Google, Netflix and Amazon. They are already seeing the benefits of personalization. But as a savvy corporate marketer, you need to take an objective look at what is going on to make sure you’re not just getting caught up in a fad. You need to be sure the money and time you’re thinking of spending to streamline your customer experience is going to have a positive impact and, ultimately, an increasing ROI.

In this article, we’ll explore how and why personalization is becoming a marketer’s primary focus and the fantastic ROI that comes from it.

Exclusive Bonus: Download this guide to learn the 3 easy ways personalization can increases ROI.

The Value Of Personalization And ROI

You can see it more and more online: companies of all sorts, like Google, Amazon, Netflix, and even a brick-and-mortar store like Best Buy, are integrating different forms of personalization to improve the customer experience and strengthen their brand.

You’ve probably had experiences with all of these companies, whether a personal Netflix account that you fiercely guarded, your email and browser settings, or your wish list on Amazon. All these industry leaders understand the value of personalization and have taken the wise words of Dale Carnegie’s 1936 timeless book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, to heart:

“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

People LOVE hearing their name, and having things just for them – it’s hard-wired into us, and human nature!

Since the cumulative value of these companies is around 228.65 billion it must mean they’re doing something right; not only that but they’re on the leading edge of personalization and are implementing these features for one ultimate reason – because they increase their ROI.

As a business or marketer of any size or type, personalization isn’t something you can conquer in one leap overnight. It’s a new mentality that you can build into your business moving forward. The best part is, its positive effects can be felt immediately and the long term benefits will hit you like a wrecking ball. The result? Loyal customers who keep buying time after time, give you valued feedback, and don’t complain.

Too good to be true, right?

Wrong.

You can change your marketing direction just a little bit, and in a while, you’ll see significant changes. It’s a long game, and the psychological approach to omni channel personalization really seals the deal of why personalization is a must.

Let’s work backward to see exactly how it increases ROI:

Great profits and continually successful companies have loyal customers.

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Loyalty is created because the company provides consistent products and experiences the customer wants.

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Loyal Customers are repeatedly engaging with the company because they have an excellent system in place to deliver meaningful content.

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The company effectively introduces relevant content and recommendations that make customers feel special and keep them coming back.

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The customer will introduce their friends, who are equally valuable to the brand.

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Then repeats, following the “Good to Great” Flywheel effect, breaking through with increased sales.

And when you’re coming back, it means you’ll buy another product, or keep your subscription going, or click on more ads, which all increase ROI.

Exclusive Bonus: Download this guide to learn the 3 easy ways personalization can increases ROI.

Personalization Improves Clarity

Your brand is made up of the small interactions that customers have with it, sort of like a mosaic. Though you, the artist, know how you want it to look, will all your customers, who can only see a tiny portion, understand what you’re trying to convey? If they don’t know what you’re selling, you’re not going to make any money.

It’s imperative that brands have a consistent experience which links things together. With an authentic omni channel-integrated, personalized brand, a customer can understand it from any point of access.

If someone started shopping on their laptop and want to finish the process on their phone, the experience needs to be the same. If it isn’t, that could mean one less sale. Additionally, you can’t disregard that data and pretend like it didn’t happen. The implicit data could mean that the user is showing your business to a friend or trying to use it in a new way, which could represent a new group of customers.

Using Google as another example, someone might have been looking for vacuum cleaners while they were out on their iPhone. Google will remember that search, and then offer vacuum ads when they hop on their laptop.

To not connect the dots or log the mobile search with their overall system is losing potential revenue for Google, which could have displayed new relevant ads to make more money.

Tracking all aspects and interactions of customers with your brand will lead to a higher ROI.

Different Channels

A channel is any source of traffic coming to your business. Traditional digital channels include computer websites, mobile sites, social media presence, communities like Reddit or LinkedIn, ads, email marketing,apps, devices like beacons or Internet of Things (IoT). When marketing, it is important to have a comprehensive view of all channels.

This channel fit doesn’t only matter to you; it matters more for your customers. If your target audience spends a lot of time on Instagram, it won’t make sense to spend your marketing budget for LinkedIn ads.

Moving one step further with the Google example, understanding what channel people are choosing to interact with your brand is also crucial. Smart businesses never rely on one channel, as shifts beyond their control like Google changing their algorithm can completely devastate traffic.

One way tracking channel data can lead to a higher ROI is by cross-pollination, or reaching new channels.

Say you typically interact with a company solely through their website and emails. They should be tracking this data and using it to their advantage in their ongoing Facebook ad campaign. With this knowledge, they have the potential to show you content they know you’ll love, on a different channel.

Since you like the brand and are a paying customer, you choose to watch one of their news feed videos, and maybe even share it.

Bam. That share does something special.

By sharing this video, you’re introducing the brand to all of your friends. Not only that, but you’ve recommended their content by liking and sharing it.

This didn’t happen by mistake. Smart brands track data between channels to save on ad testing and deliver content that has already been proven to work. This is exactly how brands are getting more exposure, and in front of more customers.

Knowing where customers hang out will increase your visibility to get you noticed on an untapped segment. If you know what your customers are doing on your site, it’s essential to send the right message to them to get them moving, and increase your bottom line.

Personalization + E-commerce Example = Best friends

If the last example of growing your brand by tracking email stats and then using them in ads may have seemed a little complicated, this e-commerce example will be a no-brainer.
Any customer using an e-commerce site needs to log in to an account to put items in their shopping cart. This alone can give marketers a significant advantage for tracking data to be used for personalized content. Pairing this with the knowledge that 75% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout, you have an easy opportunity to make some additional sales.

All those abandoned shopping carts may look like a digital ghost town; but, the truth is, there are lots of reasons for abandonment, and it usually isn’t because you’ve irritated them. Maybe they were running late, got distracted by their children, or other dinner was burning?

As an e-commerce business owner, if you could stop this or get some of those lost carts to check out, would you? Of course. There’s no better or easier way to increase your ROI.

Understanding your customers and using omni channel integration will make it easier than ever to bring those ghost carts back from the dead.

It’s been proven time after time that sending personalized emails shortly after abandonment increases conversion anywhere from 8 – 20%. This is something as simple as showing what items were in the abandoned cart. This, the simplest of cross-platform integrations is a simple tactic can lead to great results.

What It All Means

It’s important to understand that the more you know about your customers, the better you can market to them. This means that integrating data from all of your different channels can help get a clear image and connect the dots of your brand mosaic. This ultimately allows you to make data driven decisions that will help your bottom line.

Tracking multiple channels, on multiple platforms, analyzing the data and making informed decisions to increase ROI is a job for a full marketing team if you want to do it properly. Luckily, our team at NectarOM has had lots of experience with this. We’ve knocked it out of the park for industry leaders like Michael’s, Vitamin World and many more. Our track record speaks for itself. If your business is at the point where you have traffic and sales but know it can be brought up to the next level, consider getting in touch to see how we can help.

Exclusive Bonus: Download this guide to learn the 3 easy ways personalization can increases ROI.

If you take one thing away from this, it’s that personalization is one of the best ROIs out there, with a significant shift happening industry wide, pushing towards complete omni channel personalization. The sooner you act to improve your customer experience, the faster you’ll see the results, and the longer they’ll last.

28 Apr
2016

Outsmart the Smartphone: Expert Insights into Mobile Marketing

Marketers know mobile marketing is a critical component of any marketing strategy. Consumers cannot live without their smartphone and mobile device’s have become an integral part of consumer’s daily life.

Despite knowing the inherent impact of mobile, many brands are struggling to create and implement an effective mobile strategy. Yesterday’s American Marketing Association (AMA) meeting helped marketers better understand how to outsmart the smartphone and optimize their mobile marketing strategy.

Experts Scott Talbott from Verve Mobile, John Nosal from Advice Local, Abhi Vyas from Dex Media, and Bryon Morrison from NectarOM, sat down and shared how your brand can outsmart the smartphone.

Here are a few highlights from the panel discussion.

Consider the Omni Channel Experience

In addition to the 40 or so apps on your phone you also have the option to do email, send SMS, browse the web, post on social media, and receive push notifications. Smartphones have put 6 channels into one device along with more than 100 sensors, making it more important for marketers to think about the omni channel experience the device creates. Traditionally brands have siloed channels, creating a disconnected experience for the customer. Mobile is forcing marketers to break down silos and unify their efforts. Bryon Morrison suggested the consumer needs to be the center of the customer journey, not the channels. He continued, “If you understand the individual and their motivations then the mobile device is the most important marketing tool, because it packages all the channels in one device along with movement.

Target the Right Person at the Right Place and at the Right Time with the Right Message

From a location perspective mobile unlocks an interesting opportunity for marketers: location based marketing. Customers are starting to expect brands to tailor content to their location, and are more likely to convert when content is customized to their location. Brands leading with location by utilizing location based advertising or managing their local presence will be more likely to convert mobile customers. John Nosal believed that brands who focus on the mobile experience will win more customers.

“61% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from mobile sites and apps that customize information to their location.”

Get in the Game

When asked who is doing a great job in mobile, Morrison replied, “The ones in the game that are testing and failing fast.” He cited specific examples of early innovators that are now experiencing great success with mobile – eBay and their multi-app strategy were the first to post a billion in mobile sales; Walgreens gets 6x more revenue from customers that download their app; Walmart attained a 2% increase in conversions by shaving 4.3 seconds off their page download time.

Nosal responded that Starbucks was a leader in the mobile experience citing the ability to order and pay for coffee through their app. He also mentioned grocery stores like Tom Thumb (parent company, Albertsons) are leading the way, mentioning ability to build grocery lists through scanning barcodes with the app and use of push notifications to notify consumers of deals.

Know the Metrics that Matter

Don’t get caught up in the funnel metrics. Keep it simple and make sure that your KPIs link to mobile moments that matter like conversions and sales. Scott Talbott gave an example of automobile marketers getting too caught up in desktop web funnel metrics while missing out on the opportunity to reach prospects while they are physically standing on a dealership lot. Morrison also shared an example of a client that spent an immense amount of energy on app optimization, as opposed to growing their SMS channel which was delivering in-store mobile coupon conversions between 25%-45%.

Get to Know Your Customers

Brands know it is important for them to understand their customer and Abhi Vyas mentioned 81% of them think they are doing a good job. However, only 37% of customers think their favorite retailer understands them. The panel agreed this was a function of marketing departments, as opposed to mobile marketing. As an example, Morrison mentioned that marketing departments are often set up to launch and manage channels which is time consuming and laborious. That creates silos and makes cross channel marketing a challenge. If organizations focused on profiles and used a personalization platform then their ability to integrate a new channel would be much faster, easier and cost effective. That approach would also allow a brand to innovate faster which is currently being outpaced by consumer sophistication levels and expectations.

Talbott proposed one way companies could better market is by focusing on context, stating that “content is now secondary to context.” He also mentioned that mobile location matched against 1-to-1 knowledge of a customer is the best way a marketer can get to an understanding of intent.

If you are interested in learning how you can better deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right person let us know and schedule a demo to see the NectarSuite in action.

09 Nov
2015

3 Ways to Evaluate and Engage High-Value Customers

You’ve heard of the Pareto Principle: the rule of thumb that 20% of the work drives 80% of the results. In sales and marketing, we can observe that this principle holds true across all industries, and understand that a huge amount of sales, revenue, and brand interaction can be directly traced back to a few high-value customers, or HVCs.

If you haven’t put much thought into CRM, it’s a good policy to prioritize the creation and retention of HVCs who will give you the most return on your investment. Though the majority of all sales transactions are likely to be one-offs or from occasional buyers, a significant amount of your revenue will be driven by intensely loyal HVCs, who will not only stick by your brand but help promote it. To put it simply: you should keep your HVCs happy because when they buy, they buy big.

What makes a customer high value?

HVCs buy for a reason: HVCs look to your products, services, and brand to meet a fundamental need. Whether it’s health, wealth, or status, identifying your business’s raison d’etre will help you serve your best customers more efficiently.
They are interested in the next big thing. HVCs will keep checking your website, app, and social media pages for updates and new products. If you make customer loyalty a priority, you can create positive feedback loops that pay off huge in the long run.
HVCs are less sensitive to price changes. High-value customers will return to your brand even if they can find similar products for cheaper. It’s not about the cost: it’s about how your business addresses their specific needs in a relevant and personalized way.
HVCs will promote your brand. Your most loyal customers will promote your goods and services to friends, colleagues, and even strangers, if they believe in your products and customer service. HVCs bring with them a large social network of potential new clients, so pay it forward!

High-value customers are your business’s Golden Geese: keep them happy, and you’ll set yourself up for huge successes in the long run. And the truth is, doing so is actually pretty simple once you adopt the mindset of putting the customer first and personalizing your services to give each individual the VIP treatment.

3 Ways to Engage High-Value Customers

Reward HVCs for their loyalty. By integrating loyalty data into your delivery providers and personalization tools, you’ll be able to understand when, how and why high-value customers access your site and design useful, personalized touches to interact with them across multiple channels. When done right, loyalty programs remove barriers between your customer and their purchases and streamline their shopping experience. Doing so can empower the customer with a sense of agency when they realize that their actions have a direct impact on their experiences with you and what services you can offer them.
Pay attention to their recent activity. This information can be used to identify a customer as high value based on metrics such as: frequent site visits, a high clickthrough rate on email and website, and big recent purchases. Someone who can’t get enough of your content will respond well to an increase in messages, especially the triggered marketing that corresponds to important life events or interactions with your brand. When done right, this will prove to customers that you really understand what makes them tick. One appropriate example for a triggered message: if a certain HVC has a record of high overall spend but for the last several months they have not been interacting or buying, you might send them a re-engagement email with a big discount attached.
Evolve with your customers. Changes in customers’ habits which point to increased interest in categories outside of their normal purchase pattern can indicate someone’s shift into becoming a high-value customer. A significant change in what they buy and how much they spend could be a signal that this individual has extended their product trust into brand trust for you, prompting their movement into the HVC bucket.

There are many ways you can use data to help determine who is an HVC by using your personalization tools, and from there it’s a matter of providing your high-value customers with the service and attention that they deserve. In the process, you’ll develop the infrastructure, habits, and mindset that’ll attract and engage new customers at each step of their journey.

26 Oct
2015

When Big Data Analytics Hurts Innovation

Making use of Big Data is a staple of every digital marketer’s playbook, especially those in the retail sector who will use it to measure such things as transaction and customer loyalty. There is a lot of potential to be found in Big Data analytics, but it’s lost when retailers grow too comfortable with a “proven” approach and fail to keep testing and discovering new viable marketing strategies. Ultimately, realizing the limits of Big Data analytics and becoming comfortable with experimentation is the key to making sure your business stays in touch with the demands of its environment and its customers.

Analytics are Impressive, but Incomplete

Current trade promotion optimization (TPO) solutions simply weren’t designed to extract signal from the large volume of noisy data that modern retailers generate, and analytics is still unable to specifically measure the effect of qualitative factors like ad design, layout, and wording on ROI. This means that, for better or worse, the current limitations of our technology mean that Big Data can only give us a partial look at what worked and what did not.

Don’t get me wrong. Data analytics provides marketers with an incredible degree of insight, but we must remember to use it as a tool with defined goals and a good understanding of what it can and cannot accomplish.

For instance, analytics is much better at explaining the past than predicting the future. This means that you can’t predict with certainty the effect that a certain kind of discount, pricing structure, or cross-merchandising tactic will play out: you need to run an experiment. This can be scary, but an unwillingness to try new things could leave your business wading in the shallow end of success, perhaps losing very little but not making much either.

Offer Innovation: A Better Way

As a rule, the best way to experiment in this field is to maximize your exposure to positive (beneficial) risks while minimizing your exposure to negative risk. The best way to do so in the omnichannel age is to experiment with offer innovation, a series of micro-tests that you can use to analyze the small-scale performance of diverse offers and messages across channels. Instead of shifting your entire marketing campaign in one great, lurching motion, you’ll be testing many ideas at once and keeping an eye on any promising developments without risking the bulk of your business. The gamble you’re taking is absorbing little failures (i.e., a particular method falls flat) in hopes that you’ll stumble upon a new, reliable way to connect with a certain kind of customer.

Ironically, realizing the limitations of data analytics will help you make better decisions and make more calculated risks. Don’t be afraid to make small mistakes, especially when there’s a large potential payoff at the end.

26 Oct
2015

Why Email is the Most Underrated Personalization Channel

Over the past decade, faster computers, super-powered phones, and widespread access to high speed internet have made omnichannel access possible in a way that we’ve never seen before in human history. But despite all of the hype we give to emerging mobile and social channels, the humble email is still one of the most effective and reliable channels for marketers to speak with their customers. Here are a few reasons why.

Maximize The Potential of Your Mailing List

Thanks to ad-blocking software, today’s customers might not actually see any ads at all before streaming videos, on social media sites, or just while browsing the Internet. It’s a problem that we marketers struggle with daily throughout the industry.

Right off the bat, email has an advantage over web ads because of it’s still a channel that’s – for the most part – impervious to ad blocking software. Promotions, messages and the like will appear for your customers if they’ve added their info to your mailing list, so make adding to it a priority.

Email also boasts an incredibly high ROI, considering how few resources it takes to deliver. Other channels such as advertising through social media have their own advantages such as virality and views, but when it comes down to it, email has been proven time and time again to drive actual action and sales.

1) Email is your passport to the rest of the Internet.

Email supplanted direct mail by being faster, cheaper to produce, and more accessible on the go. So by that logic, you would think that texts, tweets, Snapchats and Facebook messages should replace email – but it simply hasn’t happened.

The thing about email is that it’s an indispensible “passport” to the Internet. Customers need an email address to pay for things, subscribe to services, and sign up for websites – social media sites still require one, and so do their apps.

Proof that there’s something here? Google recently announced their new Customer Match service, which allows companies to track and understand their customers’ needs through their Gmail and YouTube activity. This in turn will give advertisers the ability to more consistently retarget their buyers and provide more relevant content.

2) Email is about getting information.

Email metrics are more sophisticated than ever, meaning that in addition to being a cost-effective way to market new services and products to your customers, your emails can be a source of valuable information about your brand, market, and channels.

Using an email tracker can give you a huge amount of actionable data. You can learn when customers are more receptive to emails, what kind of marketing they respond to, and which channels (PC, laptop, mobile? Other?) they’re most likely to use to access and interact with your brand.

3) Email is the bridge between channels.

Old-school digital marketers cut their teeth on email by using it as a means of direct advertising.

In the Omnichannel Era, however, it’s equally as important for email to be used to continue the conversation that customers have with your brand on other channels, such as through your app, ecommerce website, or storefront.

For example: if a customer begins a transaction on your eCommerce website but later abandons their cart to run errands, sending them a triggered email could be just the push necessary to finish the sale.

Though the field of digital marketing is more sophisticated than it was ten years ago, the humble email is still a legitimate, high-ROI tool for advertisers looking to connect and interact with their customers. Make no mistake: though new technologies will change the face of branding: traits like creativity, ingenuity, and adaptability that define great marketers will never go out of style.

This article originally appeared on Business2Community.

09 Jun
2015

How Data Makes us Healthier

When people think big data, certain industries come to mind. Government, retail, health care and financial services top the list of enterprises collecting and capitalizing on customer data.

But as personalization and omnichannel have become more of an expectation across all markets, new industries have started using customer data with the goal of improving a consumer’s experience.

One industry in particular stands out because of recent data collection and management advances. Through smartphone apps and fitness gadgets, the health and wellness industry is using data to revamp and refuel sales.

Why should we care what the health industry does?

The health and wellness industry holds high status in the marketplace. With Nike named the top brand for the largest purchasing power, we can expect Nike and other wellness enterprises to stay relevant in the market by incorporating the latest technology into marketing strategy. Based off these innovations, companies in any industry can get inspired by these groundbreaking new ways to use data.

So how is the health and wellness industry using customer data?

nike+ run — Nike+ Running lets users track their workouts…and their friends’ too.

Smartphone Apps

Smartphone apps that focus on health have been around for years. These apps were the original building blocks for exposing health and fitness to data. Because of their initial influence, apps have a key role in the health industry’s data interest.

The most popular smartphone health apps come in the form of tracking and managing workouts. Smartphone apps like Nike+ Running record and store data from a workout. The app measures various elements of a workout, including distance covered, calories burned, average pace, and duration of workout.

These are successful because they let users access and manage their data easily. A major motivator for fitness gurus is tracking and viewing progress, which can be easily done through a simple download on a smartphone.

And some apps offer more than just tracking data. Nike+ Running can sync to social media accounts and notify Facebook friends about big accomplishments, like longest run or fastest pace. With this multi-channel development, smartphone apps are getting praise across a variety of platforms.

Fitness wearables

Smartphone apps typically only collect data during a workout. However, technological advances are helping fitness fanatics track their health 24/7.

Wearable devices help consumers manage their health with an in-depth, convenient approach. They come in different varieties and forms – from the Fitbit to watches to diamond crested accessories. These fitness devices measure specific elements of health, such as steps counted or hours slept. The device then processes the information into a consumer’s personal profile, which the consumer can manage at his or her leisure.

In today’s market, there is no doubt about the potential for these fitness appliances. The only debate in this arena is over which wearable is best.

With the ability to constantly track activity, sleep, heart rate, calories and location, fitness wearables are convenient and easy answer to a healthier lifestyle.

Specialized omnichannel gadgets

Data usage is not limited to fitness tech – personal hygiene is using consumer data as well.

Personal hygiene may seem like an unlikely candidate for data usage. However, the dental industry is starting to focus on personalization and omnichannel, placing a need for customer data.

In a recent AdAge article, writer Kate Kaye explores an innovation that is redefining dental hygiene. Beam Brush is a toothbrush-inspired enterprise. It connects its users to a network of 95,000 dentists and discounts based on points awarded after using the brush. Users track their teeth cleaning activity and are rewarded with loyalty programs. All activity is synchronized to a user profile in a mobile device.

Despite its ties to teeth, Beam Brush emphasizes that it is not a toothbrush company. Instead, Beam Brush is more invested in collecting health data.

Beam Technologies founder and CEO Alex Frommeyer reportedly said, “If we know there are a million people in Beam’s ecosystem and we know what behavioral triggers we tend to see with high rates of gum disease, then that insight can be translated to a dentist when we see those triggers hit.”

This insight Frommeyer references can prevent dental damage and increase loyalty programs. This is extremely powerful for companies, as an increase in loyalty likely results in improved ROI.

Takeaways

Besides getting inspired from learning about the latest and greatest ways that unlikely vendors are using data, there are some key things marketers should recognize from these recent advancements.

First, it’s important to recognize that if one unlikely (but large) industry is using customer data, several others are sure to follow. This means that more businesses will utilize customer data. With more entities capitalizing on data, consumers will likely be pressed to share more personal info. With more data readily available, marketers should consider the potential for third-party data integration.

Another important takeaway is to acknowledge how willingly these users share personal data with these devices. The reason some users are letting their movements be tracked 24/7 (read: FitBit) is because they feel safe and secure in their data protection. Marketers should realize that, when customers feel like their data will be safely guarded, they will share more.

The final takeaway is that that there is so much more opportunity for customer data usage. With this notable amount of data integration in a short span of time, marketers must anticipate and prepare for upcoming technology innovations and trends. Marketers should stay informed via tech news outlets, to ensure they don’t get left behind in data usage.

13 May
2015

Importance of Location Data in Content Marketing

With the increasing integration of technology and data in sales, there has never been a better time to use location intelligence in marketing. Using location data is too easy and too beneficial to ignore. Location features help businesses stand out amongst competitors and are a staple for today’s leaders in marketing. As the concept grows, customers are beginning to expect it when using technology in their shopping experience.

Location intelligence is a must for companies that want to be successful. Read on to find out why.

It’s too easy

Working with all types of data is easy, and location data is no exception.

With a quality Data Management Platform, businesses can store, manage, organize and analyze their data in one entity. Because companies are utilizing DMPs more than ever, there is now an abundance of platforms in the marketplace ranging in price and features. With several types of platforms on the market, companies are able to choose the DMP that best suits their needs in terms of performance ability and price.

The right DMP makes data easy to use and understand. And finding the right DMP is too easy for companies not to utilize.

It’s an asset to businesses

When companies think “big data” there are certain metrics that come to mind. Typically, businesses look at what is being purchased or who is doing the purchasing.

Amazon Local customizes its deals based on customers' location — Amazon Local customizes its deals based on customers’ location

Location data is often underrated, but just as important.

Location data gives insight to consumer behavior based on a key demographic. When analyzed, this data shows geographic patterns and trends. Companies can use this information to segment their audience. These segments can then be targeted with personalized messages specifically designed to their wants and needs.

One company that utilizes the power of location data is Amazon. Through their Amazon Local feature, the company sends its consumers deals they may be interested in based on their location. For example, emails that I receive are based on my home address and contain offers just a few miles away from my house. All offers show how far away the brick-and-mortars are, which can be helpful for consumers who don’t want to make a far drive to use their deal.

It’s a customer favorite

If there’s anyone who values location data more than businesses, it’s their audience.

As businesses are beginning to include location data into their services, customers have become exposed to new interactive features that rely on location data.

One of the most loved features that uses location data includes a GPS element that shows shoppers where the nearest store location is. This feature is often available on apps or websites. Some companies have expounded on this ability by adding in-store pickup options for customers when they checkout online.

The ability to purchase online and pick up in-store is not universally used by all retailers – at least, not yet. A Forrester report says that 50% of consumers expect the option to buy online and pick up in-store. As companies gradually rely more on more on technology in marketing, this already large fraction will likely increase. Companies who have not implemented location services like this need to seriously consider doing so; otherwise, they risk being left behind with the technologically-impaired.

Walmart's blog shows its app, Shop My Store, which lets customers find items in the brick-and-mortar. — Walmart’s blog shows its app, Shop My Store, which lets customers find items in the brick-and-mortar.

Consumers also love retailers that incorporate item locators into their business strategy. Large stores like Walmart can often be overwhelming. However, by introducing an app that shows an item’s availability and aisle location, Walmart turns a headache-inducing shopping experience into a 5-minute spree. Employees have commented that the feature, in some cases, has actually saved sales by making the shopping experience easier and more convenient for the customer.

Services that incorporate location data work because customers love them. Features with location intelligence make shopping experiences more convenient. And, because an easy shopping experience correlates with a powerful shopping experience, customers prefer marketing that considers location data.

Hungry for more?

Love reading about the latest in the datasphere? Learn more about some of today’s top data trends, or check out some recent case studies from Forbes that inspired this post.

03 Mar
2015

Top Trends in Data

It’s 2015, and companies are finally getting the hang of data.

Big data has been around for years so it’s about time! More and more companies are using data to profile their customers to generate relevant products and marketing strategies. A study by Forbes and Teradata found that 78% of marketers are incorporating data into their marketing.

As companies explore the possibilities behind data analytics, we have noticed a few trends in the datasphere. Companies that choose to incorporate these trends in their marketing strategies may notice an increase in ROI and an edge over their competitors.

Unsiloing data

Companies are beginning to break down barriers in data sharing. Un-siloing data allows different departments to combine different data sets. A company’s entire stock of customer information may be stored in one simple Data Management Platform. This storage system makes finding, organizing and sharing information an easier, more efficient process.

For example, a company’s IT department may have an impressive set of internal customer information. That same company’s marketing department may have a large collection of CRM data. Companies that unsilo data pool together both sets of information, creating a single in-depth consolidation of data.

The larger data pool is beneficial to both IT and marketers, as the departments will have access to a more complete profile of their customers. This will help both departments provide a more accurate understanding of their customers, generating a more personalized, relevant shopping experience.

Privacy

Over the past year, information security and privacy has been a growing concern amongst the public. With big security breaches like the Sony hack and the iCloud celebrity photo scandal, privacy is a growing concern for many.

In response to public concern about security, companies must employ data protection and safeguarding into their data management. Companies that cannot confidently ensure that a person’s private information will stay private, the likelihood of data sharing will decrease.

Nordstrom clearly outlines its privacy policy to build trust between buyers and itself.

Additionally, easy-to-access privacy policies can increase trust between customers and a company. Provide an in-depth statement informing customers of their privacy rights can increase likelihood of sharing personal information.

Other than putting the public at ease, companies with protective measures in data management will have less risk at security breaches. Data encryption, multiple passwords and security audits may take a little extra and effort. But investing time into safeguarding customer information is vital to prevent big scandals and data breaches.

Data in Real-Time

Companies are beginning to use data in real-time to engage and connect with consumers. In the past, data has been used to create content for consumers, and is set to be viewed at a certain point in time.

Today’s marketers are integrating data and marketing strategies in real-time, to offer content that is even more current and relevant. This real-time marketing is commonly seen across social media platforms.

Nissan UK creates relevant messages by integrating real-time events into its social media marketing — Nissan UK also creates relevant messages by integrating real-time events into its social media marketing.

Google’s Fifa World Cup campaign is a prime example of real-time data integration. By analyzing Google’s search engine, data experts curated sharable images and facts for its users. This later fueled more discussion about relevant topics for Google users. This real-time analysis helps businesses understand why their target audiences share, engage and spread content.

As data analytics becomes increasingly popular, we expect that companies will employ a real-time data/marketing strategy similar to Google’s. Companies will begin to utilize social media more often, allowing their customers to share, engage and spread content easier.

More Personalization

Personalization has been a hot topic since data was first introduced to the marketing world. And, as more companies grow friendlier with data, feelings toward personalization are sure to follow suit.

Personalization increase also directly correlates with the shift of millennials as the largest purchasing power. As millennials are generally more open to sharing personal information, companies can adjust marketing to incorporate a more personalized, 1:1 marketing feel. A global study by SDL found that 46% of millennials are willing to provide personal information to businesses, in order to get rid of irrelevant marketing.

Netflix personalizes content by providing recommendations based off past interests. — Netflix – a millennial favorite – personalizes content by providing recommendations based off past interests.

As data continues to evolve, understanding where data is headed can be a big asset to companies. Anticipating changes in data and adjusting strategies accordingly can help your company stand out amongst competitors and remain a consumer favorite.