Customer Experience Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Omnichannel Personalization SaaS Solution

16 Jan
2017

The Best in Banking Personalization: USAA’S Innovative Customer Service

Legendary Service in the Digital Age

USAA is known for providing great service. Don’t believe it? The Temkin list of companies with the best customer service ranks USAA as No. 1 and has done so for the past five years. Why is USAA so highly ranked? USAA is passionate about providing the best in financial services to the men, women, and families involved with the military. According to the President of Property/Casualty insurance, Wayne Peacock, “that passion is what fuels our focus on delivering an exceptional member experience by listening to our members and constantly innovating to meet their needs.”

USAA’s goal is to bring the best customer service experience to each and every member. USAA has worked to create a heightened customer experience through enhancing services available in their mobile application as well as omnichannel customer service. Let’s explore how USAA is leading the way in using omnichannel personalization to create a better customer experience.

Mobile App

USAA has changed their mobile application to make it easy for members to navigate. Members can now easily access all features and functions within the mobile app; however, there is a focus on what each member does most frequently.

USAA begins the personalization from the moment a member opens the mobile app. The interface of the USAA app looks the same. However, the iteration per member differs. Personalized landing pages are a key feature of the app. These pages show the tasks each member does most frequently and their accounts. The products and services a member may see on the mobile app coincide with the products and services they have with USAA. If a member has a financial account with USAA, they will be able to see only relevant banking information on the account.

USAA has also made their app more user-friendly by integrating personalization and omnichannel interactions to the mobile app. Within the mobile application, customer context provides highly personalized information that the company and its members share between each other. This information is synced up across channels. For example, a member can make a payment online and see that same activity on the mobile application. By having the app customize to each member’s omnichannel interactions, USAA can better serve and help its members by highlighting that which matters to each member.

Functionality

Sharing information across channels has given USAA a way to effectively provide omnichannel customer service to its members as well. Members can now get immediate service anywhere, at any time, and from any device.

USAA has implemented a contact handoff system. When a member clicks “Contact Us” in the mobile app, they are connected to a service representative. These service representatives are provided information about the member and what they were looking for, before actually speaking to the member. Service representatives greet members by name and can immediately start helping without having members reiterate their questions. Having this knowledge of the member’s information gives USAA the ability to create an experience that demonstrates to the member that USAA knows them.

USAA works to be aware of its members’ daily lives. Personalized customer service drives efforts to increase the service efficiency a member gets. Members no longer have to wait to speak with someone, nor are they bombarded with unnecessary questions. The assistance they need is at their fingertips.
USAA’s dedication to providing legendary service has allowed them to provide highly personalized support over multiple mediums. Sharing context about members across channels is enhancing the member experience. Members save time and get the assistance they need when they need it. USAA serves its members well by providing a better experience based on their personal needs. As an innovative leader in technology within banking, it will be exciting to see where USAA decides to explore next within the technology landscape.

26 Dec
2016

Combining the Art and Science of Retail: JC Penney’s Digital Evolution

Omnichannel Evolution: From Magazine Catalog to Online Catalog

JCPenney was once one of the most influential catalog retailers and an original omnichannel retailer. JCPenney’s efforts to evolve the brick and mortar business has the company advancing omnichannel execution.The introduction of the digital age has provided JCPenney an incentive to create a more sophisticated and modern view of this catalog. The evolution of the catalog is connecting with customers on how, when, and where they prefer to shop.

According to JCPenney CEO Marvin Ellison, the company has “developed true omnichannel capabilities” by advancing the brick and mortar store. JCPenney’s omnichannel strategy focuses around the creation of a successful mobile app and the implementation of a buy-online-pick-up-in-store method. Let’s look at each part of JCPenney’s strategy and how these elements are helping JCPenney’s digital expansion.

Mobile App

As part of JCPenney’s evolution, the company has focused largely on created a user-friendly mobile application, taking advantage of the massive growth of mobile channels. The JCPenney app features a sleek design and easy to navigate interface which connects to each shopper’s personal account. The JCPenney app is designed to connect the digital and in-store experience, as seen in the image above. Consequently, the user base rates the app at 4.5 stars, with over one million users.

The app is a single mobile hub, facilitating online shopping at the customers’ fingertips. As a result, JCPenney creation of a mobile app has allowed them to connect with digitally savvy customers. JCPenney’s app helps shoppers locate items in stores, apply coupons, and also access their JCPenney Rewards. The app customizes to each shopper’s account, personalizing the app based on browsing history, purchase history, and even location. Customers can also make purchases based on what is available in nearby store locations and can even check available inventory. Consequently, the user base rates the app at 4.5 stars, with over one million users. The evolution of the brick and mortar store to include a mobile platform maintains a personalized omnichannel experience.

Buy Online pick up in store

JCPenney is also powering their omnichannel experience with the introduction of buy-online-pick-up-in-store option, also known as BOPUS. BOPUS allows shoppers to complete online and mobile purchases with a variety of pick-up options. BOPUS is available in all 1,000 physical locations and synchronizes with the location capability on the mobile app and online platform. Shoppers can make purchases based on the online catalog or available inventory in select locations. The shoppers can even choose which kind of pick up option they would like.

The shipping options include shipping to any location, same day pickup, and fast home delivery. JCPenney has a history of operating through catalog service desks. The direction towards digital catalog enhancement makes JCPenney is one of the biggest retailers to offer online orders to be shipped to any of its 1,000 locations. JCPenney’s successful blend of online retail and in-store pick up has evolved the purpose and functionality of the brick and mortar store.

The BOPUS option that JCPenney provides has also expanded the consumer market. Shoppers who come in to pick up orders have a higher attachment rate. A high attachment rate means shoppers are more likely to buy an additional item in-store when picking up an online order. Because of the integration of the digital and physical market through omnichannel, JCPenney is seeing greater returns .

JCPenney has implemented new omnichannel tactics to bring their catalog into the digital age. By marrying the physical and online experience, they have successfully rejuvenated their customer journey. JCPenney plans to continue their evolution through next year with the replacement of point-of-sale units with mobile devices. It will be exciting to see how JCPenney further develops through 2017.

21 Oct
2016

How Personal Is Your Personalized Marketing?

Discover how automation can put the “personal” back in personalization

Is your personalized marketing really that personal?

The overwhelming majority of consumers prefer personalized experiences when engaging with their favorite brands (more than 70% of consumers in the US and UK!). Personalized experiences are not only very gratifying, but they satisfy two very important, and absolutely necessary, digital age value points: the consumer need for control, and information overload prevention.

The personalization trend has picked up steam in recent years as marketers and brands now recognize the great benefits of providing consumers a personalized experience, including: faster response times, improved engagement rates, and higher conversion rates. Yet, as the digital age has continued to advance, a troubling trend has developed… personalization no longer appears to be personal.

Contrary to what appears to be popular opinion, “Hello, <Insert Name>, we have a special offer!” is not personalization. Remember, today’s consumers are tech savvy, and well versed in the methods of digital marketing. They understand that the more times their name and contact information appears on a promotion or ad, the more likely it is that the engagement was anything but personal.

There are two pertinent questions that we must ask:

How does this affect consumers?
How have marketers arrived to this point?

Answering the first question is easy – they don’t like it.

While advances in data mining and analysis have granted marketers the ability to track consumer behaviors and preferences like never before, personalization doesn’t necessary equate to relevancy. For example, using a consumer’s name 10 times in the two paragraphs of a welcome email does not demonstrate that you know anything about them… it in fact conveys the opposite. Another important point to remember: digital age consumers want to know that brands and marketers understand them.

Moving on the to second question, in order to understand the current state of personalized marketing, and how marketers can develop a more “personal” relationship with consumers, we need to take a more indepth look at how our digital age reliance on technology has detrimentally influenced our creative ability to market.

Let’s quickly review!

Digital Age Tech & The “Personalization” Problem

Across the entire spectrum of the diverse digital age, products and services are being infused with cutting edge tech to streamline the purchasing process. Consumers have become dependent on tech to fuel their need for convenience, and marketers have come to rely heavily on tech-infused processes for delivering content and value to consumers. Some of the most recent marketing advancements owed to technology include:

Mobile Technology: The consumer value paradigm has shifted towards small screen optimization and responsiveness. Today’s consumers research, purchase and connect all via mobile devices. Tech-infused omni channel solutions now provide consumers the ability to move between mobile applications and websites with fast loading times and responsive content. The next step in omni channel mobile solutions, and one that is on the cusp of being fully adopted, is that of wearable technology. In the future, mobile will mean wearable, and the omni channel will become a fully integrated part of the consumer and their experience.
Big Data: Data collection for marketing in the digital age means producers have the ability to optimize content and marketing solutions based on consumer information. Data in the digital age has allowed marketers to share relevant content with customers, and has provided the ability to adapt to consumer demand in real time. In turn, this data responsiveness has improved the overall consumer perception of brand value, because consumers receive a more personalized experience.
Global Reach: The digital world is a global world, and perhaps the most important contribution of technology from the last 20 years is its ability to connect diverse consumers from diverse cultures. As today’s technology has brought fast and affordable internet to most of the world, omni channel marketing strategies must now accommodate a global audience and implement methods for the global transfer of value.

As we can see, the technology of today has provided both consumers and marketers alike with a wealth of advancements. Yet, for all it has given, it has also dulled one very important aspect of digital marketing:

Our ability to deliver consumer intimacy and personalize.

Consumers have become lost in an endless sea of technological noise, wandering between a multitude of similar brands that provide similar products, services, and first name “personalization.” Digital marketers have fallen into a predictable marketing pattern, and as a result, they are losing their ability to transfer value.

Remember, the goal of any omni channel marketing campaign is to provide consumers with value. Value is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as:

“The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.”

As Forrester details in its 2015 study, “The Power of Personalization,” not only do consumers find importance, worth, and usefulness in receiving personalized and practical information, but it has come to define their digital age relationships with brands. Omni channel marketing meets this consumer need through a mutually beneficial exchange of value. Consumers receive a personalized experience with quality goods and services, and producers receive consumer loyalty and business. If we no longer have the ability to build intimate relationships, it is hard to satisfy consumers.

Recognizing that successful brands provide their consumers intuitive and personalized experiences, the natural solution to meet the needs of those consumers expecting “The Internet of Me” is nothing more than a new take on an old trick – automated personalization.

Let’s take a look!

The Solution – Automated Personalization

The digital age focus of marketers when it comes to automated personalization should the efficient extraction of consumer insight from data.

It is the key to putting the “personal” back in personalization, as automation technology can seamlessly adapt to changes in consumer behavior and preferences. It is important to remember that the notion of personalized marketing in the digital age was founded upon email marketing. Back in the early beginnings of the digital age (2006/2007), marketers discovered that the clickthrough rates for emails significantly increased when a potential consumer’s first name was placed in the subject line. With this new weapon of marketing warfare the email was brought back from the dead, and the modern digital age developed.

There was just one problem – consumers caught on.

Consumers quickly realized that the “Hello, <Insert Name>” email subject lines were not true personalization, and that brands didn’t know them any better than they originally thought. It was gimmick marketing at its worst. Recalling this lesson from the past, it is easy to understand the importance of marketing automation technology today. Automated personalization leaves the heavy lifting to technology. It adapts to consumer preferences, provides relevance, and allows marketing teams to focus on understanding the consumer experience. By studying the path that digital age consumers take, and creating targeted messages for each phase, automation software can then decide when, where and how to best apply personalized consumer experiences.

Yet, many digital marketers are often overwhelmed by the immense volume of data that is involved with automated marketing. According to a recent study by Monetate, even though 94% of marketers understand how valuable personalization is to digital age success, and 91% of marketers believe successful brands market with data, the study found 95% of all data remained “untapped,” while 26% of organizations do not use real-time on-site behavior to personalize experiences.

The reality of automated personalization is that it unlocks new visitor data, efficiently uses pre-existing data, and consistently improves to make sure that content is put in the best possible position to be seen! Combined with omni channel solutions, marketers can leverage consumer interactions and create personalized and intimate experiences across multiple channels of consumer communication.

What are some digital age examples of putting the “personal” back in personalization?

Let’s take a look.

Automation Example #1 – ZURB (Welcome Emails)

Silicon Valley based design company ZURB is creatively using email automation to connect with their subscribers by transferring a mixture of design knowledge and intimacy.

According to Daniel Codella, a marketer at ZURB, the company has a variety of newsletter templates that can be modified and personalized for different segmented consumers and target audiences. ZURB has implemented a variety of different email templates that will automatically send subscribers a highly unique welcome email that includes reading suggestions based on previously noted interests. According to the company, these emails now have around a 70-75% open rate and a 40-45% click through rate.

In the words of Codella himself:

“ZURB’s mantra as a company is “design for people.” People are at the center of everything we do. We think about who the user is, and what they need. The emails we send are going out to thousands of people. We don’t think of the members of our lists as numbers — we think of our users as people, and constantly consider what value we can provide them.”

In an age where consumers question how well their favorite brands know them, this type of automation and personalization creates a competitive edge. While ZURB is not going to win any awards for their email design (see picture above), this type of personalized automation is highly effective in transferring value. This basic approach can, and should, be implemented and improved upon through personalized creativity.

Potential strategies for improvement include:

Sending product recommendations based on purchase history
Inviting interaction via social media buzz campaigns
Offering promotions and discounts based on interests
Providing access to valuable information via webinars/tutorial videos

All of these options offer a degree of personalized value; how much so will depend on the consumer/potential consumer and their prior interactions.

Automation Example #2 – BuzzFeed (Subscriber Engagement)

Typically recognized for its “top ten” lists focusing on need to know Game of Thrones facts, digital media/news master BuzzFeed does a lot more than set the agenda for Millennial pop culture. Recently, the company has put together a growing email marketing campaign focused on delivering valuable content to its readers via automated processes.

BuzzFeed has created more than 20 unique email newsletters that are specifically designed to meet the personalization needs of readers. From politics, to health, to sports, BuzzFeed has studied what their readers want, and they have engineered their emails to deliver value. In fact, one of the top five referrers to their website is email, with each visitor spending three minutes or longer on their website!

The picture above is an example of a knowledge course that BuzzFeed automatically personalizes and sends to subscribers via email. By leveraging browsing history and other data, BuzzFeed is able to send along multi-lesson courses that deliver value to their readers. These courses not only provide knowledge, but they automatically keep readers engaged over a number of weeks. BuzzFeed segments their actual and target audiences by interest, as consumers are more likely to opt out of emails when the content they receive is irrelevant. As a mass media publisher, BuzzFeed recognizes the need to send their dedicated readers content that is unique to their interests, and at strategic intervals.

BuzzFeed is a great digital age example that even the largest media sites can use automation to drive engagement and keep readers engaged.

Example #3 – Caribou Coffee (Organic Customization)

Caribou Coffee is the nation’s second largest specialty coffee company, with close to 500 coffeehouses. The company is a great example of the digital age balance needed to successfully provide an automated and personalized consumer experience. Caribou takes the “wait and see” approach of allowing their consumers to shop without overwhelming opt-in noise, while simultaneously (and subtly) encouraging consumer / brand interaction.

By implementing a mix of standard and creative capture points, Caribou is able to take note of consumer preferences without altering the organic nature of the consumer experience. While the website does include the standard registration and email opt-in form, ecommerce customization is where Caribou’s personalization truly shines. From roast varieties to syrup flavors, Caribou is able to capture consumer preferences, and in turn, use this data to provide homepage suggestions for the consumer’s next visit.

Take note of the homepage pictured above… it does not exaggerate the need for email opt-ins and gimmicky subscriptions. What the homepage is actually doing is providing unique coffee suggestions based on the previous search, customization, and purchase history of the consumer. The suggestions by their very nature are organic, and not at all overwhelming. Through personalized content, imagery, and promotions, Caribou can continuously update individual user content for a fresh look, and a more intimate consumer relationship. With richer options, deeper content, and organic personalization, Caribou is a great example of automated personalization in the digital age.

As Mike Tattersfield, president and CEO, recently told Forbes:

“Our guests are extremely loyal and passionate about our product offerings, and so we are thrilled to be able to reward them for simply being our fans.”

In Conclusion….

Marketers can no longer survive by focusing on single channels and single solutions… the consumer journey will not support it. Today’s marketers must creatively integrate multiple channels while simultaneously providing an intimate, personal, and relevant consumer experience. In other words, marketers must put the “personal” back in personalization. For this task, there is no better solution than automation.

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22 Aug
2016

Social Media and Omni Channel Marketing

#Hashtag Marketing – A Changing of the Consumer Value Paradigm

In the dark ages of marketing, prior to any notion of the Omni Channel solutions, marketing strategies were traditionally defined via a purchaser/provider relationship. This relationship was based upon a variety of interactions, consequences and statistical probabilities on behalf of both parties.

Until recently, consumers fully engaged in the purchasing process had a rather limited freedom of choice. Both the company and consumer were generally aware of market needs, but information was limited and misinformation rampant.

In-depth product/service information? Competitor price points? Peer product reviews?

All of these areas were virtually non-existent.

Consumers of the past were forced to engage in an internal, and often subconscious, cost benefit analyses.

“Convenience or knowledge?”

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Do I take a chance on product X, and hope for the best? Or, do I actively (and arduously) seek more information?

More often than not, consumer choices were reactionary. Goods and services were thrown at consumers without rhyme or reason, while their wants and needs were often determined by third-party salespeople and advertising techniques. So-called “informed decision-making” was a mixture of word of mouth reviews, seasonal catalogue meandering and brick and mortar visits.

As a consumer, it was almost impossible to know if other higher quality and cost effective choices existed.

Yet, times have changed….

The last two decades of technological advancements have broken the consumer free from the chains of misinformation. Today, true freedom of choice exists independent of product producers and advertisers.

As we have previously discussed, today’s consumers have completely reinvented the expectation of value. This has resulted in a fundamental role shift within the traditional purchasing process. What is at the heart of this important shift in value?

#Social Media

Purchasing is no longer a linear activity and neither is the manner in which we interact socially:

When a birthday or holiday arises, consumers no longer head to the nearest mall to spend hours moving from department store to department store hoping to find the perfect gift.

Now, when we desire to talk to or see a friend living in a different time zone or country, we no longer have to depend on long distance calling or vacation time.

Physical proximity as a deciding factor, in both social and purchasing relationships, is no longer exclusively relevant.

This is all due to the rise of social networking….

Social Networking and the Omni Channel

As social networking and technology continue to influence interpersonal relationships and the consumer purchasing paradigm, their impact on Omni Channel solutions will only continue to grow. The impact potential for businesses utilizing social media is enormous and, if successful, is bound to manifest in the following ways:

Unique Brand Personalization
Expanded Loyalty and Engagement Programs
Enhanced Target Market Insights
Increased Mobile Agility
Improved Data Analytics

The one true expectation for any Omni Channel solution is the cultivation of positive company/purchaser interactions across a wide variety of spectrums. Social media networking gift-wraps a unique opportunity because it gives companies the opportunity to interact with consumers (and potential consumers) on their own communication platforms.

According to #Socialnomics, 93% of shoppers make buying decisions based on social media. By advancing beyond the traditionally stagnant channels of yesteryear, to those pioneered by Millennials, companies have created the opportunity for increased brand awareness, purchaser influence, and brand loyalty via Omni Channel communications.

Want to see the impact of social media in action?

Let’s examine various benefits of seamless social media integration with existing Omni Channel solutions.

Data Analytics

The optimal way for businesses to truly understand their target market is to learn their unique preferences for value. As this is a new phenomenon for the digital age, the best way to understand consumer value preferences is to frequently use the social technology they hold dear.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, over 52% of online adults use two or more social media platforms for their digital networking! Implementing data solutions to aggregate target market data will allow limitless potential to study “impact metrics” and avoid superficial statistics such as “number of followers.”

Various potential impact analyses includes:

Content: What you are posting and what is being shared. When content is relevant, you will likely see a wide spread share pattern develop. Attention to share patterns will allow you to alter products and services to fit target market value preferences.

Influencers: Careful data analysis should be devoted to reviewing the follow patterns of target markets. Influencers are those select social media users that, for whatever reason, have the capability of exerting significant influence on their followers. Those making an impact/influencers of your target market should be your influencers, and social data should be analyzed keeping this greater strategy in mind.
Competition: Social data monitoring technology grants businesses greater competitive insights than ever before. From strengths and weaknesses, to opportunities and threats, the typical social media strategy covers the Business 101 basics. Take advantage of the transparency and see how competitors are perceived in the market.

Customer Service

Social media solutions offer exceptional value to businesses. One of the most important is the ability to gauge market response to products or services in real time. Social media users are quite vocal regarding what does and does not resonate with them and their expectations for service.

Let’s take a look at the picture below evidencing a common customer inquiry regarding airline baggage policy. Pay attention to how JetBlue effectively and efficiently responds with not only the desired information, but an additional information source as well.

JetBlue is an example of a company utilizing the real time flow of information over social media to assist their customers with flight issues and questions. As demonstrated in the photo above, not only did the company prove responsive to a customer inquiry, but this photo was widely distributed via social media after the client’s request was positively resolved. From complaints, to compliments, to questions, social media is a great way to interact with customers that utilize multiple communication and purchase channels.

A word to the wise: Tread carefully though, for while criticism and customer inquiries are often constructive, there is potential for disaster if product or service mismanagement goes viral (see photo below).

Increased Brand Awareness

A recent study by Eventbrite revealed that digital age customers, and in particular millennials, value experiences more than price points. That is to say, when comparing products and services, the most important factor is the experience provided, not the price. While this notion is non-traditional, having a clear understanding of it is vital to success in the digital age.

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Social media integration into Omni Channel solutions can help foster a more complete customer experience by opening up direct channels of communication. Digital marketing and communication channels, principally social media, can provide brand visibility at a fraction of the price of traditional methods.

Effective social media brand awareness can manifest in the following ways:

Shared Communal Values: Some say consumers in the digital age love to talk about themselves. A more accurate statement would be to say: consumers love to share their experiences. A community of like minded consumers, of those who share the same values and experiences, provides an unbelieveable opportunity for communication. A perfect example of this in the digital age is Weight Watchers. By implementing uniform user experiences across multiple social media platforms, the company is able to engineer a seamless integration of goal sharing and support. With the amount of free digital resources now available, this is especially crucial for paid service companies such as Weight Watchers.

Create Buzz: Social media implementation has the ability to create long term value through “brand buzz.” However, keep in mind that this buzz is not always positive, as brand polarization has the potential to create a large gap between supporters and critics. Yet, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Bad buzz can stimulate growth and provide an opportunity for increased support through constructive change.

Personalization: Content personalization is a necessity in the digital age. Through social media data analysis, companies can identify what consumer value drivers will create long term loyalty, and then aim to align their values with those of their consumers. Once companies identify customer values, they can integrate traditional marketing techniques to create for a seamless flow from channel to channel. Companies can also use customer service techniques (referenced above) to leverage personalization with brand/consumer values.

Mobile Integration

The combination of mobile device optimization and highly responsive mobile marketing channels is changing the way customers interact with businesses. While the desktop isn’t dead, smart Omni Channel marketers need to seriously consider the benefits of going mobile. We have previously covered how mobile applications and loyalty programs are changing the way consumers purchase and interact with companies. Mobile social media as a piece of the Omni Channel puzzle should not be overlooked.

According to prior predictions, the number of mobile smartphone users worldwide surpassed 2 billion in 2016….

2 BILLION!

That number represents a quarter of the world’s population who now has access to e-commerce applications and social media platforms through their mobile devices. Marketing Land recently reviewed ComScore’s 2016 U.S. Cross-Platform Future in Focus study and revealed that nearly 80% of social media interactions are initiated through mobile devices. Given that eye popping statistic, it is no coincidence that mobile marketing spending is projected to account for 72% of annual marketing spending by 2019.

What are some of the ways that mobile is changing the role of social media within the Omni Channel? Let’s review:

Location Marketing: One of the greatest benefits of smart phones, for both consumers and businesses, is location specific information. According to a recent Global Location Trends Report, 75% of marketers believe location based marketing will be vital for 2016. Location based marketing strategies depend on smart devices that allows users to access networks based on global positioning systems. Instagram, Facebook and Foursquare have all leveraged these location strategies to enhance value for all users. From searching nearby locations for friends, to “checking in” services, to location specific discounts, geo-tagging is changing the ways businesses utilize social media.

Mobile Payments: Social media payment platforms are on the rise and quickly altering the consumer/provider landscape more than ever previously thought possible. Applications such as Venmo, which has been called the “quintessential app for the urban professional twenty-something,” have transformed mobile payment into a niche social media market. In-fact, if I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, “Hey, can you Venmo me?” I probably wouldn’t be writing this article right now. As EMarketer estimates the value of mobile payment transaction to reach $27.05 billion in 2016, it should be an immediate priority for any serious Omni Channel strategy.

Global Access: The traditional barriers to entry that once held back the global market will soon be extinct. Another recent Pew Research Center study reports: “Smartphone ownership rates have skyrocketed in many countries since 2013. This includes increases of over 25 percentage points among the total population in large emerging economies such as Turkey (+42 points), Malaysia (+34), Chile (+26) and Brazil (+26)….” Worldwide, mobile devices are rapidly evolving into the most common way that we consume social and digital information. The emerging access to previously inaccessible markets, in both the United States and abroad, is one way that social media will continue to impact the future of Omni Channel solutions.

To Conclude….

While only a single part of the greater Omni Channel strategy, social media has the potential to be so much more than #hashtag marketing.

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With the increased usage of smart devices and social media platforms by today’s purchasers, the potential for strategic implementation is infinite. From dissolving global borders, to increasing awareness, to facilitating mobile payments, social media will continue to play an essential role for both consumers and companies the world over.

08 Aug
2016

Millennial Expectations and the Omni Channel Experience

The Market Channel Revolution

If history has taught us one important lesson, it is that change never comes easy.

In stagnant markets, revolutions are sure to arise. Often beginning with consumer discontent, these revolts have the potential to wash away market staleness and stimulate a new era of innovation.

Make no mistake: A revolution is upon us right now. A new era in customer relationship management has arrived to remove the old, archaic methods of the past.

We are experiencing a market channel revolution.

A shift in values has visibly manifested in the relationship between customer and company. It is here that a change in control has occurred, and as such, traditional marketing paradigms will soon be obsolete. The limits of the customer-company business relationship are no longer controlled and dictated by producers. Today, businesses cannot justify marketing efforts exclusively focused on isolated channels.

Why?

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Because channel movement is no longer limited by technology. Today’s world is the world of the digital age. Today’s market is the market of Millennials. The “trillion-dollar generation” was born with a smartphone in one hand and a tablet in the other. Customers now have the ability to travel seamlessly from one channel to another, facilitating simultaneous and multi-channel interactions on a whim.

Does this impact consumer expectations?

In one word – YES.

Customers (i.e., Millennials) now hold the expectation that no matter where they are, and no matter their preferred method of interaction at that moment, touchpoint channels will seamlessly integrate through advanced technology. The margin of error is small, but the potential for success is limitless.

Out of this revolution, the “Omni Channel” was born.

What Is the Omni Channel?

The Omni Channel concept represents the notion that customer expectations are “on demand.” Traditional cross-channel customer interactions now are looped on repeat, a “Groundhog Day” for the digital era.

If Customer Y desires a new TV, he or she no longer goes to the local electronics store, asks for in-person assistance, browses models and makes a selection. In the digital age, Customer Y is conducting research, engaging with prior purchasers, pitting company against company, price against price and updating social networks all in real time!

With Omni Channel solutions a customer/client interaction will occur within each channel of the customer journey. How can businesses ensure positive Return on Investment (ROI) within each Omni Channel segment?

Focus on customer experience!

The Millennial Experience – From Research to Purchase to Product Review

Perhaps the most telling Millennial characteristic is the preference for meaningful experiences over tangible “things.” These experiences have a tendency to be communal, tech savvy and full of real value. In order to ensure maximum ROI for all Omni Channel segments, companies must provide an experience that reflects the Millennial notion of value.

How should you begin addressing the challenge of Millennial demands?

Let’s review a few important Omni Channel best practices:

1) Go mobile!

The successful implementation of mobile application platforms is perhaps the most crucial determiner of Omni Channel success. Customers, especially Millennials, use their mobile devices as a social extension of their mind, body and soul.

How many ounces in a quart? Google it! What movies are playing tonight? Google it! What are consumers saying about that new computer? Google it!

Today’s customers have the ability to both start and finish purchases solely on their mobile devices. The incentive to do so is high and, more often than not, is motivated by convenience. It is for this exact reason that mobile platforms are key to an effective Omni Channel experience. Businesses should also strive to include interactive chat assistance on their mobile platforms. Customers desire multiple levels of efficient customer service across all segments. A 1-800 customer service number no longer suffices with today’s diverse market.

For in-store purchases, mobile payment options should be made available as well. Like their generational elders, today’s purchasers are still inclined to make in-store visits. However, the key difference is that millennials are now accessing real-time information via their mobile devices while they purchase! From discounts to reviews to product information, the desire to consistently be informed is an essential part of their Omni Channel experience

Additional mobile options to consider include mobile payment applications and rewards plans. It is documented that Millennials are more willing to promote brands that reward them for their loyalty. “Check-ins” and “social tags” can expose businesses to wider market segments and can be achieved through interactive discount or rewards programs. Global market analysts predict that mobile payments in the U.S. will triple this year alone, with Millennials leading the way as early adopters. Mobile payment applications and reward programs are simple strategies that allow companies to attract more shoppers and simultaneously attain additional exposure benefits (as we shall soon see with Starbucks).

Remember, time is a valuable currency in the digital age. Mobile platforms with Millennial-inspired perks and efficient customer assistance will add value and help customers save more than just dollars.

2) Create User Segments and Respond Effectively

Understanding diverse target markets is key to creating responsive Omni Channel segments. This is achieved through data point research, analysis and automation software. By employing software solutions such as Customer Data Management from NectarOM, businesses can capture customer data and build profiles containing a wealth of information. Once you obtain customer profiles, you can begin to engineer your Omni Channel to cater to specific user preferences.

For example, 25- to 35-year-old Millennial males working in finance are likely to have different experience preferences when compared to 35- to 45-year-old fathers from Generation X. Depending on which audience you are targeting, you will likely highlight different portions and aspects of your Omni Channel experience. If knowledge is power, consumer data is a powerful tool to help you build success through strategic market segmentation.

Another important Omni Channel strength is the ability to be responsive to users across multiple platforms and throughout the entire life of a purchase. Eighty-six percent of Americans ages 18-29 own a smartphone. Twenty-eight percent of Millennials use their smartphones to shop online. As consumers are increasingly engaging companies across multiple platforms, businesses must equally engage their customers and sync their channels. A classic example would be that of the “shopping cart.” If a user initiates the purchase process on their tablet and places an item in their shopping cart, that item should remain in their shopping cart and be accessible across all channels (i.e., laptop, tablet and mobile device).

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User responsiveness and market segmentation are techniques from the Omni Channel toolbox that can help ensure efficiency in the face of market demands and provide a solid foundation for positive customer experiences.

3) Develop Consistency

Rounding out our Omni Channel best practices, we find consistency.

Consistency hails from the same family tree as responsiveness but stands out as unique in its implementation. Channel functionality across multiple platforms should indeed be responsive (i.e., items remaining in the shopping cart), but each channel must also be homogeneous (color patterns, user options, function locations, etc.).

For example, if a client pauses a purchase activity on their phone, with the intent to resume later that day on their tablet, the general layout and functionality of the new channel should remain more or less the same. If the “My Orders” option is located under the “My Account” tab when shopping with an iPhone, it should remain in the same location when shopping with an iPad.

However, this isn’t always the case.

A recent retail industry survey from TimeTrade revealed a significant disconnect between consumers and companies. More than half of the 100 retail company decision makers surveyed for the 2016 study held the impression that their companies provided “a consistent experience across all channels.” Yet, only 26% of the 5,000 consumers surveyed for the same study actually agreed.

How can businesses reconcile this difference between perception and reality?

Here are two simple starter strategies:

Commit to frequent data updates across all platforms.
Consolidate data distribution channels.

This two-prong approach is intended to advance the value creation process. As product data and customer experiences are both living, breathing elements of the Omni Channel, systems should be implemented that leverage data from multiple sources. Whether via internal applications or through third-party solutions, pertinent data should undergo automated distribution processes in order to ensure uniform circulation across all channels.

A truly shining example of 360-degree Omni Channel engagement is observed in the typical experience of a Starbuck’s Coffee customer. When it comes to integrating all three of the aforementioned best practices and creating a truly stimulating Omni Channel experience, Starbucks Coffee stands alone.

Let’s take a quick look!

Starbucks – A Unique Omni Channel Experience

At the core of the Starbucks Omni Channel experience is the notion of value. In a simple, yet effective manner, Starbucks has engineered recurring customer loyalty through its rewards program. Customer engagements are effortlessly integrated between multiple platforms and channel levels. From mobile applications to physical locations to social media, customers are encouraged to move seamlessly from platform to platform and share their experiences along the way. Further highlighting the notion of customer integration, Starbucks customers even have the option of sharing their ideas online and collectively voting for change.

Where does a typical Starbucks engagement start and end? With the mobile app.

The Starbucks App and Rewards Program

While physical purchase locations will likely always remain the most important channel for markets in the food and beverage industry, Starbucks has expertly added enhanced value through their mobile application and rewards program. Customers using the mobile app can link it to their rewards card and, in turn, they are offered additional benefits that integrate and add value to the act of purchasing a coffee. This value serves to incentivize users to make recurring purchases.

Some of the linkage benefits include:

Ability to order and pay
Barista tipping capabilities
Reward Points monitoring
Ability to add funds to account (via PayPal integration)

Basic channel functionality at its finest.

Need more? Ok, here’s more. You can check what songs are playing in the store you are in! In real time!

The mobile application integrates with Spotify, allowing customers to download the playlist, create suggestions and share songs through social media. It is a complete integration of the most crucial elements of any successful Omni Channel: physical location, mobile application, social networking and the customer.

To further emphasize the importance of seamless channel integration, look no further than the numbers reported by Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, in March of this year. During his Q1 call, Schultz informed analysts that 21% of all U.S. Starbucks transactions are by mobile payment.

Twenty-one percent of $3.7 billion in U.S. revenues!

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With a willingness to meet value expectations, a knack for mobile innovation and seamless and consistent channel integration, expect Starbucks to continue to lead the way in Omni Channel value in the digital age.

To Conclude….

As you can see, the marketing channel revolution of today is all about value.

If you integrate, innovate and meet the mobile needs of your markets, the Omni Channel experience your customers crave will organically arise and ensure success in the digital age.

19 Jul
2016

6 Types of Data To Collect From Customers And How to Grow Your Marketing Strategy With It

Personalization has hit the mainstream as the best marketing strategy for growing your business. It’s used by niche companies and conglomerates alike in order to create an experience that entices customers to buy. There’s no denying it’s power.

Have you ever found yourself shopping for a new shirt online, only to be bombarded with matching ads later in the day. The ads may even be the exact products your were looking at from the same sites. They’re remarketing based off information you provided. Someone else who shopped for pants will see a completely different set of ads.

The idea is to use a one-on-one marketing strategy to develop a closer relationship with your customer. Omni-channel personalization, with a focus on these data points, can create a thorough approach to tailoring your recommendations based on what you know about the individual. Levels of use will vary, but the goal is clear:

Marketing is no longer about whose ad is seen the most. It’s about who can be more personal.

1. Name

Names have been called the ‘customer’s favorite word’ and for good reason. Would you rather I address you as “Appreciated Customer”, or can we take it to a more personal level? Well Greg, we’ve got a deal for you.

Businesses have been using customer names since people started peddling wares in Mesopotamian markets. When Greg bought that suit, the owner had already learned his name. The next time he walked in, he was welcomed with it. It made Greg feel more appreciated than when he visited other shops. It created a brand loyalty and he’s significantly less likely to take his business elsewhere.

Knowing your customer’s name is easy when you’re talking face to face with her, but how can you do it when thousands of people are browsing your digital store?

Web developers solved this problem long ago. Membership and e-mail sign ups require a name. Even websites that only share your username have begun using your real first name rather than the word ‘profile’ on your browser. It creates a more personalized experience when the web page displays your name in the corner, even if you know it’s an automated system.

By e-mail lists having this information, subject lines can be constructed to appear like personal messages. Seeing their own name elicits a reaction from the brain, forcing them to slow down and read the text. Campaign Monitor found that working personalization into an e-mail subject line increased open rates by 14.68%. With a list of 1,000, that translates to nearly 150 more people opening your message. That’s 150 more potential sales just because you directed the letter at Greg. Talk about a great ROI on personalization.

2. Location

Where using a name is great, MailChimp would argue that city names are even better.

Locations can be used to expose customers to events in a given area. Is there an expo or event that you want to share with your fans. Directed messages at their location can be the quickest way to do it.

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Sending e-mails about a race in Seattle to people who live in New York City will cause your open rate to drop drastically. Meanwhile, your audience in the greater Seattle area may now attend, increasing engagement with your brand.

Gathering this information can be done through two key methods. You can have customers provide their location when signing up for different features, or you can have them grant permission using a geo-location enabled app.

Marketing Land claims mobile brand ads are seeing a 20% increase in conversions when coupled with location data. Need more reasons? They also found that “69% of Google searches include a specific location.” That’s more data you can use in your marketing strategy.

A study by White Horse Productions, Inc. showed that 8% of the users of social apps running geo-location systems believe “savings in discounts and merchant rewards” are the most important benefit. Though this number seems low, given the sheer volume of traffic that social media receives on a daily basis, this number is astounding. Since 60% of that poll thinks the social aspects are most important, it could be argued that discounts and deals would play a larger secondary role for most.

Businesses like Yelp allow their customers to ‘check-in’ to different establishments. Later, they’re reminded to review the places they visited. This creates more interaction with their site and app, as well as customer pride because they’ve contributed to the product. The ‘check-in’ strategy also brings more engagement on social media, showing up on the newsfeeds for everyone to see.

The largest battle with tracking a customer’s location is the concern for privacy. Many smartphone users will disable the GPS feature because of a fear that the information will be used inappropriately. Unfortunately for the honorable business, this leaves the ability to track location to user sign ups and invoices. Still, it’s better than comprising your integrity.

3. Gender

The purple elephant in the room, gender, has become a touchy subject in today’s social climate. Still, for a business, knowing someone’s gender can translate into better targeting and profit.

A study by G+ proved that targeting genders can be more than efficient. They found that females make more of the buying decisions, including everything home furnishings to cars. They also saw that women are more likely to use a specific brand if it supports a cause.

Using this information alone, you could develop a strategy to target your female customers with ads. Select the cause you’re most affiliated with, expressing a cause, and have better luck at winning them over. Even better is that if it’s a large purchase, you know to focus more attention on that gender.

Learning your customer’s gender also gives you the ability to tailor recommendations on page. If you’re a clothing company that sells to everyone, ads offering skirts will be better directed at women, while men’s products are better with them. This technique would still require a Facebook pixel or local account, but it could pay dividends in the long run.

4. Previous Purchases

Along with the gender focused advertising, many sites will tap your previous purchases to target you. Amazon is excellent at this strategy.

When you’re comparing items, say a sleeping bag, you can go through dozens of pages without making a purchase. Don’t worry, when you open your Facebook later, you’ll find that Amazon has a kindly reminder waiting for you. They’ll use sponsored posts to keep your mental shopping cart alive and even offer recommendations for some of the sleeping bags you were looking at earlier.

You can follow this same approach, or target on a finer scale. When a customer purchases a sleeping bag from your site, launch an automated email chain that offers them related products, like lamps or walking sticks. The odds of a customer buying from you again are higher than the chances of that initial purchase. It’s marketing done easy.

On the other side of the spectrum is the abandoned shopping cart. Maybe a customer became distracted. Maybe they found your prices too steep. By knowing that they didn’t make a purchase, but had intended to, you can attempt to reengage the customer. Remind them of the cart or make new offers. There are a lot of possibilities just by identifying their cart status and it can all be crafted into an automated system.

In the same sense, send emails when discounts appear on items they’ve expressed interest in, be it from a wishlist or deleted cart items. Study everything about a customer’s purchase history and you can learn some specific ways to target the individual.

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5. Interests

If interests aren’t part of your personalization marketing strategy, you’re doing it wrong. They can tell us everything we need to know in order to interact with customers.

Interest marketing is especially effective on social media platforms. Sites like Facebook and Twitter build profiles on all of their users, including everything they like. These likes translate into marketing channels.

By applying ads to social media, you can automatically engage those who prefer the niche you’re addressing without having to sort them out. A billboard is a shot in the dark. Social media advertising, thanks to the ability to target interests, is a point blank shot.

6. Web Behavior

A customer’s behavior on the web can lead to a lot of profitable information. Everything from web content to e-mail interaction can be tracked in order to improve your marketing strategy. Using omni-channel personalization with knowledge of their trends can be even better.

To start, figure out what the most popular key words for your business are. Once you have them, develop landing pages for each. Highlight those keywords as many times as you can in the page to be sure that’s the one they find and let the personalized experience begin. Depending on how many keywords you want, you can continue to develop new pages, offering a deeper connection to your audience.

Those keywords can say a lot in themselves by defining where the customer is in the purchasing stages. If they’re searching for a specific knife review, odds are that they’re looking to purchase that knife. If they’re looking for the 7 best survival knives, they may be a little further away. Through personalization, you can recommend products and advertisements based off where they are in that process.

Tracking behavior is where your content marketing can pay off. Everyone who has run a business with an online presence understands that cookies can be pivotal in your marketing strategy. By tracking which pages your customers are viewing, you can tailor content specifically to their interest. This can be a recommendation to other articles and products based off the category or focused bonus material.

Content upgrades that are directly related to the topic of the page can provide a great window for opportunity. If a customer is reading about repairing chainsaws, a guide to felling trees with one may be enough to get his e-mail. From there, he’s entered your sales funnel, leaving him open to more e-mails and potentially other personalization tactics from you.

Along with getting those messages out, you need to pay attention to how your customers interact with your e-mails. Spot which links are getting the most use and place the customers into a segmented list. Send them more emails that focus on the topic they’re interested in. Reduce the size of your segments if you can, creating various targeted sub-lists while still sending them e-mails from the main subscription.

Collecting data to grow your marketing strategy is as simple as opening a few analytics accounts and paying attention to customer behavior. Run as many tests as you can to learn what works and what doesn’t to maximize your potential.

The information you gather can be the difference between a year of growth or another twelve months of your peers passing you by. Develop a strategy for personalization and take the lead.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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05 Jul
2016

Omni Channel Personalization: The 2016 Trends

Why A Seamless Customer Experience Is More Important Than Ever

The good old days of customers coming from one channel are over. This is due, in part, to the rapid rise of mobile and social as marketing platforms, and with them, came omni channel marketing. They have created a shifting power dynamic allowing customers to experience and interact with brands in ways they were not able to just ten years ago. This could be visiting a store in person, the website, the social media presence, and any combination of using a laptop, tablet, wearable or mobile device. Nevertheless, the imperative question remains: What is the customer experience like on each platform and how can your brand take advantage of it?

With multiple users coming from every channel, businesses need to shift their marketing strategies from a single channel approach to an omni channel approach and be able to accommodate as many people as possible.

Omni channel, as its name states, is a multichannel approach to the sales process, and its primary goal is to bring a seamless shopping experience to the user. The term “shopping experience” relates to mobile shopping, desktop, by telephone, or even in bricks and mortar stores.

Rather than telling customers where to go, you are meeting on their terms where they like to purchase. Not everyone has time to visit a store in person or is tech savvy enough to follow your twitter feed. A successful modern brand needs to be everywhere at once and deliver a consistent experience across the board.

That, however, is much easier said than done.

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To successfully carry out an omni channel strategy, you need to know as much about each customer as possible. Luckily, there are more and more data points available to corporate marketers allowing them to make informed decisions. Having a consistent experience is great, but at the end of the day it needs to translate into increased sales, and working with an experienced team can mean that your business can see ROI results in days, not years.

Omni Channels – Everywhere At Once

It has always been important to know as much as possible about your customers, and it is even more important now. Whereas in the past you could rely on a survey or questionnaire done in a store about what customers thought, these days not as many people want or need to go into brick and mortar store. In fact, 7 1% of shoppers believe that they’ll get a better deal online, so why get up to drive to a store when a better price is available from the comfort of the couch. To compete in today’s market, businesses need to have some form of digital presence.

Why Consistency Is The New Black

A modern brand can be thought of like a mosaic, with each tile representing a different channel. If customers are told one thing from one channel, it is safe to assume they should be told the same from another.

As a marketer, it is imperative to keep your messaging consistent while adapting to the speed of digital society. People’s habits are changing faster than ever, and we need to understand where users are and consistently provide value for them no matter what channel. This will help cement a solid brand and a strong customer experience.

Channel Specific Customer Experience

Here is all you need to know: Customers act differently in each channel, and your brand needs to act differently as well.

Here is a quick rundown of general trends for each platform:

Mobile: It is not a question; it is not a fad; it is here to stay. Mobile is a legitimate platform, and you cannot overlook its importance. This is clearly displayed with this past year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, where mobile accounted for 49% of all visits.

An important thing to note is that while 49% of visits were mobile, only 35.3% of purchases were made on mobile. One-third is still a huge number, but on days other than Black Friday, mobile users prefer to browse rather than purchase. Make sure your content is mobile optimized to look great on any device.

Mobile Trends Summary

– Users are mostly browsing, rather than purchasing

– Customers do quick site visits while on the go

– Tend to have high bounce rate for sites that aren’t mobile-friendly

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Laptop + Tablet: Buying something online on your computer is pretty commonplace these days, with even technically challenged baby boomers taking advantage of it. Brands know how important it is to have a smooth checkout process with close to 60% of online sales coming from laptops and tablets.

There are numerous challenges moving forward with an omni channel integration strategy with regards to the laptop and tablet segment. Some key tactics to keep in mind include serving location specific content which changes based on the customer’s location, equipping sales associates to help customers checkout anywhere, and integrating in store tools like QR codes, sensors or beacons to engage with customers.

Laptop + Tablet Trends Summary

– This is where most of the shopping experience happens

– Users will browse multiple sites/stores

– Slow loading will increase bounce rate

Brick And Mortar: They are still the hallmark for many stores, but looking at industry trends, in-store sales have dropped by 10% over the last year. This does not mean that brick and mortar stores are dead, but it is a sign that retailers should start thinking about how to adapt moving forward.

The in-store experience is unique and gives marketers many options for how they want to interact with the customers. The problem is, most brands do not carry their online messaging over into the store. Sure, the logos and colors are still the same, but does the customer have the same experience? Smart brands are doing more than just asking for an email address on checkout. They are offering legitimately good deals if customers visit their website, and letting them order online and pickup in store.

Brick And Mortar Trends Summary

– Large percentage of purchasing still done in-store

– Customers may be browsing but will usually do so online and consequently buy in store

– Brings an excellent opportunity to connect with customers

Social: Social media has quickly become a channel all marketers should have on their radar. Each social channel has it’s own type of content. It’s important to understand that traditional ads are not working like they use to, and now smart marketers are adapting to provide useful, shareable, and valuable content to people. Whether it comes in the form of videos, coupons, emails, or tweets, the messages must include compelling content for communication to resonate with the client.

Social Trends Summary

-Your content must be educational or entertaining

-Curate your content for the channel – i.e.: videos on Youtube, Images on Instagram, news on Twitter, etc…

-Find a your niche and market only to them

Cell Phone Call Center

Without Omni Channel: You take your telephone, and dial that toll-free number to your cell phone carrier. You are calling to negotiate your cell phone contract, which, let’s be honest, nearly everyone with a cellphone has done. You’ve spoken to a rep at your local store who told you about a great promotion but asked you to call their phone support who would be able to activate it for you. Nevertheless, the story changes. At home on the phone, the rep you’ve reached doesn’t know anything about the promotion. He requires access information about your account, and even once they are in (finally), they are not telling you the same thing the in-store rep did. You hang up hoping never to go through that again. #frustration.

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With Omni Channel: The in-store rep you were speaking with was able to tag your internal account with the offer they mentioned. At home on the phone, the rep can quickly access your account, see the promotion you were promised and activate it on your account. #happycustomer

Do you see the difference? It may not seem like much of a problem for a big company, but it makes a huge difference for building loyalty in customers. People hate having their time wasted, and the better and faster you can serve them, the happier they’ll be.

Though omni channel integration will result in increased sales and revenue, it’s not its primary focus. Rather, it works to keep customers happy, which builds loyalty, and consequently, increases repeat purchases.

Then Vs. Now: The Importance Of Brand Consistency

In the past it was easier to create a fully seamless brand experience, because each brand wasn’t appearing on as many channels are they are now. These days a brand needs to have a multilingual website, multiple social media accounts, a customer service center, and a fully automated system running it all. Though it seems straightforward, creating that seamless experience is very difficult.

From a customer’s point of view, a modern fortune 500 brand should be able to achieve all this, and with the internet at their fingers, they can easily look elsewhere.

To have the right answer at your fingertips, a comprehensive database management infrastructure is essential. We at NectarOM specialize in omni channel personalization, and you can learn more about how we can help your brand get your brand’s omni channel ready here.

Data Management

Most brands have (or can collect) lots of data from their customers. From purchase or browsing history, to when they shop, to their economic status, and the area they live. All of these are very powerful marketing tools. The hard part is using them correctly, and integrating all the different channels. It is essential to manage this data to know about your user’s experience. If someone visited your site on his or her laptop, you, as a brand, need to keep that experience consistent on a mobile device.

Here are two very common scenarios with and without omni channel personalization experience.

Working 24/7

The last important way in which omni channel marketing has changed retail is that stores are no longer open for a set amount of hours. People browse the Internet and make purchases at all times of day (and night), so your marketing needs to work on their timetables.

To do so, it is essential to have all your systems on autopilot. As soon as someone makes a purchase or interacts with your brand, your marketing should reflect that. Whether it means they are getting a confirmation email to let them know their item has shipped, to getting time sensitive promotions and coupons as soon as they become available. There are too many moving parts to run a business manually, and automation is a must in our digital age.

Once a customer has purchased, and your marketing has begun, it’s not acceptable to send generic emails. It is easy enough to say that your messaging must be consistent across all platforms, but it must be specific to the customer’s current situation.

More businesses have become aware of the importance of omni channel personalization, about giving your customers something relevant and useful that consequently builds trust. Once you have trust, you’re able to establish a relationship with your clients, and ultimately make sales. Above all else, keep it simple. There is no point in delivering a substandard experience that will most likely lose you business. Focus on what you already know about your customers and then work backward to enhance their experience.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the FREE Guide to Personalizing the Consumer Journey!

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.