Improving Valentine’s Day with Omnichannel Personalization

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Improving Valentine’s Day with Omnichannel Personalization

By Bryon Morrison

Whether you think Valentine’s Day is a trumped up Hallmark Holiday, a childhood memory of tiny cards and chalky confections or a special day to celebrate your soulmate, you have to admit it was a lot easier this year than it used to be. The days leading up to February 14th usually meant a crowd of desperate dudes in a CVS aisle contemplating a battle royale over the last box of chocolates. Sure, love was in the air but, the hassle factor meant your Valentine was probably going to smell the same old roses again.

This time it was actually fun, because of technology – specifically, omnichannel personalization. I know that’s not a popular perspective, because we love to blame tech for the world moving too quickly and making us feel more isolated than ever. It’s also difficult to associate words like omnichannel, hyperpersonalization and big data with the most romantic holiday of the year. Not exactly pillow talk for consumers, but time-constrained romantics like me were happy companies were talking about it.

Making OmniChannel Personalization Work

Behind the scenes, brands were truly saving us by serving up infinite choice, inspiration and convenience. It took on many forms like targeted ads, ideal discount codes, a helpful nudge in an email or a message from that app you forgot you downloaded the year before.

And it wasn’t just the myriad of channels they were using that made things better. It was also the personalized experience. Average marketers tell you what you looked at or bought last time, but this year the good ones were giving out-of-the-box ideas. They helped us avoid the digital equivalent of yesterday’s long lines…the endless online form. We didn’t have to provide our first-born and a blood sample to create a relationship with a brand. They recognized us when we returned and we picked up where we left off. These technologies were the difference between Valentine’s bliss or a night in the dog house.

My Personalized Valentines Experience 

What did all this mean for this hopeless romantic this year? It went something like this…

I finally responded to the Nordstrom email I’d been ignoring for weeks with a subject line I interpreted to say, “You’re not seriously going to push this to the last minute again, are you, moron?!” Their app had a perfect gift idea based on previous purchases I’ve made for my wife so I was literally checked out in a minute or two. I was feeling pretty good about myself.

A week later an app push from Open Table with a suggested reservation at our favorite restaurant took seconds to set up. The restaurant knew me from their loyalty program and reached out via a call to offer sprinkled rose peddles on the table and chilled champagne. Brilliant – I almost felt like I was showing off!

I thought I was done, but that last second banner ad and offer code from Shari’s Berries couldn’t be skipped. Besides, I had to be the only one that got such a sweet offer, right? I went online to pick my specially designed chocolate covered strawberries and before I knew it they slid a dozen roses in the order, too. You know how they got me to do that trite retread of a gift? They reminded me my Wife loves multiple small gifts over one big one and they could send them on consecutive days! I could already hear her telling me I was the greatest Husband in the world as I hit “Complete Purchase.”

By the way, if you’re you saying “hopeless romantic must mean sucker” you may be right, but in less than five minutes of effort I was way ahead of all those other suckers staring at an empty card shelf and sweating profusely.

The impact of personalization didn’t end with shopping or dinner. My house racked up points, too. The “romance setting” for the blinds and lights in the home automation app set the mood along with the personalized Spotify channel in Sonos. Of course, the DVR remembered my preferences so I didn’t even think about the game I was missing (I may be a Romantic, but I have other interests).

Yes, the perfect Valentine’s Day was out there for all of us if we were willing to embrace omnichannel personalization…as well as our valentine’s.
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How Big Data is Changing Valentine’s Day

I get a bit nostalgic around Valentine’s Day. During the era of my childhood years, thirty-some years ago, Valentine’s Days was simple. Classmates exchanged tiny cards and, if you were lucky, the envelope was stuffed with a few heart-shaped, chalky confections. We’d get our fill of chocolate hearts and sugared gummies. On the way home from school, the sidewalks were crowded downtown by the florist and candy shop. Love was in the air. So was the blissful scent of roses and homemade chocolates.

Fast forward thirty years later to the here and now. For a most of us, handwritten cards and waiting in line at the local florist, where the owner knows your name, is a thing of the past. We’re too busy. Rush. Rush. Rush. We’re pressed for time. Yet, February 14th sneaks up on us. It’s around the corner, looming over our heads like a dark cloud. What to do. Where to shop. What to buy. Somewhere amid this mental fiasco, the sentimentality fades. Valentine’s Day. What happened?

Times have changed. Valentine’s Day has blown through the roof. It’s a massive marketing holiday and companies ranging from 1800 Flowers to Doritos have jumped on board. Many of them are also using Omnichannel Personalization and Big Data to improve their results. They’ve fine-tuned the process of segmenting email lists and running targeted ads to personalize how people shop for their Valentine and the overall customer experience. This includes gathering data about relationship status, life changes, identifying the customers’ needs and continuously updating customer profiles in real time.

From a customer’s standpoint, it’s difficult to associate words like Omnichannel, Hyperpersonalization, and Big Data with Valentine’s Day. It’s not exactly something you want to talk about over champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. However, keep in mind, what’s going on behind the scenes, is what gives you an infinite amount of convenient ways to find inspiration, get creative, browse, make purchases, and avoid landing yourself in the proverbial doghouse.

Without those personalized emails giving you the “hint, wink, nudge”, Valentine’s Day can easily spiral into something complicated and messy for the absent minded. Lucky for you, the hand of digital marketing eases its way into your daily routine. Tapping its fingers on your desk. Waving its hand in front of your face. Brushing the crumbs from the front of your suit. “Hello! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. You need to start thinking about it now!”

There is no doubt; Valentine’s Day is the most romantic holiday of the year. There’s a lot of pressure all the way around. Whether it’s choosing the right gift that’ll make your loved one swoon or deciding where to dine and making reservations on time, the process of planning and shopping is much easier than it was 10 years ago.

Technology gives you an endless stream of choices to ease the pressure and stress. For the clueless romantic, you can easily get lost in the virtual world of gifts. Let’s face it; most of us are beyond wanting chocolates and flowers. We crave out-of-the-box. Something unique with a touch of whimsy. From custom whisky stones or a Big Bang Theory Plush Soft Kitty Bouquet, nothing wins our affections more than something that says, “I know you. I get you.”

However you choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day, the age of all-things-digital and Omnichannel is making it easier all the way around. You can exhale. The doghouse is all but a thing of the past. Planning the perfect evening is no longer tedious or tiresome. You can stroll to the quaint corner Italian Restaurant with ease. Reservations are made. Nestled in your pocket is the box, neatly wrapped with a red bow on top, to surprise your Valentine with. Delivered on time. And later, after a boozy nightcap of sweet merlot, there are apps to enhance the much anticipated evening rendezvous. We’ll leave that for you to explore.

Omnichannel Today: Week of February 8

Omnichannel Today

Retailers are starting to thrive again thanks to eCommerce. Which retailers will survive?

The Rise and Demise of Ecommerce

Since the end of the 1990s, ecommerce has gone from minor curiosity to full-blown economic powerhouse. Amazon started out selling books by mail and then took over the e-book market with its Kindle devices and AZW e-book format. A few years ago, most people still thought of Amazon as a book seller, and they probably spent as much time or more shopping for books at Barnes and Noble as they did browsing online retailers. Today, most people know that Amazon is the biggest online retailer and that it sells everything from electronics and kitchen gadgets to auto parts.

How To Connect With Website Visitors in an Authentic Way

At the core of content marketing – and much of the rest of modern web marketing tactics – sits a single concept: connecting with visitors. It’s all too common for companies to lose sight of this core issue, pumping out meaningless, worthless, inauthentic content to fill space on their blogs, YouTube channels, and social media accounts. Or, even worse, to make genuine attempts to connect and nonetheless fall short due to a perceived lack of authenticity.

3 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Successful Ecommerce Brands

Whether you run a brick-and-mortar business or are thinking of starting a digital-based company, there is much to learn from the success of large ecommerce firms around the world. No matter what the industry, online businesses have shaken up the way people buy and sell, communicate, share and learn in all corners of the globe.

10 Tech Tasks Small Businesses Should Outsource

Outsourcing can be a great way for small businesses and startups to take care of tedious tasks while also boosting productivity and saving money. By outsourcing technology-related necessities, small business owners and employees can focus on more important responsibilities, like sales, customer service and more, without hiring more in-house employees.

Other stuff we read this week:

What 10 Travel Brand CEOs Said About Personalization in 2015
All Amazon Wants for Christmas is its Own Trucking Fleet.
Winning Over Big Box Retailers.
The Container Store gives (social) power to the people
Why 2016 is a Big Year for Twitter and Nintendo

Check back next time for the latest developments in omnichannel! We’ll bring you news, facts, opinions, and infographics that will help you gain a broad perspective of the industry. Drop in, stick around, and subscribe to our newsletter – and who knows? You just might learn something.

5 Omnichannel Truths for 2016

Facing 2016, we decided to take stock of what we’ve experienced and learned as marketers. It’s more important than ever to truly understand your target audience, to focus on improving the customer experience, and to provide value with your advertising by way of personalization. The only difference that comes with operating in a digital environment is the speed at which we must adapt to our customers’ continuously changing habits and preferences across all channels. Thankfully, there are some tools and strategies that have helped us out greatly along the way.

A seamless customer experience is priority #1 in your omnichannel marketing strategy

We should be happy to live in a time where our products and services can reach a global audience. That said, each one of our hundreds of thousands of customers has a unique set of preferences when it comes to communicating with your brand.

Data Management Platforms can organize your customer information and prime it for action. Marketers can use this kind of software to reach customers and deliver relevant content across multiple touchpoints, including web, mobile apps, social media, email, and text. The actions that a potential buyer makes on one channel should be remembered in a unified customer profile that carries over across all channels.

Given the endless amount of options that your customers have access to online, it’s important for remove as many barriers to communications as possible. Making your customer experience seamless across all channels will make them happy and absolutely drive your revenue. Speaking of which…

Mobile marketing matters.

While it’s important to deliver a strong customer experience on every channel, marketers should understand that no other channel has risen so sharply in growth, use, and importance than mobile. Mobile = Money, and nowhere this year was that more obvious than the record-breaking Thanksgiving sales weekend that spanned from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, where mobile hits accounted for a whopping 49% of all shopping visits across eCommerce sites.

Not only was more money spent in eCommerce than ever before, but the amount of mobile browsing and purchases increased so much that the crowds at brick-and-mortar stores looked noticeably thinner on Black Friday.

Marketing automation boosts efficiency and effectiveness.

It’s important for today’s omnichannel brand to be able to provide content with impeccable timing. It’s possible to automate this process using data from your digital marketing hub, meaning that you’ll put your customer information to work to generate real-time advertisements and messages that are personally relevant to each one of your buyers.

Why wait? A Data Management Platform never sleeps, and it’s available to message your customers instantly based on preset triggers that adapt your marketing efforts on the turn of a dime. Don’t make your customers wait to be engaged: automate your marketing to improve each campaign’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Your content must be useful and shareable.

One of the great marketing challenges of 2015 was learning to adapt to the AdBlocking software that became a standard in web browsers on both PC and mobile channels. We as an industry came to terms with the fact that the traditional ad died a long time ago: the new standard for engaging with customers is based around providing them with relevant, personalized content that adds value to their lives.

We saw countless examples of this as Facebook adapted its Newsfeed to embrace video, reaching an average view count of 8 billion per day and going toe-to-toe with YouTube. The key to this incredible growth? Promoting high-quality content that can be shared within social circles. When your content is just that good, people will advertise for you and sing your praises without any added prompting.

In other words, you get what you give. That’s a lesson that NectarOM learned when working with Avocados From Mexico to double their Facebook likes to over 1,000,000 in total over the span of just three months. NectarOM and Avocados From Mexico enticed its users with shareable, quality content such as recipes, giveaways, and eBooks that were passed on to friends and family and grew their social media presence in a very organic way.

Marketing personalization increases customer loyalty and engagement.

As much as marketers would love it if all of their customers were found in one place, the fact is that we live in an age where our products are connecting with more people than ever before. Each one of your customers has their individual preference for communicating with your brand, whether it’s over your website, your Facebook page, your mobile app, through emails, your brick-and-mortar store or some combination of all of the above.

Personalization has become much, much more than just a “first name” tag at the beginning of a mass email. It’s about understanding your customer based on their interactions with your brand, their shopping history, and the critical life events they choose to share on social media. Learn it, embrace it, and make it a part of your marketing toolkit moving forward.

Omnichannel Today: Week of December 14

Omnichannel Today

Christmas is just around the corner – even if the weather doesn’t quite feel like it. Here are the latest news articles we’ve been reading:

Cyber Monday 2015 Was a Smash Hit. Here’s Why We Need Personalization.

American spent over $3.07 billion on eCommerce purchases this past Cyber Monday, which has gone in the record books as the biggest online shopping day ever. This massive success showcased the growth of eCommerce and particularly the increasing popularity of mobile purchases. But this isn’t the end of the story, and there are a few key trends will highlight the potential of omnichannel marketing personalization to maximize retailers’ marketing dollars through the rest of the holiday season and beyond.

Barnes & Noble has been destroyed by Amazon

Barnes & Noble shares have dropped 20% percent following the bookstore’s reported decline in sales, increase in long-term debts, and sluggish store attendance. Despite finding moderate success on Cyber Monday, their buggy eCommerce site may not be enough to compete with the prices, selection, and comprehensive eCommerce experience offered by Amazon.

How In-Store Experience and Omnichannel Retailing Could Be Key for Bed Bath & Beyond

A retail study reveals that consumers that shop across multiple channels tend to spend far more than average buyers, which means that eCommerce should be a major focus for companies looking to maximize their marketing dollars. An interesting shift noted in the article is the tendency for customers to go to the store to browse, but make purchases online.

10 Disruptive Digital Trends Retailers Need To Know

A new article from the Financial Times discusses how modern shoppers expect brands to develop a relationship with them over social media and other digital platforms. The thought leaders interviewed point to the success of apps like Instagram, Etsy, and Olapic, who offer businesses the ability to showcase their “human side” to potential customers by using memes, shareable posts, and conversation starters to promote fan engagement over social media.

Other stuff we read this week:

Our work with Avocados From Mexico made it into the latest edition of Ad Age.
All Amazon Wants for Christmas is its Own Trucking Fleet.
Marketing on Reddit Is Scary, But These Success Stories Show Big Potential.
Pros and Cons: How Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Apple Are Battling for Breaking News
From AI and data science to cryptography: Microsoft researchers offer 16 predictions for ’16

Check back next time for the latest developments in omnichannel! We’ll bring you news, facts, opinions, and infographics that will help you gain a broad perspective of the industry. Drop in, stick around, and subscribe to our newsletter – and who knows? You just might learn something.

Black Friday 2015 showed us a massive surge in eCommerce sales

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and this year’s Black Friday saw more shoppers make purchases online than ever. According to the National Marketing Federation, $4.45 billion dollars worth of revenue was generated in online purchases this weekend, an overall 14.5% increase since last year.

The NRF’s latest survey estimates that 103 million Americans did at least some of their shopping online from Thanksgiving Thursday to this past Sunday, which probably had a role in the decreased foot traffic that we saw in shopping malls and retail stores. The inevitable Cyber Monday statistics should confirm the overall trend that more people are opting out of shopping in person in favor of eCommerce, and the shoppers that still do enjoy visiting stores in person are increasingly going for the whole omnichannel experience via digitally-assisted purchases.

This shift could also be the result of an extended “holiday” shopping season that now starts just after Halloween, which means that shoppers who would have braved malls and Wal-Marts nationwide are now choosing to do their gift-buying earlier and online. Either way, we can see that more than ever shoppers have the luxury of making purchases based on price (always) and the convenience of the overall shopping experience year-round, instead of waiting participating in the Black Friday mosh pit for a couple of deals.

It’s not difficult to see a future where Americans start doing the bulk of their holiday shopping online as discounts on the goods they want start popping up in early November, perhaps even right after Halloween. Through eCommerce, shoppers have a wider variety of product choice, research tools, and access to a wider inventory than might be available in-store. And with the overall trend of extending the availability of holiday discounts, it’s likely that we’ll see a continued growth in online and mobile commerce while the Thanksgiving spike in brick-and-mortar stores continues to level off for everyone else but tactile shoppers that insist on seeing products in person and for whatever reason, enjoy the strange, contemporary American tradition of Black Friday.

This Week in Omnichannel (November 16, 2015)

Here’s what we’ve been reading this week:

omnichannelfill

Avocados From Mexico Is Turning Guacamole Addiction Into Consumer Data

A new piece from Ad Age explores how NectarOM partner Avocados From Mexico has used a blend of multiple channels, emerging technologies, and personalized marketing techniques to become the first truly omnichannel produce company. We’re extremely proud to work with them and can’t wait to be a part of whatever comes next.

The New Normal: How Native Advertising’s Changed in a Year

DigiDay assembled writers from marketing news outlets like Forbes, Gawker, Mic, and Time to discuss the ongoing evolution of native advertising. Some of the biggest developments they touch on: the actual growth of the industry (which has doubled in the past year), new ways of presenting ads that maximize audience engagement, and, most importantly, the rise of “off-platform” media such as Facebook Instant Articles and Snapchat as ways for audiences to consume content.

3 Ways to Evaluate and Engage High-Value Customers

Your high-value customers (HVCs) are responsible for driving a disproportionately large share of your revenue – in some cases, up to 80% of the revenue can come from 20% of your most loyal customers. Given that, it’s in your best interest to keep these people happy. If you haven’t thought much about CRM in the past, this is a great place to start.

Teens spend an average of 9 hours a day with media, survey finds

Researchers report that American teens spend an average of 9 ours a day shifting between TV, browsing the Internet, and using a mobile phone. The sheer amount of screen time that young people are exposed to has huge consequences for omnichannel, and means that moving forward every brand should try to maximize their presence in the virtual media space.

We also enjoyed these pieces:

From teens to adults, everyone’s watching online video as much as TV.

Why one writer thinks you can’t win that Facebook fight.

Google and Amazon account for 57% of all online revenue.

Tech is eating media. Now what?

Snapchat Reaches 6 Billion Daily Videos Views, Tripling From 2 Billion In May

Check back next time for the latest developments in omnichannel! We’ll bring you news, facts, opinions, and infographics that will help you gain a broad perspective of the industry. Drop in, stick around, and subscribe to our newsletter – and who knows? You just might learn something.

3 Ways to Evaluate and Engage High-Value Customers

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

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

What makes a customer high value?

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

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

3 Ways to Engage High-Value Customers

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

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