Increase eCommerce Conversion this Holiday Season with Personalization

3 key strategies to make more sales on your website with personalization strategies

 

Did you know that 72% of consumers find that online gift shopping has made life easier during the holiday season?

As a retailer, you can’t afford to ignore the various ways that eCommerce can boost your online sales.

In particular, personalized marketing technologies allow brands to engage with consumers online and increase conversion rates. Here are three effective strategies to increase your eCommerce conversion rate this holiday season:

 

1. Optimize website user experience with personalization

Shoppers that engage with personalized website content are more likely to convert. Research found that even though visitors who clicked on product recommendations accounted for only 5% of clicks, those clicks represented 30% of Cyber Week revenue.

You can deliver a personalized experience by displaying relevant content based on a customer’s preferences, browsing behaviors, and purchasing history while augmenting the shopping experience with features such as wishlist, past purchases list, and personalized gift guide.

In addition, you should leverage existing customer data to streamline the checkout experience, reduce cart abandonment, and optimize conversion rate. For example, by pre-selecting options based on customers’ past preferences, providing one-click checkout using existing customer data, and pre-filling forms using information from customer profiles.

 

2. Promote personalized offers with Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to engage with your email subscribers and customers who are already familiar with your brand and therefore, more likely to make a purchase.

Leverage your customer database and segment your email list to send emails with offers tailored to specific groups based on their past purchases, customer lifecycle stages, or other data such as preferences, interests, geographic location, and demographic data.

You can set up behavior-triggered workflows, which are initiated by how recipients respond to your previous emails. You should also leverage email retargeting — which can help eCommerce websites increase their revenue by as much as 400% — to re-engage visitors who came to your site but didn’t take action.

 

3. Implement an Omnichannel Personalization Strategy

While 86% of consumers would make an in-store purchase, 75% also order gifts online. Instead of engaging with a brand on one specific channel, consumers do so via a variety of touchpoints — whenever and wherever that’s most convenient for them.

Multichannel shoppers tend to spend more per transaction, so it’s important for retailers to be present in multiple customer touchpoints so they can engage with shoppers at the right place and in the right time.

To increase the effectiveness of your omnichannel marketing strategy, use a customer data management tool that collects customer information so you can understand how shoppers engage with your brand. You can then generate insights on how to deliver the most relevant offers through each channel based on customers’ real-time interactions with your business.

 

Implement your eCommerce personalization strategy at scale

Personalization marketing is a proven way to increase eCommerce conversion rates. In order to implement this strategy at scale, you need the ability to fully leverage all customer data so you can deliver the most relevant content and offers.

Our customer data management platform and its syndication layers, which enables real-time acitiviation of content and offers on multiple channels, allow you to effectvely engage your customers by leveraging the power of personalized marketing.

Request a demo today to see how our solution can help you increase eCommerce conversion this holiday season.

Boost Retail Sales With Omnichannel Strategies

Improve customer experience by integrating online and offline channels

Consumers are interacting with brands across multiple touch points. Whether they’re planning a vacation or shopping for grocery, they expect a seamless experience when they switch from one channel to another.

While it’s relatively easy to wrap your head around integrating digital channels, it’s often more challenging for brick-and-mortar merchants to deliver an integrated experience that spans all online and offline channels.

Don’t worry, it’s actually not as complex as you might think.

Here are 4 ways to augment your offline customer experience using online channels:

1. Build anticipation

Build excitement and anticipation by encouraging consumers to plan their experiences ahead of time by using online tools and mobile apps.

Advanced planning also allows your customers to get the most out of their interactions with your brand, creating a positive experience that’ll increase loyalty. For instance, Disney offers a mobile-responsive trip planning section on its website, which allows visitors to plan everything from dining options to Fast Pass purchase.

2. Streamline shopping experience

While some shopping experience should be “attention-grabbing,” others need to be “attention-saving” to maximize customer happiness.

To create a quick and easy purchasing process, use an online tool or mobile app that helps customers streamline their shopping tasks and make it as convenient as possible. For instance, grocery retailers are offering online meal planning tools that also generate a shopping list. Customers can then print out the list or download it to their mobile app to save time and hassle on their shopping trip.

3. Expedite simple transactions

Consumers get frustrated when they have to make a trip to a retail location just to perform a simple transaction, such as paying a bill.

While your retail locations should still be available for handling complex transactions, you can streamline the retail experience by allowing customers to complete simple transactions online, over the phone, or via a mobile app.

For example, Bank of America has developed a robust mobile app that allows customers to complete simple transactions such as paying monthly bills or depositing a check without leaving the comfort of their own homes.

The mobile app not only delivers a better customer experience but also helps reduce employees’ workload in local branches so they can better assist those who are there for more complex transactions.

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4. Maintain a consistent brand experience

At least 43% of customers have used their mobile phone while shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.

If your brand’s mobile experience isn’t consistent with the in-store environment or if the information shoppers get in-store is different from what they get online, you could risk diminishing the overall brand experience.

To maintain a seamless shopping experience, make sure each of your shopping channels synchronizes instantaneously with one another so that customer information and inventory are updated in real time.

For example, REI employs a robust backend system to ensure that all the information and user experience are consistent on the many customer touch points such as website, mobile app, in-store kiosks, and print catalog.

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The key to delivering an integrated customer experience

Designing a seamless omnichannel retail experience can seem complex at first glance, but it’s actually not very difficult when you make creating a customer-centric experience the priority.

The key to doing so is to create a single customer view and have all your customer data stored in one centralized database that gives you the ability to manage customer data collected from all channels and extract actionable insights from the information.

Request a demo to see what our customer database platform and decision engine can do for your retail business.

Sources

//trendwatching.com/quarterly/2017-06/the-future-of-customer-experience/attention-saving/

https://blog.hubspot.com/customer-success/omni-channel-experience

https://www.phunware.com/blog/mobile-statistics/

https://nectarom.com/2017/08/17/single-customer-view-increases-effectiveness-omnichannel-marketing/

 

Recharge Your Customer Data

Increase sales by leveraging the power of your CRM data

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has become indispensable for both online and offline businesses. It’s likely that you have already collected a large amount of customer information from existing customers and prospects over time. However, sitting on a pile of data isn’t going to bring in revenue for your business.

Your information is only as good as how well it’s leveraged to engage with your customers and generate more sales. Here’s what you can do to boost your revenue using customer data:

1. Create targeted campaigns

Your data can give you unique insights into each individual customer’s demographic information, interests, preferences, location, browsing history, and purchasing behaviors enabling you to deliver targeted content and offers in the right place at the right time to maximize conversion.

For example, when a registered customer shows interest in a product but hasn’t placed an order, you can send an email with a special offer to entice them to complete the purchase.

According to Forrester, 30% of eCommerce repeat purchases come from email marketing. In addition, targeted campaigns can be delivered via social media, mobile app, and direct mail.

2. Improve customer service

Outstanding customer experience is the key to increasing conversion and boosting customer lifetime value.

When your customers contact your company through various touch points, such as website, social media, or email, the interactions can be recorded in the 360-degree customer profile. Your customer service representatives can use the information to construct a better picture of the customer’s history, pick up where they left off, and offer the most relevant and appropriate response.

3. Support personalization strategies

Personalization strategies have been proven to increase sales and conversion and become the priority of many marketing professionals. Your CRM data can inform a variety of personalization strategies on channels such as website, email, and social media by allowing you to:

  • Offer personalized product recommendations on your website, a strategy that’s found to increase store revenue by 300%, conversion rate by 150%, and average order value by 50%.
  • Use email personalization to deliver relevant and timely content or offers that’ll increase engagement and conversion.
  • Combine customer data with retargeting campaigns, such as social media or Google Adwords, to drive customers to products they’ve already shown interest in.

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4. Attract new prospects

People who share similar demographic profiles, preferences, browsing behaviors, or purchase history with your current customers are more likely to be interested in your products or services. You can use the data from existing customers to determine the audience of your marketing campaigns.

For instance, you can upload a list of existing customers and use it to target a “look-alike” audience for your Facebook ads. In addition, for many B2B companies or B2C merchants selling higher-priced products, lead scoring can be used to identify the most qualified prospects by comparing new leads against the attributes of your most valuable customers.

A powerful customer data management (CDM) system

The ability to leverage customer data starts with a powerful CDM system that allows you to create a single customer view and collect data from multiple touch points. You’ll then be able to leverage the unique preferences, brand interactions, and habits of customers to deliver the most timely and relevant omnichannel campaigns that’ll drive conversion and sales.

Survey Respondents Mark Personalization Initiatives as “Top Priority” for 2018

NectarOM recently conducted a Marketing Personalization Survey in partnership with the Texas A&M Retailing Summit. This survey inquired about each company’s existing personalization efforts and which initiatives they are currently using, as well as their primary obstacles to implementation and where they hope to be in the future. Over 75 percent of respondents to this survey said that they were either in the process of putting omnichannel personalization methods in place, or that it was on the roadmap for the upcoming year. With such a large majority of companies still in the inception phase of their omnichannel journey, the outcomes from this survey give us an important glimpse into of where these businesses are with their omnichannel strategy and where they hope to be in the near future.

 

Among the many revealing takeaways from the survey, some of the most enlightening outcomes center around how company leaders rate weigh their current personalization initiatives, as well as what methods they feel need to implemented in order to keep up with their competitors.

 

Current State of Affairs

 

One of the most important factors impacting putting personalization methods in place is how familiar and amenable company leaders are with those methods. While over 58 percent of survey respondents said that their company leaders are familiar with the concept of personalization, another 42 percent said that the exposure level varies with various leaders within their organization. Similarly, 50 percent of respondents felt their company leaders know how to execute a personalized marketing campaign, while 40 percent said that the answer was dependent upon the individual company leader in question.

 

Most survey respondents (70 %) replied that they rank their organization at a medium level of maturity in their marketing personalization efforts. When asked what tools they are currently using to collect and manage consumer data, the leading answers were customer relationship management software (CRM) and data management platforms (DMP), with nearly 64 percent of respondents saying that they are currently using both platforms.

 

Room for Greatness

 

Beyond each company’s existing capabilities, NectarOM also asked survey respondents where they see the most opportunity for growth. A whopping 70 percent of companies said that they are using or are interested in using a distribution platform to personalize their marketing campaigns. This includes distribution platforms such as an email service provider, mobile app push, or website widget. This number was closely followed by other personalization solutions including CRM, DPM, and content management systems (CMS), which were each marked as a priority for 60 percent of survey respondents.

 

In addition, when asked where they see an existing opportunity for omnichannel implementation over 83 percent of respondents marked evolving to meet customer expectations as the primary reason for building their omnichannel offerings, while more than 58 percent of respondents replied that their top reason for building personalization initiatives would be to focus on a more customer-centric approach.

 

Obstacles to Implementation

 

The preceding statistics leave one resounding question unanswered: With so much interest in expansion through omnichannel personalization, what are the main barriers holding these companies back from full-scale implementation? While 58 percent of survey respondents feel that their companies have sufficient budgets to implement omnichannel personalization, nearly half (41%) of survey respondents don’t feel that their companies have enough allocated to get the job done.

 

Interestingly, 60 percent of survey respondents work for companies making over $1 million dollars a year, along with another 40 percent of survey respondents whose companies make from $100 million to over $10 billion dollars a year. Despite these substantial budgets, half of these company representatives don’t disagree with the idea that their business is behind their competitors in terms of executing personalized customer experiences.

 

Plan Looking Forward

 

Perhaps this is why in a recent Periscope Study by McKinsey, over 71 percent of respondents listed personalization initiatives as either their utmost marketing priority or among their top three foremost priorities for the coming year. Among the channels which will be used to build personalization, McKinsey survey respondents listed email and social media as their primary focus. Email is also where NectarOM survey respondents saw the most opportunity for their companies to grow their personalization efforts. In fact, 100 percent of the individuals that NectarOM surveyed checked email as the primary channel where they saw potential for activation.

 

These results point to an increasing awareness among company leaders of how deploying marketing personalization initiatives across existing channels such as email and social media can increase sales and build customer loyalty. What remains to be seen is how these companies deploy these initiatives in the coming year and how each business’s efforts impact both their relationships with their customers and their bottom line.

 

Watch our session to learn more about our survey findings.

Meet the NectarOM Team: October Employee Spotlight

Our employees are what make NectarOM a special and diverse place to work. We have many people with different backgrounds and personalities, but each person has a passion for the work that they do. This month we want to highlight Sucheth Prasad! Sucheth started off his career at NectarOM as an intern, but he quickly became a full-time development team member as of June 2016. With a specialization in data integration and analytics, Sucheth is experienced at building statistical data models. Continue reading to find out first-hand from Sucheth what it is like to be a NectarOM development team member.

1. What is your title at NectarOM?

Initially, I began my career at NectarOM as a data analyst and integration intern. Now, I work as a developer.

2. How did you first learn about NectarOM?

While receiving my masters at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), I knew that I wanted to focus on marketing analytics. I was lucky enough to come across NectarOM while browsing through a list of promising and upcoming startups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

3. Before working at NectarOM, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?

During my graduate studies, I worked in the UTD food court. For a guy who only had IT experience, I had no idea what it was like to work at a food counter. It was a very different experience for me. Even though I loved cooking, I never knew the tremendous responsibility that was involved in cooking and serving hungry people during the busy lunch hours. After couple of weeks, I finally became accustomed to my work and thoroughly enjoyed the remainder of the semester.

4. How has NectarOM helped you in your career/personal development?

Previously, I worked for a large corporation. While I was there, my individual work felt insignificant. Most of my conversations with mangers or teammates were over the phone or by email. My involvement in team decisions were minimal. The overarching goal was to complete the assigned work within the given timeframe. However, while working at NectarOM, my opinion of the workplace changed. Now, I know every employee who works at NectarOM, and I feel that the people at NectarOM always respect my decisions and opinions. I feel like I have made an impact in each small success or failure within the organization. There is opportunity for every employee to play a role within the network of NectarOM.

5. What are 3 words to describe yourself?

Mediator, Practical, Empathetic

6. Describe a typical day at NectarOM for you?

My typical day at Nectarom starts by answering my emails and going through the list of things to do for the day. Afterwards, the development team always hosts a short meeting in the morning. I try to work first on projects that are well defined and can be completed without a lot of confusion or effort. After I make my lunch at the team kitchen counter along with my colleagues, I dive into a long uninterrupted work time during second half of the day. The overall work environment is open, so it is common to have lots or work or non-work related conversation between the employees.

7. What is the favorite part about working for NectarOM?

My favorite part about working for NectarOM is the ease of working in different roles and the autonomy at work.

8. What advice do you have for someone who wants to work at NectarOM?

If you love working in a dynamic fast-paced work environment where you can learn and implement new concepts on daily basis, then you would love being a part of NectarOM team.

9. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a cricket player. Growing up in India, it was the dream of every kid to play cricket.

10. If you could meet anyone from the past/present who would it be and why?

I am fascinated by the work of Indian mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata. If I ever get the chance to meet him, I would love to learn what inspired him to work on mathematics and astronomy in 500 CE.

As you can tell by his responses, Sucheth is always a positive force in the workplace. He consistently works with various members of the NectarOM team in order to achieve new and groundbreaking analytical results. If you want to know more about Sucheth, don’t be afraid to look him up on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suchethprasad/

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve Got the Customer Data…. Now What?

Leverage big data for your omnichannel marketing strategies

Big data is everywhere, but do you know what to do with it?

Marketers are tapping into customer data to generate insights that have never been available before.

If you aren’t leveraging this gold mine of information, you’re missing out on a vast opportunity to surprise and delight your prospects and customers.

The problem for most marketers isn’t the lack of such data.

In fact, you’re probably sitting on a large amount of information gathered from various customer touch points—website, email, social media, call center, live chat, or in-store interactions.

All this information can be very overwhelming if you don’t have a plan to utilize it for your business.

What can you do with this data to advance your marketing and sales efforts?

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Optimize Pricing at Customer-Product Level

McKinsey has found that on average, a 1 percent price increase translates into an 8.7 percent rise in operating profits.

Yet up to 30 percent of all pricing decisions made by companies fail to deliver the best price.

The ability to analyze customer preferences and behaviors can help you fine-tune pricing of each product for individual customers to maximize profit.

Attain Greater Customer Responsiveness With Relationship-Driven Strategies

A Forrester study found that 36% of B2C marketers are actively using analytics and data mining to plan relationship-driven strategies.

These strategies have been found to increase customer acquisition, reduce customer churn, and improve existing products for more sales.

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You can leverage data and implement the insights with a robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform to build relationships with your customers. The key is to give them what they want when they want it to increase engagement, loyalty, and customer lifetime value.

Embed Intelligence Into Contextual Marketing

By bringing together evolving customer preferences and interactions across channels, marketers can now take contextual marketing to the next level.

When a customer enters a search term on your website or app, you can combine the search term with the customer’s purchasing history to improve the relevance of the search results and product recommendations.

Develop Customer-Centric Strategies

The use of customer data and single customer view  turns the focus from executing discrete campaigns to managing customer lifecycle.

Through improving customer experience across all touch points, companies are better positioned to cultivate long-term relationships that lead to greater customer loyalty and lifetime value.

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Optimize Go-To Market Plans Using Geoanalytics

Customer data can show you how demand differs across geographic regions.

Using this insight, you can align your sales and go-to-market strategies with territories that have the greatest sales potential to increase sales, improve supply chain efficiency, and reduce cost.

Identify VIP Buyers To Increase Sales

By analyzing average purchase amount, lifetime value, acquisition cost, and retention, you can identify your “VIP” customers that are of highest value to your business.

You can then focus your customer care efforts to nurture relationships with this segment with a personalized shopping experience and targeted content or offers to increase engagement and loyalty.

Deliver Consistent Omnichannel Customer Experience

The use of robust Customer Data Management (CDM) technologies is making it possible for businesses to orchestrate excellent omnichannel customer experiences across a selling network.

This allows you to effectively move prospects along the buyer’s journey to engage with and purchase from your brand.

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The technologies for tapping into the power of customer data are now available at your fingertips.

You can finally collect data, collate information, generate insights, and turn them into implementable strategies that will dramatically increase your marketing ROI.

Discover how NectarOm’s suite of tools can help you leverage customer data and take your marketing to the next level.

Three Reasons Why Email Marketing Really Works

Benefits of Email Marketing

In a world where social media, blogging, and SEO take precedence, email seems like it would be on its way out the door. However, with the business world obsessed with acquiring consumer data, email marketing is not only useful but essential to companies.

Email marketing is one of the most effective and reliable channels for marketers to interact with customers. Here are three reasons why email marketing really works.

1.Easy Way to Reach Mobile Customers

Email marketing is an easy way to reach consumers on mobile without investing in new technology or software. Email channels already exist and are a traditional medium of connection, making it simple to reach consumers. According to a report by Pew Research Center, 52% of cellphone users in the U.S. access their emails via mobile phones. With many consumers constantly on the go, email marketing offers companies a way to send a greater volume of content to consumers in a quick and efficient manner.

Email is also accessible on devices other than mobile phones. According to a study done by Forrester Research, consumers opened 42% of retailers’ emails on smartphones and 17% on tablets. Essentially, nearly 60% of email marketing messages also double as mobile marketing messages. This versatility puts email at an advantage in comparison to text messages and SMS messaging. Consumers are more inclined to open email messages because emails are more accessible. Texting, on the other hand, is only available on mobile devices. Email is also free for the consumer and company while texting risks the chance of an incurred charge on the customer’s end. This diminishes the satisfaction of customer experience and can drive customers away. Also, email marketing is an easier access point for consumers and conveys more content that is useful to consumers.

2. Email is a Transactional Medium

Consumers see emails as a way to get offers, coupons, promotions, and in-stores sales. Email marketing deals drive in-store sales, making product emails key to getting consumers to engage with a product. A study performed by Nielsen found that 27% of online shoppers subscribe to emails in order to save money. 64% of consumers have printed out coupons found on email marketing campaigns.

Since customers expect to see offers and promotions in product emails, they are more likely to be in a buying state of mind. In turn, this can turn into increased revenue opportunity for companies. E-coupons are becoming a huge business with the growth of online sales, and email marketing is at the heart of it. Email marketing reaches out to online bargain hunters and provides consumers with a way to save online and in store. The transactional framework that email marketing provides also allows companies to personalize more toward consumers, engaging them more and further increasing sales opportunities.  

3. Tells You What Works

Email marketing allows companies to see what works and what doesn’t. The data obtained from email marketing provides metrics to see how emails are performing and what companies can do to improve email strategies. These insights allow companies to market their products smarter and better. Learning what works because of email marketing also gives companies a better understanding of the needs, interests, and desires of the consumer base. Companies can see the clickthrough rate of an email, which can then provide data as to how shoppers interact with the online shopping platform. Companies use the information provided by email marketing to not only cater to what consumers are looking for, but to better improve the interaction between consumer and company. By using email marketing, companies can track customer activity and better serve their interests.

Some say email marketing is dead. However, email marketing works. It keeps customers engaged and opens channels of communication between the company and its customers. With email marketing, companies can be in the right place at the right time.

Kohl’s is Winning With Omnichannel Strategies  

combining digital and in-store

As the retail industry is changing, many brick-and-mortar retailers are employing omnichannel marketing strategies to fend off digital giants like Amazon. When it comes to successful omnichannel, a complementary relationship between brick-and-mortar and digital assures companies greater success.

In this third and final retail installment, let’s take a look at how Kohl’s is using omnichannel strategies to create a customer-centric approach.

MOBILE APP

According to STORES Media Editor Susan Reda, “retail’s balance of power resides firmly in the hands of the consumer.” With e-commerce gaining more momentum, many consumers have shifted toward online shopping. The Kohl’s Mobile app is playing a key role in helping the retailer keep up with tech-savvy consumers. Kohl’s effectively leverages the mobile app as an in-store partner and offers a customized shopping experience.

App users who walk into a Kohl’s store have the option of using a feature of the app that tailors to that specific store. The ‘Store Mode’ function personalizes to each customer’s store location and allows shoppers to search for store inventory and see in-store promotions while shopping. Customers can also check the price of store items and see other related goods. The Store Mode function gives Kohl’s a synthesized digital and in-store landscape.

Kohl’s also offers enhanced payment capabilities through the mobile app. Customers can pay with Apple Pay, a one-tap checkout option, in the brick-and-mortar stores and mobile app. Shoppers also have the choice of adding a Kohl’s credit card as a form of payment within Apple Pay. Consumers further have the option of scanning and saving gift cards to the Kohl’s mobile wallet.

Thus, paying for items in the brick-and-mortar stores blends seamlessly with mobile payment features, and customers are provided with a convenient shopping experience. Kohl’s gives shoppers more online and offline purchasing choices, thereby increasing the traffic to stores. The Kohl’s mobile app is a powerful tool which encourages online browsing and in-store sales. The app infuses digital into the in-store experience, creating a smooth customer experience.

STORES AS WAREHOUSES

Kohl’s continues to leverage its physical stores with the implementation of click-and-collect. Shoppers can make purchases online or through the mobile app, and pick them up at a convenient Kohl’s location. The company utilizes the brick-and-click concept, to make the brick-and-mortar stores act like warehouses for online orders. In turn, Click and Collect makes customer shopping more convenient. Click and Collect provides flexibility and ‘real time’ fulfillment for consumers. With consumers coming in store to pick up items, foot traffic to brick-and-mortar facilities is increasing.

The retailer is also using inventory at its brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill online shopping demands. Using local inventory, Kohl’s moves goods that are not selling in stores. Consequently, this speeds up fulfillment since the stores are closer to customers’ homes.
Kohl’s is creatively using its brick-and-mortar stores to make online and offline more connected. As consumers shop online, the retailer uses brick-and-mortar stores as makeshift warehouses, and in turn, makes the shopper’s experience easier and more convenient.

Kohl’s adapted the mobile and brick-and-mortar stores to become highly leveraged and synchronized units. The retailer has used the mobile app and brick-and-mortar adaptations to boost sales and create an inclusive customer experience. Previously, we looked at the successful omnichannel strategies implemented by Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. We have finally rounded off our omnichannel trilogy by taking a look at Kohl’s and how this retailer has implemented omnichannel successfully. While these three retailers are ahead of the curve with omnichannel marketing, it will be exciting to see where other retailers take omnichannel.

 

Privacy Policy

Introduction

Nectar Online Media, LLC (“nectarOM” or “we” or “us” or “our”) respects the privacy of its Members (“you” or “Member”) and has developed this “Privacy Policy” to demonstrate its commitment to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect, how that information may be used, with whom it may be shared, and your choices about such uses and disclosures.  We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully when using the nectarOM website. By using nectarom.com, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please refer to the end of this Privacy Policy for information on how to contact us.

What Data We Collect and Why

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Information Collected by Third Parties

We retain information you provide in connection with third party services, which includes Merchants, available through nectarom.com like surveys and polls or other third party research undertaken with your consent. We may also collect information about you and your friends who use nectarom.com, from any social network you may have connected from, in order to provide you with a more personalized experience.  We may establish programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us, such as, ask advertisers to tell us how our Members responded to the ads we showed them (and for comparison purposes, how other Members who didn’t see the ads acted on their website). This data sharing, commonly known as “conversion tracking,” helps us measure our advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements you see. We may receive information about whether or not you’ve seen or interacted with certain ads on other websites in order to measure the effectiveness of those ads.  If in any of these cases we receive data that we do not already have, we will within 180 days, stop associating Personal Information received with any particular Member. If we institute these programs, we will only use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

As you browse nectarom.com advertising cookies will be placed on your computer so that we can understand what you are interested in. Our display advertising partner, AdRoll, then enables us to present you with retargeting advertising on other sites based on your previous interaction with nectarom.com. The techniques our partners employ do not collect personal information such as your name, email address, postal address, or telephone number.  You can visit this page to opt out of AdRoll’s and their partners’ targeted advertising.

E-mail Communications

We use your e-mail for promotional (e.g., newsletters, new product offerings, special discounts, special third-party offers) purposes. E-mail messages we send you may contain code that enables our database to track your usage of the e-mails, including whether the e-mail was opened and what links (if any) were clicked.  If you send an e-mail to us, or fill out our “Feedback” form, we will collect your e-mail address and the full content of your e-mail, including attached files, and other information you provide. We may use and display your full name and email address when you send an email notification to a friend through nectarom.com or the social network from which you have connected to nectarom.com (such as in an invitation, or when sharing your content). Additionally, we use your email address to contact you on behalf of your friends (such as when someone sends you a personal message) or notifications from a social network or other website with whom you have registered to receive such notifications.

You may indicate your preference to stop receiving further promotional communications.  If you would rather not receive promotional e-mails from us, please see the section below labeled Opt-Out.  We reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to nectarom.com services, such as service announcements and administrative messages, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them. We may also contact you by telephone or text message (including to any wireless number you may provide to us) solely in connection with nectarom.com services. If you would rather not receive telephone calls or text messages from us, you may ask to be removed from our contact list if you receive a call or text message from us.

We fully comply with the requirements of the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act.  nectarom.com does not support spamming. If you would like to report an incident of spamming, please contact us at contact@nectarom.com. We will investigate and take suitable action.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We may use information that we collect about you to:

  1. Deliver the products and services that you have requested.
  2. Enable you to share your information and communicate with other Members.
  3. Manage your account and provide you with customer support.
  4. Enable third-party service providers who work on behalf of or with us to provide some of the services and features of nectarom.com.
  5. Share your content preferences and other information with the social network with which you have connected to nectarom.com, along with those companies and persons you have asked us to share your information with.
  6. Perform research and analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products, services, or content, or products, services or content offered by others.
  7. Communicate with you by email, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us or other third parties.
  8. Develop and display content and advertising tailored to your interests on nectarom.com and other websites.
  9. Verify your eligibility to participate on nectarom.com.
  10. Manage our business.
  11. Provide nectarom.com advertisements to you when you visit other websites.
  12. Perform functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.

From time to time, we may use Member information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in the then-current Privacy Policy.  If our information practices change in the future we will post such changes to nectarom.com to notify you of these changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at nectarom.com periodically.

We do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your Personal Information to any third parties for marketing purposes.

Who Sees Your Personal Information

  1. Our Employees

Only a very limited number of nectarom.com employees ever have access to your Personal Information. This information is used to send promotional emails.

  1. Use for Research

In addition to the uses outlined above, by using nectarom.com, you agree to allow us to anonymously use the information from you and your experiences to continue our consumer research objectives. The findings of our research may be sold to third parties or published in industry publications. However, such research will be conducted on an anonymous basis, and no Personal Information will be published or sold. This Privacy Policy does not limit our use or disclosure of any Anonymous Information in any way, and we reserve the right to use and disclose Anonymous Information to our partners, advertisers and other third parties in our discretion.

  1. Affiliated Companies

We may share some or all of your Personal Information with nectarom.com affiliated companies that are under a common control, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Policy.

  1. Business Transfers

In the event we go through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your Personal Information may be among the assets transferred. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur and are permitted by this Privacy Policy, and that any acquirer of ours or that acquirer’s assets may continue to process your Personal Information as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

  1. Disclosure of Anonymous Information to Trusted Third Parties By Us

We may share your Anonymous Information with third parties, but not in a manner that would reveal your identity. We may share your Personal Information, sometimes in conjunction with your Anonymous Information, with service providers that may be associated with us to perform functions on our behalf. For example, outsourced customer care agents or technology assistants may need access to your information to perform services for you. Your information will be treated as private and confidential by such service providers and not used for any other purpose than we authorize. In addition, from time to time, we may share Anonymous Information about our Member base with carefully selected third parties, so they can offer products and services that we believe may be of interest to our Members.

  1. Disclosure to Trusted Third Parties at Your Request

While visiting nectarom.com, we may provide you with advertisements, promotions, sweepstakes and offers from third party providers. If you choose to accept any such offers, you may either (depending on the situation) directly provide your information in connection with the offer to such third party provider, or we will provide your information, including billing information, to the third party provider by pre-populating the offer registration forms. Your information will not be transferred until you actually accept the offer. You may opt-out of the offer at any time up until your acceptance. Please refer to the third party provider’s own privacy policy (provided on the offer pages) if you have any questions regarding how your information is used by such providers. Please be aware that these offers may be presented on pages framed by nectarom.com. Although these offer pages have the look and feel of nectarom.com, you will be submitting your information directly to the third-party advertiser. You agree that we will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings, including the sharing of the information you supply to us with third party providers described here, or as the result of the presence of such providers on nectarom.com.

  1. Protection of nectarom.com and Others

We release account and other Personal Information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; or protect the rights, property, or safety of nectarom.com, our Members, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Obviously, however, this does not include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing Personal Information from Members for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Policy.

How We Keep Your Information Secure

The security of your Personal Information is important to nectarom.com.  We take appropriate security measures (including physical, electronic and procedural measures) to help safeguard your Personal Information from unauthorized access and disclosure.  nectarom.com uses a secure, encrypted connection (called an SSL connection) on all pages where you access or transmit Personal Information.  We want you to feel confident using nectarom.com to transact business. However, no system can be completely secure. Therefore, although we take steps to secure your information, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your Personal Information, searches, or other communications will always remain secure.   It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer.  Members should also take care with how they handle and disclose their Personal Information and should avoid sending Personal Information through insecure email.

Your Privacy With nectarom.com

nectarom.com will never ask for your username, password or any other Personal Information in an unsolicited phone call, email or letter. Further, any contact with nectarom.com customer service in which Personal Information is exchanged with a customer service representative will be used only for the purpose of satisfying your request. Any Personal Information you provide will not be recorded or used for any reason beyond that of the stated request.

Your Privacy with Our Affiliated Merchants and Advertisers

nectarom.com does not record Personal Information passed from our visitors to affiliated merchants. Order information, including order numbers and amounts, may be available to nectarom.com, the affiliated merchant, or third party affiliate program management companies for accurate tracking purposes, but this information will not be released by nectarom.com to other parties on a personally identifiable basis.  We may, however, aggregate this information on an anonymous basis to, among other things, perform market analysis and analyze trends.

Links to or Access from Other Websites

nectarom.com contains links to various other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other websites.  The ability to access information of third-parties from nectarom.com, or links to other websites or locations, is for your convenience and does not signify our endorsement of such third-parties, their products, their services, other websites, locations or their content.

We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices or the content of any other websites that may provide access to, or be linked to or from, nectarom.com, including that of any social networking websites and third party advertisers whose offerings require you to navigate away from nectarom.com.  These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect information, including Personal Information, from you and, in some instances, provide us with information about your activities on those websites.  We encourage our Members to read the privacy statements of each and every website they visit.  Each of these websites has a privacy policy that may differ from that of nectarom.com. If you wish to receive special offers directly from a store, neither this Privacy Policy nor our opt-out policy applies to those communications. Instead, please refer to the relevant website’s privacy and opt-out policy.

You may be able to access our account or content of your account from third party websites, such as social networking websites, by way of various applications. The privacy policies and practices of such websites in connection with information you disclose on such websites may differ from the practices of nectarom.com as set forth in this privacy statement, and you should review their policies and practices to ensure that the privacy of the information you submit on their website does not conflict with and is consistent with how you wish your information to be treated.

Your Choices and Responsibilities

We offer you choices regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your Personal Information.  You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of nectarom.com because such information may be required in order for you to register.

Any violation of these guidelines may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your account at the sole discretion of nectarom.com.

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. When you receive promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further promotional communications from us and you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the promotional e-mail you receive or by contacting us directly at contact@nectarom.com.

Despite your indicated email marketing preferences, we may send you administrative emails regarding nectarom.com, including, for example, administrative and transactional confirmations, and notices of updates to our Privacy Policy if we choose to provide such notices to you in this manner.

You have the right to request a copy of the Personal Information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your Personal Information, please contact us at contact@nectarom.com. We may charge a reasonable fee for this service. We want to make sure that your information is accurate and up-to-date. You may ask us to correct or remove information which you think is inaccurate. You may change any of your profile information by editing it in the profile settings page.

We will post all changes to this Privacy Policy here at nectarom.com. You are responsible for checking periodically on policy updates.

How You Can Access Your Information

More information about how to contact us is provided below. If you have an online account with us, you also may close your account at any time by editing the profile settings for your account. After you close your account, you will not be able to sign in to nectarom.com or access any of your Personal Information. However, you can re-activate your previous account by following instructions we will give you at the time you close your account. If you close your account, we may still retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and recordkeeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, enforce our terms and conditions, take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of nectarom.com or our Members, or take other actions otherwise permitted by law. In addition, if certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Privacy Policy, retention of that information will be subject to those third parties’ policies.

Opt-Out

You may use the following options for removing your information from our e-mail database if you wish to opt out of receiving promotional e-mails and newsletters.

  • Click on the “unsubscribe” link on the bottom of the e-mail;
  • Send mail to the following postal address letting us know which promotional e-mails you wish to opt-out of:

Nectar Online Media, LLC
P.O. Box 631155
Irving, TX 75063-1155

It may take up to 10 days for us to process an opt-out request.  We may send you other types of transactional and relationship email communications, such as service announcements, administrative notices, and surveys, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them. Please note that changing information in your account, or otherwise opting out of receipt of promotional email communications will only affect future activities or communications from us. If we have already provided your information to a third party (such as a service provider) before you have changed your preferences or updated your information, you may have to change you preferences directly with that third party.

Visiting Our Website From Outside the United States

This Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information on nectarom.com from residents of the United States. If you are visiting nectarom.com from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.

Children’s Privacy

Although nectarom.com is a general audience website, we restrict the use of our service to individuals age 18 and above. Children under the age of 18 are not permitted to use nectarom.com.  Furthermore, we do not intentionally collect or maintain Personal Information from those who are under 13 years old.  Protecting the privacy of children is very important to us. If we obtain actual knowledge that a visitor is under 13, we will take steps to remove that Member’s Personal Information permanently from our databases in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. By using nectarom.com, you are representing that you are at least 18 years old.

Feedback

If you provide feedback to us, we may use and disclose such feedback for any purpose, provided we do not associate such feedback with your Personal Information. We will collect any information contained in such feedback and will treat the Personal Information in it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You agree that any such comments and any email we receive becomes our property. We may use feedback for marketing purposes or to add to or modify our services without paying any royalties or other compensation to you.

No Rights of Third Parties

This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties or require disclosure of any Personal Information relating to Members of the website.

Acceptance of Privacy Policy

Your use of nectarom.com, including any dispute concerning privacy, is subject to this Privacy Policy. BY USING NECTAROM.COM, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES SET OUT IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we post changes to this Privacy Policy, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this Privacy Policy page and any other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, or by other means, such as e-mail, at our discretion.

If you object to any such changes, you must cease using nectarom.com.  Your continued use of any portion of nectarom.com following posting of the updated Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of the changes.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our information-handling practices, or if you would like to request information about our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, please contact us by email or postal mail as follows:

Nectar Online Media, LLC
PO Box 631155
Irving, TX 75063-1155
contact@nectarom.com

 

Email Marketing Personalization

Omni Channel Communication – Why E-mail?

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In today’s digital age what is the purpose of omni channel communication?

Generally, it is to communicate and convert, to build relationships with the customer and to create more unified and relevant experiences for today’s value driven consumers.

Understanding this, we must ask: Is e-mail dead?

Ok, so the question may be a little dramatic, but it is necessary to answer in the digital age. With the advanced technology solutions now available, why do we still need e-mail?

Well … before we begin, let’s take a look at the numbers.

According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 64% of Americans now own a smartphone. This number has increased slightly from 58% in 2014. The Pew study found that while text messaging is the most widely-used smartphone feature, “e-mail continues to retain a place of prominence in the smartphone era.” According to the same study, around 88% of smartphone users accessed e-mail on their phone at least one time over the course of the study period … making e-mail a more widely-used smartphone feature than video, social media and navigation applications.

It seems that if the true calling of omni channel marketing is to provide a total customer experience, i.e., to meet the consumer where they want to be met and deliver the value that consumers demand, then the numbers prove that e-mail is still KING.

If e-mail isn’t dead, what is the omni channel challenge of the digital age?

Keeping information up-to-date.

With the intertwining and complex communication channels that exist today, this task can be tough. However, e-mail provides an ideal mechanism to meet and overcome this challenge.

What are some of the great benefits using e-mail in the omni channel? Let’s briefly review:

#1 Value Driven Updates

Why is e-mail marketing an ideal digital age omni channel strategy? Because with minimal effort and high-cost efficiency, marketers can see steadily increase revenue and build loyalty by implementing highly informative e-mail newsletters.

Newsletters are powerful marketing and communication tools that not only remind your users you exist, but they inform them of your products, services, social presence and promotions (i.e., your value). Newsletters are added value in the sense that customers and potential customers sign up because they want to build a relationship with your brand, not because they are forced to.

Recent survey figures reveal 95% of people who sign up for a newsletter from a known brand find it somewhat or very useful … i.e., 95% find value. Also, it is important to note that newsletters are a relatively low–cost method as compared to mainstream marketing channels.

#2 Vast Mobile Reach

In the digital age, customers are constantly checking their e-mail, social networks and shopping online. Ifact, a recent Forrester Research study estimates that 42% of retailer e-mails for the year 2014 were opened on smartphones, and 17% were opened on tablets.

This high frequency of mobile use translates into countless opportunities to target unique market segments and create a user experience engineered specifically for mobile use. Some marketers have argued SMS (texting) marketing is more appropriate in the digital age because it streamlines value via the most widely used communication channel today; however, it’s important to remember e-mail has its advantages. For example, e-mail works on all mobile devices (not only phones), it is free (carrier charges apply to text messages) and e-mail allow for longer messages with the addition of digital media (pictures, videos, etc.).

#3 Fulfilled Expectations

While receiving an e-mail in 2016 doesn’t quite equal the joy of hearing, “You’ve got mail!” in 1999, it is what customers and potential customers are expecting from retailers in the digital age. According to an August 2015,e-mail marketing study by Adobe, 63% of customers continue to prefer to receive marketing promotions and offers through e-mails. This means that 63% of customers not only desire e-mail interactions, they expect them! By meeting consumer expectations, e-mail assists digital age marketers with the never ending quest to align consumer and marketer values.

Yet, for all the great benefits listed above, the truth remains that the consumer inbox in the digital age is a crowded place….

How crowded?

Well, according to Microsoft, the average e-mail user has an inbox count consisting of around 50% newsletters and 20% social media updates… and each of these consists of countless businesses and multiple social media platforms. Want even more evidence? In 2015, over 205 billion e-mails were sent and received daily.

This large number of 205 billion e-mails tells us retailers and marketers must separate from the pack or risk losing conversion and leads. Two of the best value creation strategies for standing out in the digital age include:

Personalization and automation.

Without further adieu, let’s take a look at how you can float like a butterfly while you sting like a bee and one-two punch your way to higher conversion rates.

E-mail Personalization – The Loyalty Builder

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It should be well recognized that personalization and marketing are inseparable in the digital age. Consumers have a personalization preference from the brands they use and love, because not only does personalization relieve the information overload of today, but personalized information makes the shopping experience more relevant to consumers.

By applying personalization techniques to e-mail marketing campaigns, marketers are more likely to build long–term relationships with customersand increase conversion rates. In terms of tangible numbers, this could translate into 6x higher transaction rates for personalized e-mails when compared to non-personalized e-mails.

As stunning as this figure sounds, perhaps the most amazing number is that only 35% of marketers are using personalized e-mail subject lines! Since 60% of marketers say they struggle with personalization, here are several simple personalization methods to try to boost conversion rates:

#1 Ask Questions and Build Profiles

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Customer segmentation depends on data. Yet, marketers often fail to ask the necessary questions before opting-in and segmenting potential consumers. What are the “right” questions? Remember the who, the what and the why:

Who are your customers? Why are they visiting/using your product/joining your list? What do they value?

Exclusive Bonus: Download 5 Tips for Email Personalization to know how to personalize email marketing.

These three simple questions can go a long way in gaining detailed consumer insight and creating highly targeted e-mails. For reference, the multi-question opt-in form above (from Thrive Leads) is a perfect example of how marketers can immediately begin to build value by understanding the interests and wants of clients.

Based on the answer to the question above, consumers and potential consumers can be assigned to separate segments and then sent different e-mails focusing on their specific interests. How effective is this technique? Well, Paper Style, an invitation and paper supply company, saw their open rate increased by 244% and their click-through rate increase by 161%.

Effective indeed!

#2 Develop Opt-In Consistency

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A great and subtle technique to help align with consumer values is ensuring your opt-in copy matches your e-mail copy. Remember, someone opted in for a reason! Your landing page and CTA have already conveyed a certain degree of value. Use this to your advantage by syncing the look and copy of your opt-ins with your e-mails.

The picture above highlights the recent success story of Nuffield Health. Wanting to increase opt-ins and leads, they segmented their target market and then assigned personalized landing pages and an e-mail series to each segment. By pairing personalized e-mails and landing pages, they were able to increase their conversion rates from 1% to 8%.

#3 Encourage Consumer Responses

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Our last tip is perhaps the most important. Remember, the entire point of sending an e-mail or a series of e-mails is to engage clients and potential clients. “Engage” means provoking a response via value. Accepting this as true, what is wrong with the e-mail address below?

noreply@company.com

By using a “no reply” e-mail address, you are telling your target market not to respond! Having a reply address creates a dialog channel that plays to consumer value. Using a real person and a real name will go a long way in making an e-mail credible and in provoking a response or action on the part of the consumer.

Want further motivation? Most ISPs do not allow “no reply” e-mail addresses to be added to address books; therefore, they are more likely to be tagged as spam.

Remember, no reply means no customer.

E-mail Automation – The Value Optimizer

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The implementation of e-mail automation strategies has become one of the most effective ways to engage in e-mail marketing. Automation and CRM software streamlines the consumer engagement processes, saves time and money and helps marketers develop relationships via personalized and efficient communication.

When should e-mail automation be employed?It should be used when:

  • Sending an e-mail series for courses or segmented information
  • Welcoming a newly opted-in subscriber to your e-mail list
  • Personalizing special messages (i.e., birthday, Christmas, etc.)
  • Purchasing follow–up (i.e., thank you, feedback, etc.)
  • Completing questionnaires and surveys to gain valuable insight

Not one of the 82% of B2B and B2C companies using e-mail automation? Here are some basic steps to get you started:

  • Select Trigger: What is a trigger? It is a specific action that activates an e-mail solution of your choice. For example, let’s say you decide that the trigger should be the moment someone subscribes to an e-mail list. A “scribing trigger” means that whenever an individual opts-in to receive your weekly e-mail, they will receive a welcome and thank you e-mail. Other triggers could be those mentioned from above: purchases, birthdays, lack of customer activity, etc. While the activation reasons may vary from individual to individual, it is important to remember that specific activation triggers should be part of a larger personalization strategy.
  • Design E-mail(s): Depending on the trigger, goal and target audience, e-mails and e-mail series will vary. They could include welcome e-mails, “getting started with your product” e-mails and discount e-mails. The point is to keep the communication channels open between the retailer and customer while consistently encourage a response. Again, individual goals will vary from series to series, but the overall goal of these e-mails is to remind your consumer or potential consumer of the value you can deliver. Also, remember to personalize! For a great resource on current and successful e-mail design examples, check out this recent list by Hubspot.
  • Select and Optimize Timing: The scheduling and timing of e-mails is a neglected and overlooked part of the automation process. Marketers should never take for granted the impact of time and location. From LA to Shanghai to London, it is important to remember today’s consumers are global. Certain market segments will prefer times that others won’t. Whether it is 8 a.m. or 7:30 p.m., the only way marketers will discover the value of optimal delivery times is through testing. A model example is the case study of BustedTees. This e–commerce retailer was able to segment its e-mail list by time zone and they developed personalized delivery times by reviewing past data on individual open times. The results included an 8% lift in e-mail revenue, an 11% higher click–through rate and a 17% increase in total e-mail response rate.

In Conclusion….

As you can see from the numbers and case studies mentioned above, e-mail personalization works. It engages customers, opens communication channels and builds value. Automation strategies in the digital age help facilitate the process of personalization through data analysis and lead nurturing.

Put together, today’s marketers have a one-two punch for e-mail optimization and omni channel ROI.

Exclusive Bonus: Download 5 Tips for Email Personalization to know how to personalize email marketing.