How to make Big Data personal with Segmentation

marketing personalizationWho says Big Data can’t be personalized?

Within the realms of marketing campaigns, generalization is not a word you want to embrace. Sending identical, generic mass emails to your entire customer base across the board  isn’t the route you want to take. This only leads to poor customer retention, customer dissatisfaction and your emails ending up in the virtual trash bin…unopened.

When you’ve got data, you need to leverage it in order to communicate relevant and targeted messages. The content within these emails need to be useful, have purpose and address the needs of your customers in real time.

In order to efficiently segment your data, you need to conduct an analysis based on existing data and decide the target groups you want to approach. Applying segmentation to  your data allows you to create email marketing campaigns that are relevant for each group.  Segmenting is also a key process that disperses information, products and offers to designated groups that’s specific to their needs and interests.

Segmentation can be based on many factors according to demographics, behavioral, lifecycle, occasions, social data, past purchase history, spending habits, age, gender, website activity, etc.  By segmenting all of this data, you’re identifying the various levels of your database and sending out cost-effecting email campaigns that are tailored to each group. Without segmenting data efficiently, it’s difficult to produce targeted information. Not to mention, it’s a waste of time when you’re sending out products & offers that are of no use to your customers.

Segmentation is typically based on the amount of data you have on individual customers and making the most of it. This can be obtained through social data, CRM, past purchase history, website activity, demographic, etc. It’s the process of dividing your customers into logical groups and tailoring emails targeting their interests, triggers, lifecycles, website behavior, and purchase history.  Nectar suite automatically segments customers based on lifetime value and engagement.

Nectar’s products allows your brand to hyper-personalize communications with the right offers and products in real time that’ll drive revenue.

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5 Effective Ways To Hyper-Personalize Communications

hyper personalized communicationsEvery Customer Deserves Personalized Attention

One of the top priorities of any marketer is to capture, build and retain customers. Effectively engaging customers to keep any services and products in the forefront of their mind is a difficult task. It requires advanced marketing personalization with turbo charged hyper-personalized content, products and information.  No two customers are the same. For that reason, it’s important to hyper-personalize communications with content that is tailored to each individual.

As a marketer, you need to deliver meaningful, useful, and effective content that will address your customer’s needs in real time. That’s no easy feat. There’s a tremendous amount of competition out there. Millions of emails are sent out everyday to millions of customers. People are busy with very little time to spare. With several hundred emails lurking in a recipient’s inbox, you’ve got to stand out in order to be noticed and considered. A generic or “slightly personalized” marketing campaign wont’ cut it. Sally isn’t going to open your email just because it addresses her by name followed by a catchy slogan.

How do you effectively deliver hyper-personalize communications for your customers?

1.  Connect the Customer Dots – Imagine you’re asked to make a sandwich for Sally. The only information you have is she prefers white bread and doesn’t like mayo. Based on that, you make her a turkey and cheese sandwich on wheat with mustard and hope for the best. She’s not impressed. Why? The sandwich was plain, bland and lacked her personal preferences. The same holds true when you’re trying to hyper-personalize communications. Without big data under your belt, you’re going in blind. You need data from crucial sources like CRM, website, email, transactions, browsing history, 3rd parties, etc to create relevant content for each individual customer. Once you have those valuable dots to connect, you’re able to leverage every piece of data. This time around, you make Sally a roasted turkey sandwich on lightly toasted ciabatta bread with honey mustard, tomato, avocado, lettuce, bacon, extra pickle and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Now…you have her attention.

2.  Create 360 Degree Customer Profiles – Once you’ve connected the customer dots, you’re able create rich customer profiles that is worlds beyond a profile established from traditional data. This can mean the different between “Sally likes to buy shoes” and “Sally likes to buy shoes preferably in the spring and summer months. She gravitates more towards trendy styles and adores heels. Her mission is to purchase designer brands without paying the designer price.” You can use this portion of her 360 degree customer profile to send her products and offers that are useful, caters to her buying preferences and communicate offers and products that would further enhance her buying options through your company.

3.  Pay Attention to Real Time Behaviors – Want deeper insights to the lives of your customers? With Nectar’s data processing tools, you can gather information about what your customers are sharing, liking and what their interests are. It’s taking the process a step further and listening to what your customer is doing through the use of algorithms. Is your customer taking a step out of the box? Are they spending additional time in other categories? Is your customer making purchases that veers away from their typical habits? This is all vital information that will update and combine with existing social data. This in turn gives you the ability to connect more dots and convert this data into valuable insights. The result? Turbo charged hyper-personalized communications. You know that Sally likes shoes, but lately, she’s showing an interest in vintage decor pieces. She’s liking items in that category and recently make several purchases. She’s in the market for both small and big ticket items. Why? Sally is renovating her home.

4.  Address the Customer’s Needs – Utilizing real time behaviors opens the door of opportunity. Based on Sally’s decision to renovate her home, you can create a slew of products and offers that will address her needs at this time. Based on her browsing and purchase history, you’ve determined she is partial to vintage styles and the color blue. Sally’s purchases have been sale or clearance items and so far, she’s worked on the livingroom and dining room. With all of this big data, it’s time to send out a few marketing campaigns with tailored products and offers. These offers can be a mix of items for the 2 rooms she’s currently working on and a few for other rooms in the house because eventually she’ll be in the market for those as well.

5.  Execute Immediately After a Trigger – Life happens and changes are always taking place whether sudden or those that are planned out. These changes produce triggers. Some of these triggers may include a birth announcement, save the date, engagement, new job, relocating to another city, booking a 2 week vacation to an exotic island overseas, birthdays, and other milestones. Amid these triggers are opportunities to cultivate products and offers based on a customer’s immediate needs. A customer’s birthday might trigger sending a personalized Happy Birthday message with an exclusive coupon to their most frequented store. An engagement annoucement is a trigger to send an email with products and offers that are tailored specifically to that moment…like save the date cards or wedding invitations.

Nectar’s products allows your brand to hyper-personalize communications with the right offers and products in real time that’ll drive revenue.

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5 Reasons Why You Need Marketing Personalization

Nectar One-to-One Marketing SuiteAll things considered, it’s a must…

There’s lots of decisions to be made and various avenues to consider as a marketer. One of the more prominent, hands down, is Marketing Personalization. The road map of promoting your products, generating interest, acquiring customers, obtaining & expanding a loyal customer base and boosting your revenue is vast. It’s no easy feat.

When it’s time to substantiate a plan of action, there’s a slew of questions darting from every direction. The most pressing of all questions leans towards, “Is there a need for marketing personalization and how important is this?”  An extreme “in a nutshell” answer is YES and VERY. But, you’re not here for one word answers…

Let’s sift through to some of the more salient fundamentals of marketing personalization…

1.  You’ve got some hardcore competition – Ninety trillion emails are sent out each year. Approximately 70% of those emails are not personalized and are considered generic while 25% contain a trivial amount of marketing personalization.  Bottom line…less than 10% of emails received are considered legit by the recipient. The rest are deemed as “spam” and dispersed to the trash bin unopened. That’s not where you want to be. We’ve all heard the expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” With 90 trillion emails being sent every year, there’s a tremendous amount of competition. Swimming in the sea of mediocrity isn’t going to cut it. You’ve got to do more than make an impact or come up with a catchy slogan. You need to gather,disparate and segment your data efficiently to deliver the most relevant content, products and offers.

2. Customization vs Personalization – Although similar, these two terms are sitting on opposite ends of the stick. To differentiate the 2, lets think about a cup of coffee. A customized cup of coffee is based on general information. John likes coffee. Regular. Cream and sugar. He enjoys a cup of coffee periodically throughout the day. A personalized cup of coffee transpires from connecting big data, connecting the dots and creating a 360 degree customer profile. Jane is a coffee aficionado. Regular. Columbian Dark Roast from a local cafe down the street. Medium cup. Two raw sugars. A splash of skim milk. She enjoys a cup at 9 am, noon and 3 p.m. Jane does not drink coffee after 6 pm.  Customized is good. Personalized will get their attention.

3.  360 Degree Customer Profile – As they say, no 2 snowflakes are the same. The same holds true for your customers. Without marketing personalization, John is simply a 35 year old male who lives in a small town. It’s flat and notably generic. There’s very little data to create a relevant marketing campaign for John. Adding marketing personalization into the mix allows you to segment and individualize each morsel of your big data to execute hyper-personalized communications. One-to-One marketing connects your customer dots from across the board through social, email, website, CRM, mobile, transaction, and 3rd party channels. With all of this information, you’re able to create a 360 degree customer view on John. Based on this data, you now can leverage and distribute the most relevant information, products and offers to John in real time..

4. Turbo-Charged Personalization – You’ve noticed that John is spending a lot of time in the home office categories and purchased several small ticket items. This was compiled from his behavior and transaction data. The big question is why? With turbo-charged personalization, the channel to social information opens. In the world of marketing personalization, this enables you to stand out from the rest because now your customers shared social information is included. John is shopping home office items because he started his own business and will be working from home. However, he’s on a budget and waiting for the big ticket items to go on sale.  As a marketer, this is your opportunity to deliver hyper-personalized messages in real time based on pre-planned points.

5.  You’re aiming to please – Over 70% of online customers have expressed their frustration when companies send them emails with offers, products and information that have no relevancy to their life or needs. Your goal is to please your customer, not irritate them. Without marketing personalizaion, you’re going in blind. Marketing compaigns will be generic and lack value to your customers. Maybe you sent John an email that included special offers for pet food and baby items. The offers are stellar and select items are over 80% off. That’s great, but how does this apply to John?  It doesn’t. The email isn’t opened and immediately transferred to the virtual trash bin. With marketing personalization you’ll have the big data to hyper-personalize communications. You’ll know that in addition to John embarking on a small business venture, he’s also in his mid 30’s, allergic to animals, single, and he’s an outdoor enthusiast. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, traveling and mountain climbing.

As a marketer, you’ve invested a great deal of time and money. You’re on the right path. Now it’s time to face forward and onward march. Adding a solid marketing personalization plan gives you the opportunity to take what you already have and move towards success. In this day and age, customers expect personalization throughout their entire buying process. They want to be acknowledged, enticed, and have their interest sparked with emails loaded with offers, products and information compatible with their life…in real time. When a customer is checking emails, you’ve got only a few seconds to catch their attention and make an out-of-this-world impression. It’s not the time for impromptu.

Nectar can provide your company with the easiest One-to-One Marketing Suite and help you connect your customer data, increase customer engagement and revenue.

 

 

 

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Marketing Personalization Then & Now

marketing evolutionLet’s Take A Trip Back In Time…

When you sit back and look at the technology today versus 15 or 20 years ago, the first thing that probably comes to mind is, “Times have changed.”  When you think about it, the advances in technology over the years is quite phenomenal.  The same holds true for marketing personalization, one-to-one marketing and hyper-personalized customer communications. At one time, acquiring customers, boosting revenue, growing a customer base and retaining customers required a much different and often tedious process.

Some of you may remember these “old school” methods.

1. The 3 Foot Rule – Although it was somewhat awkward, this method entailed sparking up a conversation about your business opportunity or product with anyone within a 3 foot radius.

2.  Prospecting Strangers – This is sometimes referred to as cold market recruiting and it involves a strategy of approaching strangers, creating curiosity, getting people’s interest and implementing a path to present your idea, opportunity and product. Talking with potential customers was also a way to gather information for a customer profile.

3.  Paper Ads – At one time, paper ads (ie magazines, newspapers, catalogs, etc) were heavily relied on for marketing campaigns as this method was the only way to reach thousands of potential customers.

4. Trade Shows – This gave business owners the opportunity to display products, introduce upcoming products, sell in mass quantities, acquire new customers and distribute paper ads in the form of fliers. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people flock to trade shows every year to “get the scoop,” take advantage of special offers, and see what’s coming in the year ahead.

5. Mass Mailers – Hands down, this had to be one of the most grueling tasks. The process of mass mailing was a complex strategy that was extremely time consuming. You had to collate a target audience, print out hundreds of fliers, address envelopes, seal and send. Then, wait. Unfortunately, this approach didn’t deliver results that were immediately visible.

6.  Door to Door – At one time, going door to door to introduce and sell a product was a sole means of getting the word out there about your product and would drive immediate results. You had the product in hand, a sales pitch and, if warranted, a demonstration. When all was said and done, you knew if you had a new customer or not.

7.  Word of Mouth – Regardless of the advancements in technology or marketing personalization, word of mouth will never phase out or lose it’s impact.  This is by far one of the most important elements in a business. Positive word of mouth is the modus operandi engine behind reaching and obtaining success.

Granted, most of these techniques have been modified and advancements made however, there is one thing that hasn’t…the need for marketing personalization.

Although some of these are still used and hold a great deal of importance, the marketing personalization road map has changed drastically.  The process has been intricately modified to cover every detail and behavior to substantiate big data. A great deal of time and work that has gone into developing solutions to connect customer data for marketing personalization, trigger marketing, personalized communications and data integration.

Old School has transpired into the here and now…

1.  One-to-One Marketing – Individualizing every bit of data and leveraging social data to establish and create one-to-one marketing messages across all digital channels. This technology allows the market to engage with a customer in ways they never could before.

2. Connecting Customer Data – Facilitating data integration based on browsing & purchase history, web & mobile click tracking, email, CRM, demographics, social, etc.

3. Creating a 360 Degree Customer Profile – In the process of connecting customer dots, and customer lifecycle management, a complete customer profile can be obtained so your company can deliver relevant content to each and every customer in real time.

4. Generating Hyper-Personalized Content – Your 360 degree customer profiles, along with segmenting your data, will determine the most accurate route to deploy content, products and information based on immediate customer needs.

5. Trigger Marketing – Executing a successful and profitable campaign is possible by honing in on triggers, identifying events and communicating in real time during these pre-planned points in time.

6. The Small Details – These details aren’t so small and play a big part in the road map to success. Listening to what your customer is doing and using adaptive algorithms gives you the ability to observe, test and optimize, key in on insight generation, evaluate and optimize your hyper-personalized content. This in turn will fine tune accuracy, value and appearance of marketing campaigns.

Modern technology has come a long way and it’s a far cry from hitting the pavement and go about your company or solely relying on paper ads to spread the word.  Old school methods are still applied today and the importance of these shouldn’t be ignored. One feeds off the other and the end result is a strong and loyal customer base with a steady stream of new customers.

 

 

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Small Details In Marketing Personalization Makes A Big Difference

marketing personalizationThe Little Things Are A Big Deal

There’s a lot to do in the great big world of marketing personalization. Your goal is to acquire customers, drive traffic to your site, boost revenue and retain your pool of customers. Establishing a 360 degree customer profile requires a great deal of effort. This information is obtained through various sources including purchase history & habits, CRM, customer profiles, email, mobile, social, browsing history, etc. Once that is established, you have to connect the customer dots from customer databases and third parties.

From there, hyper-personalized communications are deployed via trigger marketing in real time to deliver the right information, products, offers and content at just the right time. This involves finding the trigger, creating the right offer and delivering a timely execution. All in all, having the most efficient and accurate road map will determine your success and aspired outcome.

When you look at a map, you’ll see more than the thick lined interstate highways. There’s a collaboration of main roads and side roads. When trying to get from point A to point B, it’s habit to look at the quickest route…interstate highways. However, this doesn’t take you to your final destination. Close, yes, but not quite there. You need the main roads and side roads to successfully reach your destination.

The same holds true for marketing personalization. There’s a great deal of dynamic sources of retaining big data and generating real time, hyper-personalized content and communications.  As much as it may appear that you’ve gone from point A to point b successfully, you’re not there…yet. Now you need to string together the smaller roads that will get you there.  In the world of marketing personalization, that means paying attention to the little things.  Those little things can make a big difference.

The small details aren’t so small when you look at the big picture…

1.  Timing – We all know, with most things, timing is everything. Within your big data, you’ve determined Mrs. Smith’s comprehensive 360 customer profile. She’s received timely offers, content and products based on her needs, triggers, habits, etc. Are you ready to execute a campaign? No. Now you need to take the word “time” in its literal sense.  When are you sending these emails to Mrs. Smith? Have you studied her patterns to hone in on when Mrs. Smith reads her emails? This often overlooked detail is of key importance. You can have the most complete, real time communications, but if Mrs. Smith reads her emails at 9 a.m. and you’re executing a marketing campaign at 7 p.m. you’ve missed her.

2. Events – By using adaptive algorithms, you can listen to what a customer is doing. You can observe behaviors, social, CRM, purchases, announcements and lifecycles to evaluate and optimize the hyper-personalized content. Did Mrs. Smith accept a new job that requires relocating to another city? Sending a congratulatory note might seem like the nice thing to do however, this is information you need to weigh carefully.  Instead, find a meaningful and relevant way to use this information to influence some recommendations.

3. Customer engagement – You’ll be aware of when a customer appears to have “fallen off the face of the earth.” They may appear to be in a state of dormancy. Your first reaction may be to send a slew of “We’ve Missed You” or “We’ve Noticed You Haven’t Shopped In Awhile” emails with offers and products to nudge them. You may even go so far as to send an exclusive coupon to lure them back. Overloading can often backfire and potentially turn a customer away for good. This is a good time to study those algorithms and key in on those events. Mrs. Smith is moving because of a new job. There’s a lot to do!  She’s packing, making arrangements, a long commute, starting a new job, etc. Now is the time to plan a careful marketing campaign to reestablish her engagement.

Nectar’s suite of products can work together to connect big data, develop a complete picture and deliver the most relevant and individualized communications.  

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Why Trigger Marketing Matters

trigger marektingAs They Say…Timing Is Everything

As a marketer, you’re probably thinking about how to acquire, grow and retain customers.  That’s a lot to do! There’s a lot to process as well as consider with marketing personalization. You’ll often hear important key terms mentioned including customer engagement, 360 degree customer profile, big data, CRM, ROI, segmentation, hyper-personalization and one-to-one marketing. These are all necessary components to create successful marketing personalization so your company can deliver the most relevant content in real time.

Amid these components is trigger marketing. In a nutshell, trigger marketing is the engine that hums continuously. There’s a constant stream of messages being deployed to to your customers based on behaviors, browsing history, purchases, interests, etc. Delivering a successful trigger marketing campaign entails combining these pieces of big data, identifying an event in a customer’s life that warrants a need and communicating during these pre-planned points in time.

Having the right road map can make it easier to achieve success and the desired outcome. As part of the email marketing campaigns, triggered email marketing is at the core of helping to drive engagement and revenue.

Delivering a successful campaign is your ultimate goal.  To achieve that, there are 3 key elements to remember…

Find the appropriate trigger – The content within these marketing campaigns should be based on your customers immediate needs.

Cultivate the right offer – Triggers have to be followed up with relevant products & offers.

Timely Execution – Presentation should occur immediately after an appropriated trigger.

As a business owner, you want your campaign to drive both traffic and revenue. There’s always a concern of frequency, value and appearance with trigger marketing. And, the big question lingers…”Do people mind followup emails?” The answer is yes. Keep in mind, though, it’s all about presentation, timing and tone.

Here are some tips to keep in mind for what your customers are looking for…

1.  Acknowledge me. I just signed up to receive emails from your company.  A welcome or thank you email is a considerate means of acknowledging my interest and introducing your company, products, offers, etc.

2. Entice me a little. The operative word is little. There’s a fine line between enticing me and conning me. Why should I become and remain a loyal customer? Based on my personal information, how can your company suit my needs more efficiently and cost effectively then company A or B?

3. Where’s my receipt?  I made a purchase and I’d like to have a transactional email for my records. I’d like to double check to see if my order is accurate and things processed correctly with my bank.

4. Spark my interest. I recently ordered a new bedding set, a few bathroom accessories and some end tables. It’s safe to assume I’m updating my home. I’d be interested in additional products you offer based on my purchases. Window treatments? Kitchen accessories? Area rugs? Go ahead, inspire me.

5. Nudge me a smidgen to try something new.  I’ve worn Crocs flip flops for as far back as I can remember. It’s my brand of choice, however, there’s a chance I order a pair year after year out of habit. Expand my horizons. Is there a flip flop that’s similar made by SKECHERS or Nike? Show me. I might just consider stepping out of the box.

6. I like special treats on my birthday. A gift basket filled with gourmet treats showing up at my door compliments of your company isn’t feasible, I know. However, how about a special offer, discount coupon or, at the very least, a Happy Birthday greeting?

7. Get me excited. Is there an upcoming event that you know I’ll be head over heels about? Let me know about it. As the event nears, send me a reminder or two because I’m busy and I may have forgotten to make note of it.

8. Offer a token of appreciation for my business.  I’ve been a loyal customer for quite some time. Whether it’s a personal note or a 20% off coupon on my next purchase, it’s nice to know my loyalty is appreciated. I’m making the choice to do business with you. Without loyal customers…well, you get where I’m going with this?

9. I’m not a fan of creepy. Offer discretion when analyzing my browsing and purchase history. Any mention in your emails of the amount of time I spent browsing products to diminish the appearance of stretchmarks will be duly noted. This will not work in your favor in more ways than one.

10. Touch base with me. I’m busy. Often times weeks go by with very little time to spare. I may not have had time to browse, shop & make a purchase. I may have even left a product or two in my cart.  Send me an email. Remind me there’s a product in my cart and, if you really want to earn brownie points, offer me a coupon towards my purchase. Score!

As mentioned, with trigger marketing, it’s all about timing, relevancy, tone and presentation. Remember, your customers are real people. Address them as such, respect their time, send offers that fit their needs and time it just right. Capture the attention of your customer by establishing the appropriate trigger. Materialize the immediate needs with applicable products, offers, and information.  With automation and the right set of tools, these triggered events can be both automated and intelligent. Once these fundamentals are in place, you’re ready to execute.

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How Amazon Uses Marketing Personalization

Amazon…You’re Doing It Right

amazon shopping

Amazon excels in the area of marketing personalization.  They’ve mastered the art of creating a hyper personalized shopping experience for their customers saving them both time and money. With the data to back it up, they’ve created 360 degree customer profiles. This allows Amazon to connect the customer dots and divide their customers into discerning groups to prevent generic mass emailing. Personalized marketing emails are created based on segmented data that includes social data, website activity, browsing history, areas of interest, past purchase history, etc.

How can Amazon attribute marketing personalization to their success?

1.  Paying attention to big data.  Think about a moment when you’ve had to purchase a gift for someone. Naturally, you put some thought into this. During that thought process, you gather up relevant information about this person. Who is this person? What do they like? What do they enjoy doing? What are their interests?  With that 360 degree view, you’re able to come up with a few gift ideas suitable for that one person.  The same concept applies to marketing personalization and how Amazon uses that to target customers. They integrate social data, customer purchases, browsing history, customer lifecycles, and rich customer profiles to create hyper-personalized communications. Within these communications are offers, products and content that targets each individual customer’s needs and interests.

2.  Hyper-Personalized communications at just the right time.  Once this information is gathered, Amazon uses it to disperse real time communications to their customers that is personable, friendly, and addresses their needs.  Let’s say Jill W. got a new puppy 2 weeks ago.  Amazon determined this through gathering social information, traditional personaization data, and browsing history.  By combining all of this information via marketing personalization, Amazon sends Jill an email with a variety of offers and products that she may need like puppy pads, puppy food, dog beds and pet toys. When Jill purchases a couple of these items, another real time email is sent suggesting other items that may interest her based on recent purchases.

3. Recognizing the little extras drive big results. Through marketing personalization and big data, Amazon targets their customers by throwing in a few of those “little extras.” A few days before the first of the month, Amazon sent Jill and email with a slew of October deals and coupons for puppy supplies. Another little extra is the email they sent Jill letting her know Criminal Minds: Season 8 was now available for purchase.  Over the past couple of years she had purchased seasons 1-7.  Amazon has also determined that Jill is a bargain shopper and will send her emails with deep discounts on products based on her browsing and purchase history. These little extras make a big different and can boost your revenue and sales.

Can your company acquire the same marketing personalization as Amazon?  The answer is yes!  With Nectar Software Products, you can increase revenue and customer engagement by connecting customer dots and creating a thorough 360 degree customer profiles.  Unlock marketing personalization and big data’s full potential by connecting customer data, gaining social insights, hyper-personalizing communications and increasing social media ROI. You can this this quickly and cost-effectively.

Check out Nectar Solutions to find out how!

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The Future: Big Opportunities in Big Data

marketingBig Opportunities in Big Data Abound.  You Just Need to Know HOW to Look (4th in a Series)

 

I recently spoke with several high level marketing executives about the near-ubiquitous topic, BIG DATA. The executives included Paul Golden, ex-CMO of Samsung Mobile, Barry Judge (ex-CMO of Best Buy, current CMO of LivingSocial, and Brad Todd, (Principal at The Richards Group). In this fourth installment, we will share these executives’ thoughts about the way big data can further revolutionize the future of marketing.  They see big opportunities in Big Data.  The best is yet to come!

When we posed the question to our marketing executives about the future of big data in the marketing realm, they were excited about the possibilities and big opportunities in big data’s future.

Paul Golden would like to see big data used to truly personalize the customer experience.  Paul recalled a men’s retailer whose sales people would write your information, preferences and measurements on index cards (similar to today’s “preference centers”). They would use this information to follow up with their customers whenever an item arrived in-store that might fit a customer’s needs.  In this age of big data, this type of information is available for so many customers—retailers could be delivering personalization at its best.  Why don’t they create big opportunities with big data they have?  With SO MUCH data, many executives just aren’t quite sure what to do with all that data, much less how to turn it into value for their brand and customers.  Too much leads to not enough.

Creating a truly omnichannel experience, merging all big data from physical and digital channels would be the holy grail, according to Barry Judge.  If you could combine store purchase data with online transactions and click behavior, plus email, mobile and social, throw in CRM and loyalty data, you’re well on your way to creating big opportunities in big data.  The key is integrating all that big data into something that allows you to speak to each of your customers as an individual, regardless of where she interacts with your brand.

Brad Todd would like to see retailers, like grocery stores, who have been capturing data for decades, turn that knowledge into a one-to-one customer experience.  It would be great, for instance, if the grocer “knew” that you shop weekly for strawberries but didn’t buy any this week; they could offer a real-time discount for you to pick up some strawberries during this shopping trip as well.  Another one of the big opportunities in big data.

Today tools exist to make one-to-one personalization—hyper-personalization—a reality.  The tough part is corralling all that big data and applying robust analytics to arrive at hyper-personalized communications for each customer.  Want to learn how to overcome the tough part?

And please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.

Big Data Analytics: The Key to Unlocking Business Potential

Using Big Data to Drive RevenuePositive Results From the Smart Use of Big Data Analytics (3rd in a Series)

I recently spoke with several high level marketing executives about the near-ubiquitous topic, BIG DATA. The executives included Paul Golden, ex-CMO of Samsung Mobile, Barry Judge (ex-CMO of Best Buy, current CMO of LivingSocial, and Brad Todd, (Principal at The Richards Group). In this third installment, we review some of the results these executives experienced.  Big data analytics was the key in making the information they had actionable to drive customer value.

Brad Todd has helped clients use their data in very sophisticated ways, by applying rigorous big data analytics.  A home improvement retailer, for instance, has used information from their customers’ do-it-yourself projects to engage in helpful conversations with their customers. This type of engagement not only makes the customer feel valued, but very often leads to follow-on projects and increased customer loyalty.  For instance, if a customer has planned a deck using online tools, the retailer can follow up with them at predicted intervals with suggestions and relevant offers to improve the likelihood of purchase.

The Richards Group also helps their clients integrate their marketing data and then apply big data analytics, with the objective of personalizing customer communications.  They have seen improvements of 20% on average when website, email and remarketing channels are personalized to customers.  The results are even greater—about 25% if cross-channel personalization occurs.

At Samsung Mobile, Paul Golden used longitudinal brand preference data to prioritize markets for their marketing efforts.  He and his team tailored brand messages and tactics for eight key markets to improve brand preference versus a key competitor.  The result was a swing from a relative score of -6 to +2 in overall brand preference, despite only focusing on eight key markets.  Big data analytics allowed Samsung Mobile to cost-effectively determine which markets would swing the entire country’s brand preference score in their favor.

While CMO of Best Buy, Barry Judge and his team applied big data analytics to vast amounts of customer information to zero in on their highest value customers.  They then tailored all their marketing to best serve those customers and increase their engagement.  Knowing their customers and what their shopping habits allowed Best Buy to offer the most relevant products and offers to promote via email and direct mail.  By focusing on their most loyal customers, they grew their loyalty even more and increased their share of wallet with these customers.

Big data can be a big deal in driving results for brands if used to improve customer interactions.  Set objectives, determine what data is needed to achieve those objectives, compile and analyze the data, then translate it into something valuable for your customers.

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