4 Ultimate Personalization Tools and How To Use Them

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

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

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

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

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

 

Personalization and Privacy

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

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

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

 

1. Web Content

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

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

4 Personalization Tools and How To Leverage Them

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

2. Social Media

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

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

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

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

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

4 Personalization Tools and How To Leverage Them nectarom

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

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

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

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

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

3. E-Mail

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

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

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

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

4 Personalization Tools and How To Leverage Them nectarom

4. Single View of Customer (SVOC)

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

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

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

 

Bringing It All Together with Omni-channel Personalization

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outsmart the Smartphone: Expert Insights into Mobile Marketing

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

 

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

 

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

 

Dallas AMA Mobile Marketing Panel

 

Here are a few highlights from the panel discussion.

 

Consider the Omni Channel Experience  

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

Get in the Game

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

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

 

Know the Metrics that Matter

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

 

Get to Know Your Customers   

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

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

 

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

The Road to Omni Channel Department Store: JCPenney vs Nordstrom

The next Round of The Road to Omni Channel Tournament ended with two “old-school” retail brands, Nordstrom and JCPenney. One brand, arguably the best customer service in the industry, and the other, a story of perseverance and come back. At the end of a tough game, Nordstrom’s unwavering strategy was upset, 71-68, by scrappy JCPenney’s frenetic pace of play and a half court heave.

The Play-By-Play

There aren’t too many business sectors experiencing the kind of pressure big box department stores face today. Foot traffic continues to decrease and in-store sales are stagnant. Meanwhile, online sales are increasing more than 30% over the next couple of years so companies like JCPenney and Nordstrom have no choice but to make omni channel a top priority. Each has done it differently, but both have made amazing strides, recruited deep teams and get solid play from every channel.

Nordstrom’s game was about everyone buying into a philosophical approach from the tip. Their relentless focus on customer service resulted in an unbreakable zone defense which covered the competition like a blanket. JCPenney never had an uncontested shot whether it was in the store, on desktop, mobile web, their app, social channels or from the customer service line.

Just when you thought there couldn’t be a deeper bench, JCPenney showed up with matchups for each channel, but also included a strong SMS player. That said, the difference in style was palatable. JCPenney played a full-court defense that poked at you like a jackhammer to concrete. There was a dizzying number of deals, discounts, clubs, groups, communities, opt-ins, points and promotions on every square inch of the court.

The offenses were opposites, as well. Nordstrom ran a smooth motion offense that was like watching a jazz ensemble in perfect sync. Crisp passes from desktop web into a login experience, to the mobile web, to the app, to push messaging and a perfect feed for a slam dunk from email was commonplace. The abandoned cart emails, location-based recommendations, and previous product views were all points of personalization and they occurred in nearly every channel. As a result, they posting the highest shooting percentage of any team in the tournament.

JCPenney played every offensive set like it was the end of the game tossing up three pointers from everywhere on the court. You could hear Desktop Web screaming every second of the game, “5 off 25! Buy one get one! Free, free, free!” Their shooting percentage wasn’t great, but the points stacked up as scoring runs that would rattle any team…except Nordstrom.

The summary of the game is best described as “streaks vs steady” with one streak too many. At the end of the game, JCPenney came back from a ten-point deficit with :46 left and their SMS player put the last nail in the coffin with a text from just beyond half court giving them a three-point win.

Key Stats – The Hammer vs The Diamond

When you compare these two teams the styles couldn’t be more different, but the stats were almost mirror images…

  • Cross Channel Experiences – Both teams drove to store via directions, allowed you to add events to calendars, barcode scanning in app, and localized content. Nordstrom did edge out JCPenney by highlighting and connecting you to their many events they offer in store across the country.
  • Operations – Every shot from the charity stripe went in for both teams, because they followed each purchase, opt-in and question with appropriate messaging. Nordstrom got extra points for their copy tone. Instead of standard requests for location or opt-in, they repeatedly presented benefits to giving them access and used cheeky copy throughout. They also won in store, because of the autonomy they give their staff and their very cool pop-up stores.
  • Recognition – Both companies will serve you well if you log-in, but it appears they’re both targeting anonymously, as well, at times.
  • Consumer Journey – Both teams were lacking a little in this area, but JCPenney dominated Nordstrom by integrating their Wedding and Baby registries online and in the app.
  • Recommendations – These were served up in a fairly typical fashion using widgets to introduce what others like you looked at or bought. Both parties could elevate recommendations to better match their brand essence: Nordstrom, by auto-emailing recommendations via local sales associates like they currently send manually; JCPenney, by personalizing their offers and discounts. Prior to the Ron Johnson era JCPenney shoppers used to love gaming the system with the mass of coupons floating around so why not embrace that gamification?         

Conclusion

It’s clear JCPenney’s had challenges withstanding a rotating door of leadership at the institution and coaching ranks, but they appear to have rallied around omni channel. They’ve returned to their roots as an “in your face” couponer and elevated their game in store, but they still have to deal with the squeeze from competitors at both the top and the bottom. The jury is out, but they live to play another game.

Nordstrom is the classic Duke Blue Devil doppelganger. They play their game first, you know they’re always going to be in the mix and they’re extremely well coached. The players are given great autonomy so they have success from the floor of the store to the online customer service. It didn’t work out this time, but count on seeing them next year.

 

The Road to Omnichannel: Consumer Electronics Conference

Two wildly different styles showed up for the Consumer Electronics division of the Road to Omni Channel Tournament – the massive line-up from juggernaut, Best Buy, and the most effective “small ball” team in the tournament, GameStop. The classic match-up of a methodical half-court team full of tree-toppers vs. a high octane, run-and-gun team resulted in a 76-75 win for Best Buy and an incredibly interesting game for the fans.

The Play-By-Play

This was one of the more anticipated games because both parties cater to a tech oriented audience, they both have full-funnel data and rabid followers in their loyalty programs. At the start of the game you could feel both parties flexing their muscles in the form of the in-store experience. Best Buy has been recruiting the best store experience for as long as most can remember. As an example, when the rest of the industry was worried about showrooming, Best Buy was embracing it by prompting shoppers to scan QR Codes in store on all product descriptions. They were an early member of the Shopkick loyalty program and have an industry defining loyalty program to support those 1,000+ massive stores.

GameStop, on the other hand, served the fickle and passionate gamer audience with more than 6,600 small format stores and, most recently, has employed a pace of play that makes most of their competitor’s heads spin. Their staff is very knowledgeable and consumer friendly, but so are the Best Buy “Blue Shirts.” Their PowerUp loyalty program was fast growing and deemed highly successful, but so was Best Buy’s. However, throughout the game you could feel GameStop’s recent investment in the GameStop Technology Institute wearing on the larger, slower Best Buy team. The partnership between the retailer, IBM, the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, and several tech startups, allowed GameStop to rapidly deploy and test applications. In the first half of the game, many thought those innovations would be Best Buy’s undoing. Then there was the second half.

Though GameStop got off to a fast start and ran up the score on Best Buy, the GameStop team repeatedly struggled in a few areas which left the door open for a Best Buy comeback. The old adage, “You don’t usually win if you don’t make free throws,” was proven as GameStop continuously missed opportunities to deliver important, but basic operational communications. Welcome messages, purchase follow ups, and abandon cart emails were just a few examples of GameStop’s shortcomings in customer support and “next step” communications.

As the game progressed, Best Buy started to impose their will and showed their years of experience by recognizing their customers and making highly relevant content available. It showed up in product recommendations, opt’in communications, their customer service/preference portal and several other areas. The most impressive part was when Best Buy showed personalization was more than a “first name” at the beginning of a mass email. Best Buy recognized the consumer’s individual preferences whether it came from, or was served back, in their websites, through social media, or in their mobile apps. That level of personalization proved to be a major blow to GameStop which was surprising considering their publication, Game Informer, produces exceptional content their customers enjoy.

The Stand Out Performance 

At the end of the game, when Best Buy needed it most, they got exceptional play from their Preference Center and their mobile app. The Preference Center dashboard for a consumer’s account was very user-friendly with built in recommendations, wish lists, and rewards program details. The Preference Center grabbed all the rebounds in the form of returning customers. Meanwhile, their app drove the offense providing prospects and customers with many helpful shopping tips along the journey, location relevant content like targeted weekly advertisements, and driving to other channels like in-store support schedules. It was a one-two punch GameStop couldn’t manage.

Conclusion

When it was all said and done, the size, depth and history amassed by the Best Buy franchise was just too much for GameStop’s smaller team, but you have to give credit to the underdog, as well. You can see how GameStop’s investments in their portfolio of brands (i.e., Spring Mobile, Simply Mac, Kongregate, Game Informer, etc.) could look like a never-ending flurry of talent coming at the competition in future tournaments. Similar to a West (“Press”) Virginia with it’s “next man up” mentality, if GameStop can get the channels to work together across these diverse businesses they would be unstoppable.

Meanwhile, Best Buy, makes you think of a program like UCLA. They continue to do well in their category of the Consumer Electronics space, but they want to get the recognition they used to receive. While many say their store format will be their undoing, you have to recognize their efforts as a successful Omni Channel Marketer will go a long way towards elongating their success.

Tune in here for Game Four: //nectarom.com/department-store-conference/ 

The Road to Omni Channel: AT&T vs Verizon

Telecom giants, AT&T and Verizon, squared off in Game 2 of the 2016 NectarOM Road to Omni Channel Tournament and proved safe, steady defense wins games – especially when you’re playing your mirror image. It seems like an oxymoron to say a triple overtime game wasn’t exciting, but that was the case until AT&T ran a surprise play in the last seconds to win 73-71.

The Play-By-Play

Some would say this game was as boring as watching paint dry, but if you’re a fan of fundamentals and you don’t like the flashy style that seems to be taking over marketing then you probably loved it. These institution’s omnichannel marketing is steeped in legacy and you have to respect the way they’ve committed to playing their own style.

Right from the tip you could see both teams were going to let the game come to them since neither showed any offense focused on helping a new prospect through the buying process. The most personalization either team showed was regional promotional pricing. Verizon did get slightly better production from their desktop web and mobile web channels, but the difference from AT&T’s was marginal at best.

It was more like watching twins in a choreographed dance or a chess match than an omni channel shoot out. No one lead by more than three the entire game and the back-and-forth scoring made you think they traded playbooks and coaching strategies.

These companies are arguably the most digital brands in the world, but surprisingly, the most personalization and omni channel success showed up in their brick and mortar experience. In both cases, the store has evolved and their experimentation with use-based positioning was helpful for decision-making. Their staff were equally educated on the products, plans and promotions, but the clienteling apps at their fingertips filled in any gaps that may have existed. While it was a decent experience, neither party offered anything “breakthrough” like Apple did many years ago.

In the end, it appeared as though the game would have to end in a tie, but AT&T saved a player for overtime that Verizon didn’t have an answer for at all. Email put AT&T on it’s back and scored 18 unanswered points over the course of the three overtimes. With ten seconds left in the third overtime, AT&T scripted an “abandoned cart” play. Recognizing what people had placed in their online shopping carts and then following up with an email to remind them was the only example of responding to a prospect’s shopping journey needs. It was a fairly pedestrian play, but it was executed flawlessly and the resulting layup proved to be the game deciding shot.

 

AT&T Email Cart

Key Stats – A Tale of Two Games

When we look at how AT&T and Verizon did at applying omni channel marketing you had to ask the question, was it for prospects or customers? If it was the latter, both companies had an endless number of sites, apps, billing tools, support methods, etc. That said, the omni channel efforts didn’t really inspire as much as they facilitated account management or payments. This was illustrated clearly in the player statistics…

  • Cross Channel Experiences – Verizon was 3:1 better at starting an experience in one channel and moving them to another, but they also had more turnovers than AT&T with poorly managed transitions.
  • Operations – This is the foundation for all things omni channel for these two organizations – they start and end with their customers. In both cases they have the blessing and curse of being large and having extensive resources. As an example, both have evolved to create a very well done central account management apps (myAT&T, myVerizon). Simple to use, they cover a great deal of relationship scope and give you access to most account management needs. However, both organizations have at least 25 other apps in the app store. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if it’s a part of their mobile strategy, but most of the apps provide functionality represented in the central app (or seem like it should) and the Customer Service Representatives don’t support them or even know they exist in some cases.
  • Recognition – Relevant if you’re a customer, otherwise both companies invested minimally in it.
  • Consumer Journey – The journey for both companies was bifurcated between being a customer or not. For existing customers, they both had intermittent solutions for contract renewals, upgrades, etc.
  • Recommendations – In all channels this seemed to be based more on product promotion than on prospect or customer needs. In the stores the staff did a good job of understanding the buyers needs, but in digital channels it was ignored or it was an afterthought.  

Conclusion

These companies are reminiscent of great legacy teams in the big dance, like Michigan, Indiana, Syracuse, etc., that are known for their distinctive style and the fact that they will always have great recruits with untold potential. The question is whether they can play as a unit. A five-star recruit focused more on making it to the pros than playing in a system can be detrimental to programs like these.

It’s clear no one would look forward to playing AT&T in the next round. It’s also clear that AT&T’s omni channel efforts serving prospects leave a big opening for that team to exploit.

Tune in here for Game Three: //nectarom.com/consumer-electronics-conference/

The Road to Omni Channel: PepsiCo vs Dr Pepper Snapple Group

The 2016 NectarOM Road to Omni Channel Tournament kicked off with two titans of refreshment squaring off to show which shopper marketing heavyweight was best positioned to win in the fast approaching world of ecommerce, omni channel, and data-driven marketing. Unfortunately for Texas stalwart, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, NY-based PepsiCo beat them so badly it will go down as one of the worst blow outs this year with a final score of 102 – 68.

The Play-By-Play

Both institutions are at a distinct disadvantage compared to the more established “conferences” like retail that have transactional data, but they’ve both invested heavily in their digital channels and are beginning to resemble the more established competitors. That said, it’s clear Dr Pepper Snapple Group is closer to cardboard and end-caps than omni channel and personalization. It looked like Dr Pepper was going to have a bright spot in the game when they used the Batman v Superman movie promotion introduce image recognition and can packaging to access extended comic content. Unfortunately, it was very similar to the program Frito Lay did with DC Comics for the Green Lantern movie back in 2011 so they saw the play coming a mile away.  Aside from that, the only other player Dr Pepper had involved in the scoring was Email and it’s numbers were very pedestrian showing off nothing more than a batch and blast style.

PepsiCo, however, quieted a lot of critics with their performance. They played with a chip on their shoulder showing a Consumer Packaged Goods company could hang with any team. The PepsiCo enterprise website made some fans right from the start with a little known program that allowed people to sign up for the “Brands You Love.” While there were a few missed assist opportunities in how they could use that self-reported data, we were impressed with the attempt. That start put Dr Pepper Snapple Group on their heels for the rest of the game.

Once you moved beyond the enterprise site you couldn’t help but be impressed by the other starters on Pepsico’s roster. There was the “Find Your Match” function on the PepsiCo Beverage Facts site which offered some pretty cool functionality and exposed us to their potential. Room for improvement, but extreme potential was a reoccurring theme when compared the Beverage Facts site with Frito Lay’s loyalty program equivalent, Snack Perks. While they didn’t work well together you could see how they will eventually click and when they do it will make a big impact. PepsiCo’s recent ecommerce tests and hires, their recently launched Hello Goodness vending strategy and past innovations like Social Vending have also contributed to the company’s omni channel future by giving the enterprise direct access to the purchase process.

You would expect both organization’s promotions to provide some bench support. From an omni channel perspective it was consistent, but surprisingly average. Social channels were heavily employed by both companies and the content was available in multiple channels, but there was no sense of personalization or recognition of the participants beyond operational tracking like how many times you entered. At the end of the game it was clear the real stars of the game were PepsiCo’s evergreen programs which are destined for the pros.

Key Stats

Examining how the teams did at applying omni channel strategies and personalization techniques we realize this was really a difference of players over play. For the most part, PepsiCo just brought better athletes, but there were some great areas where the play was elevated …

  • Cross Channel Experiences – If you look at how both teams passed visitors between channels it was fundamentally strong in promotions, but there were way too many turnovers in the evergreen efforts where they could have connected the consumer to the entire portfolio.
  • Operations – Just like free throws in a basketball game, missing basic messaging and channel follow through can ruin an experience. Neither team performed well in this fundamental area and for up-and-coming conferences like Shopper Marketing it’s a requirement.
  • Recognition – Both teams did a good job finding ways to recognize visitors, but PepsiCo definitely took it to a new level with understanding the visitor’s preferences.
  • Consumer Journey – Looking to the future, it’s clear PepsiCo’s made a commitment to understanding the consumer’s journey. Using location-based retargeting, personal preference programs and portfolio solutions over brand promotions were all areas where they excelled.
  • Recommendations – If you were going to pick one statistics category that put PepsiCo in a different league than Dr Pepper Snapple Group it would be in this category. Their focus is on bringing a flavor or product solution to their customers based on whatever they are doing and it really paid off in this game.  

Conclusion

If Dr Pepper Snapple Group ever hopes to make a run in this tournament in future years they will have to focus on the basics – great channel execution, namely mobile, and commit to an omni channel approach. Their promotional approach has been done for years and it limits their ability to create a real connection with their fans. Today they look a little like the mid-major competitors Vanderbilt or Monmouth in that other tournament – a solid program, but always on the bubble and running the risk of being left out of the tournament.

PepsiCo, on the other hand, looks reminiscent of those programs on the cusp of something special like a University of Texas or an Iowa State University. They’ve assembled great talent, they’re well coached, they work together as a team, but consistency will be their undoing. Getting to that consistency is easier said than done considering the brands in the portfolio are used to playing by their own rules.

Changes in Pepsico’s Digital and Shopper Marketing has helped everyone understand they’re “better together,” but will it sustain them against the powerhouse conferences like Retail or Telco? We’ll have to see, but they are certainly off to a good start after this first game.

Tune in here for Game Two: //nectarom.com/telecom-conference/ 

SELECTION MONDAY – Let the “Madness” Begin

By Bryon Morrison, Commissioner of The 2016 NectarOM Road to Omni Channel

Every year March always brings a little “madness” into the office. This year is no exception. Marketers across the nation are setting their brackets, but not necessarily for the “teams” you’d expect. This year at the the NectarOM Headquarters the NectarOM selection committee was hard at work finalizing the 2016 Road to Omni Channel Tournament bracket.

Over the last month, each member of the NectarOM selection committee evaluated a vast amount of data and industry information for each industry category or “conference” during the selection process. A review and discussion of the brands performance based on product sector, fiscal performance, e-commerce endeavors, innovation, and their use of digital – determined selections, seeding, and bracketing.

Selection Methodology
After examining a wide field of competitors the NectarOM selection committee determined the 2016 Road to Omni Channel Tournament bracket would be divided into 4 conferences: Consumer Electronics, Shopper Marketing, Telecom and Department Store Retail.

Qualification and seeding for the tournament was based on the following criteria:

  • Digital and Brick and Mortar Retailer
  • Fortune 500 Company
  • The team communicates with customers in at least three channels
  • They have established domain authority
  • They have been recognized as innovators in other studies
  • They have been recognized in other third party evaluations as leaders in their respective categories

The Teams
After a grueling deliberation the NectarOM selection committee has finalized its brand bracket and is proud to announce the companies included in the 2016 Road to Omni Channel Tournament.

The Road to Omnichannel Brand Bracket

Department Store Conference
Nordstrom
JCPenney

Telecom Conference
AT&T
Verizon

Consumer Electronics Conference
Best Buy
GameStop

Shopper Marketing Conference
PepsiCo
Dr Pepper Snapple Group

Game Scoring
Over the course of the next two weeks these eight institutions will go head-to-head in the hopes of being named The 2016 Road to Omni Channel Champion. To have a better understanding of what these companies are doing in Omni Channel Marketing, each brand will undergo the NectarOM Customer Journey Audit. This audit evaluates eleven communication channels, 6 degrees of personalization, and each brand’s adaptability to customer knowledge. Covering more than 150 review points, this audit provides valuable insight into customer lifecycle, consistency, marketing gaps and opportunities through the view of the consumer and results in a final score illustrating their prowess in Omni Channel Marketing.

Tournament Schedule
The Road to Omni Channel Tournament will start Tuesday, March 15, with a highly anticipated match up of Consumer Package Goods titans, PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, from the Shopper Marketing conference.

Tune in here for Game One: //nectarom.com/shopper-marketing-conference/

Tell us in the comments below which brand you think has what it takes to win it all.

The NectarOM Road to Omni Channel

By Bryon Morrison, Commissioner of The 2016 NectarOM Road to Omni Channel Tournament  

Every year March introduces a special kind of “madness” for basketball fans, but this year ushers in a new kind of competition for advanced marketers. 2016 is the inaugural year of The NectarOM Road to Omni Channel Tournament where some of America’s most recognized traditional brick and mortar marketers will be competing against each other to show their prowess in Omni Channel Marketing and how they are evolving in a digital world.
This tournament will have many similarities with that other tournament. A wide field of brands from more than 30 industry categories, also known as their “conferences” (i.e., Specialty Retail, Telco, Electronics Retailers, CPG, etc.) will be evaluated. The eight most qualified companies will compete in their respective industry categories, as well as in cross-category match ups. Each team’s professional audit score for how they respond to prospects and customers online, in mobile and in outbound messaging channels will dictate their “score” and ability to move up in the brackets.

The Need For Omnichannel
A company’s ability to serve their customers in all possible channels has become table stakes thanks to “digital brands” like Amazon, Netflix, Apple and Google. Those companies created in the last 15-20 years were built on the assumption that customers and data are of paramount value. They already know they can make a greater business impact by offering a seamless, holistic experience across all channels. Anyone that’s bought something on Amazon will attest to the superior experience associated with their understanding of your needs and preemptively introducing solutions that just seem to fit every situation.
So what about the predecessors to those digital brands – those large companies that are the foundation of American commerce? Those industry icons have spent years investing in brick and mortar locations or spent endless time and resources driving consumers to a physical location. Most of these companies deal with batched data or backward looking analytics for insights so their foundation is infinitely different than their more digital contemporaries. As a result, the pace of change has been much more difficult for them to manage. Case in point, the internet and ecommerce required a game of catch up and before they perfected things their reality shifted again with the introduction of mobile and social.

The New Reality
The evolution of brick and mortar oriented companies is a requirement and they know it. While store sales dominate those of e-commerce that is changing. As an example, ecommerce outpaced physical store sales 5-to-1 last year. In addition, the companies struggling with surrounding a prospect or customer and serving them in their preferred channel are watching $41 billion in sales move to a competitor due to poor customer service. And sales don’t necessarily get them back in the door since 64% of consumers choose their favorite brands based on experience over price.
The future for companies that cannot embrace this change is bleak. Smart companies are committing resources to make their customer experience seamless online and off. Unfortunately, the reality is more companies are talking omnichannel rather than providing it. Digital competitors, unencumbered by expensive physical infrastructures, are prone to rapidly test and execute against omnichannel strategies while traditional marketers often use it as a soundbite for stockholder meetings.

The Competition and the Brackets
The NectarOM Road to Omnichannel Tournament will show which companies are truly investing in and delivering a superior experience across all channels for existing and potential customers. We will see who has put together the best channels (i.e., “players”) and who is achieving a high level of execution in each channel (i.e., “player stats”).
The competitors included in the tournament this year will be introduced on Selection Monday, March 14. To follow the team selection process, the games updates and stats you can…

  • Click here and watch for updates on our blog
  • Follow the tournament on Twitter with #TR2O and #MarchMadness
  • Sign up for email alerts by signing up here

See which brands made the cut:  //nectarom.com/selection-monday-let-madness-begin/ 

How Big Data is Changing Valentine’s Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Customer Analytics are evolving the way we Market

marketing personalizationCustomer Analytics allows you to learn all your Customer Needs!

You’ve got big data. Now the big question is, what do you do with it? With the help of customer analytics, you can turn your data into something useful and transform it into a prime marketing tool. The result is an enhanced customer experience with data driven, hyper-personalized communications.

In today’s world, customers have set the bar high and you need to meet their demands and expectations. Marketing campaigns need to be turbo charged with personalized content, information and products. You’ve only got a few seconds to make a great first impression. It’s important to make that opportunity count.

How does all of this come together to cultivate offers and products for a successful marketing campaign? By combining purchases, social media conversations, real time behaviors, customer insights, lifestyles, listening to what you’re customer is doing, etc.  Behavioral data will assist you in identifying unique segments obtained through customer analytics.

With Nectar Suite you can use the results immediately for targeted marketing campaigns and your customer analytics will stay updated so you can deploy this in real time.  This may include featured deals, products recommended for you, hot offers right now and promotional offers.

You can request a demo through our website to see how Nectar’s products can best serve your needs.

 

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