These 4 Billion-Dollar Companies Are Leaving the Competition In the Dust…

The customer is always right, right? Well, it all depends on what kind of experience customers have with your brand. Their experience will not only dictate how often they’ll complain, but how successful your company will be. Think of some of the biggest new brands – ones like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon. All started within 15-20 years, but all have seen incredible success. Want to know why? Because they spent a lot of time and money making the customer experience the best it can be.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

Recently, taking the customer experience to the next level is possible through personalizing the content. It’s been an important cornerstone of successful marketing for some time now.

Think back to how this got done before the web. Companies were talking to customers, giving them surveys to try and find out as much as they could about them.

These days companies have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, and are embracing data to make it work for them. This article will explore how four companies (Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Best Buy) adapted over the past five years to see amazing growth, largely because of personalization.

 

Google

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

This company needs no introduction, and I bet you can already start to connect the dots on how they’ve managed to leverage personalization to great success. First, we need to take a step back and understand how Google makes its money. 89% of it comes from ad revenues, so for all intents and purposes, we’re only going to focus on that. So the question is, how do they leverage personalization to see the 66-billion-dollar revenue they pulled in last year.

 

Personalized Search

Google works best as a profile-based service, which means that to get the most out of it, you’ll need to sign into an account. From Gmail to YouTube, Google accounts work with a lot of services that people use regularly. Sure, you can still use it without signing in, but that is where the real personalization begins. This first point is pretty obvious. Depending on what you search for, and what your browsing history is, Google will serve you different sites.

Despite this fact, most people still don’t mind using it. By knowing what you’re searching for, they can offer products they think you’ll want to see. Yes, they are skewing the data. If you want a completely unbiased web search, consider using something like duckduckgo.com. Google is banking on a complex algorithm that takes sites you’ve visited and continues to show similar ones. If they know the type of sites you enjoy, why not show you more of the same?

 

Personalized Ads

This takes the first point to the next level and is made obviously clear after searching for a specific topic that you wouldn’t usually search. As an interesting experiment to illustrate this, I changed up my searches for a week. I love cars and do a lot of car-related searches. Understandably, most of my ads (when ad blocker was turned off) were for car-related products. I tried searching for something completely unrelated to cars: bird watching. Google noticed and then started showing me tranquil ads for bird watching equipment. Anyone can run this experiment, and it’s interesting to see how your search affects everything around you.

Though this may come off as creepy to some, it makes sense. If I am genuinely interested in all this bird watching stuff, maybe a company is offering a sale on those killer binoculars that I was looking for; so, I’ll click an ad, Google will get paid, and I’ll have some nice binoculars. Thanks, Google!

 

Personalized Videos

This last example is the natural progression from search and ad personalization. Since Google owns YouTube, it’s already happening. Depending on what you usually watch, it will curate your content to show you related videos.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

Though most, or all, of us, hate video ads, they know it’s a numbers game. Sure, you may close an ad every time, but 1 in 100 people might click it, and 1 in 1,000 might go on to buy the product. With these ads being served to millions of people every day, there is a lot of money to be made.

Google has mastered personalization to try and give you what you’re looking for before you even look, and the numbers speak for themselves. If this approach weren’t working, they wouldn’t be doing it.

Next, let’s look at everyone’s favorite streaming site: Netflix.

 

Netflix

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

“Netflix and chill,” may be a popular saying, but they are not chill about their dedication to providing you with shows you want to watch. Unlike Google, Netflix doesn’t make their money through ads, but through subscriptions, so their main focus is retention and keeping existing customers happy. They do this by filtering through their sea of available content to give you only what you want to watch.

Let’s look at how they’ve managed to leverage personalization to create a unique experience for all of their 81.5 million subscribers.

 

Recommendations

The “Recommended Shows” sections of Netflix aren’t new. In fact, they were working on improving their recommendation algorithm when they were still mailing out DVDs. Way back in 2006, they announced a $1 million prize to any team who could help improve their recommendation algorithm by just 10%. It’s clear they’re serious about constantly improving recommendations, and things have only gotten better for them since they made the jump to streaming in 2007.

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

Compared to a DVD watch list, instantly streaming content gave them a lot more data about people’s viewing habits. While they only had a list to work with in the past, now they can see what shows you watch, how much of each show you watch, what time you watch, and a lot more. This knowledge about your viewing habits helps them keep you engaged by ensuring you always have something new to watch.

 

Multiple Devices

Once Netflix made the jump to streaming, it opened up a whole new platform to reach new potential users. The thing is, not everyone’s the same, and different people prefer to watch movies or TV on different media. Netflix quickly understood this dilemma and saw the potential to have their service on different platforms. Rather than just being available through their site on a PC, they opened it up to Roku, Xbox, Apple TV and many others.

Netflix has one thing down: they are available to personalize content wherever and however their customers want it. From laptops, to phones, and even gaming consoles, Netflix is available wherever you want to use it.

 

Breaking The 4th Wall

The last piece of personalization that helps Netflix deliver a seamless customer experience is by now bringing recommendations right to your inbox. They knew people spent a lot of time just browsing for something to new watch, so now they help out by emailing suggestions directly to you. By using all of the data from your account, if a new show or movie that they think you’ll like comes out, they’ll let you know. You can even add it to your list from your phone!

Delivering useful content and recommendations is the type of omni channel personalization that has separated Netflix from the competition. They’re able to deliver a seamless experience from start to finish.

 

Amazon

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

You may have heard of this company. They used to sell books online, but are now the largest marketplace in the world, and are a perfect e-commerce example for how personalization helped them dominate the marketplace. As an e-commerce site, they make their money by selling products, and make even more money by recommending other items.

The motivation for recommendation is getting you to purchase more items. As the web grew, and more data points became available about their users, they were able to track more and more information, and make appropriate recommendations.

 

Frequently Bought Together

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

If you’ve ever used Amazon, you’ve seen this section, and it’s an ingenious piece of personalization. These recommendations are not serendipitous or a fluke. They are cold and calculated. Fortune describes it pretty well:

The company reported a 29% sales increase to $12.83 billion during its second fiscal quarter, up from $9.9 billion during the same time last year. A lot of that growth arguably has to do with the way Amazon has integrated recommendations into nearly every part of the purchasing process from product discovery to checkout.

Not only does this work, but they have multiple areas, each offering different suggestions: frequently bought together, customers who bought this item also bought, sponsored products relating to this item, and what other items do customers buy after viewing this item.

Those are four other suggestions to upsell and get you to buy more products. It’s no wonder why Amazon is the leader in the marketplace. This alone shows their understanding and value of customer data.

 

Follow Up Emails

If you’re running an e-commerce business, then you know that it’s a fact that a certain percentage of people will abandon their carts before purchasing. It doesn’t mean that they hate your brand or don’t want the product; life is complicated, and lots of things are vying for our attention.

With nearly 44% of cart abandonment emails being opened, a good percentage of those result in sales. This kind of personalization and customer experience isn’t hard to achieve, and any e-commerce business should be doing it. All it takes is a simple email with the items they left in the cart to try and rekindle the relationship and emotion felt in the first place.

 

Amazon Dash

This last product of Amazon’s takes personalization from the digital into the real world. If you’ve been following along, then you understand that people like to interact with brands on their terms, and that repeat business is key for a successful brand.

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

Amazon took their one-click checkout feature and made it into a real button. They realized that certain people would buy the same staples like Tide, Gatorade, or razors, so they made it even easier for you to buy them with one touch. Going from multiple steps to one press of a button is the next step in personalization and takes the customer experience to the next level. I’m excited to see what else they have up their sleeves.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet of tactics big brands use to create a personal experience, and software to do it on a budget.

What Do Google, Netflix, Amazon, And Best Buy Have In Common NectarOM Omnichannel Personalization

Not mentioned in the title, but equally as interesting is Best Buy, and they’re the last example of how a brick-and-mortar company can also adapt to the online data revolution and go toe-to-toe with the best of them. Worldwide, they have a 22% hold in the electronics market and are trying to close the gap with Amazon. To do so, they’re implementing similar tactics as Amazon and capitalizing on the shift to personalization.

 

Catching Up With The Rest

If you’ve bought something at Best Buy recently, you’ll notice that they too are sending recommendation emails. If you bought an Xbox and they have your email address, you might get emails suggesting new game titles you might like.

Of course, Best Buy stores benefit from the ability to offer instant gratification, but they also separate themselves from other online retailers by offering store-exclusive content. That means if you preorder a game at Best Buy, you’ll get exclusive access to limited-edition content, not available to anyone else. With prices being pretty consistent for video games, offering the bonus of additional content is an interesting approach to helping close the gap with online retailers.

 

Price Match

Around 70% of Best Buy’s inventory is available cheaper elsewhere online (Amazon, eBay), so how do they still manage to compete? To combat this, they’ve implemented a pretty liberal price-match policy for brick-and-mortar as well as online retailers. This policy is a pretty bold statement and makes a strong case for those who prefer to buy all of their electronics at once to do it all at Best Buy. If online retailers can’t compete with price, then they’ll have to get creative to compete with Best Buy moving forward.

Personal Contact

Though brick-and-mortar can seem like an excessive overhead in our digital society, Best Buy uses it to leverage their “blue shirt” experts and staff, who give a real personal touch. This is something an online store just can’t do on the same level. Sure, they could have a pop-up live chat window, but it just can’t replace actual face-to-face, human contact. Their staff is well versed in what they’re selling (sometimes that’s because they are actually employees of the brands they are recommending, instead of being Best Buy employees), and can usually understand your concerns and make real-time recommendations.

Though large businesses are generally not known for their speed in implementing change, all of these companies have done a great job of using data to their advantage to keep things personal for their customers and deliver an amazing overall experience. And as far as it looks, the customers have returned the favor by staying loyal to them and purchasing time after time.

 

 

 

The Omnichannel News Roundup: Week of November 2, 2015

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading this week:

data analytics is a powerful tool but a disabling crutch

This week’s featured article: How understanding the limitations of Big Data analytics will actually help you make more informed decisions and become bolder innovators.

Target’s Halloween marketing campaign this year included a virtual haunted house and a Trick-or-Treating app.

Though personalization software can automatically give marketers a more complete picture of their customers, CMOs still play a crucial role in balancing the technology’s scale with its relevance. This article explores some of the questions businesses may encounter in their personalization journey – such as how to treat “dark” social data – and gives insight from a unique perspective.

PepsiCo exec Brad Jakeman went off on advertisers, criticizing them for unoriginality, outdated ways of thinking based on the dying TV model, and for an overabundance of “white straight males.”

We also enjoyed these pieces:

8 Personalization Trends that are Reinventing the Buyers Journey.

MIT’s latest big data system could one day replace human beings

Facebook will notify you if it thinks your account is being hacked by the NSA

The Internet’s Dark Ages

Brand, James Brand: The shifting home media market and the necessity of product placement for big-budget blockbusters.

Social_Media_and_Millennials
The prevalence of social media regarding millennials. Click to enlarge.

Using social media channels to improve marketing over multiple platforms

A massive shift in the marketing power is upon us.

For decades, baby boomers held the most purchasing power in the marketplace. But, as millennials are becoming the driving force in sales, marketers are forced to adjust their strategies to accommodate the younger generation. With the growing emphasis on millennials in the marketplace, understanding how to communicate with this generation through social and mobile channels is imperative for marketing success.

One key variance that sets millennials apart from other generations is social media usage. According to a Pew Research survey, 18 to 29-year-olds are the largest demographic of social media users. Because this group now makes up the largest purchasing power in America, incorporating marketing into social media can pay off big time for companies.

The key to an effective social media campaign lies in omnichannel. Each platform – from Facebook and email to brick-and-mortars – must provide a seamless experience for consumers. Platforms with inconsistencies will frustrate the user and decrease customer traffic.

We’ve taken a look at how today’s top marketers have created an omnichannel experience when marketing to millennials via social media.

Facebook

Comments or direct messages increase the amount of communication between a company and the public. Companies like Papa John’s Pizza use this tool to quickly answer customer questions or address complaints. Oftentimes, the pizza entity was able to respond to public concerns in just ten minutes.

Over Facebook, Papa John's is able to respond to customer concerns in approximately 10 minutes.
Over Facebook, Papa John’s can respond to customer concerns in approximately 10 minutes.

Noting fast responses is key. A Forrester report found that 45% of shoppers will abandon online transactions if their concerns are not addressed quickly. In contrast, a customer-friendly, quick response can boost a company’s stance in customer service.

With Facebook’s convenience, it’s no wonder that 52% of companies think it is the most effective social channel for customer service. Millennials choose to communicate via Facebook instead of a website because of it often prompts a faster response from a company. Millennials aren’t lazy – they simply prefer convenience and fast service.

In the case that a Facebook comment cannot provide an adequate response to customer concerns, Papa John’s directs its consumers to their website. Their website provides forms for consumers who wish to discuss their experience in detail with the company. The seamless connection between their Facebook social media and company website help buyers communicate with the company effectively.

Instagram

Instagram’s growing popularity among millennials and young people has attracted retail marketers to the picture-based social media platform.

Large companies have adapted their advertising towards becoming more seamlessly integrated with the Instagram experience. For example, the past year has seen a number of retailers implementing like-to-buy programs for their products.

Like-to-buy is one of the fastest ways a shopper can make a purchase. When an Instagram user sees a photo of a desired product for purchase, he or she can leave contact information via direct message or comment on the post. The retailer later invoices the Instagram user for their product, and the product is available for in-store pickup or home delivery.

Dallas boutique Movida implements their weekly "Thursday Therapy." Shoppers can easily order products before they are even sold in the store.
Movida, a Dallas boutique, implements their weekly “Thursday Therapy.” Shoppers can easily order products before they are sold in the store. Invoices are emailed and products are shipped directly to the buyer. Click image to enlarge.

Again, millennials are all about convenience. An omnichannel approach that lets shoppers purchase products with a few taps on their iPhone screen is just about as convenient as can be – especially with the option of in-store pickup or home delivery.

Snapchat

This fastest growing social media platform opens doors for memorable, creative marketing campaigns. Taco Bell has secured its status as a leader in marketing through its one-of-a-kind Snapchat campaigns.

Taco Bell uses this photography-focused channel to engage with its users. Between challenging users to doodle wars, to designing comical Valentine’s greeting cards, Taco Bell has solidified its reputation as a leader in engaging with consumers.

tacobell-snapchat

But Taco Bell focuses on more than an entertaining social media presence. The company’s Snaps often direct consumers to view more items on its app or in brick-and-mortars. Because customers are already engaged, they are more likely to visit Taco Bell’s other channels. Consumers develop stronger trust and loyalty with brands that engage with them, adding to a significant payoff for Taco Bell sales. For this fast-food restaurant, engagement is the glue to an omnichannel approach.

That being said…

Millennials show no signs of slowing their social media usage, so it’s up to marketers to stay relevant to the masses. Incorporating seamless social media campaigns into marketing strategies can ensure that brands are attractive and easily accessible to today’s consumers. Don’t be afraid to incorporate similar social media strategies into your own omnichannel campaign, or learn about more inspirational omnichannel marketing.

Randi Summit 1Randi Zuckerberg Emerging Tech Trends Recap

 

We last left off in the middle of Randi Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Zuckerberg Media, talking about what she believes are the emerging trends of technology.  She spoke mainly of the internet empowering the “everyday man” to pursue their entrepreneurial spirit, she spoke of how tech giants and social media sites are becoming the popular news sources, and she mentioned how teens of this generation are the most influential and well-connected due to their prowess with social media and other similar tools.  In this blog we will conclude with her other 5 trends so without further ado here are Randi Zuckerbergs 5 more trends of technology.

WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY= Women have been pigeonholed in the technology world as being inferior to women.  To counteract this there have been movements to increase women’s proficiency and activism in the technology world. Websites such as Girls Who Code have been created to promote the spread of knowledge among women and in fact the youngest mobile app developer is actually a 7 year old girl.  Women are most definitely tech savvy and they just have to overcome the stigma against them.

GAMIFICATION FOR MOTIVATION= This refers to turning daily tasks into games in order to motivate ourselves to accomplish more.  One such example is an app that acts as an alarm with access to your credit card information.  Each time you hit the snooze button it automatically donates money to the charity of your choice.  Running, one of the most popular exercise forms has evolved with motivational apps as well such as one that simulates zombie sounds in your headphones to motivate you to run farther and faster.

PASSION PROJECTS AS A SIDEJOB= This trend is the increasing likelihood of people with passions or hobbies to turn those into sidejobs that they can earn extra income and pursue their passions.  Randi spoke highly of this trend as stimulating the entrepreneurial mindset into the “common working man.”

WE ARE ADDICTED TO OUR PHONES= More of a negative trend but a very real one we face.  As we become more connected in the social media world, we tend to miss out and become disconnected from the real world.  We ignore friends in our immediate company to text ones who aren’t there and our FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) has caused us to believe that we lead boring lives compared to the crazy stories we read on the internet.

DISCONNECT AND BE MORE MINDFUL OF TECHNOLOGY= Randi mentioned that it was great to be connected with people far away but in order to not lose sight of those around us we must put down our devices and reconnect with friends, family, and nature.  Technology is evolving to connect the opposite sides of the world even faster but we can never disconnect with what is right in front of us.

 

Randi touched on some very poignant and deep issues in her talk.  She is encouraging us all to disconnect and reconnect with the world around us and stop and smell the roses sometimes.  I believe that we should embrace the technology around us and integrate it into our lives instead of being consumed by it.

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Randi Summit 1Randi Zuckerberg Emerging Tech Trends Recap

While attending the Dallas Digital Summit these past few days we were fortunate enough to listen to Randi Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media and sister to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  Randi spoke on a very relevant topic that everyone faces today and that is the shifting trends of technology.  She spoke of 10 trends and how they are changing around us every day.  As a recap, here are 5 of Randi’s trends.  The other 5 will be presented in next week’s blog:

 

 

BRANDED NEWSROOMS= This means that tech providers such as yahoo or large companies on twitter on facebook are now a more followed source of news than actual news stations.  The rapidity that word travels on these social media sites far exceeds that of televisions and newspapers as we are now able to learn events as they occur almost real-time.

TEENS ARE THE HOLY GRAIL OF TECHNOLOGY=  Randi explained this as the younger more tech-savvy generation is shaping the way information is dispersed, new things are learned and overall how the world is viewed.  This always connected generation is able to effectively utilize all the information around us and break through clutter to discover new knowledge.

THE MAKER MOVEMENT=  People purchasing products in the store, for example, see the inferiority in consumer goods and believe that they can create a higher-quality product.  This is no new way of thinking, however, people have always been trying to build a better mouse trap but in today’s world the internet is giving these people the channels to actually distribute to consumers now.

THE RISE OF ENTREPLOYEES= This is the notion that within companies employees will see opportunities to create their own ideas and carve niches.  Unfortunately, the everyday working man does not have the time nor capital to pursue their idea, but today, there are companies that will provide funds and time for their employees to create their own startups from within in exchange for equity.

LIFE-LOGGING= Life-logging is the idea of capturing your everyday life through pictures, diaries, social media, etc.  So widespread has this “selfie” culture become that there are now apps reminding you to take daily “selfies” and there are even devices that you can purchase that will snap pictures of your day-to-day activities to record them for you.

 

For Randi’s next 5 emerging social trends stay tuned for our next blog!

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Kellogg Alumni Club 2013

The ability to go back to your alma mater and inspire current students with your success is what many entrepreneurs dream of! Our CEO Amrit Kirpalani was able to do just that a few weeks ago at the Kellogg Alumni Club of DFW Career and Leadership Symposium! The event’s theme was ‘The Entrepreneurial Formula – What is the secret to starting a company in the DFW Market’, which is something that our CEO knows well. The day was broken down into introductions, views, and questions for the esteemed panel, which included the CEO of UStream.tv and KeyRing. All the panel members discussed the best places to incubate a new business, what the DFW Market looks like, and how to know if your company is successful. It was a great success for current and past Kellogg School of Management students alike!

Are any of you members of the Kellogg Alumni Club of DFW?

Want more startup and social media info? Follow Nectar Online Media on Facebook & Twitter!

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Here at Nectar Online Media, we love participating in anything that could foster the growth of our social commerce industry! Last week, we were invited to sit on the UNT Career Center Employer Panel, involving a presentation on job search strategies. Hosted by the University of North Texas, it was aimed at students who are looking towards graduation and the job search they will have to endure until then. The event included time for introductions, Q&A and networking with other Dallas professionals, as we shared with them Nectar Online Media’s predictive social commerce platform that enables email campaign personalization. In addition to this panel, our CEO and Founder Amrit Kirpalani has been asked to join the UNT Career Center Advisory Board, so we look forward to participating in more events with the university.

Want more startup and social media info? Follow Nectar Online Media on Facebook & Twitter!

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We are so proud to be a part of the Dallas startup culture, as it is a great group of entrepreneurs and growing companies. After startups were invited to submit applications for consideration, last week Nectar Online Media was chosen to host a table at the DFW TeXchange Member Showcase 2012, celebrating the local startup community. Nectar team members talked with event participants about Nectar Online Media’s predictive social commerce platform that enables email campaign personalization. In addition, we showed off our social media analytics features! At this event, we were able to preview the innovation going on around us, and we were thoroughly honored to be a part of Dallas’ premier technology networking association. We look forward to taking part in future TeXchange events, in and around Dallas!

Want more startup and social media info? Follow Nectar Online Media on Facebook & Twitter!

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We are pleased to announce that, in partnership with the Social Media Club, Nectar has launched a first of its kind Social Media Study. We are aiming to highlight key best practices, opportunities, and the current state of social media investments for small, medium, and large businesses across a range of social platforms. While all companies utilize social media in different ways, it is often hard to read and understand the return on investment for such endeavors, something we hope to correct with this study.

We are now accepting responses at: https://www.research.net/s/Nectar_Social_Media_Study

Be sure to complete and share with your networks!

For any questions or clarifications, please write to Amrit Kirpalani at socialstudy@nectarom.com and mention the #socialmediastudy on Twitter.

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Predictive Social Commerce Simplified

Well, it looks like folks are taking notice of what we’re doing here at Nectar Online Media, with questions coming in about “What’s this predictive social commerce thing y’all have going on?” (We’re located in Dallas so added a bit of the Texas twang).

So, thought we’d pen down a few quick thoughts and expand on it over a series of web articles.

There are lots of buzz terms right now – “Big Data” is my personal least favorite. Is there any such thing as not having enough data? The bigger issue is what to do with it once you have it — maybe even more succinctly, “how do I make money using my data?”  While we don’t want to add yet another term to the mix, we really couldn’t find one that describes what we do — so, we made one up!

Now, down to what you came to this article to read: What is predictive social commerce? For the data and analytics savvy, we have a wonderfully long, complicated, and sophisticated answer – which we’ll hold off for now on sharing. For the folks that are trying to drive revenue within organizations, it’s to you we share our quick answer today.

Here we go … Predictive Social Commerce is utilizing social data to help predict the most likely next buying need. Phew! Tried keeping that under 20 words and I did it. It’s not about creating awareness or generating lots of ads — but using the most in-depth information to get relevant again. Imagine this, an expectant mom shares on Facebook: “We’re having our baby in August!!!” As a brand marketer, wouldn’t you to love to reach this new mom at the right time before your competition?

We’re spending a lot of time at Nectar cracking the problem of how to monetize (make money) using social data — and, we believe we have!

Stay tuned for much more that’s coming up from Nectar and on the topic of predictive social commerce.

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