Meet the NectarOM Team: February Employee Spotlight

Our employees are what make NectarOM a special and diverse place to work. We have many people with different backgrounds and personalities, but each person has a passion for the work that they do. This month we want to highlight Rory McLaughlin who works as a full stack developer at NectarOM! Rory has been with the company for almost 20 months, starting in May 2016. Continue reading to find out first-hand from Rory what it is like to be a NectarOM full stack developer.

NectarOM spotlight employee
NectarOM spotlight employee, Rory McLaughlin

1. What is your position at NectarOM? 

I am a Full Stack Developer.

2. How did you first learn about NectarOM?

I was mentoring at DevMountain (the Dallas location) and it was getting close to wrapping up the spring cohort when Amrit contacted me through LinkedIn about NectarOM looking to add some developers to the team soon.

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

After graduating I worked a bit for a small fuel cell manufacturer; I ran marketing and sales for their e-commerce store that sold educational products focused on renewable energy. The interesting part was getting to learn about hydrogen fuel cells, how they work, how they are built, etc. Also I got to actually help build some of the parts specifically the membranes for the fuel cells.

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

I have been able to grow incredibly as a developer in my time here at NectarOM. Largely, in terms of understanding how to diagnose a problem, break it down, and come up with solutions. Beyond development, I have been able to learn a lot about how a small company functions and the business of developing a SAAS product.

5. What are 3 words to describe yourself?

Humble, Awe-inspiring, Liar

Inquisitive, Adventurous, Ambitious (<– serious answer)

6. Describe a typical day at NectarOM for you?

I usually arrive between 8-9am, check emails and any outstanding pull requests on Bitbucket. If there are any tasks I’m already working on from the previous day I finish those up assuming I’m not blocked on them. Otherwise I take a look at Jira and see what task I can start working on next and then I hit the keyboard and start turning coffee into code.

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

I really enjoy working with the people here. Everyone is pretty laid-back but also very concerned with providing high-quality work which results in a great environment where no one cares about office politics, or who’s to blame, or other similar issues you may find in other companies. We all want to get quality work done and contribute in any way we can to make that happen.

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

Be flexible and be humble. Things can change pretty quickly here so you have to be open to those changes. Humility is key because we want to take the best option per current information but we need people who are willing to share their thoughts and ideas and ultimately are cool with being wrong and can learn from that.

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

Originally I really wanted to be an architect, I really liked drawing and designing buildings, completely ignoring silly things like physics (which I’ve heard from engineers that architects are really good at doing that). I did also have my crazier dream of being a space explorer, I imagined I would love to just be out there finding new planets and exploring them.

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

This is a difficult question. I think that wanting to meet someone past/present is based largely on our own assumptions of what they are/were like which opens up a lot of possibilities for disappointment and possibly not as big of an opportunity to learn as we expected. Of course, there’s always the chance we are pleasantly surprised and learn something we didn’t expect. If I had to choose someone, I would say Rudyard Kipling, I grew up enjoying many of his poems and he led a pretty interesting life. That being said, he and his work have never escaped controversy so I would be interested in learning what he was really like and if possible the messages he intended to convey in his works.

Meet the NectarOM Team: December Employee Spotlight

Our employees are what make NectarOM a special and diverse place to work. We have many people with different backgrounds and personalities, but each person has a passion for the work that they do. This month we want to highlight Daniel Seol! Daniel has been with NectarOM for a year and a half, starting in June 2016. Daniel helps scope and implement product development and solutions that drive value to clients. Continue reading to find out first-hand from Daniel what it is like to be a NectarOM full stack developer.

  1. What is your title at NectarOM?

Full Stack Developer

2. How did you first learn about NectarOM?

I first learned about NectarOM after I completed my immersive web development course. I was lucky enough to meet our head of technology at a networking event following the completion, where I first learned about NectarOM and what we do.

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

Before working at NectarOM, my most interesting job was as a software trainer for a medical software company. I travelled basically 6 days a week, every week across the country. The most interesting place I travelled to was Hawaii.

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

NectarOM has helped me progress my career as a developer by allowing me to work on lots of different projects that require different skills and problem solving. This has exposed me to a lot of different things that has helped me grow. Additionally, NectarOM has helped me to become a better team member and develop leadership skills by allowing my voice to be heard in many regards. By allowing each team member to have input into how something should be approached or how something can be implemented, it has helped to refine my problem solving skills.

5. What are 3 words to describe yourself?

Sympathetic, Dedicated, Trusting

6. Describe a typical day at NectarOM for you?

My typical day at NectarOM begins with an essential cup of coffee. After unpacking my bag, I get started with checking my emails, making sure I have any updates that may have come in during the evening or early AM. Then I check any outstanding code that was submitted for review, making any fixes or changes that need to be added before resubmitting. After checking in on these communication channels, I get started with the tasks for the day. The cycle of checking submitted code continues until everything is approved and accepted, and my day ends when all outstanding tasks have been completed or updated.

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

My favorite part about working for NectarOM has to be the people I work with. I definitely enjoy the work and the value it brings to our clients, but the people and atmosphere at NectarOM is phenomenal.

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

You will be successful member of the NectarOM team if you enjoy learning new things, whether it’s new technologies or concepts, in a dynamic environment and you enjoy happy hours.

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

When I was younger, I wanted to be a Doctor, then a lawyer, then a teacher. A little all over the place.

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

I would want to meet Albert Einstein, maybe absorb some of his genius and learn how to live a significant and accomplished life.

Three Reasons Why Email Marketing Really Works

Benefits of Email Marketing

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

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

1.Easy Way to Reach Mobile Customers

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

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

2. Email is a Transactional Medium

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

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

3. Tells You What Works

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

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

Engaging High-Value Customers for High-Value Results

Many companies are shifting their focus to engage customers with higher value and profitability. The goal of engaging high-value customers (HVCs) is to nurture them into becoming loyal power shoppers. Increasing loyalty to a brand this way ensures retention and lifetime value of customers.

HVCs drive a significant portion of a company’s revenues. These customers are not only intensely loyal to a brand, but help promote the brand and its influence as well. Engaging and satisfying these high-value customers will put a company on a path toward greater success.

What Is a High-Value Customer?

Confusing high volume and high-value customers can be easy. However, high volume customers and high-value customers are two different target markets.

High volume customers are those who interact with a brand frequently. Although they may engage with the brand often, it doesn’t necessarily mean that these customers are the most valuable. Often with high volume customers, a brand will see a surge in activity for short periods of time. However, once the excitement fades, so does customer engagement.

High-value customers are those who buy for a reason. These customers look at products, services, and brands as a way to meet a need and satisfy a drive such as status, health or lifestyle. HVCs are customers who are loyal to a brand or company, even in times of financial duress. They will return to a brand and product even when a cheaper alternative is available. For HVCs, the cost is not a priority, and are more focused on having their unique needs addressed. HVCs are also brand promoters and influencers. These are the customers who will share the brand within their social networks.

Focusing specifically on high VALUE customers reflects an understanding of the power that these consumers have. Identifying who the high value customers are and tailoring marketing schemes to satiate these consumers, keeps them happy and ensures the brands’ profit margins.

  1. Evolve With Customers

Customer habits change and evolve. In turn, the way consumers interact with brands has evolved as well. Instead of fighting this evolution, brands should adapt and keep up with their customers. Part of this evolution includes the introduction of new goods and services and outlets, like online shopping. This development means customers are interested in a wide variety of items at all times. A shift towards items outside a consumer’s regular purchase pattern can indicate consumers are turning into HVCs. Dramatic changes in how customers buy items and spend money can also indicate greater trust and loyalty with a brand. Once the customer has extended the olive branch toward a brand, it is very likely they will shift into the high-value customer category.

  1. Pay Attention

The data provided by a customer’s recent activity can predict if a customer is high value or becoming high value. Data points such as high clickthrough rate, frequent site visits, and large purchases can indicate a customer as a high-value customer. One way to monitor customer involvement and identify high-value customers is through a  triggered marketing campaign. Triggered marketing includes a continuous stream of messages sent to customers based on their shopping activity, browsing history, purchases, etc. Triggered marketing indicates to customers that a brand knows its customers.

  1. Loyalty Rewards

Loyalty programs are teeming with information about members. Everything from brand preferences and item category to price sensitivity can be found in loyalty member data. Harnessing loyalty data helps brands personalize more towards HVCs. Knowing where, when, why, and how customers engage with a brand, can empower companies to create personalized experiences across multiple channels.

Loyalty programs also remove the barrier between customers and their next purchase. These loyalty programs make customers feel like “power users.” Their actions directly correlate to the experience found with a brand and company.

High-value customers make up the untapped bread and butter for many businesses. Understanding the behavior patterns of high-value customers enables brands to engage and target this niche group of customers. Providing high-value customers with the attention they desire keeps them engaged with the brand and propels companies to further success.

 

How 3 Top Brands are Using Personalization

These days, customers want to feel that they’re being heard and understood by their favorite brands. In fact, 73% of consumers want a more personalized shopping experience. Personalization allows brands to create a unique experience for their customers — in turn, demonstrating that they are being heard, and hopefully contribute to increased sales volume.

And, it is working. According to a study done by Infosys, 86% of consumers are influenced by personalization when making shopping decisions. Consumers are motivated to purchase more when they are made to feel relevant.

Thus, personalization has become increasingly important for brands and their success. Let’s take a look at three brands that are succeeding by bringing personalization into the consumer journey.

Burberry

This 156-year-old brand has pioneered a different kind of personalization for customers. Partnering up with Pinterest, Burberry has given customers a way to build personalized boards with product content provided by Burberry.

The “Cat Lashes” promo initiative offers a personalized experience for customers based on their makeup preferences. Users take a quick questionnaire and get personalized makeup looks and tips through a personalized Pinterest board. Burberry promotes their Cat Lashes Mascara through the Pinterest boards. The personalized boards also offer tips on how to create relevant looks for each customer while also using the Cat Lashes Mascara.

According to an internal study, 42% of consumers have bought products based on promoted pins they saw on Pinterest. Burberry’s “Cat Lashes” initiative is, therefore, capitalizing on Pinterest’s broad consumer base. The personalized boards serve as a promotional hub for the Cat Lashes Mascara, as well as related and relevant Burberry products.

GILT

Gilt.com was listed in Fast Company’s Top 25 Innovative Companies in 2010and ranked first in fashion that year. How did a company, which launched in 2007, garner so much success in just five years? The reason is that the online retailer personalizes sales and promotions for each customer and app user.

The luxury flash sales site has installed a personalized user page online and on the mobile app. This personalization feature is called “Your Personal Sale,” and goes beyond the daily e-mails a shopper receives. The personalized sales, generated by an algorithm, takes into consideration a customer’s entire shopping experience. Based on factors such as purchase history, geographic location, browsing behavior, and personal preferences, “Your Personal Sale” finds fresh items and deals daily. Personalization goes one step further, with Gilt.com also considering size, categories, and brands that customers frequently engage with. Each personalized sale lasts 24 hours, after which a new set of deals and sales are presented. According to CIO Steve Jacobs, personalized sales are “the next phase of the flash sale model.” The company leverages the sense of discovery the app provides, “tailoring [the] shopping experience just for them.”

Gilt.com brings personalization to the online fashion and retail platform and makes a conscious effort to tailor products to its customers. According to  Jacobs, “people are coming back more frequently, and they’re excited to see what’s in their sale tomorrow.” Personalized sales pushed the online retailer to be valued at roughly $1 billion just after five years of launching. Gilt’s personalization strategy has propelled the e-commerce company to enormous success.

Spotify

The online music platform Spotify is the leading music streaming host, despite competitors like iTunes and Google Play.

The introduction of personalized playlists has distinguished Spotify from other streaming sources.

One of these personalized playlist functions is “Discover Weekly.” Discover Weekly is a service which personalizes to each listener’s taste across a variety of genres. A personal playlist of 30 songs is curated and released each Monday based on listening habits. The music streaming service has also launched the “Release Radar” feature. Every Friday, the two-hour playlist is updated with newly released music from artists and bands a listener frequents. In addition, listeners who curate their playlists receive personalized suggestions on their playlists as well. The streaming service learns from personal preferences, songs skipped and replayed, and even looks at micro-genre music preferences to curate the best suggestions for each listener.

Spotify’s lead engineer and algorithm creator Edward Newett says, “we’re trying to show that Spotify understands users better than anyone else.” Within the first 10 months of launching, Discover Weekly saw 5 billion song plays. Senior product owner Matt Ogle says Discover Weekly’s success has “completely changed” the way Spotify interacts with consumers. The great success with user personalization has also increased consumer loyalty. Spotify boasts 40 million paid subscribers, compared to Apple Music’s 20 million paid subscribers.

Personalization is key to a brand’s success and transforms the customer experience. The focus on personalization allows many of these companies to grow as customers engage with brands more and more. With personalization on the rise, it will be interesting to see how industries implement various personalization tactics into their customers’ experiences.

Kohl’s is Winning With Omnichannel Strategies  

combining digital and in-store

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

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

MOBILE APP

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

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

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

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

STORES AS WAREHOUSES

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

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

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

 

Nordstrom’s Omnichannel Success

Culture of Innovation

Innovation is risky business, but not innovating is even riskier. In a world where technologies are rapidly changing, companies must be willing to evolve in stride. Several companies are doing so by shifting to an omnichannel marketing strategy. Omnichannel approaches are synchronizing the shopping experience across mediums for retailers.

Some retailers have successfully incorporated omnichannel strategy into their marketing strategy. Over the next few weeks, we will examine a trilogy of retailers and the wins they have achieved through an omnichannel approach.  Today, we are going to focus on one of the most popular luxury retailers- Nordstrom.

Part I: Nordstrom

Nordstrom worked to reinvent itself around the omnichannel shopper. According to the President of Stores, James Nordstrom, retailers need to focus more on the total experience than strategy for specific channels; “[At Nordstrom, we] don’t think the customer is loyal to channels. We don’t hear customers talk about channels very much. Customers value experiences.” Consequently, this belief is guiding Nordstrom’s omnichannel strategy towards creating a synchronized and seamless customer experience.

Rewards Program

The omnichannel focus of the Nordstrom Rewards loyalty program gives customers a chance to gain points regardless of which channel they purchase items.These loyalty members can also then track their activity from anywhere. Shoppers can use their mobile number as identification instead of memorizing a loyalty account number. An omnichannel approach to the rewards program has given Nordstrom a more open policy focus. The open policy focus allows shoppers to pay in whichever method they choose, shop whichever way suits them and still gain more loyalty points and rewards. Nordstrom shoppers are winning more, ensuring customer loyalty.

Social Media Influence

The luxury retailer is also approaching shopping from a multichannel perspective, and one of their innovative initiatives has been integrating with the mobile application, Instagram, and social media/organization platform, Pinterest. Nordstrom has made it possible to buy items from Instagram and find items based on Pinterest favorites. Instagram has been a modeling platform for retail items. However, a grievance shoppers have, is the inability to locate and buy the items presented on Nordstrom’s Instagram account. The retailer’s Instagram account now features a link which directs customers to Like2Buy, a platform that makes Instagram shopping easy. All of the items available for sale from the retailer’s feed are displayed as an elegant grid of photos. Shoppers can then scroll and “like” items, which are curated into a personal wishlist or shopping cart. 

Pinterest is a social media platform which allows users to “pin” things they like or want to “boards” for later reference. It indexes all the different items, ideas, and interests we come across online. Pinterest gives Nordstrom insight of which items are popular among shoppers. Nordstrom has brought these “pinned” items to their physical stores. Stores display commonly tagged or “pinned” items from Pinterest. The luxury retailer also adopted that feature on their website. Shoppers can now see a “Top Pinned” landing page on the site. Nordstrom doesn’t limit themselves to a single channel. The retailer has effectively leveraged their social media user base to enhance the shoppers’ experience by including the favorite and trendy items on Instagram and Pinterest in their stores.  Not only do customers see more products, but they are buying more at one time and are coming back for more of the items they love.

Nordstrom had experienced success by understanding that customers value an enhanced experience. Nordstrom has provided its customers with a retail experience that spans online, offline, and social media outlets. Shopping has become a synchronized and seamless experience – Customers can easily find the products they love and find them from anywhere. Tune in next week as we take a closer look at Neiman Marcus and how they are using omnichannel marketing to benefit their shoppers.

 

6 Types of Data To Collect From Customers And How to Grow Your Marketing Strategy With It

Personalization has hit the mainstream as the best marketing strategy for growing your business. It’s used by niche companies and conglomerates alike in order to create an experience that entices customers to buy. There’s no denying it’s power.

Have you ever found yourself shopping for a new shirt online, only to be bombarded with matching ads later in the day. The ads may even be the exact products your were looking at from the same sites. They’re remarketing based off information you provided. Someone else who shopped for pants will see a completely different set of ads.

The idea is to use a one-on-one marketing strategy to develop a closer relationship with your customer. Omni-channel personalization, with a focus on these data points, can create a thorough approach to tailoring your recommendations based on what you know about the individual. Levels of use will vary, but the goal is clear:

Marketing is no longer about whose ad is seen the most. It’s about who can be more personal.

 

1. Name

Names have been called the ‘customer’s favorite word’ and for good reason. Would you rather I address you as “Appreciated Customer”, or can we take it to a more personal level? Well Greg, we’ve got a deal for you.

Businesses have been using customer names since people started peddling wares in Mesopotamian markets. When Greg bought that suit, the owner had already learned his name. The next time he walked in, he was welcomed with it. It made Greg feel more appreciated than when he visited other shops. It created a brand loyalty and he’s significantly less likely to take his business elsewhere.

Knowing your customer’s name is easy when you’re talking face to face with her, but how can you do it when thousands of people are browsing your digital store?

Web developers solved this problem long ago. Membership and e-mail sign ups require a name. Even websites that only share your username have begun using your real first name rather than the word ‘profile’ on your browser. It creates a more personalized experience when the web page displays your name in the corner, even if you know it’s an automated system.

By e-mail lists having this information, subject lines can be constructed to appear like personal messages. Seeing their own name elicits a reaction from the brain, forcing them to slow down and read the text. Campaign Monitor found that working personalization into an e-mail subject line increased open rates by 14.68%. With a list of 1,000, that translates to nearly 150 more people opening your message. That’s 150 more potential sales just because you directed the letter at Greg. Talk about a great ROI on personalization.

 

2. Location

Where using a name is great, MailChimp would argue that city names are even better.

Locations can be used to expose customers to events in a given area. Is there an expo or event that you want to share with your fans. Directed messages at their location can be the quickest way to do it.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet on How to Improve the Consumer Journey

6 Types of Data to Collect from Customers and How to Grow Your Marketing Strategy With It nectarom

Sending e-mails about a race in Seattle to people who live in New York City will cause your open rate to drop drastically. Meanwhile, your audience in the greater Seattle area may now attend, increasing engagement with your brand.

Gathering this information can be done through two key methods. You can have customers provide their location when signing up for different features, or you can have them grant permission using a geo-location enabled app.

Marketing Land claims mobile brand ads are seeing a 20% increase in conversions when coupled with location data. Need more reasons? They also found that “69% of Google searches  include a specific location.” That’s more data you can use in your marketing strategy.

A study by White Horse Productions, Inc. showed that 8% of the users of social apps running geo-location systems believe “savings in discounts and merchant rewards” are the most important benefit. Though this number seems low, given the sheer volume of traffic that social media receives on a daily basis, this number is astounding. Since 60% of that poll thinks the social aspects are most important, it could be argued that discounts and deals would play a larger secondary role for most.

Businesses like Yelp allow their customers to ‘check-in’ to different establishments. Later, they’re reminded to review the places they visited. This creates more interaction with their site and app, as well as customer pride because they’ve contributed to the product. The ‘check-in’ strategy also brings more engagement on social media, showing up on the newsfeeds for everyone to see.

The largest battle with tracking a customer’s location is the concern for privacy. Many smartphone users will disable the GPS feature because of a fear that the information will be used inappropriately. Unfortunately for the honorable business, this leaves the ability to track location to user sign ups and invoices. Still, it’s better than comprising your integrity.

 

3. Gender

The purple elephant in the room, gender, has become a touchy subject in today’s social climate. Still, for a business, knowing someone’s gender can translate into better targeting and profit.

A study by G+ proved that targeting genders can be more than efficient. They found that females make more of the buying decisions, including everything home furnishings to cars. They also saw that women are more likely to use a specific brand if it supports a cause.

Using this information alone, you could develop a strategy to target your female customers with ads. Select the cause you’re most affiliated with, expressing a cause, and have better luck at winning them over. Even better is that if it’s a large purchase, you know to focus more attention on that gender.

Learning your customer’s gender also gives you the ability to tailor recommendations on page. If you’re a clothing company that sells to everyone, ads offering skirts will be better directed at women, while men’s products are better with them. This technique would still require a Facebook pixel or local account, but it could pay dividends in the long run.

 

4. Previous Purchases

Along with the gender focused advertising, many sites will tap your previous purchases to target you. Amazon is excellent at this strategy.

When you’re comparing items, say a sleeping bag, you can go through dozens of pages without making a purchase. Don’t worry, when you open your Facebook later, you’ll find that Amazon has a kindly reminder waiting for you. They’ll use sponsored posts to keep your mental shopping cart alive and even offer recommendations for some of the sleeping bags you were looking at earlier.

nectarom

You can follow this same approach, or target on a finer scale. When a customer purchases a sleeping bag from your site, launch an automated email chain that offers them related products, like lamps or walking sticks. The odds of a customer buying from you again are higher than the chances of that initial purchase. It’s marketing done easy.

On the other side of the spectrum is the abandoned shopping cart. Maybe a customer became distracted. Maybe they found your prices too steep. By knowing that they didn’t make a purchase, but had intended to, you can attempt to reengage the customer. Remind them of the cart or make new offers. There are a lot of possibilities just by identifying their cart status and it can all be crafted into an automated system.

In the same sense, send emails when discounts appear on items they’ve expressed interest in, be it from a wishlist or deleted cart items. Study everything about a customer’s purchase history and you can learn some specific ways to target the individual.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the free cheat sheet on How to Improve the Consumer Journey

 

5. Interests

If interests aren’t part of your personalization marketing strategy, you’re doing it wrong. They can tell us everything we need to know in order to interact with customers.

Interest marketing is especially effective on social media platforms. Sites like Facebook and Twitter build profiles on all of their users, including everything they like. These likes translate into marketing channels.

By applying ads to social media, you can automatically engage those who prefer the niche you’re addressing without having to sort them out. A billboard is a shot in the dark. Social media advertising, thanks to the ability to target interests, is a point blank shot.

 

6. Web Behavior

A customer’s behavior on the web can lead to a lot of profitable information. Everything from web content to e-mail interaction can be tracked in order to improve your marketing strategy. Using omni-channel personalization with knowledge of their trends can be even better.

To start, figure out what the most popular key words for your business are. Once you have them, develop landing pages for each. Highlight those keywords as many times as you can in the page to be sure that’s the one they find and let the personalized experience begin. Depending on how many keywords you want, you can continue to develop new pages, offering a deeper connection to your audience.

Those keywords can say a lot in themselves by defining where the customer is in the purchasing stages. If they’re searching for a specific knife review, odds are that they’re looking to purchase that knife. If they’re looking for the 7 best survival knives, they may be a little further away. Through personalization, you can recommend products and advertisements based off where they are in that process.

Tracking behavior is where your content marketing can pay off. Everyone who has run a business with an online presence understands that cookies can be pivotal in your marketing strategy. By tracking which pages your customers are viewing, you can tailor content specifically to their interest. This can be a recommendation to other articles and products based off the category or focused bonus material.

Content upgrades that are directly related to the topic of the page can provide a great window for opportunity. If a customer is reading about repairing chainsaws, a guide to felling trees with one may be enough to get his e-mail. From there, he’s entered your sales funnel, leaving him open to more e-mails and potentially other personalization tactics from you.

Along with getting those messages out, you need to pay attention to how your customers interact with your e-mails. Spot which links are getting the most use and place the customers into a segmented list. Send them more emails that focus on the topic they’re interested in. Reduce the size of your segments if you can, creating various targeted sub-lists while still sending them e-mails from the main subscription.

Collecting data to grow your marketing strategy is as simple as opening a few analytics accounts and paying attention to customer behavior. Run as many tests as you can to learn what works and what doesn’t to maximize your potential.

The information you gather can be the difference between a year of growth or another twelve months of your peers passing you by. Develop a strategy for personalization and take the lead.

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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

The Business Imperative: Personalization

This Wednesday, the DFW-Retail Executives Association ended its season on a timely topic for retailers: Personalization.  If you missed out on this panel or are one of the 77 percent of companies saying, “In 2016 we need to be doing personalization,” have no fear we have the panel highlights for you.

Cover Photo Amrit Speaking at REA Personalization Panel
DFW REA Personalization Panel

The panel consisted of three experts,

  • Jeff Rosenfeld-Vice President of Customer Insights & Analytics at The Neiman Marcus Group
  •  Veeral Rathod- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at J. Hilburn Clothiers
  • And NectarOM’s very own Chief Executive Officer & Founder Amrit Kirpalani.

Panel Moderator Steve Dennis kicked off the panel discussion setting the stage for why personalization is quickly becoming a business imperative.  Explaining that personalization is  “an imperative because the battle has shifted from market share to share of attention- and it’s increasingly difficult to be the signal amidst the noise.”

The rest of the discussion focused on how personalization is changing their marketing efforts, what challenges they faced when launching their personalization efforts, how it is changing marketing, and finally discussed how other companies could successfully launch their own personalization efforts.

Here are a few of our favorite topics from the panel,

Test and Learn

Don’t start off trying to personalize every message coming from every channel.  Amrit suggested that the clients with the most success started off small.  Start off testing a few channels and messages at a time, learn what worked and then test some more.

Be Prepared to Think About Marketing Differently

Personalization fundamentally changes how marketing has been done for years. Instead of a one size fits all strategy, personalization shifts the focus to marketing on a one-to-one level.  Jeff and Amrit agreed that culture change was one of the biggest challenges when companies started discussing personalization.

Not a One Size Fits All Solution.

Take the time to figure out how personalization fits into your company’s structure and into what your customers want.   The Neiman Marcus Group and  J. Hilburn Clothiers both used personalization in the retail space, however they each had a unique approach that fit their customer and business model’s needs.

Have the right partners in place

Not everyone can afford to have a team of data scientists creating custom algorithms.  However, personalization is something that is becoming more realistic for companies of all shapes and sizes to start adding to their marketing efforts. All you need to do is find the right partner.

If you are interested in learning more about sending tailored messages to your customers in real-time across all your owned channels let us know and schedule a demo to see the NectarSuite in action.