Topic Personalization

Consumers want it free. They want it now. They want it to be relevant. They want it personalized.

The unexpected hit of COVID-19 has jolted the retail world into a need for transformation. In March, when stores were suddenly shuttered, retailers had to quickly pivot their omnichannel approach, from evaluating brick and mortar to creating contactless customer experiences.

A few destinations are beginning to reopen—and just in time, as it’s currently National Travel & Tourism Week.

Hard-hit retailers are considering the best ways to pivot during this turbulent time. Many traditional specialty and event-based marketing communications have been muted, redirected or downright cancelled. CMOs are erring on the side of caution with reduced promotional activity to avoid inadvertently appearing tone-deaf or insensitively lighthearted.

In order to flatten the curve of COVID-19, restaurants have been ordered to close their doors to customers. While we hope businesses will reopen safely in due time, we’re left to navigate these unchartered waters.

Several marketers are still operating under data silos. While data sets are being compiled to enhance the transactional power with the goal of wanting to achieve a 360-degree consumer view, they often don’t offer the full 'data picture' to understand the whole consumer.

You mention to your spouse that you need to pick up a new dog bed, and suddenly you start seeing ads for dog beds in your social feeds. Is your phone or smart home assistant listening? Maybe.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend eTail West where over a thousand retail-focused marketers gathered to learn about what’s disrupting the industry and discuss a number of key topics, some of which include measurement, how to rebrand your loyalty program, marketing automation, the role of data, best practices for the design of retail, the importance of creating a personalized experience for each consumer…

In today’s hyper-connected digital age, consumers are in the driver’s seat. Armed with multiple devices and channels to engage with brands, consumers are conditioned to get the information, products and services they want—instantly and from anywhere. To win them, brands must be prepared to engage at critical decision points along their path to purchase.

There’s a myth in the marketplace of how “third-party data is dead,” especially given the significant changes in policies, privacy and compliance requirements. Some brands think third-party data leads to cost inefficiencies, but typically, these brands are leveraging data from an unknown, non-validated source resulting in poor data quality.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are known for killing it with performance marketing. They’ve grown up online, and they know how to move customers through the funnel with precision.

Identity resolution is the most critical part of marketing, but it’s also the most difficult to do correctly.

Remember when a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand could launch a Shopify store and build a million-dollar business via social media overnight?

Machine learning.

Consumers want personalized experiences. We all know it. But delivering on this mandate is a challenge—to say the least. It requires knowing each customer (and potential customer) holistically so you can identify and accurately reach real people across devices and interactions over time with relevant messages.

“Is brick-and-mortar really dying” is a common question asked by marketers. The answer is no, it’s not.

As another year is coming to an end and we’re closing out a decade, we’re reflecting on the big loyalty accomplishment we achieved throughout the past ten years in addition to the marketing advancements coming in the future.

The best loyalty programs create 1:You experiences for their very best customers. From earning to redeeming and everything in between, a good loyalty program listens to its customers. It creates the connections that deliver lifetime value to both the customer and the brand they love.

With the positive results marketers are seeing with their advanced TV strategy, it comes as no surprise that more than 50% of marketers are likely to include Advanced TV in their advertising schedules. By the end of next year, connected TV spend is expected to reach $913M, up from $293M in 2016.

In today’s marketing landscape, we as consumers expect a seamless customer experience.