Personalization is Transforming as Privacy Forces a Consumer Data Drought

Share this:

Facebook’s strategy change points to a much broader shift in digital marketing. The disappearance of third-party cookies and mobile IDs — and the granular customer data they supply — is forcing businesses to rethink how to ‘personalize’ marketing strategies. Facebook’s strategy suggests the future of personalization in marketing could hinge more on customer experience and less on ads.

How to Strike a Balance Between Personalization and Privacy in Marketing

Share this:

So, how does one strike the perfect balance between personalization and privacy in terms of marketing? On the path to personalization, there are a couple of key things that businesses should focus on.

Adapting Retail Marketing Strategies to Fit the Endemic Era

Share this:

Now is the time for retail marketers to plan and once again adapt their strategies for long-term success in what is becoming a highly competitive digital market. Let’s explore how to reach that success.

Google Local Search Trends I: Personalization

Share this:

Though it’s not always easy to find the common threads in Google’s complex evolution of the local search consumer experience, some themes do stand out, such as the drive toward increasingly personalized search results, which I’ll be covering in this initial entry in the series. Fortunately for marketers, personalization, along with the other themes I’ll cover, offers numerous opportunities to outpace the competition and convert more searchers into buyers. A better understanding of these emerging trends will help marketers prioritize their efforts.

The Data Balance: How to Deliver Privacy and Personalization

Share this:

It’s possible for merchants to provide personalization alongside customer data privacy—in fact, it’s a must for businesses that want to retain customer trust and remain viable. In order to balance using data for personalization with respecting customers’ privacy, it’s important to first understand the current consumer data and privacy landscape.

Respecting Data Privacy while Boosting Business

Share this:

The concept of being relevant while not being intrusive is not mutually exclusive. Certain brands have been able to master this delicate balance. One such brand is Apple. Apple knows that I have an iPhone 12, but they aren’t chasing me on all corners of the internet trying to sell me accessories, or worse, another iPhone. However, when I go to the Apple Store app, it has all my devices connected to my Apple ID, creating a curated list of relevant products. This is a masterclass in being relevant without being intrusive.

Ad Tech and Privacy

When It Comes to Winning Over Customers, Transparency Always Wins

Share this:

Based on recent studies, people crave privacy, especially when it comes to their data. Repeatedly seeing an ad for a pair of shoes you glanced at once online but didn’t buy doesn’t create a warm or trusting feeling of being cared for by a retailer – for many people, it may come across as creepy. There is a way to gain back that trust, and it is all connected to transparency or, to be precise, web transparency. 

Why You Should Be Using Video Marketing To Connect with Local Audiences

Share this:

One report from Cisco found that by 2022, internet videos will make up over 82% of all consumer online traffic. Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down video production and demand somewhat, it still remains a perfectly viable marketing channel. 

People are simply more likely to watch a video than read a blog. By looking at key pillars of online video production as well as what’s worked for other companies, you, too, can develop a stellar strategy. 

Contact Center Should Be the Marketing Engine

Hyperlocal Device Targeting Should Be Part of Your Advertising Strategy

Share this:

True hyperlocal advertising revolves around mobile location data. The intersection among time, place, device, and creative is the sweet spot that we’re aiming for here. By harnessing mobile location data, digital marketers can employ smarter audience targeting, deliver more timely and relevant ad messaging, generate more foot traffic, and measure the offline results of online marketing efforts. 

If you’re looking to add location-based advertising to your digital marketing mix, here are some effective tactics that can help you boost in-store visits.

How Email Marketing Will Evolve in the Next 5 Years

Share this:

With a tool that enables us to reach millions of potential customers with the click of a button, it’s tempting to send out mass promotional emails that reach the maximum number of people possible, but besides having been done to death, that means missing out on huge opportunities. Over the years, email marketing has steadily been moving away from the newsletter and promotional blast to behaviorally driven, event-triggered, one-to-one messaging. In one word: personalization.

Personalized Marketing is a Must Right Now

Share this:

Today, marketers have the luxury of being able to see consumers through the entire advertising funnel, enabling them to target consumers based on where they are in the buying process — from introduction of a product all the way to purchase intent. Brands have the ability, either in-house or via third-party vendors, to create and target ads that scale cross-device and cross-channel, reducing repetition, eliminating ad fatigue, and enhancing consumer experience throughout the funnel.

They can, and should, A/B test different messages, offers, and calls to action in real time to determine what resonates with each consumer down to the color of the button that generates more engagement. Marketers can do all of this across programmatic display, video, social, on YouTube and over-the-top (OTT) TV.  So, why aren’t they?

How Restaurants Can Capture More Customer Demand With Email

Share this:

Email is often the primary channel for restaurants to stay in touch with customers and let them know about changes. When email is done right, there are many small ways restaurants can use it to personalize messaging, drive more engagement, and make their lives easier with scalable best practices.

5 Ways to Reduce Errors in Voice Ordering

Share this:

Restaurant chains like Wingstop, Domino’s, Panera, and Round Table have created their own skills to make it easier for people to place orders through voice assistants like Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. But before voice ordering can truly disrupt the restaurant industry, restaurants have to find ways to reduce the friction and eliminate the kinds of errors that lead to the wrong orders being delivered.

Here’s how some of the country’s top restaurant chains are overcoming the challenges associated with voice ordering and developing more frictionless customer experiences.

3 Tips for Attracting High-Quality Leads at Your Next Event

Share this:

First impressions are key, and it’s imperative that as soon as the lead is ready to buy, your brand is the first on their mind. 

Doing this requires you to understand your leads and deliver a message that appeals to their needs while portraying your brand in the best possible way. This is a big challenge because you want to promote your brand without going overkill and scaring leads away. 

Here are three steps for attracting higher-quality leads at your next event.

Voice Tech Could Transform Loyalty Programs. Here’s How

Share this:

Within the hospitality industry, a growing number of hotels are using voice technology to improve personalization with experiences like virtual concierges. Virtual concierges use voice technology to personalize a guest’s stay by offering experiences based on past behavior. For example, virtual concierges can adjust thermostats or place room service orders based on a traveler’s previous preferences. When hotels and other hospitality brands take action based on the insights gathered about guests through their loyalty programs, they improve the overall guest experience.

But brands in a number of industries are exploring loyalty use cases for voice.

E-Commerce Trends to Watch This Year

Share this:

The answer to solving the personalization dilemma lies in data. Retailers that are able to both harness and analyze data will be able to make the calculated decisions to improve their customer experience and give shoppers the personalized process they desire. However, only 27% of global retail and wholesale purchase influencers say that improving the use of data insights is currently a top priority. Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help dissect the data retailers receive, but it starts with the desire and capability of getting smarter about customer experience.

Video Trends For 2020 All Consumer-Facing Brands Need To Know

Share this:

Video is already an effective and established form of content for consumer-facing brands. But as a content format, it has undergone dramatic developments in recent years, changes that look set to continue in 2020. The new year will feature more personalized videos, long-form experimentation, 360-degree footage, and shoppable images.

Read on to learn more about the video trends for 2020 your brand needs to know.

Heard on the Street, Episode 43: Inferring User Intent with Viral Gains

Share this:

One elusive component of effective marketing is knowing what consumers are thinking. But even with advances in AI, traditional ad targeting practices often commit basic errors like showing people the same ad several times … even though they may not be interested in any way in the product in question.

This is the area where Viral Gains is innovating. The latest guest on Street Fight’s Heard on the Street podcast, Viral Gains CEO Tod Loofbourrow tells us how his longstanding affinity for robotics and AI has influenced his path to solving this problem by better inferring intent and consumer sentiment.

Three Essential Steps toward Omnichannel Success

Share this:

Consumers have limited time, detectable habits, and preferences about how they interact with brands. Marketers have become increasingly empowered to know and respond to these preferences on all channels.

As brands leverage opportunities offered by omnichannel marketing and further embrace the technology that unlocks each channel’s capabilities and insights, they will give customers the personal experiences they crave. Beginning the journey toward true omnichannel can be daunting, but the immense value it creates for both customers and brands far outweighs the rethinking, reinvention, and innovations it demands.

Crossing the B2B-B2C Divide: The Next Frontier in Customer Experience

Share this:

In recent years, the marketing industry has started to discuss the increasingly blurry line between the disciplines of B2B and B2C marketing. For the most part, the conversation to date has been a discussion of tactics and methodologies—but this is only the tip of the iceberg. 

Over the next five years, the breakdown between the B2B and B2C worlds will be dramatic, and the resulting marketing landscape—as well as people’s expectations for messaging—will look quite different than they do today. Let’s look at how this blurring line will soon vanish altogether.