In partnership with Dynata, Cordial surveyed 1,000 adults across the United States on their thoughts around shopping during the 2022 holiday season, with a particular emphasis on how they like to interact with brands. Along the way we discovered key themes and consumer preferences to help your brand better connect with consumers during this busiest time of year.

So we welcome you to dive into our top insights from Cordial’s 2022 Holiday Shopping Consumer Survey…

3 key messaging strategies for the 2022 holiday shopping season

1. Personalize offers to counter fears of rising prices.

Without a doubt, affordability is an ongoing concern. When is it not? But while 70% of consumers say they anticipate buying fewer things this holiday season due to rising prices, a nearly equal number of consumers (71%) say that in recent years Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals have become less relevant to them. So are brands not helping their own cause with disconnected deals? Perhaps.

Because here’s the rub: Yet again, 70% of consumers say they would actually purchase more from brands on Black Friday and Cyber Monday if the offers were personalized to their specific needs. On top of that, our survey also revealed that 48% of Gen Z, 39% of Millennials, 23% of Gen X, and 9% of Boomers expect to shop more on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year.

So for marketers the race to the wallet is on to meet consumers with the exact thing they want in 2022: personalized offers.

2. Offer personalized alternatives to recover from out-of-stock pitfalls.

With supply chain issues and high consumer demand still at play, many consumers are expecting hiccups to snagging their perfect gifts this year. So it not’s surprising that a solid 80% of consumers say they like it when retailers and websites offer recommendations for other products they might like when what they want is out of stock. From a purely emotional stand point, recommendations also can act as stress-relievers to save time. And who doesn’t love that?

So when confronted with an out-of-stock item they want, 43% consumers say they are open to recommendations, even if it means buying a product that might be lower in quality. And if specific recommendations might not convert a customer in an out-of-stock scenario, a strong 44% of consumers would consider buying a gift card from the same retailer instead. Offering donations or experiences are also viable options, especially for Gen Z.

3. Leverage multi-channel personalization to break through brand-affinity walls.

In 2022, the vast majority (88%) of all consumers say they will do the majority of shopping with brands they have shopped before. And although this degree of affinity isn’t surprising, nonetheless the challenge exists for brands to breakthrough and win new business this holiday season.

However, one lifeline to any brand is simply mastering personalization. We found 54% of all consumers (68% of Gen Z, 72% of Millennials, 57% of Gen X, and 29% of Boomers) admit to making an unplanned purchase after receiving an email that was highly personalized and offered something specific to their needs.

Plus, after online searches and online gift guides, emails and texts from brands are the third most popular source for finding gift ideas. And with 79% of consumers actively looking for gift ideas, your brand has an opportunity to become top of mind with personalized messaging on a multi-channel front.

For instance, aside from personalized email/text offers or online gift guides, you also can create highly relevant and personalized one-to-one direct mail to customers through Cordial’s integration with Poplar — and complement online messaging with direct mail campaigns for customers who might have an affinity for print.

What messaging is important to consumers when shopping?

As part of our survey, we asked consumers what they thought were the most important things brands could do for them when they were shopping. Based on prior research, we offered ten options specifically related to how brands communicate through online channels with shoppers. Respondents could choose multiple items. Here’s how they ranked based on overall tallies:

1. Share promotions or deals tailored to me.
2. Share special offers available only to me on my milestones (birthday, loyalty program anniversary, etc.).
3. Help me find products in-store using the app/website.
4. Send me messages that are relevant to my needs.
5. Share product recommendations tailored to my needs.
6. Help me buy online and pick up in a store near me.
7. Follow up with me after I make a purchase.
8. Send me recommendations that are tailored to my location.
9. Follow up with me after I return a product.
10. Send me messages in real time as I am interacting with your brand to help make the shopping process easier.

Although we were not surprised that personalized promotions, deals, and specialized offers came out on top, the rise of using apps while physically in a store is a notable trend (and retailers should take note of other stats driving brand mobile apps).

You also can see in our chart how they broke out by generation, with some responses varying widely across the age groups. For instance, Gen Z absolutely love real-time interactions and being able to find products in-store with an app, far more than any other generation, while Boomers care most about just getting a deal.

Who is (about) twice as likely to…

When we sifted through our survey data, we found a series of points that stood out where certain generations were about twice as likely (or more) to note or do something this holiday season. Since the power of two is easy to wrap one’s head around, consider areas where doubling down might win the day.

• Want a deal?

  Boomers are 2.2x more likely to want an outright deal instead of a product recommendation from a brand. 

• Turn to an online gift guide?

  Gen Z are 2.4x more likely than Boomers to look to an online gift guide for gift ideas. 

• Flip through a catalog?

  Boomers are about 2x more likely than Gen Z or Milliennials to look to a print catalog for gift ideas. 

• Not care about trends?

  Gen X are 2.7x more likely to find gift ideas through online searches and ads instead of through trending online content.

• Love using apps in-store?

  Gen Z are 1.9x more likely than Boomers to want a brand to help them find products in-store with their mobile app.

• Buy online and pick up in store?

  Gen X and younger generations are about twice as likely as Boomers to want to buy products online and pick them up at a store nearby.

• Want real-time interactions?

  Gen Z are 2.7x more likely than Boomers to want real-time interactions with a brand while shopping.

• Get gift ideas from emails and texts?

  Gen Z and Millennials are more than twice as likely as Boomers to use emails and texts from brands for gift ideas.

• Settle for lower quality?

  Gen Z are 2.2x more likely than Boomers to settle and buy a similar product, even if it is lower in quality, if what they want to buy is out of stock.

• Want a follow-up?

  Both Gen Z and Millennials are about twice as likely as Gen X and Boomers to want a company to follow up with them after they make a purchase or return a product.

• Buy a gift card?

  Millennials are about twice as likely to buy a gift card instead of gifting an experience (e.g., dinner at restaurant, spa day) if what they want to buy as a gift is out of stock.

• Spend more on Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

  Gen X is more than twice as likely as Boomers to spend more on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, while, in turn, Gen Z is more than twice as likely as Gen X to spend more this year as well.

Win any holiday season with personalized marketing

No doubt about it: personalization is here to stay. People of all ages appreciate it when brands they know and trust provide customized information and offers. The only question is will your brand step up and embrace this reality? By harnessing the power of an advanced customer data platform (CDP), your company can achieve best-in-class personalization tactics.

A good CDP needs to:

• Unite robust data management with email, SMS, and mobile app marketing — all in one platform
• Consolidate all data from anywhere in your tech stack and activate it to power your outreach
• Provide easy-to-use workflows to simplify and accelerate campaign development
• Leverage predictive analytics to let you delight customers by anticipating their needs
• Empower you to deliver the consistent, cross-channel experiences customers expect

At Cordial, we’re customer data experts who can guide you to personalization success. Get in touch to schedule a demo and find out how we can put our insights to work for you.

About the survey methodology

Sample sourced by Dynata on behalf of Cordial during September 2022. We surveyed 1,000 adults, age 18 and older, who live in the United States. The sample was balanced by age, gender, region, ethnicity, Hispanic origin, income, and children in household according to the U.S. Census. Age ranges for the generational groups cited in the study are: Gen Z (18-24), Millennials (25-42), Gen X (43-57), Boomers (58-75). For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact marketing@cordial.com.

The post Key takeaways from Cordial’s 2022 Holiday Shopping Consumer Survey appeared first on Cordial.

Today, brands have to focus on relevance — engaging in ways that are highly unique to each individual. McKinsey & Company explains the essence of how relevance works:

[Marketers] must listen for the signals that indicate customers are ready to engage and design programs that respond to those signals quickly. This requires both advanced customer analytics to read the signs of customer intent and a response system that reacts to those signs by reaching out with relevant customer content across touchpoints and channels. — McKinsey & Company

To help shine a light on the shift, we’ve conducted research on what consumers want from marketers now and how marketers can better deliver on their expectations. What we’ve uncovered can help you bridge the relevance gap and deliver the personalized communication your customers want. You can review more insights in our ebook, The New Era of Consumer Engagement.

Effective messaging strategies to better engage your customers

When we broke out the results into digestible themes, we found seven key takeaways:

1. Prioritize emails that are personalized and relevant.
2. Text customers with a timely purpose.
3. Create a seamless mobile app experience.
4. Offer something of real value in exchange for data.
5. Facilitate discovery and follow-through.
6. Take fresh approaches to earning customers’ loyalty.
7. Deliver more than a transaction, but a purpose.

1. Prioritize emails that are personalized and relevant.

While email can drive sales, generic messages won’t win the day — and may turn customers against you. You need to consider personalized emails as part of the broader communication landscape and think about how they complement other channels consumers use. The sooner you embrace more advanced personalization, the bigger your impact on your customers will be.

Personalization wins:

• 81% of consumers agree, “I am more likely to buy from stores and brands that communicate with me in personal, relevant ways.”

Consumers still love email:

• 48% of all consumers shop in response to emails from brands
• 82% of all consumers say email is one of the top three sources they rely on for purchasing

But too many generic messages are turn-offs:

• 74% of consumers say they receive too many emails from brands
• 59% of consumers say that most of the emails they received from brands are generic
• 78% of consumers get frustrated when brands send them generic messages

Helpful resources on Cordial:

• Is your legacy email service provider holding you back?
• Intro to personalized marketing (with top stats and examples)
• Learn how fashion retailer Revolve grew revenue 8.3x with triggered emails

2. Text customers with a timely purpose.

Another opportunity to better deliver for customers is through text messaging. Today, most of us keep our phones by our side 24/7 and read almost every text we receive. While some brands have stepped up to the SMS plate, relatively few marketers have truly maximized the power of the text in their marketing campaigns.

Text messages provide an opportunity for immediate connection with a captive audience. Data cited by Total Retail recently shared that 83% of Millennials open SMS messages within 90 seconds of receiving them! Yet, text messaging is viewed as an incredibly personal channel so getting the message right is critical.

For brands, this dynamic presents an opportunity. It’s clear that consumers lose patience with generic texts, quickly. A strong personalization strategy as part of text message campaigns is a way to rise above generic text messaging and speak directly to consumers. If you send relevant and timely texts, you can deliver value and show consumers that you appreciate their unique needs in ways that most retailers and brands aren’t currently.

Consumers receive too many texts that aren’t relevant:

• 65% of consumers have received text messages from stores or brands
• 75% of consumers say the texts they receive aren’t personalized to them
• 60% of consumers feel brand texts are not helpful or interesting

Texts can make consumers feel excited or annoyed:

• 48% of people say texts from brands make them feel annoyed
• 32% of people say texts from brands make them feel valued
• 20% of people say texts from brands make them feel excited

Consumers unsubscribe after receiving generic texts from brands:

• 19% unsubscribe after 1 text
• 29% unsubscribe after 2-3 texts
• 15% unsubscribe after 4-5 texts
• 9% unsubscribe after more than 5 texts
• 7% unsubscribe after more than 10 texts
• 21% rarely unsubscribe

Helpful resources on Cordial:

• Reach customers with timely SMS/MMS messages
• How to start SMS marketing

3. Create a seamless mobile app experience.

Mobile apps are a powerful way to connect with consumers in many ways. Today’s shoppers use apps to shop both online and offline, using them to navigate online shopping experiences as well as when visiting brick-and-mortar stores. The convenience factor is indeed real. Consumers have grown more accustomed to mobile apps and the improved experience they offer. The ability to receive personalized offers and communications certainly factors into the improved experience in-app vs. website.

Shopping via mobile apps continues to rise:

• 70% of consumers say they are shopping via mobile apps more frequently than they did a year ago
• 65% of consumers have used a store or retailer app while shopping in person at a brick-and-mortar location

Consumers prefer app experiences to websites:

• 76% of consumers prefer when stores and brands offer mobile apps over shopping via website
• 66% of consumers say the mobile app experiences is better than shopping on a brand or retailers’ website

Leading brands are turning to mobile apps to personalize and guide the customer experience, capture attention, deliver meaningful value, and drive loyalty. Download our ebook detailing the best practices for mobile app messaging.

4. Offer something of real value in exchange for data.

How can you deliver the personalization consumers want? You need data, sure. But you also need to use that data in more imaginative ways than most are doing today. Our research uncovered that many consumers are willing to give up even more personal information if marketers can figure out how to use it to offer them something of value in exchange. Consumers are essentially using data as currency, with high expectations of what they will get in return for their information. And they want something more from brands — specifically, more accurate personalization and better experiences.

Consumers will share data for better offers and experience:

• 83% of consumers expect to get relevant offers when sharing their data with marketers
• 70% would be willing to share more information with brands if they knew they would use it to improve their shopping experience
• 65% of consumers said they feel that most brands use the information they provide to offer something unique to them

5. Facilitate discovery and follow-through.

With advanced personalization techniques, you can deliver up-to-the-minute product recommendations. When you achieve this type of precise targeting, you can offer shoppers something that speaks directly to their needs, whether you’re offering something new or trying to help customers follow through with a purchase.

Help customers discover new products and services:

• 82% of consumers like when brands help them discover new products that they might like
• 77% of consumers say, “I like it when a brand’s email or text message helps me find something that I need, exactly when I need it.”

Keep customers updated on products they like:

• 83% of consumers like when stores let them know products they like are back in stock.
• 87% of consumers like when brands let them know about price drops on products they’re interested in buying.
• 65% of consumers agree, “I like it when brands remind me that I left something in my online shopping cart.”

Avoid badgering consumers with things they don’t want:

• 72% of consumers agree with the statement “I get frustrated when brands send me offers for products I already bought or no longer need.”

Helpful resources on Cordial:

• Lift engagement with real-time personalization
• Recommendations emails to keep customers coming back
• How to increase revenue with triggered emails

6. Take fresh approaches to earning customers’ loyalty.

You may have also heard the phrase that “loyalty is dead.” It’s not a new sentiment. Over a decade ago, Accenture introduced the concept of the “Switching Economy.” According to the consulting firm, changes in consumer spending and preferences have created a $1.6 trillion opportunity for brands that can tap the needs of fickle digital shoppers.

In essence, consumers have so many options to choose from that it’s harder for brands to stand out. So once you do connect with a consumer, you want to do all that you can do keep them engaged. Personalization is key, whether for incentives or experiences. And although price is always a major factor, even pricing sensitivity can be specific to the individual.

What is the top thing can brands do to earn loyalty?

• 46% of consumers want brands to offer them the lowest price
• 41% of consumers want brands to give them personalized offers and incentives
• 14% of consumers want brands to tailor shopping experiences to their needs

7. Deliver more than a transaction, but a purpose.

Not only are consumers looking beyond price and product, but they’re also looking at what companies stand for with many aligning their values with the brands they choose. Ultimately, many consumers want to feel a deeper and more personal connection to the brands they choose. They not only want relevant offers and communication, they want to support brands to whom they feel more of a connection.

Consumers prefer clear values and a positive culture:

• 81% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that articulate clear values and promote a positive culture

Now is the time to rethink what’s possible with customer engagement.

Until now, some brands have survived on name recognition, product selection, or pricing. As digital transformation accelerates, consumers have increasing opportunities to engage with new brands with a few taps on a screen. Companies can’t rely on what worked years ago and must do more to capture consumer attention, deliver meaningful value, and foster loyalty.

For brands, personalization is no longer a nice-to-have feature. It’s the cornerstone of delivering relevant experiences that speak directly to customers and their needs. From winning the first purchase to securing repeat buys to earning referrals — personalization has a significant impact.

However, being relevant today is about more than just appending a consumer’s name to the subject line of a broadcast email. It’s about accessing data and using it in novel ways to anticipate shoppers’ needs to deliver exactly what they want at just the right time.

This isn’t a far-away ideal. It’s here and now, made possible by technology that uses data and predictive intelligence to send highly-personalized messages that consumers want to receive. With the right platform, you can transform how you connect with your audiences, deliver relevant communications, and set your brand up for long-term success and growth.

Is your brand ready to elevate your marketing and embrace the new era of customer engagement? Let Cordial be your guide.

About the data: Two consumer surveys were conducted by Dynata on behalf of Cordial between March 16-23, 2022 and April 12-16, 2022. In each study, we surveyed 1,000 adults, age 18 and older, who live in the United States. The samples were balanced by age, gender, region, ethnicity, Hispanic origin, income, and children in household according to the U.S. Census. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact marketing@cordial.com.

The post 7 data-backed strategies to improve customer engagement appeared first on Cordial.

As a refresher to spin growth marketing toward the future of hyper-personalization, we compiled an intro to get you up to speed on the concepts du jour, recent stats, and 30 effective campaign ideas to win — and keep — more customers. Jump to any section:

• Growth marketing definition
• Personalization and growth marketing
• Importance of zero-party and first-party data
• 5 top growth marketing stats
• 30 growth marketing campaign examples
• How to accelerate growth marketing

What is growth marketing?

Although all marketing is arguably focused on growth, growth marketing is the systematic discipline of activating and improving all stages of the marketing funnel — through testing, iterating, and implementing processes to increase customer engagement and retention. Growth marketing goes beyond brand awareness and customer acquisition to address the entire customer lifecycle.

As with anything, context and nuance matters. So consider that growth marketing is about knowing your data, learning from it, and implementing data-driven changes to improve. It’s not about throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks — as it might often be framed. 

Here are two key comparisons to keep in mind when talking about growth marketing:

Growth marketing vs. growth hacking

While growth marketing focuses on developing strategies and processes for long-term growth and building brand loyalty, growth hacking centers on trying experimental and often unconventional strategies to spur growth in the shortest time frame at the lowest cost possible. Although the term was first coined by Sean Ellis, the author of ‘Hacking Growth’, growth hacking isn’t necessarily relegated to only a marketing function, as it can apply to many aspects of a business. 

One pitfall of growth hacking, however, is that our survivorship bias often overlooks failures, and we can misappropriate a growth hacking tactic that works for one brand without considering the context of its success. Here are questions you should ask when you learn about a growth hacking tactic that spurs ideas for your own brand:

• Was it ethical?
• Was it a coincidence?
• Was it a one-time fluke?
• Was it purely timing within the zeitgeist?
• Was it backed by data or just spitballing?
• Was it synergy with a brand offering and a customer moment?
• Was it a short-term, one-and-done effort, or something more sustainable?
• Was it specific to one brand and value prop, or could it be translated to others?

Growth marketing vs. traditional marketing

Although there are plenty of nuances and overlap between the two approaches, traditional marketing in general focuses more on the brand while growth marketing focuses more on the customer. Of course, the distinction between the two is an oversimplification, but an apt one to drive conversations about strategic approaches. Here’s a quick framework for comparisons:

Why is personalization key to growth marketing?

Although we’re not quite bionic yet, technology has taken over our lives to the point where now the average consumer’s expectations are higher than ever. Today, it’s no longer about targeting the masses but speaking to the individual — and it’s a feat that cannot be achieved without integrating personalization into every aspect of your marketing. You can start by considering personalization at each of the three main stages of the customer lifecycle:

1. Activation: Although traditional marketing might help catch the attention of consumers to get them in your front door, whether virtual or brick-and-mortar, once you’ve caught that attention, you need to activate. And that’s where the shift to growth marketing kicks in — with the initial collection of customer data to inform content and channels for welcome series and onboarding campaigns.
2. Nurture: Once you have welcomed customers into your brand experience, the real work begins to build a lasting relationship. Leveraging browsing behaviors and brand interactions can help you test which automated campaigns and personalization components might be the most effective to lead an individual customer to engagements or transactions, or even to download your branded app.
3. Retention: Whether a customer is loyal or lapsed, you can employ any number of triggered messages to either keep them engaged or to re-engage them if they’ve gone silent. From post-purchase followups and loyalty programs to win-back campaigns and personalized offers, your campaigns can run the gamut to keep customers coming back.

Why will zero-party and first-party data fuel growth marketing?

With several privacy trends impacting marketers these days, from the demise of third-party cookies to the rise of new data regulations domestic and abroad, one thing has become certain: The data you own and control is the most valuable for your business.

So when it comes to growth marketing, that means your zero-party and first-party data — the data customers give you outright and the data you collect on them — should be your top priorities. And applying the right data in real-time throughout your operations can help personalize your customer experience in order to increase engagement and revenue — and most importantly, customer loyalty.

Related resources on Cordial:

• Article: What are the differences between zero-, first-, second-, and third-party data?
• Article: Intro to personalized marketing with top stats and brand examples
• Article: Is your brand really embracing customer-centric marketing?
• Webinar recording: Maximize your marketing efforts with cross-channel personalization for 2023 and beyond

What are the top growth marketing stats related to first-party data?

Today, consumers expect personalized brand experiences — and you cannot meet their needs without tapping into the personalization and engagement power offered by first-party data. Here are several compelling data-backed points to consider.

1. Increase revenue by activating first-party data.

Brands can increase revenue 290% by implementing four key activation methods with their current customers based on their first-party data: defining audience, addressing lifecycle, personalizing experiences, and employing cross-channel communication. (Source: Google)

2. Grow faster with personalization.

When activating first-party data effectively, brands that grow faster drive 40% more of their revenue from personalization than slower-growing companies. (Source: McKinsey & Company)

3. Win customer loyalty with personalized offers.

When it comes to nurturing customer loyalty, 54% of Millennials, 44% of Gen Z, 41% of Gen X, and 27% of Boomers say the best way for brands to win their loyalty is to give them personalized offers and incentives. (Source: Cordial)

4. Resolve problems quickly to keep customers.

Identifying and addressing gaps in your customer experience based on first-party data can pay off, as customers are 2.4 times more likely to stay when companies resolve problems quickly. (Source: Forrester)

5. Make customer engagement a top priority.

While 88% of executives agree that customer engagement significantly impacts revenue, 92% consider “effective customer engagement ‘extremely critical’ or ‘very critical’ to their organization’s success.” (Source: Harvard Business Review)

What are examples of growth marketing campaigns utilizing first-party data for personalization?

Although there are countless applications using first-party data for automated messaging campaigns, here’s a list of popular campaign types to get you started. Many of these approaches can complement one another within messaging series as well. And this list is by no means an exhaustive one:

1. Back in stock

Whether a consumer signs up for a back-in-stock alert for a desired product (or an item goes out of stock after a purchase but before delivery, if there’s an unexpected supply chain issue), send a dedicated email or message letting customers know when the product is back in stock and ready for them to purchase.

Tip: One of Cordial’s clients, an outdoor retailer, has garnered 13.88% click and 35.44% click-to-open rates with their back-in-stock campaigns, which can be easy wins.

2. BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In Store)

Leverage consumers’ geolocations and offer them the option to buy products online and pick them up in a brick-and-mortar store near them. Take advantage of their in-store presence to send messages with recommendations for other products or services at the location.

Key stat: According to the National Retail Federation, 70% of consumers say BOPIS improved their shopping experience.

3. BORIS (Buy Online, Return In Store)

Similar to BOPIS, leverage consumers’ geolocations to allow them to return products at a brick-and-mortar store near them. Again, you can take advantage of their in-store presence to send messages with other recommendations or even perhaps relevant coupons.

Tip: According to the National Retail Federation, returns for online purchases have hovered between 18-21% since 2021. Buy encouraging in-store returns, perhaps coupled with special incentives or offers to do so, you can potentially recover revenue through in-store cross-sell or upsell opportunities.

4. Brand affinity scoring

Send customers personalized offers or product recommendations centered around their favorite brands, which you can base upon affinity scoring that takes into account browsing behaviors, purchase frequency, and recent interactions.

Tip: One Cordial client leverages brand affinity scoring in “New Arrivals” and low-in-stock messages. With just two automated campaigns, they earned $14.9M in additional revenue in one year, with an average order value of $290.

5. Browse abandonment

Email customers about recent products they have viewed but have not purchased. Include recommendations based on category and product browsing, refine by frequency of views and recent interactions, and engage with the most relevant offer.

Tip: Leverage personalization and incorporate cross-sell and upsell opportunities in your messages by showing other items the customer has an affinity to based on their browsing behavior, such as category browsed, page browsed, or item type.

6. Buy again

Although similar to a replenishment campaign, a “buy again” campaign doesn’t require a product to be a consumable (e.g., laundry detergent, food pantry staples, cosmetics). Instead, you can suggest a customer buy a product again based on any number of factors. For instance, maybe the customer bought one chair and you could suggest they buy another to complete a set. Or, maybe a customer gave a high rating to a product that consumers often buy in multiple quantities.

Key stat: According to Statista, approximately two thirds of repeat purchases are made online.

7. Buying time affinity

Leverage seasonal data based on purchase history and browsing behaviors to recommend products or offers that are more relevant during a particular time period when purchase intent might be higher.

Tip: One Cordial client correlates weather data with recipients’ IP locations to suggest timely, weather-related products. With 22 weather-type templates (rain, snow, warm, cold, etc.), they added $1.4M revenue in 16 months.

8. Cart abandonment

Similar to browse abandonment, leverage high-intent buying signals by notifying consumers who have left products in their online shopping cart. Activate consumers across email, SMS and mobile push and possibly send a series of messages that might include personalized offers. 

Key stat: According to the Baymard Institute and its analysis of more then 40 studies, about 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned.

9. Customer propensity scoring

Inform personalized content for cross-channel messaging by tracking consumers’ propensity to purchase, which you can base upon whether they are seasonal shoppers, lapsed or infrequent shoppers, or are sensitive to sales, pricing, or certain markdowns.

Tip: Consider a tip from Affinaquest that sums up the main advantages to using customer propensity scoring: “One of the biggest use cases we hear from clients is that propensity scores help their sales and marketing teams identify ‘fence-sitters’ and therefore prioritize efforts.”

10. Customer spend cohorting

Segment customers within monetary band attributes based on lifetime purchase history and product engagement in order to test and leverage personalized content across channels, whether special offers or recommendations of products at different pricing levels.

Tip: According to the Pareto Principle, as it often plays out, about 20% of your customers generate 80% of your revenue. Some research by Strategex also has found that “the top 20% of customers are not only responsible for 80% of revenue, but the entire bottom half of the customer base often generates just 4% of revenue.”

11. Invitation

Make customers feel special by inviting them to special brand events, whether IRL, virtual, or purely promotional (e.g., “Because you’re one of our valued customers, we’re inviting you to our exclusive weekend sale event.”) Invitations could be tied to loyalty program thresholds or other triggers.

Key stat: According to Shopify research, 47% of consumers were more likely to purchase from a brand due to its local presence. So invite customers to local brand events to help build on yours.

12. Low in stock

As an effective nudge to convert a consumer, a low stock alert can be set for products that a customer has viewed, favorited, or added to their shopping cart. You can set an inventory threshold to trigger messaging and base the channels on customer preferences, previous behaviors, or other factors.

Tip: One Cordial client messages customers when browsed/carted items are close to selling out. With triggers sent via email, SMS, and mobile app, they generated $2.6M in additional revenue in a year.

13. Loyalty and rewards programs

As the saying goes, your best customers are your current customers. So make them excited to stick around. You can set up an automated messaging series for your loyalty program, which could include triggers based on milestones, exclusive loyalty program offers, or batch and lifecycle messages to increase engagement with your customers.

Key stat: According to KPMG research, roughly 60% of consumers will shop at a store with slightly higher prices in order to earn rewards through a loyalty program.

14. Milestones

Message customers when they reach personal milestones, whether hitting a points level in a loyalty program, surpassing a certain purchasing threshold, posting a certain number of reviews, finishing a content program, or achieving any level of other types of interactions based on frequency or time. Make your customer feel like you’ve been with them every step of the way.

Key stat: According to Cordial’s research, one third (33%) of consumers say it’s important for a retailer to share special offers available only to them on their personal milestones, such as birthdays and anniversaries.

15. Newsletters

Instead of dispatching a blanket batch newsletter to all customers, personalize content sections within your newsletters based on consumers’ web and app browsing, purchase history, and real-time events, among many other applications of first-party data attributes.

Key stat: Did you know subscribers to the New York Time’s free, personalized newsletter are twice as likely to become paying subscribers? Think of newsletters as the hook for your upselling and cross-selling.

16. Order confirmation

Follow up with customers immediately after they complete a purchase to build trust and credibility. Include details to set expectations on delivery and begin to nurture them for post-purchase opportunities for upselling and retention.

Tip: One Cordial client generated an additional $13M in revenue in two and half years via order confirmation emails that not only included order details but prompts to learn from experts about their purchases — to encourage further engagement.

17. Personal offers

Leverage any aspect of consumers’ first-party data to deliver relevant offers, whether to re-engage or close the deal, based on consumers’ top categories, purchase frequency and relevancy, or browsing behaviors.

Key stat: According to Cordial’s research, 70% of consumers say they would buy more from brands if offers were personalized to their needs.

18. Personalized event markers

Although event markers also can include milestones, you can expand these time-sensitive messages to include thoughtful reminders for birthdays, anniversaries, special holidays, or any consumer-specified event on the calendar. They also could be associated with timeframes after a major purchase or life event, like a wedding or buying a new home.

Key stat: According to Shopify research, half of consumers say personalization based on their interests and past purchases has influenced their decision to buy from a brand.

19. Post-purchase

After a customer makes a purchase, follow up with a confirmation, education about their purchase, communication of delivery timelines, additional offers, or further product or service recommendations that may be relevant.

Key stat: According to industry research, post-purchase emails can see a 217% higher open rate, over 500% higher click rate, and 90% higher revenue per email (RPE) than your average email campaign.

20. Pre-shipping prompt

To encourage incidental or additional purchases, you can message a customer after a set post-purchase time period if there is still time for them to add more products to their shipment before delivery.

Tip: Post-purchase emails about delivery or shipping confirmations can have open rates exceeding 70%, so they’e an excellent opportunity to cross-sell or provide more relevant content to further engage and retain your customer.

21. Price drop alert

Similar to a low stock alert, a price drop alert can add urgency to nudge the customer to make a purchase. You can amp up the stakes with the immediacy of push notifications or texts to increase engagement and conversion.

Key stat: According to Cordial’s research, 87% of consumers appreciate it when brands let them know about price drops on products they’re interested in buying.

22. Recommendations

Leverage extensive customer and business data to create logic-based product recommendations. You can personalize recommendations based on browsing or purchasing history, timely weather information (to showcase recommended products for your customer’s unique forecast), or customers’ geolocation (to showcase recommended products specific to that location), among many other first-party data attributes. 

Key stat: According to Salesforce research, more than half of orders from buyers who ever clicked a recommendation include one of the recommended products.

23. Referral programs

Offer consumers personal incentives to refer more customers to your brand or the products and services you sell. For instance, you can base messaging on consumers’ purchase history, brand affinity scores, posted reviews/ratings, loyalty program status, or other factors to determine the most relevant campaign components to encourage engagement.

Key stat: According to Extole research, Customers are 16x more likely to share a referral if there is a call to action on post-purchase pages.

24. Replenishment

As another kind of post-purchase messaging, follow up with triggered relevant messages based on product purchase history and replenishment data for repeat-purchase items. Or, use the opportunity to spin an upsell on the next purchase cycle or provide complementary, relevant product recommendations.

Key stat: According to Listrak research, automated replenishment campaigns can earn some of the highest click-to-open rates, exceeding 50%.

25. Review request

Encourage customers to review products they purchased or to rate their customer experience — or perhaps ask them to take a survey. You can incentivize reviews with personalized rewards, or, if a review is poor, you can follow up with a win-back campaign.

Key stat: According to the Medill Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University, displaying reviews can increase conversion by 270%.

26. Upsell campaigns

As another angle for post-purchase campaigns, you can offer an incentive for a customer to upgrade to products and subscription services with higher price points or, as is the case with a subscription, a longer-term contract. For instance, if they’ve been paying for one tier of subscription service for a long time but have usage patterns similar to a higher-tier customer, you can upsell them to the higher tier.

Key stat: According to Segment research, about 40% of U.S. consumers say they have bought something more expensive than originally planned due to a personalized customer experience.

27. Welcome

To make a great first impression, send customers an engaging welcome series across all your channels when they join your program. Use the opportunity to personalize messaging and content based on the data you capture at the time of acquisition. So right from the get-go you can set up the expectation with the customer of a personalized experience — to keep them engaged when they are most likely to unsubscribe or abandon.

Key stat: According to Invesp research, Welcome emails generate on average 320% more revenue per email basis than other promotional emails.

28. Win-back campaigns

Leverage consumers’ browsing and purchase history data to re-engage lapsed customers with recommendations or offers to win them back. You can protect your deliverability reputation by automatically including a portion of disengaged users back into daily send segments and testing in stages.

Key stat: According to Cordial’s research, consumers rate personalized deals tailored to their needs as the most important thing to consider when shopping with a brand. They can be highly effective for win-backs.

29. Window-shopper conversion

As a mechanism to engage with consumers before they stop browsing or before they might abandon their cart, trigger messages with unique coupon codes or offers once a browse threshold has been met to convert window shoppers to customers. 

Tip: According to SalesCycle research, browse abandonment emails have an 80.9% higher open rate and 50.5% higher click through rate than traditional emails. Similar rates might be achieved with web or mobile push notifications during a customer’s session as well.

30. Wishlist conversion

When customers have saved or favorited a product, send automated emails when the items they have favorited go on sale, are low in stock or back in stock, or, perhaps, are being offered with more options (e.g., additional colors, sizes, materials). 

Tip: Add a “how to style” section or show other products in the same collection to inspire customers and drive additional purchases.

Related resources on Cordial:

• Recommendations emails to keep customers coming back
• Effective retention and win-back emails from top brands
• Welcome email examples from leading brands

Are there consumer shopping habits to consider when creating growth campaigns?

In 2022, Cordial conducted research on consumer shopping habits broken out by generation: Gen Z (18-24), Millennials (25-42), Gen X (43-57), and Boomers (58-75). Although our questions focused mainly on the retail space, you might infer other insights from our infographic that could apply to other sectors.

For instance, Gen Z and Milliennials love getting follow-ups from brands after purchasing or returning a product; Gen X are more aloof when it comes to trends; Gen Z thrive for real-time interactions; and Boomers love the curation and convenience of print catalogs.

Five mantras to follow when striving for better messaging in any campaign

Whenever possible, try to send a better message — not just another message. So put yourself in the mindset and space of your customer. Here are five important mantras to consider whenever you’re crafting messaging for your brand campaigns. Follow the links to listen to curated inspirational talks for each:

• Show empathy. Feel with people and listen.
• Elevate language. Think about how you think.
• Energize design. Keep in mind what makes us human.
• Innovate experience. Practice, test, and learn.
• Inspire action. Start with why — always.

Ready to accelerate your growth marketing?

With the power of Cordial combined with the creativity of your team, there’s a lot of possibility. Every step of the way, our team will help bring your cross-channel messaging strategies to life.

Our solutions team advises clients through simple implementations or complex custom integrations. We can help with everything from website tagging and connecting real-time data feeds to best practices for activating data and implementing personalized content. We help clients build larger lists, generate higher revenue per message, drive customer loyalty, and maximize lifetime value.  Request a demo today.

The post Intro to growth marketing in the age of personalization appeared first on Cordial.

For many brands, focusing on first-party data (i.e., customer data that you have collected directly from your audience or engaged customers) and zero-party data (i.e., data customers proactively give you) instead of third-party data has become a top priority to grow their customer bases and optimize cross-channel marketing. To win, you have to own your brand’s data — and use it to innovate.

In the meantime, here are four main data privacy trends that are pulling in the reins of consumer data, so you can adjust your strategies accordingly as they evolve and go into effect through 2025.

Data privacy trends impacting marketers

1. Browsers are blocking third-party cookies, some by default.

According to research by Statista, 51% of marketers consider third-party cookies very important to their current marketing strategy. But the demise of cookies is on the horizon, with a shift to block them by default or phase them out. 

Here are where the major browsers currently stand:

• Safari: Apple has blocked all third-party cookies in Safari by default since the release of Safari 13.1 in March 2020.
• Firefox: Although Firefox introduced its Tracking Protection in 2015, Firefox only recently rolled out its Total Cookie Protection by default to all users worldwide in June 2022.
• Chrome:  According to Google’s Vice President of Privacy Sandbox, Anthony Chavez, Google does not plan to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome until late 2024 — referring to his update on the matter in July 2022.
• Edge: Although users can change their cookies and site data settings, Edge does not block third-party cookies by default.

2. Consumers are actively protecting their online privacy.

As consumers continue to become more savvy and wary of big tech, consumers are paying much more attention to their online privacy. With more tools to block ads, clear or hide browsing histories, or to block cookies, consumers are taking control. 

Here are a few compelling stats that help to tell the story:

• According to Pew Research, “72% of Americans report feeling that all, almost all or most of what they do online or while using their smartphone is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies.”
• And for another compelling stat, Pew Research also found that “52% of Americans have decided not to use a product or service because of privacy concerns.”
• Research in Hootsuite’s Digital 2022 Global Overview Report found 37% of worldwide internet users aged 16 to 64 use ad blockers and 28.3% use virtual private networks (VPNs).

3. Legislators are catching up with new general data regulations. 

Regulations like California’s CCPA, Europe’s GDPR, Brazil’s LGPD, China’s PIPL, and other proposed state-specific regulations make data collection and activation more challenging for marketers.

Here are some highlights of recent impactful regulations**:

• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • Since it went into effect in January 2020, CCPA has secured privacy rights for California consumers, including the rights to: 
    • Know what info a business collects about them 
    • Delete personal information collected about them 
    • Opt-out of the sale of their personal information
    • Non-discrimination for exercising CCPA rights
    • Sue for security breaches
• California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)
  • For the most part, CPRA just expands on the CCPA 
  • Although it went into effect in December 2020, many of the protections it covers don’t fully go into effect until Jan.1, 2023
  • Two additional rights included are:
    • Request a business correct inaccurate personal information
    • Direct a business to limit use and disclosure of personal information (e.g., social security number, financial account information, your geolocation data, or your genetic data)
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • Since May 2018, the GDPR has unified data privacy laws across the European Union
  • GDPR is strict when it comes to how consumers give consent and opt out
  • Among others, GDPR includes the rights to:
    • See what personal data a business has about them
    • Update inaccurate or incomplete personal data
    • Delete all the personal data about them
    • Restrict or stop processing of their data
    • Receive a copy of their data that can be easily transferred to another business
    • Object to a business processing their data
    • Challenge decisions made about them based on their data
• Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) 
  • The LGPD is commonly known by its Portuguese acronym, but in English translation the full act also is called the Brazilian General Data Protection Act
  • Enacted in 2018, the LGPD provisions began to go into effect in Brazil in late 2020
  • Although the privacy rights are similar to those in the GDPR, the LGPD includes exemptions to the processing of personal data for:
    • Individual and exclusively private purposes that have non-economic reasons (e.g., keeping a personal contact list or address book)
    • Solely journalistic, artistic, or academic purposes
    • Exclusive purposes related to public safety, national defense, state security, or the investigation and prosecution of crimes
    • Personal data originating from outside the national territory that is not shared outside the country of origin (with other noted restrictions)
• China Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL)
  • Similar to the GDPR, the PIPL addresses privacy law for any business, inside or outside of China, that collects or processes personal data of people in China
  • The PIPL went into effect in November 2021
  • Here are a few helpful sources reviewing the effects of PIPL, as some uncertainty about the full implications still remains:
    • Deloitte
    • Columbia Journal of Transnational Law
    • PwC Cybersecurity and Privacy
    • Fortune

4. The walled gardens of key players are creating a level of data privacy at the brand level — and restricting access.

When a platform controls how an ad looks, how its data is used, and who can advertise, one term that comes to mind is the walled garden. 

And most notably, over the past decade giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have created meticulously controlled environments and ad tech stacks that limit marketers’ ability to access and extract data for their own marketing purposes — leaving marketers on the outside. Arguably, the trend elevates the concepts of data privacy to the brand level.

Although one response to this growing issue is for brands to create their own walled gardens (e.g., a branded mobile app) and forge partnerships, the shift can be daunting.

Here are some helpful resources on the impacts of walled gardens:

• Research from Gartner on walled gardens
• Report from Criteo and Digiday on life outside walled gardens
• Perspective on Apple’s envied walled garden

Make the most of your first-party customer data

Cordial has always focused on the collection of first-party data and prioritized the ability for clients to not only be able to easily access it but also activate it through advanced segmentation, personalization, and more.

Learn how Cordial can help you build a first-party data strategy to fuel your marketing efforts by watching our webinar: “Why moments are the secret to cross-channel success.”

[** Content about legislation is for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice.]

The post How top data privacy trends will impact marketing by 2025 appeared first on Cordial.

Today, brands like yours can use real-time data and customer data platforms to unleash the power of personalization. As you forge ahead, getting grounded on why personalization is important in marketing is critical. So let’s dive into how you can level up your personalization initiatives.

Jump to any section to get started:

• What is personalized marketing?
• Marketing personalization and privacy laws
• How first-party data fuels marketing personalization
• Stats for personalized marketing
• Personalized marketing examples: best practices and who’s doing it well
• Mistakes to avoid in personalized marketing

What is personalized marketing?

Personalized marketing — also called one-to-one marketing — uses data to deliver brand messages to a specific contact. It differs from traditional marketing techniques, which promote a single message to a mass audience or an audience segment. Instead, personalization taps into the vast data and sophisticated analytics available to brands to deliver more precise, meaningful communications to individuals.

To understand personalization, you need to know the distinctions between personalization and three related marketing concepts: segmentation, personas, and targeted campaigns.

Personalized marketing vs. segmentation

Segmentation is the practice of dividing a broad consumer or business audience into groups, called segments. Companies rely on shared characteristics, such as age, geography, income level, behaviors, or lifestyle preferences, to segment their audiences.

How does this differ from personalization? With segmentation, you are still focused on groups of customers. By contrast, personalization strives to create an authentic 1:1 connection between your brand and each person who engages with you.

Personalized marketing vs. personas

A persona is a fictionalized depiction of a representative customer. Through personas brands can attribute personal characteristics to audience segments to help humanize their marketing outreach.

Although a persona can help a brand connect more closely to an audience, it’s still a broad brush representation of a segment. Authentic personalization only occurs when brands speak directly to each customer instead of a wider group.

Personalized marketing vs. targeted campaigns

A targeted campaign is a set of marketing activities aimed at reaching a specific audience segment. When executing campaigns, brands often rely on multiple channels, such as advertising, social media, email, text marketing, and more.

Ultimately, targeted campaigns involve a collection of marketing tactics directed to segments with specific traits. While these types of campaigns are a step toward personalization, they’re not quite there. Yes, targeted campaigns are more focused on the wants and needs of a unique segment than general brand awareness campaigns. But they still don’t achieve one-to-one personalization.

Marketing personalization and privacy laws

For your brand to achieve true 1:1 personalization, you must learn everything you can about your current and potential customers. You also must deliver the information and offers they want in a way that works for them. To achieve these goals, you have to collect data in a responsible and ethical manner that respects people’s privacy. 

You also need to follow privacy laws for any countries or regions in which you do business. For instance, the European Union (EU) is home to the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR), which enforces standards related to any data linked to a specific person. In the US, California recently adopted a new law — the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) — that allows consumers to opt-out of the sharing and sale of their data, among other provisions. The GPDR and CPRA are some of the most strict data privacy standards in the world.

What’s more, technology companies can implement features that allow people to protect personal information. With its iOS 15.5 update, Apple lets users better control their personal data and see if and how apps use their data.

Laws and privacy features can seem to put a brick wall between you and your audiences, but that’s not the case. The key to success in personalized marketing is dialog. If you want to harvest and use data, you should ask permission first. Also, you should explain how you intend to use the data and give people the opportunity to opt-out at any time. 

According to Forrester, taking these steps can motivate customers to share data with you proactively — such as their preferences, products they like and want to be emailed about, etc. Transparency, choice, and control are the keys to gathering these high-value insights.

How first-party data fuels marketing personalization

Data powers personalization, but data that you collect directly from your audience and customers offers the most value. This type of data — called first-party data — includes details you collect from customers, subscribers, and website visitors. With first-party data, you can uncover intelligence about how people interact with your brand and use that to shape outbound communications.

Where can you acquire first-party data? You likely have several data sources available, including but not limited to:

• Web and social media activity
• Data housed in your CRM
• Open and click data from emails
• Customer feedback and surveys
• Mobile app interactions

Having the right systems and processes in place can empower you to leverage this data for personalization. You can use it to present personalized display or retargeting advertisements, make product recommendations, send nurture or loyalty emails, and much more.

You can always enrich your first-party data with other second-party data and third-party data. Second-party data is information that you acquire from others, such as partners who may also engage with your contacts. By contrast, third-party data is often available via aggregators who don’t have direct relationships with target audiences.

Source: The New Era of Customer Engagement

Stats for personalized marketing

The value of personalization in marketing is widely known and backed by studies from noted thought leaders. Trends show that brands are well aware of the importance of personalization — and even mobile apps stats back this up. But many are still playing catch-up to meet customers’ ever-expanding expectations.

90% of decision-makers say personalization is essential.

Today’s brands know that they need to live up to consumers’ sky-high expectations, and most have taken initial steps to implement personalization. According to a research report from Forrester and IBM, this endorsement of personalization is an extension of the customer-first strategies that have been a mainstay for years. Their study found that 90% of business leaders affirmed that personalization is critical to their business strategy.

90% of people find appeal in personalized advertising.

The old-school, mass market, interrupt method of advertising hasn’t gone away. But a new form of personalized advertising is gaining traction with consumers. According to research from Deloitte, 90% of people like highly customized advertising, such as personalized web pages and dynamic pricing. This more meaningful style of advertising leverages customer data to connect with digital consumers and helps companies deliver offers that have the most relevance.

83% of customers are open to sharing data with brands in exchange for personalized experiences.

Today’s digitally savvy consumers know that companies want to collect data about them — and they know just how valuable that personal information is. While many consumers are protective about giving away too many details, they will readily share their data with you if you give them something in return.

Accenture reports that 83% of people are willing to offer up information in exchange for a personalized customer experience. However, companies need to be transparent about the data they plan to collect and use. Companies should also let consumers know that ultimately the data always remains in the control of the customer.

82% of shoppers like it when brands help them find something they need.

By now, every digital shopper has inevitably encountered rudimentary personalization offered on some websites. The approach has its merits, but for many shoppers, the novelty is wearing off. Think about it. Imagine you visit an online marketplace to stock up on toothpaste and printer paper. Do you really want offers for oral hygiene products and printer toner the next time you visit? Do you want to keep getting suggestions for monthly subscriptions for items you already bought each time you check out, even if you declined before?

Chances are you’re going to find these offers irrelevant at best, annoying at worse. Most people don’t appreciate brands suggesting they purchase products they already bought or offers they have already rejected.

Now consider the flip side of this situation. When brands help consumers find exactly what they need, they’re happy. Cordial’s Customer Engagement Study found that 82% of people like this style of support from brands, with strong endorsement across all generations. Using past purchase, behavioral, and demographic data can help you offer the right products to the right people at the right time.

81% of people are more likely to buy from brands that communicate in personal, relevant ways.

Younger consumers know the value of personalization — but older generations are almost as enthusiastic about it. Across all demographics, Cordial’s Customer Engagement Study also revealed that 81% of people choose to do business with brands that deliver personal and relevant messages. While Gen Z and Millennials lead the way with 87% and 86%, respectively, Gen X and Boomers aren’t far behind. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of GenXers and 78% of Boomers embrace personalization.

77% of shoppers appreciate it when brands text them the information they need when they need it.

Here’s a piece of marketing wisdom that is not-quite common knowledge: Consumers want to hear from you via SMS. That doesn’t mean they want daily promotional texts sent to a mass audience. Instead, they want the precise, personalized information they need, exactly when they need it.

Cordial’s Customer Engagement Study also found this to be the case for 77% of consumers across all generations. No surprise: Millenials and Gen Z are most on board with nearly 80% embracing relevant, just-in-time texts. What might surprise you is that 73% of Boomers and 77% of Gen Xers are in favor of receiving regular SMS communication as well. So get further up to speed on how to start SMS marketing right.

71% of consumers want personalization.

As more people shop online, they’ve likely had at least one interaction with a best-in-class personalization leader. The bar has been set high, and consumers expect every brand to deliver the same top-quality, personalized experiences. According to McKinsey & Company, “personalization is the default standard for engagement.” McKinsey’s research found that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions, with 76% of people growing frustrated when those needs go unmet.

66% of millennials want to give brands input to shape the products they buy.

Millennials are the first truly digital generation — and they are leading the way in embracing the power of personalization. According to a study conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Growth from Knowledge (GfK), 66% of millennials said they’d stay more loyal to brands that let them influence or co-create products they buy. The same percentage like it when websites track visits and recommend products to them. Over half (52%) of millennials appreciate it when brands contact them via their phones when they are out shopping.

41% of people say the emails they receive from brands are unique to them.

All signs point to personalization being the path to consumers’ hearts and minds. Yet, far too many brands are yet to heed the call.

Case in point: Cordial’s recent Customer Engagement Study found that only 41% of people say they’ve received personalized emails from brands. That leaves over 60% of people routinely receiving generic brand emails that don’t inspire purchases or win loyalty.

And email is only one channel. What happens if people only encounter general messages that don’t speak to their unique needs? More than likely, they’ll turn to a competitor who does see and value them.

41% of people say personalized offers are the key to winning their loyalty

Across generations, people have distinct reasons for sticking with preferred brands. Cordial’s Customer Engagement Study also found that cost is the #1 factor for baby boomers, with 67% saying the lowest price can win their loyalty. Gen X is somewhat cost-conscious, with 49% seeking out low prices and 41% preferring personalized incentives and offers.

Interestingly, 54% of millennials cite personalized incentives as the path to earning their loyalty, while 18% enjoy it when brands tailor experiences for them. What about Gen Z? Forty-four percent (44%) appreciate personalized incentives, but over a quarter (26%) seek out tailored experiences from brands.

Here again, the shift towards personalization is all too clear. Personalization will only grow in importance as younger demographics gain more purchasing power. And brands that want to maintain long-term relevance must cater to the preferences of up-and-coming consumers.

Personalized marketing examples: best practices and who’s doing it well

While some brands are in the early stages of personalization, a few trailblazers are lighting the way. You can look to the following brands for inspiration and ideas for your company’s personalization initiatives.

1. Cadbury excels with personalized social video ads.

British confectionary company Cadbury used customer data to create a personalized Facebook video ad campaign. In addition to age and location information, the brand leveraged details on Facebook likes after gaining permission. The campaign — which matched people’s demographic details and likes to suggest chocolates — yielded significant results, increasing click-through rates by 65% and accelerating conversions by 33.6%.

2. Eddie Bauer personalizes outreach to brand loyalists.

With over a century in business, Cordial client Eddie Bauer has a strong legacy and devoted following. The brand leveraged the power of personalization to revitalize its Adventure Rewards loyalty program. By combining 14 data sources, Eddie Bauer delivered personalized messaging across multiple channels — including SMS, email, paid advertising, and direct mail. Customers received specific details on loyalty rewards balances and expiration dates, a unique barcode, and maps of the nearest store to inspire purchases.

3. Netflix drives views through personalized imagery.

Netflix offers thousands of content choices and even has a custom algorithm that analyzes user data and history to recommend viewing selections. But Netflix takes personalization a step further by presenting users with imagery or artwork most likely to resonate with them as they browse through the product catalog. For example, one user may see a familiar actor, while another user will view an action-oriented scene based on their known preferences.

4. Nike creates standout experiences online and in-store.

Nike made waves in the athletic apparel industry by launching a 3-D tool that lets shoppers configure their own sneaker model online. Not a brand to rest on its laurels, Nike followed up this innovation by creating an experiential store at one of its flagship locations in New York City. NikePlus members gain access to exclusive areas of the store, one-on-one appointments with Nike experts, and opportunities to reserve products and deliver them to the store or their homes.

5. Nordstrom takes its renowned customer service digital.

A long-term customer experience luminary, Nordstrom wanted to bring its legendary service to its digital presence. The brand knew it could only excel by capturing data across every touchpoint — in-store, in-app, and online. Now, whenever shoppers add an item to their cart via any connected channel, it shows up everywhere for a truly seamless experience. Shoppers can also consult with stylists via the app, request clothing to try on in-store, and received push SMS notifications when items are available to try on. Nearly every email contains personalized product recommendations based on shoppers’ past preferences. 

6. OpenTable app delivers personalized restaurant recommendations.

The OpenTable app makes it easy for people to secure a space at a popular restaurant. With more than 60,000 restaurants in its network, OpenTable aims to be a source of insight for its users. The brand recently revamped its app to display personalized home screens to each user, allowing them to find the cuisine and atmosphere they want when they want it. Recommendations are derived from past bookings and reviews so that each user sees restaurants that they’re most likely to enjoy.

7. Purple leverages partnerships to connect with potential customers.

Cordial client Purple knows that people in the midst of significant life events are more likely to be in the market for a mattress. Through partnerships with other vendors, Purple acquired new, likely-to-buy subscribers who might need a new mattress due to a move. Since subscribers opted-in to hear from Purple, the brand achieved impressive open rates. Building on this success, the brand launched a personalized campaign promoting its seat cushions to people likely to be setting up home offices.

8. Sephora shines with push notifications and all-around omnichannel excellence.

Beauty products retailer Sephora has won praise for its omnichannel personalization efforts — and for good reason. Through the Sephora app, customers can log details like skin type and hair color and receive targeted push messages about products and promotions that meet their precise needs. In-store consultants can access customers’ profiles to deliver truly personalized experiences. Promotions sync across the web and email to ensure consistency across every channel.

9. Spotify gains shares, usage, and brand equity with year-end lists.

Music aficionados across every genre have something to look forward to every December — the release of each user’s unique Spotify Wrapped lists. But the year-in-review lists don’t just cover music. In 2021, Spotify provided each listener an aura color that aligned with their music tastes, insight into how their preferences compare to friends, an exclusive movie, and a personalized game. This annual promotion results in millions of social shares.

10. StitchFix customizes clothing recommendations.

Personalization is at the heart of fashion retailer SitchFix’s business model. Each month, StitchFix sends personalized boxes with clothes and accessories, and customers can keep what they like and return the rest. The company leveled up its personalization with a “Shop Your Looks” feature that paired items customers own with other pieces. Early data showed approximately 60% of shoppers who used this feature bought at least two items, giving the brand a significant revenue boost.  

11. Waze shares location-based ads.

Navigation app Waze has earned renown for its accurate traffic and incident reporting. But the app uses its powerful geolocation features to deliver added value to brands. With Waze ads — including ones that can cover a phone screen when a vehicle is at a full stop — brands can get their message to nearby users and draw foot traffic. One Waze ads success story is a McDonald’s campaign that drew 8,400 navigations to the chain’s stores in just eight weeks.

More examples in our personalized email campaign series:

• Article: 5 popular email drip campaign examples
• Article: Abandoned cart email examples
• Article: Best practices for email welcome series in retail
• Article: Browse abandonment email examples
• Article: Holiday email campaign examples
• Article: Post-purchase email examples
• Article: Recommendations email examples
• Article: Retention and win-back email examples
• Article: Welcome email examples from leading brands

Mistakes to avoid in personalized marketing

1. Incomplete data

When pursuing personalization, brands should use data from multiple sources, including zero-, first-, second-, and third-party data. Brands that rely only on third-party data to craft personalization strategies are likely to fall short. Using first-party data that you gather directly from audiences yields the greatest insight and has the biggest impact.

2. Poor data quality

You may have abundant data on your audiences, but is it up to date? If you aren’t confident in your data quality, you may resort to generic messages that don’t offer much value. Have processes in place to vet and cleanse data regularly for maximum results.

3. Siloed channels

Today, people expect a unified experience across every channel that you use to engage with your brand. Imagine the frustration if a customer receives a personalized offer on your app but sees no trace of it if they log into your website to order. You need to synchronize your personalization efforts across email, SMS, web, and app at a minimum to achieve the consistency customers desire.

4. Limited personalization scope

Some brands focus heavily on collecting content details and basic demographic information. Then, they engage in simple personalization tactics — like adding first names to an email header — and call it a day. But today’s consumers know you can do much more, and they want product recommendations and valuable offers crafted just for them. If you don’t adopt sophisticated approaches, people will notice, and they may not stick around.

5. Intrusive outreach

Amp up engagement and revenue with personalized marketing

No doubt about it: personalization is here to stay. People of all ages appreciate it when brands they know and trust provide customized information and offers. The only question is will your brand step up and embrace this reality? By harnessing the power of an advanced customer data platform (CDP), your company can achieve best-in-class personalization tactics.

A good CDP platform needs to:

• Unite robust data management with email, SMS, and mobile app marketing — all in one platform
• Consolidate all data from anywhere in your tech stack and activate it to power your outreach
• Provide easy-to-use workflows to simplify and accelerate campaign development
• Leverage predictive analytics to let you delight customers by anticipating their needs
• Empower you to deliver the consistent, cross-channel experiences customers expect

Brands today are on the edge of an unprecedented opportunity to transform how they engage with customers. Those that move swiftly and embrace personalization can dramatically improve their customer experience, increase retention and remain powerful players in the market.

At Cordial, we’re customer data experts who can guide you to personalization success. Get in touch to schedule a demo and find out how we can put our insights to work for you.

The post Intro to personalized marketing with top stats and brand examples appeared first on Cordial.

By 2025, retail sales via mobile commerce will increase 67% and account for more than 10% of total retail sales in the U.S. — pulling in more than triple the revenue of pre-pandemic levels in 2019. (Source: eMarketer 2021) 

As a marketer, you already know mobile commerce is booming. But did you know mobile apps are driving the surge? Long gone are the clunky apps that drove people back to the loose familiarity of mobile web pages. Now consumers want and expect more within personalized experiences.

In fact, our 2022 Customer Engagement Study revealed that 76% of shoppers prefer branded apps over mobile websites when stores offer them. So if anything, mobile app trends should be top of mind if you want to keep ahead.

And if you’re a really good marketer,  you know that any innovation or trend can be tied to revenue, if implemented correctly. So here are several top shifts that could impact your strategy, especially if you’re already up to speed on the latest mobile apps stats that make marketers drool.

Trends driving the future of mobile apps

1. Transition to 5G networks and devices will unlock app potential.

Although experts might argue whether or not we’ve hit peak smartphone saturation, no one doubts the rise of 5G service is accelerating mobile app innovation and usage. 

With faster data speeds, better connectivity, and lower latency, 5G networks empower mobile app developers to create new features without having to worry as much about performance issues. And on the user-experience front, faster performance coupled with more cutting-edge design and functionality only translates into higher usage and retention. So the impact of 5G cannot be overstated.

And the transformation has only just begun. According to 5G Americas, the number of worldwide 5G connections is expected to more than triple from 1.3 billion in 2022 to 4.5 billion in 2026. And as activations of 5G-capable devices increase and 5G coverage expands, 68% of total connections in the U.S. and 40% of total connections in Europe will be on 5G networks by 2025 (Source: GSM Association).

2. Augmented reality will accelerate excitement and revenue.

Fortunately for marketers, augmented reality (AR) can go far beyond the Pokémon Go antics and TikTok bunny-ear filters that introduced the technology to the masses. Recent major leaps in connectivity and performance have turned AR from a curiosity into a practical everyday application. 

With retailers like Warby Parker leading the pack with their brilliant app integrating Virtual Try-On eyeglasses, consumers are becoming more attuned to the technology — and marketers are paying attention, especially retailers. Although today applications like IKEA Place and interior decor apps for your home have become commonplace, AR has only just begun.

Here are just a few other current mobile AR applications:

• Try on tattoos
• Create augmented reality presentations
• Relive NASA’s Moon Landing
• See dinosaurs come to life
• Make marketing campaigns pop
• Get remote visual assistance

3. Wearables will fuel a new era of personal data.

With smart watches, fitness trackers, and an explosion of wearable tech, consumers cannot get enough of integrating smart tech into every aspect of their lives. We’re not quite bionic yet, but according to Statista the number of connected wearable devices will reach 1 billion in 2022, up from 722 million in 2019. So marketers cannot ignore their impact.

Although wearables often have tiny, minimalist screens, if any at all, the real impact is on the integrated apps they connect to on consumers’ other devices — because it’s all about the real-time personal data wearables provide. For example, real-time health metrics are still an untapped boon to many health and fitness brands — and apps can’t feed on them fast enough.

Here are just a few apps designed for wearables:

• Google Fit
• Endomondo Sports Tracker
• Strava: Run, Ride, Hike
• Cardiograph
• Calm
• Lifesum: Healthy Eating
• Nike Run Club

4. Biometrics will continue to improve security and personalization.

Although facial recognition still has shortcomings, we can only imagine that in time the technology will catch up and far exceed the trained eye of any human. And as a whole, the field of biometrics is promising in the field of security — and one day they might eliminate the need for passwords, IDs, and passports altogether (well, we can hope). Even the American Bar Association has weighed in on their use because of their potentially huge impact. 

And they’re not just relegated to banking, security and surveillance. Social media apps also are innovating with biometrics. For instance, Instagram partnered with Yoti, an age-verification specialist company, to create a feature where users can upload a selfie that technology then scans to estimate age based on facial features (source: Mobile World Live). So the heat is on.

But biometrics are not limited to our faces or fingerprints. Even when you holler at Siri or Alexa, your voice can be used as a biometric. Your speech patterns, gait of walking, posture patterns, and even your typing speed variations can be used as behavioral biometrics as well.

In the future, virtual assistants will be listening and watching, too. They will not only listen to what you say but how you say it, and not just what you do but how you do it — to determine your mood, interest, intent, health or alertness.  And understanding that how will lean on biometrics.

Innovators are also exploring other biometric technology we might more closely associate with sci-fi movies, such as iris scans, emotion interpreters, motion tracking, and even breath biometrics (far more advanced than breathalyzers used to determine intoxication today). And biometrics just don’t apply to humans, as they can be applied to plants and animals as well. Imagine using the same tech to identify a lost pet or to recognize when a particular bark or meow is a sign of illness.

Although biometrics still have a long way to go beyond fingerprint scanning — and Siri is far from being psychic — here are a few apps using biometrics:

• McAfee True Key
• MojiPop
• Celebs – Celebrity Look Alike
• Facetune
• PictureThis – Plant Identifier

5. Foldable screens will create new devices and app behaviors.

When the iPhone launched as a tiny slick brick more than a decade ago, there was only one way for mobile screens to go: bigger, bigger, and bigger. But, of course, our pockets are only so spacious, and we can only fit so much in the palm of our hands. So the entry of foldable mobile screens into the market offers a new wave of behaviors for interacting with our devices we don’t fully understand yet — and no one yet knows how fast they might take off.

Nonetheless, foldable screens not only can double the screen size of our favorite pocketable devices, but they also can open up an entirely new interaction with the screen with two or more visual planes — that could affect the design and messaging in an app, among many other UI-based decisions.

Will people interact with them like opening a book, or more like an old flip phone? Could a device be purely a screen on both sides, like a digital piece of paper? Could we see folded digital menus on our tables at restaurants? The possibilities are not yet known, but it doesn’t mean creative minds — and marketers — aren’t thinking of them.

Here are a few industry takes on foldable screens:

• Android developers’ take on foldable screens
• Samsung on how to adapt your app to foldable devices
• ZDNet on the best foldable phones

And the biggest mobile app trend of all is unleashing real-time customer data.

When it really comes down to it, most of the trends making impacts on the future of mobile apps rely on one thing more than any other: real-time data. So to align your app for the future, no matter your industry or use cases, you can only make the most of customer data by:

• Getting and applying it faster
• Using it in more innovative ways
• Tracking every moment in the moment
• Making experiences unique to the individual
• Discovering new behaviors at every turn

And where do you start as a marketer? With a next-generation customer data platform like Cordial.

Lift customer engagement with real-time personalization more than 250% by sending personal, relevant, and intelligent messages across email, SMS, and mobile apps. Request a demo today.

The post 5 trends that will impact the future of mobile apps for brands appeared first on Cordial.

If you think your brand might be missing out, we rounded up a refresher of compelling mobile apps stats to help you reframe your strategy. Plus, you can check out our latest ebook, Best Practices for Mobile App Messaging, to find compelling case studies with more stats for success.

Mobile app stats driving brands to focus on their own apps

1. In-app time will only go up.

According to eMarketer, consumers spend about 90% of their mobile internet time within mobile apps and slightly less than 10% in mobile browsers. And while consumers’ average daily mobile browser time has decreased by 8% from 2018 to 2022, daily average mobile app time has increased by 34% in the same time period — and there’s no sign of stopping.

2. Consumers prefer mobile apps over mobile web.

In our 2022 marketing study, The New Era of Customer Engagement, we discovered that 70% of consumers say they are shopping more often via mobile apps than they did only a year ago — and 76% of consumers prefer to shop in mobile apps versus on mobile websites when brands and stores offer apps. Even 85% of Millennials have used a store or retailer app while actually shopping in a brick-and-mortar location, showing mobile app affinity is only getting stronger.

3. Mobile commerce will double… soon.

In 2021, while retail trade sales via ecommerce surpassed $870 billion in the United States, total mobile commerce sales hit $359 billion — and will more than double to $728 billion by 2025 (Source: eMarketer).

4.  Mobile apps win big when it comes to conversion.

In Criteo’s Global Commerce Review and ancillary research, analysis found conversion rates are three times higher in apps than on mobile websites. And beyond that, apps account for 70% or more of mobile sales for retailers with both shopping apps and mobile websites.

5. Mobile apps tied to ecommerce have higher retention rates.

According to Statista, ecommerce and retail apps have the highest 30-day retention rate of mobile app categories, with 39% of users keeping an ecommerce or retail app on their device longer than 30 days. And at 90 days, ecommerce and retail apps maintain 22% retention, just behind travel and lifestyle apps, which lead with 23% retention after 90 days.

6. Mobile apps are where it’s at for loyalty.

Based on a survey by TechnologyAdvice about consumers’ preferences for loyalty programs, 59% of consumers are more likely to join a loyalty or rewards program offered by a brand if it is tied to a mobile app. Plus, 82% of consumers are more likely to shop at stores that have loyalty programs versus those who don’t. So a loyalty program in an app is a win-win.

7. In-app purchases are skyrocketing, too.

Although digital goods, services, and content might not be offered by many brands outside of entertainment and gaming, in-app purchase spending will pass $50 billion annually in the United States by 2025, up from $30.4 billion in 2020. 

8. Apps unleash the revenue power of AR and other tech.

With innovations like Warby Parker’s Virtual Try-On eyeglasses, augmented reality (AR) and other advanced mobile app features have become commonplace for consumers. Yet, your brand needs an app to take advantage of new tech to the fullest. For example, in recent research conducted by the Harvard Business Review, customers who used AR spend 20.7% more time on an app, view 1.28 times more products on average, and have a likelihood of making a purchase during a session that is 19.8% higher than customers who do not use AR.

9. Apps open up more engaging messaging pathways.

By providing a clear destination for your brand experience, a mobile app can empower messaging channels that yield times more engagement than mobile web. According to Invesp, a single push notification in the first week after an app installation can boost app retention by 71% after two months — and push notifications can increase overall retention rates 3 – 10x. Plus, those who opt-in to push notifications have nearly twice the retention rate as those who don’t. And when you consider in-app messages can have engagement rates up to 8x of push notifications, you cannot deny the impact of the in-app brand experience.

Case study: How Revolve wins with mobile app messaging

Fashion retailer Revolve unified their mobile app messaging on Cordial, allowing their customer retention team to manage multiple customer profiles and drive higher engagement.

“Cordial’s triggering features are now available for push notifications, enabling us to launch six new campaigns within a month of migration. We’ve grown our push program while maintaining email, and we’re excited to communicate with our customers across multiple channels,” says Jennifer Fan, Senior Director of Customer Retention at Revolve. “Using Cordial for both push and email provided the team greater insight while requiring much less time to execute campaigns.”

Cordial powers your marketing team with actionable data in real time, so you can convert what you know about your customers into a personal, relevant, and emotionally intelligent marketing strategy.

We’re here to help you improve customer engagement and increase revenue across all of your messaging channels. Schedule a demo to learn more from our team.

The post Stats to make marketers dream of mobile apps for their brands appeared first on Cordial.

Although we’ve explored more than 30 data insights on brand messaging and loyalty in our recent data study, “The New Era of Customer Engagement,” here are highlights of our analysis from consumer reactions to text messages from brands—both the good and not so good for SMS marketers in our highly mobile world.

Sign of brands sending better text messages

Today, brands have to focus on relevance—engaging in ways that are unique to each individual. That starts by taking stock of standard marketing practices today and doing away with old playbooks. To deliver what consumers want today requires rethinking marketing approaches and reassessing what’s possible. Why? Because consumers expect more. And when you give them more, they love it!

1 in 3 people feel valued by texts from brands

1 in 5 people feel excited by texts from brands

3 in 4 people say “I like it when a brand’s email or text message helps me find something that I need, exactly when I need it.”

Signs of brands sending poor text messages

More than three quarters of consumers say that most of the texts they receive are generic. What’s more noteworthy is that consumers aren’t just quietly deleting the irrelevant messages—they’re tired of it. In fact, 78% of consumers say they get frustrated when brands send them generic messages that aren’t relevant to them!

1 in 5 people unsubscribe after receiving a single generic text from a brand

1 in 2 people will have unsubscribed from a brand after receiving three generic text messages

3 in 4 people say the brand texts they receive aren’t personalized to them

Relevancy matters anytime, anywhere

Here’s the bottom line: While brand texts can drive sales, generic messages won’t win the day and may turn customers against you. And texts need to be considered as part of the broader communication landscape, thinking about how these messages work with other channels consumers use. The sooner you embrace more advanced personalization, the bigger your impact on your customers will be.

Want to learn 30 more data insights about how consumers react to brand messages?

Download “The New Era of Customer Engagement” to learn how you can better deliver on rising expectations and the hyper-personalized communication your customers want.

The post 7 key insights on how consumers react to texts from brands appeared first on Cordial.