Monthly Archives: May 2019

How to Maximize Engagement with Connected Customers

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Decoding the Connected Customer

 

There is a new breed of human that has emerged in this millennium; one whose smartphone is a vital extension of their limbs. They run their lives on technology. They can’t be fooled by a business’s deceptive advertising, fake promises, or substandard products because, like everything else they encounter, they will look it up. They know how crucial it is to share information with the rest of their world, so they will leverage the right medium and they will make sure their opinion is heard–which could be them singing praises for a new product they just tried, or exposing and mocking the bad business or service they received. They navigate even the most complex networks of the internet like it’s a walk in the park because they’re always connected.

 

Although it is predicted that generation Z will account for more connected customers than the generations before them, connected customers can be found across all existing generations. In fact, they are usually identified by a common set of characteristics:

 

  • Connected customers are those who leverage mobile, tablets, social media, IoT devices, and other digital channels to understand a brand’s functionality, features, pricing, promises, etc.
  • Connected customers share their personal experiences and feedback on their interactions with brands and products on various social media platforms.
  • Connected customers expect swift results and time-efficient experience. Delivery times across top vendors are becoming increasingly competitive and with so many brands offering same-day delivery, customers have become spoilt for choice.
  • Connected customers utilize multiple devices to connect to their favorite sites, and expect a seamless, consistent experience between various devices.
  • Connected customers value personalization. They value brands that customize product recommendations and services keeping in mind their individual preferences and behaviours.

 

There is a frenzy amongst businesses to have connected consumers on their side, and for good reasons :

 

  • Firstly, because it is now known that evangelistic customers boost sales much more than marketing can ever do. According to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer can be anywhere between 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
  • Secondly, connected customers are active customers. Research concludes that having reviews on your site can increase the likelihood for visitors to make purchases; products with reviews have a 270% greater likelihood of being purchased than products with no reviews.
  • Finally–and perhaps most importantly–connected customers can empower businesses by giving them insight into their direction for growth. By virtue of perpetually being connected, they offer immense data over time that can help businesses learn about customer engagement patterns and preferences. Analysing this data, can help businesses answer crucial questions, such as what devices do customers prefer to engage on?; what products receive most engagement?; what are customers greatest pain points, and how can the company address them? Businesses can use this information to prioritize their focus.

 

Decline of Brand Loyalty Among Connected Customers

 

Although connected customers are becoming must-haves for businesses, they don’t come easy. After all, unlike people who are timid of technology, these savvy customers are aware of the spectrum of choice they have before them through the internet. Customers today are equipped with vast amounts of information and experiences thanks to the easy availability of the internet and have less incentive to be loyal than the customers of yesteryears.

 

However, as you’ll find in this article, there are ways to attract and retain highly valuable connected customers.

 

Why Connected Customers Are Vital for Businesses

 

In recent years, revered industry leaders and notable thinkers are vocally accepting, understanding and preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which unprecedented technological breakthroughs and billions of people being connected by mobile devices will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. We are already seeing the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the high adoption rate of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the integration of artificial intelligence with our everyday lives. IoT devices–or devices that function and connect via the internet–are becoming standard in a wide array of fields, such as healthcare (with examples like activity trackers, and sensor-enabled pills), household (smart washing machines, heaters, locks), manufacturing (digital twins), and agriculture (drones that monitor soil or weather conditions).

 

For e-commerce businesses, the amount of information being collected from IoT devices can be processed and analyzed to paint an accurate picture of various users and their lifestyles. Today, the number of IoT devices (not including phones, laptops, tablets) is over 7 billion, and that number is projected to cross 21 billion worldwide by 2025.

 

It is also common knowledge that smartphones are no longer limited to the upper strata of society. With several tech companies providing increasingly affordable options of smartphones in recent years, the number of smartphone users worldwide is over 3 billion and expected to cross 3.8 billion by 2021. This, combined with the fact that the reach of social media has been rising, is further increasing the connectivity of the world.

 

It has also changed the way marketing departments operate. Today, brands find it imperative to have their presence on Facebook, the most popular social network worldwide with more than 2.3 billion monthly active users. Eastern Asia and North America have the greatest social media penetration, with penetration rates of 70 percent, while the global average penetration rate is 45 percent. Social networking usage has also become increasingly mobile – in January 2018, mobile social media had a 58 percent usage rate in the United States.

 

All these signs point towards an increasing number of connected customers in the future. The evidence is apparent in the digital divide between baby boomers and millennials. A vast population of the youngest generation today, Generation Z, have been navigating apps since their infancy, and are more deeply connected to the web than generations before.

 

Clearly, connected customers come with a set of high expectations. It can be daunting for an e-commerce business when they realize the level of effort they must invest in engaging these customers, but it would be a mistake to dismiss them, given their impact. On the bright side, connected customers allow brands to save on marketing costs by prioritizing social media advertising, which is inexpensive in comparison to traditional marketing formats, such as print, TV or radio. Brands can also benefit from the ability to communicate with consumers in real-time, in a two-way format, and they can swiftly promote new products and services through social media.

 

Today, given the high competition e-commerce brands face, many companies strive for customer attention and loyalty by slashing prices, but this only attracts consumers whose loyalty is fickle and price-based. While price and product quality will always be relevant, the new differentiator for companies comes down to the customer engagement experience. Customer engagement can be defined as the emotional connection a company creates in customers, based on their experiences with the company’s people — and those emotions strongly influence their buying decisions.

 

According to studies by Gallup CE, customers who are fully engaged represent a 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth over the average customer.

 

Maximizing Engagement with the Connected Customer

 

  • Develop Emotional Connections

Far from just incorporating discounts and satisfactory customer service, companies must strive to resonate with the emotions of their ideal customers. This goes against the belief that customers’ purchasing decisions are guided primarily by rational thinking.

 

Higher customer engagement is driven by the customer feeling valued, the customer’s relationship with the brand representative, and the customer’s trust in your service. A good way to do this is by creating an effective loyalty program that makes your customers feel valued, or by associating your brand with certain values that you want your customers to be invested in. For example, the outdoor and recreation company REI makes a donation to the National Forest Foundation every time their customers use REI’s Co-op World Mastercard. They have seen tremendous success through their loyalty program and brand cause.

 

  • Leverage Technology

    As the tides of technology change, brands must keep up with tech innovation to stay ahead of the game. 59% of customers say companies need to provide them with innovative digital experiences to keep their business. Customers are already aware and impacted by technologies like cybersecurity,  the Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence (according to global research firm Gartner, by 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human.). With more operations and every-day functionalities being executed online, cybersecurity is a top concern that businesses should address. Additionally, businesses should leverage Artificial Intelligence to sift through complex amounts of data and uncover relevant business opportunities.

  • Be Mobile-First

Connected customers do not want to lose access to their favorite brands when they’re on the go. A massive 79 percent of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their smartphones. Google also reiterates the importance of mobile-friendly sites and prioritizes mobile-friendly content with higher SEO rankings. All this means one thing: mobile matters.

 

To be mobile-first, businesses must optimize their content to load fast on mobile devices and create a consistent experience with other channels. Moreover, brands should invest in an omnichannel e-commerce platform to deliver a seamless experience across channels.  

  • Build a Community

In today’s highly individualized climate, people are finding it increasingly difficult to form social connections with others. Brands fostering a sense of community are seeing deep-rooted loyalty and emotional connections from their customers. They give their customers a common ground–online or offline–to encourage one and other in their art or athletic progress, which also allows for customers to share their experiences and provide support for other customers. For example, the athleisure brand Lululemon offers their members yoga sessions, run clubs and other classes and events, which creates a strong differentiator from other brands offering just run-of-the-mill services.

  • Deliver Personalized Engagement

Based on the immense data collected from connected customers (such as their preferences, behaviours and shopping history), brands can offer personalized customer engagement and loyalty programs that are customized for them. Afterall, everyone likes to feel special!

  • Create Experiential Events

When Red Bull offered live coverage of Felix Baumgartner skydiving from 128,000 feet, they–quite literally–took their marketing drive to new heights. Experiential marketing events like these get people buzzing for a long time. Do not fret if your marketing budget does not allow you to put a man into space; create local events and experiences that are relevant to your brand, and give your customers reasons to get excited. Not only do 98% of consumers create and share their experiences at branded events, but 74% say engaging at these experiences makes them more likely to buy the products being promoted.

 

When it comes to engaging customers, brands must unleash their imaginations. By using the power of data analysis, businesses today can know their audiences better than ever before. This is the key to knowing what excites customers, and how to retain them. In a world where competition and pricing are cut-throat, tomorrow’s winners will be businesses that learn how to maximize engagement with their customers. Those that don’t will be left behind.

 

If you have any questions or queries, do drop in a comment, and we’ll get right back to you.

Smart Segmentation: Maximizing Engagement with AI

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The Double Whammy Staring at Marketers

There was a time when only brands with massive financial clout could afford to run major marketing campaigns, simply because Above the Line (ATL) marketing is resource intensive. All of that changed with the digital explosion; now your neighbourhood mom and pop store could launch a Facebook or Adword campaign for as low as $50.

This resulted in an exponential rise in competition in the digital space for mindshare and customer loyalty. Unfortunately, the digital influx also pummelled consumer attention span to a meagre 8 seconds (a sharp decline from 12 seconds in 2000). As a result, today’s marketers find themselves in an intensely competitive universe where thousands of brands are battling it out for the ever-shrinking attention span of the consumer.

The Rise of Digital Marketing

In the new digital universe, consumer attention and loyalty soon became an invaluable and coveted resource. And brands started pouring millions of marketing dollars to capture consumer mindshare. For a while, this worked, but the human psyche is incredibly good at filtering out irrelevant information and there started a growing distaste for ads. During the period from 2015 to 2019, the number of Americans using adblockers grew from 15% to 26%.  

Marketing 2: 0: Engaging the Connected & Empowered Consumer

Smart marketers soon realized that blasting consumers with a barrage of generic, irrelevant communication is hurting them twofold: it quickly drains precious marketing budget and also spreads the sentiment that the brand is apathetic to consumer needs. To gain mindshare in an attention-deficit consumer, marketers needed to make personalized communications

A key pillar within this reformed marketing philosophy is personalization because it sets the stage and gives a contextual framework for a relevant and value-driven engagement.

The Holy Grail for Marketers: Hyperpersonalization at Scale

In its simplest sense, personalization is a targeted approach to customer engagement that delivers tailored, useful and relevant communication to every customer.  For smaller businesses with small to medium customer sets, the personalization efforts are fairly simple and achievable with a good analyst team. But it gets increasingly complex and a herculean task at enterprise levels of data and consumer sets. In fact, less than 10% of top retailers say that are good at effective personalization.

When done well, personalization accelerates sales and business growth for brands while increasing overall customer satisfaction levels. Personalization improves conversion rates by a whopping 70% and it impacts ripples across the entire consumer lifecycle: from acquisition costs, engagement levels, average order values to repeat purchases.

The challenge to implementing personalization at scale basically boils down to two things: the pace of change in consumer behaviour and exponential rise in data volumes. Combine these two and you get rapidly changing data, constantly shifting customer segments and frequent changes in the type of insights needed from the data.

Smart Segmentation with AI: Powering the New Personalization Paradigm

Since smart segmentation serves as the primer for personalization, it’s vital to create relevant and accurate segments before embarking on your engagement strategy.

  • The Need for Smart Segmentation

While basic segmentations like demographics and location can be done manually, creating complex personas and purchase patterns segments can be tedious and time-consuming. Moreover, these generic segmentations cannot be used for building advanced purchase propensities modelling.

For successful smart segmentation, brands will need to layer basic segmentation attributes with ‘behavioural aspects’ of a customer. These include explicit behavioural aspects like purchase history, search history etc. and implicit behaviour aspects like dwell time on a specific product page, heatmaps and other storefront interactions. Moreover, these behaviour segments need to be dynamic and adaptive based on evolving customer needs.

This is where emerging technologies like AI and ML can help brands optimize their data and resources to achieve their business goals.

  • AI-Powered Adaptive Segmentation

The true power of Artificial Intelligence lies in its ability to find complex and disparate correlations which are almost impossible to uncover through manual intervention.

The need of the hour for brands is to value-driven experiences at every stage in the customer journey.  However, multiple data sources and non-linear customer journeys have made it difficult for brands to create a seamless customer experience. Adaptive segmentation is a great way to create centralized segmentation based on multiple factors like demographic data, behaviour metrics and time.

Adaptive segmentation is powered by an intelligent algorithm that constantly ‘learns’ more about the customer every time he/she engages with the brand – whether on social media, email, website or in store. Adaptive segmentation also enables brands to optimize segments based on higher conversion probability rather than simple demographics metrics.

4 Step Process to Smart Segmentation

AI-based segmentation typically comprises of 4 stages :
  • Pre-processing: The initial validation and cleaning of data sets. A ‘gold standard’ training set will need to be identified at this stage which will serve as a primer for future use cases.
  • Modelling: This is where you identify the variables that make up your segmentation. These variables are then stacked based on the order of importance and applied to the ‘gold standard’ training set to help the machine understand the common properties for your segment. The popular segmentation attributes are :
        • Traffic source (website, PPC, email campaigns, social media etc)
        • New or returning customer
        • Platform (mobile, desktop)
        • Location
        • Average Order Value
        • Demographic, Likes and preferences
        • Search Behaviour
        • Past content interactions (product page, blog post)
  • Evaluation: At this stage, a confusion matrix is used to identify previously incorrect contacts and also evaluate the accuracy of the model. If there are unbalanced data sets across the segments, a statistical coefficient is applied to account for class imbalance.
  • Transformation: Output data is achieved and your customers are now smartly segmented in accordance with the ‘gold standard’ training set.

Benefits of AI-Powered Segmentation

  • Eliminate human bias and stereotyping while segmenting
  • Create an almost infinite number of segments and sub-segments
  • Real-time updation of segments based on current behaviours and market trends
  • Uncover hidden patterns and trends (that goes against prevailing assumptions)
  • Highly scalability
  • Higher engagement rates and ROI

Despite the overwhelming success rate of AI-powered segmentation in driving personalization, its adoption rate has been low with 55 percent of marketers admitting to not implementing it due to siloed data sources and in some cases, lack of sufficient data itself.  To stay ahead of the digital revolution and be consumer-ready, it’s imperative for brands to create centralized, data pools using omnichannel analytics platforms and deliver a more personalized customer experience using AI-powered marketing solutions.

The Best Loyalty Programs of 2019

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It is no secret that a well-executed loyalty program has the ability to transform a business and fast-track growth. After all, 40% of revenue today for US e-commerce retailers comes from returning customers who represent only 8% of all visitors.  As the tides of technology change, so must loyalty programs merely to stay afloat. With mobile commerce accounting for over 30% of e-commerce sales in 2017 (a number predicted to increase to over 50% by 2022), brands and their loyalty programs must incorporate deep retail analytics and the omnichannel experience to remain in the top tier.

 

Consumer preferences vary across countries and cultures, from the technology they utilize to what they seek from a loyalty program. Instead of casting a vague wide net to rake in sales, retailers must identify their ideal customer group and strategize accordingly.

 

Far from just incorporating discounts and satisfactory customer service, companies must strive to resonate with the emotions of their ideal customers.

 

The ability to bank on an impersonal, one-size-fits-all approach to loyalty rewards is quickly fading, and customers are looking for rewards that are relevant to their specific tastes and purchasing behaviors. Of course, this implies that a loyalty program platform today must be intelligent, and dynamically predict a customers’ changing preferences.

 

So how do successful loyalty programs create customers that are eager to return? Below, we peek into the inner workings of best loyalty programs in 2019 and what makes them tick.

 

REI Co-op

 

REI Co-op offers a lifetime membership at just 20$, and members frequently rave about how swiftly they see returns for the money spent. With an incredible selection of outdoor and wilderness gear and a unique loyalty program, REI has quietly earned its place as one of the best recreation services corporations. Their message is clear from the very first visit—choose nature and get outside more.

 

Members get special prices on adventure trips curated by REI, and heavy discounts (think 50% and more) on gently used gear being sold online. If you opt for REI’s Co-op World Mastercard, you receive a $100 REI gift card upon joining, and REI makes a donation to the National Forest Foundation every time you use your card. The most unique aspect of this program is that members can influence the direction of the company by voting for the company’s board of directors, based on their profiles and values. Members also receive an annual dividend that they can cash in, use in-store or donate towards causes for nature and the environment.

 

And apart from all this, they still offer excellent customer service with free shipping over purchases of 50$, and replacements and refunds within one year (!) of purchasing.

 

Key Takeaways :

 

  • REI focuses on loyalty from an emotional perspective. The brand resonates as an organization that truly cares about their cause.
  • They give back nearly 70% of their profits to outdoor stewardship projects, and offer events of stewardship where members can volunteer to protect and expand trails.
  • More than just highlighting the financial gains of being a member, they give their customers certain values to be invested in.

 

Nike +

 

In just over a decade, Nike’s loyalty program—Nike+—has grown to over 100 million members. The brilliance of Nike’s marketing is that they don’t focus on selling the apparel itself— rather they create an emotive story around the sweat, determination and absolute high that an athlete experiences.  

 

Using the concept of gamification, Nike tracks the workout routines of members and rewards them for it. Nike+ also offers its members a community where they can meet and train with other members, and it doesn’t do this alone.

 

The brand has partnered with others giants for their rewards program, including Apple Music (giving members access to curated workout playlists), the mindfulness service Headspace (where members can access guided meditations), and the education service ClassPass. Besides that, members get sweet perks like free shipping on all orders, early access to top-of-the-line gear, a month of birthday discounts and gifts,  and a 30-day “no questions asked” return policy.

 

Key Takeaways:

 

  • Nike does a great job of  getting into the mind of their customers to understand what makes them tick and incorporates that into their loyalty offering
  • Create a reward and experience ecosystem by partnering with synergetic brands
  • A great mobile experience: the loyalty program incentivizes app usage to access special perks, discounts, guided runs, and exclusive experiences.

 

Sleep Number

 

Sleep Number, the mattress company, has been driving customer engagement and increasing revenue through its loyalty program, the Inner Circle.

 

The loyalty program encourages members to participate in surveys and polls in exchange for points. Sleep Number uses the information gleaned to advice insiders on improving the quality of their sleep, and for creating educational blog posts.

 

Members enjoy discounts and are the first to know about new products, but the true differentiator of their loyalty program has been the incentives they offer for referring friends and family. They are credited with points for sharing referral links, and for every successful referral, they earn a 100$. After the 10th successful referral, they receive an additional $799.

 

Lisa Erickson, Director of Customer Relationship Management & Loyalty, says “you’d be amazed how many referrals we get. Our customers are engaged in the program and we get more than 1,000 digital referrals a month, that’s really important to our business because your best customers bring more best customers. Testimonials are our most powerful form of marketing.”

 

Key Takeaway:

 

  • Incentivizing your customers to refer their friends is a cost-effective way to drive more engagement and grow your following.

 

Lululemon

 

Athleisure brand Lululemon’s loyalty program may be young, but it has already attracted some positive attention. As far as loyalty programs go, the annual membership is rather steep at $128, but active members will quickly see the value—Lululemon members receive an exclusive pair or pants or shorts on joining, which already make the membership a good deal (considering that most pants are priced around the 100$ mark).

 

The real value of the program lies in the community they create for you through yoga sessions, run clubs, and other classes and events. Striving to inspire viewers, Lululemon collects the stories of driven athletes working on bettering their communities as part of their “ambassador” program.

 

Their membership also includes free expedited shipping for online orders and no-questions-asked return policy.

 

Key Takeaways:

 

  • In today’s highly individualized climate, people are finding it increasingly difficult to form social connections. If it suits your brand, move away from run-of-the-mill rewards and foster a sense of community using your loyalty program
  • This community-driven customer loyalty program will inculcate an emotional connection to your brand.

 

Swarm Perks

 

Swarm is a social networking mobile app where users can share their lifestyle with friends by checking into the locations they’ve visited.

 

After Facebook created a similar check-in feature, Swarm saw a daunting drop in popularity. But in recent years, it has reinvented itself with Swarm Perks. As the name suggests, users can earn perks (significant discounts, points, and real-world freebies) for checking in at participating locations. They can earn extra bonuses for checking in with friends, and are awarded ‘mayorship’ when they visit a venue the most number of times. Swarm Perks offers these discounts by partnering with existing discount networks.

 

Swarm Perks users highly anticipate the weekly sweepstakes challenges, where participants get the chance to win grand prizes (for example, $10,000 towards a dream vacation) by checking in at specific locations. According to Jonathan Crowley, vice president of product, the introduction of such features in the beginning of 2015 has seen the number of check-ins per user triple in the US.

 

Key Takeaways:

 

  • Gamification is a tried and tested concept in the loyalty space and it still works  
  • The human psyche is driven by competition and the glory of winning. Gamifying user engagement can lead to soaring popularity for your brand and, in turn, revenue.

 

CVS

 

Although CVS Health has been around for decades (since 1963, to be precise), it’s market share has been threatened in recent years. After Amazon acquired online pharmacy PillPack, CVS launched its loyalty program CarePass to secure its customer base. The membership costs $5 a month, or a discounted rate of $48 a year. Members receive free 1-2 day delivery on most prescriptions and purchases, 20% discounts on certain CVS Health-branded products, and $10 in monthly promotional rewards.  They also have a 24×7 dedicated phone line to a pharmacist so that customers can consult a professional who has access to their prescription history with CVS Pharmacy.

 

Key Takeaway:

 

  • Choose experiential rewards that your customers will value and that your competitors are unlikely to offer, such as CVS’s pharmacist helpline.

 

Sephora

 

Sephora’s Beauty Insider is arguably one of the best loyalty programs ever implemented. To stay in line with their image as a luxury brand, they rarely offer discounts and price slashes. Instead, they run on a point based system that segments customers into tiers depending on their annual spending. Higher tiers offer greater rewards and more point accrual for every dollar spent.  

 

Based on the customer’s preferences and shopping history, every member receives personalized rewards and customized promotions. The brand stays relevant by offering beauty enthusiasts what no one else is doing, such as the augmented reality feature that allows users to virtually try on various products. It has created an air of excitement by knowing what drives top customers in their industry—exclusivity. Sephora teams up with brands to offer products first before they are even released through the brand’s own channel. Depending on the tier that a customer falls into, Beauty Insiders get access to a wider range of gifts and early access to new products, exclusive events, and one-of-a-kind experiences. A glance at their twitter mentions makes it obvious how excited customers will go above and beyond to secure bragging rights.

 

Key Takeaways:

 

  • Sephora delivers a great omnichannel loyalty experience. The program does this seamlessly and extends the loyalty program across all platforms (be it mobile app, website, in-store or even in-partner-store JC Penny).
  • Tiered loyalty programs are one of the most effective ways to motivate desired behaviors from customers, especially when the upper tiers convey a sense of exclusivity.
  • The level of personalization makes every customer’s reward relevant to them, which is highly important for any loyalty program. You want your most loyal customer to feel like they have achieved something that others could not, and inspire your other customers to strive to get there.
  • Offer a strong online community where users can have discussions, get advice and shop makeup looks.

 

Costco

 

Jim Sinegal, Costco’s Co-Founder and Former CEO, explains how the wholesale giant consistently offers lower prices and better values: “by eliminating virtually all the frills and costs historically associated with conventional wholesalers and retailers, including salespeople, fancy buildings, delivery, billing and accounts receivable.”

 

The Costco shopping experience is only open to members, who swear by their savings and frequently return for all their household needs. Costco banks on their annual membership fees to maintain profitability. Costco’s entry-level “Gold Star” membership costs $55 per year with additional cards for anyone living at the same address. At $110 every year, the executive membership costs double the gold star membership but provide additional benefits and discounts and 2% cash back on qualified Costco purchases. Members are also eligible to shop at Costco gas stations, Costco Optical, Costco Pharmacy, and Costco Travel.

 

Key Takeaway:

 

  • Costco’s success stems from the fact that they thoroughly know who their customer base is. Their members usually belong to large households or are those that benefit from buying in bulk.
  • The company crafted a successful loyalty program by giving customers just the bare essentials of what they need by knowing their purchasing behaviors—and by cutting out the fluff that doesn’t really excite them.

 

With the plethora of loyalty program options only increasing, it can be tempting to emulate successful programs that already exists. But you’re more likely to attract a loyal customer base through experiential rewards that only you can offer, rather than just discounts and monetary rewards which can frequently be undercut or copied by competitors.

Leveraging Social CRM To Engage Your Target Audience

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Let’s face it. Social media is a big deal. We’re all part of one social media or another, and oftentimes, social has become our primary source of news and information, having now almost completely replaced traditional sources such as television and newspaper, etc. At the same time, social media is a very personal and informal space where we mostly connect with people we know, along with content outlets as well as the brands we like.

 

In fact, social media is one of the most direct ways for any brand to connect with its consumers. According to a Sprout Social study, when consumers feel connected to a brand, 76% would choose them over a competitor, whereas 57% would spend more with that brand.

 

Brands today don’t need convincing that they should be part of social media. Most brands are already active on it. However, many brands are using social media as any other marketing channel, without really understanding how to leverage it the right way. The question then remains, as a brand, are you creating the perception that you seek from social media and are you maximising the demand generation potential that social media brings? Read on to know more about how you can leverage Social CRM to engage your target audience! 

 

Marketing is being shaped by consumers

 

Because of social media, consumers now have way more say in any brand communication than before. This, two-way interactive communication and engagement is the biggest difference brands must consider while developing a social media marketing and CRM strategy. The content you put out should reach your ideal audience, and to do that it’s essential to listen and engage with them on a personal level. 

 

Focus on creating awareness

 

Consumers are often looking out for new brands and products on social media. As a brand, your objective should be to drive more awareness about your offerings to your consumers. You must create content in multiple formats such as images, videos, infographics etc. which can help make your content diverse and attention-grabbing. Running an interesting contest among your social followers is a good way to keep them engaged while rewarding them for their support and increasing your conversions at the same time. Making use of user-generated content is another great way to build credibility.

 

Personalization is valued

 

Consumers expect brands they shop from to know and understand them. If you can personalize your communication on social, it is bound to be extremely impactful.  According to a digital agency, Wunderman, 79% of consumers want brands to actively demonstrate that they care about receiving their business, a concept they call “wantedness”.  A data-driven approach is essential to build the levels of personalization consumers seek in order to drive increased engagement and sales for the brand. This is where your social CRM strategy program plays a vital role. 

 

Bata Malaysia Social CRM Case study

 

By combining the CRM data you possess on your consumer demographics and behaviour, along with rich consumer profiling and segmentation that most social media platforms are capable of today, you can create hyper-personalized, hyper-targeted campaigns that can give you exponential RoI.

 

Bata Malaysia linked their CRM data with social media and got 57X RoI from their social media campaigns. The team was able to run a social campaign based on their consumer’s offline behaviour and was able to track how consumers were interacting with them online, and how many of them actually walked into their stores bought the products offline. This allowed for accurate RoI assessment and rich campaign performance data which allowed them to keep improving the performance of their campaigns. They also found out that their social media promotions were much more efficient than their traditional SMS and email campaigns. Read more of their story here.

 

In conclusion, an optimized social CRM strategy is a great way for brands to target and win over consumers in the digital age. However, they need to keep a few things in mind like – social media is an interactive, intimate medium. Put your points across in an attractive way, and make consumers understand that you value them. 

eCommerce in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

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Sci-fi geeks previously mocked for their far-fetched ideas about robots taking over the world can today smugly say, ‘hah! Told you so. We are no longer at the cusp of an era of artificial intelligence; we are living in it. Our daily lives are peppered with gadgets that use voice recognition, search predictions, and facial recognition. From systems that forecast the weather to those that predict stock prices, to self-driving cars—we are breaking new frontiers so rapidly that we rarely stop to think, about the constant evolution of these machines as we use them.

 

Artificial intelligence, simply put, is the ability for a machine to learn. It does this by continually analyzing patterns from the data it collects. The greater the collection of data, the more accurate the machine can become at making predictions.  Gartner, Inc, projects that over 25% of customer interactions will be managed with virtual customer assistants by 2020. Machine-learning technologies can go beyond the scope of humans by learning and understanding every individual customer, even in an audience of millions.

 

The evolution of AI

 

Artificial Intelligence truly began in the unleashed imagination of fiction writers. Although the rich pages of Isaac Asimov may come to mind, the technology started impacting the real-world only in the 1950s when Alan Turing contemplated the question, “Can machines think?” The Turing test was once considered to be the benchmark for Artificial Intelligence—to pass the test, a machine must deceive a questioner into believing it is a human.

 

In recent decades, AI research has seen unprecedented acceleration. From the year 2008 to 2012, it was growing at roughly 5 percent annually; but since then, it has boomed with a growth of more than 12 percent annually. Today, Europe still leads in AI research, but within the next four years, China is predicted to take over as the global pioneer in artificial intelligence.

 

A New Era

 

At the same time, trends have been changing in the world of business and retail. In 2018, e-commerce sales accounted for a whopping 11.9% of all retail sales worldwide. The number of global digital buyers is expected to rise to over 2.14 billion by 2021.

 

Since every marketing strategy boils down to understanding what consumers want, this puts AI at the forefront of the new era of commerce. Artificial Intelligence collects and organizes heaps of data that manual processing would take years to do (if at all). Based on this analysed data, it can make predictions that can save an organization vast amounts of time and money.

 

According to Juniper Research, AI chatbots could save businesses up to £6 billion per year across industries. But more importantly, it can give an organization greater precision while marketing, by knowing their customers better.

 

Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce

 

Here are some key ways that AI has made an entrance into the realm of e-commerce:

 

1)    Chatbots

It might soon be the end of the line for contact forms, email and phone calls. More importantly, it’s a step in the right direction when it comes to delivering stellar customer experience. According to a report, 51% of customers never come back to a business after a bad experience. By kickstarting the ‘conversational commerce’ trend, Chatbots give e-commerce websites the ability to provide 24/7 customer support. They simulate conversations with customers and can execute tasks, automate order processing, and can also provide accurate answers to customers about product details, quantities and shipping terms.

 

According to a 2017 report by PwC, 34% of executives say the time they freed up using chatbots allowed them to focus on deep thinking and creating.

 

Chatbots increase response time and answer more than 80% of regular questions; freeing agents to carry out other tasks. Brands like Lyft, Alibaba, and Spotify are using chatbots to carry out various operations, such as booking a cab, finding the right music, and placing orders.

 

2) Image search

With AI, consumers can now search for products based on images they’ve come across. See an outfit you love? Simply take a picture and get matched to similar items on ecommerce websites.

 

Pinterest is already leveraging this technology by allowing its users to select any item from any photograph online and then throws up similar items through an image recognition software.

 

3) Cybersecurity

Since ecommerce sites process multiple financial transactions throughout the day, they are frequent targets for cyber attacks, fraud, and unauthorized access from hackers. Cybersecurity is a priority among top ecommerce stores that realise that cyber attacks can cost millions, and worse, damage their reputation as a trustworthy brand.

 

AI systems can detect irregular patterns, like spam and fraud, because of constantly processing data, and sound the alarm in real-time when it detects suspicious activity. For example, the cybersecurity company Prolexic monitors malicious cyber threats globally and analyzes DDoS attacks using their proprietary intelligent system.

 

4) CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) have traditionally relied on employees to collect huge amounts of data in order to better serve clients. Today, several CRM software are capable of leveraging artificial intelligence to help in identifying trends, and predict which customers are most likely to buy products with impressive accuracy.  This frees up sales teams to focus on their revenue goals.

 

5) Recommendation Engines

There are those who are familiar with recommendation engines, and then there are those who are shocked when their phone throws up ads for exactly what they needed. Is it a conspiracy?

 

eCommerce platforms powered by Machine learning algorithms are capable of analyzing customer behaviour from past searches, ‘like’ history, frequently bought products, and can recommend products for the user. Amazon, Facebook and Instagram are examples everyone is familiar with, frequently giving us recommended products and ads based on our history. Newer ecommerce store builders are capable of digesting massive amounts of customer data to generate highly personalized and contextual recommendations.

 

AI has the potential to spike sales and productivity like never before. Today, more than 75 percent of companies are using AI to power their decision-making processes and accelerate business development (as reported by Capgemini, 2017).

 

Perhaps the world is changing at a pace where we need to hold onto our seats, but Artificial Intelligence is more than a buzzword. It is a field of research that is unlikely to disappear anytime soon and businesses will do well to jump on the bandwagon at the earliest.