In the current marketing climate, data and analytics can accomplish a wide range of lofty customer engagement goals. Simply put, properly leveraging data can drive straight to the heart of the tailored and personalized promotions and experiences that increase ROI and long-term growth.
However, this process often daunts many marketers across all industries. Some are unsure of how to begin, and others feel as if they lack the massive logistical data and analytical resources to implement a proper system.
But this problem has solutions, and many will be elucidated at the 9th Annual Loyalty Expo.
During a session titled, “DIY Guide: Maximizing the Value of Customer Interactions Using Advanced Analytics,” Don Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Analytics Officer of Brierley + Partners, will demonstrate how brands and marketers at all levels can make better use of CRM data and prescriptive analytics to power various engagement strategies and increase the profit margins of existing customer through known attributes and purchase histories.
Perhaps most importantly, Smith will present these data and analytics solutions through a series of step-by-step templates and illustrated case studies that show how even the most nascent marketers can implement these processes into their own organizations; all while, as Smith says, not needing to “purchase an opera house.”
“Audience members will get some hands-on tips and be able to walk away with some things that they can actually do,” Smith told Loyalty360. “They will learn how to leverage data assets that they might have right now without hiring an agency or an army of analysts. They want to know what they can do with some low handing fruit that will give them some really actionable marketing tactics.”
Smith believes that nearly every merchant or consumer-based retailer today already has a good understanding of what their customers are purchasing, and acquiring and leveraging this information in an effective way does not have to be overwhelming. These brands know, for example, what particular products currently sell well, what is typically purchased online, how to locate the best customers, and so on.
Smith sees this “low hanging fruit” as the perfect starting point for a simple recommendation engine that can move consumers from a middle segment to their best segment.
Through an illustrated example of a simple indexing solution that will showcase a hypothetical retailer, Smith will demonstrate how marketers can begin looking closer at their product—and at the product affinities from best customer baskets—to compare how they over- or under-index relative to the products that are going into other baskets. This will then allow them to implement further strategies or promotions that can map to additional products or offers in an effort to create a higher “stickiness” and drive more long-term value.
The value of implementing this type of data management, CRM, and recommendation analytics engine is undeniably present. In fact, today these types of targeted customer experiences are nearly essential.
“It is now becoming table stakes,” Smith explained. “If brands are not doing this, they should be, and everyone can.”
And that, again, will be one of the main takeaways of this this session. Every brand and marketer will be able to understand and implement a similar process within his or her own respective organization. Regardless of their proficiency in this area, Smith will show attendees how it can be accomplished.
“Our Experience at Brierley has been that every time we have offered this solution and we let it run over a period of time, we marshal support,” said Smith. “And even the naysayers who say, ‘Oh, its too complicated. There are too many moving parts,’ then say, ‘Wow, this actually works.’ The proof is in the ROI pudding.”