#NewWay ToEngage

The Future Project: Vol. 4 Envisioning the Impact of Big Data & Analytics on Commerce

Generating MeaningfulCustomer Interactions

Through Online and Offline Integration

Interview with Anne Ward, @annebotCEO at CircleClick

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Introduction

The rise of big data and analytics allows organizations to understand the customer

journey like never before. Customers are no longer traveling a single path to purchase.

Sophisticated analytics tools are providing greater visibility into understanding all the

different places that buyers are entering the marketing funnel.

More personalized and relevant offerings can be presented – across multiple channels

– allowing buyers to meet their specific purchasing needs, from nearly any device or

location. But with customers requiring more engaging, meaningful and consistent

brand experiences, across all channels, how can enterprises leverage big data and

analytics to deliver these experiences?

Anne Ward was recently interviewed to shed light on these challenges and unveil what

the coming years hold for the future of commerce.

About Anne Ward

Anne Ward sees a future where online and offline experiences are more successfully

integrated as organizations begin viewing all devices as a single universal screen.

Anne Ward is a Futurist, growth hacker and CEO of CircleClick Media. She was an early

entrant into the field of search engine optimization and currently specializes in analytics

and social media.

Anne was named one of Entrepreneur magazine’s 27 Masters of

Marketing and PR Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From for 2014.

Her list of clients includes Inc. magazine, Apple Computer,

Breathometer, DCT, Heroku, Twilio, A&E Interventionist

Ken Seeley and Rikki Rockett from Poison.

Follow Anne on Twitter @annebot or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Analytics is the only way to understand what customers are looking for, what they need

and how long they’re spending on your website. It’s the key to understanding customer

acquisition on every level.

In regard to gaining the ability to harness qualitative analytics, people talk a lot about big

data; however, less is more in this area. It’s the quality — not the quantity — that is most

important. I suggest selecting a few key metrics and sticking with them. Because by taking

a few items and reporting on those items regularly, you will see more improvement than by

just looking at a giant data set that can feel overwhelming.

Analytics is the key to understanding customer acquisition on every level.

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Uncovering Consistent Metrics

How will the introduction of more sophisticated analytics tools change our understanding of the customer journey? And what has been the impact of being able to harness qualitative analytics?

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Customizing the experience based on what the user has done prior

to visiting your site is very easy with retargeting and other types of

advertising. We already see this with Facebook, Twitter and other

social media sites, and even the Web as a whole, because when

you put information out on the Web, it’s going to get used.

Whoever can figure out how to target those customers while combining

offline and online experiences in a meaningful way will be the winner.

We’ve come to understand a lot of information about online and offline activities

with the advent of mobile. We know the location of people and oftentimes what

they’re doing — such as walking or traveling. Information is key, and we have all

of it; now everybody is trying to figure out what to do with it.

One of the most compelling cases for predictive and cognitive analytics on the

commerce side is related to the supply chain. Theoretically, retailers should be

able to tell if a shipment is late before it’s late.

If a supplier tends to be late, then we’ll actually know ahead of time and say, “OK, we

should allow for a few extra days.” Capturing this information and pulling it together

into one place can be very powerful, giving companies the ability to forecast and plan

for delays.

Connecting the Insights

How do you predict companies will take advantage of personalized marketing efforts in the future with so much customer data available now? And what role will predictive and cognitive analytics play?

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When developing a new campaign, consider the “nth screen.” We need to think about

mobile phones and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets, smart TVs and a

multitude of other devices.

Everything must be considered with the omni-channel experience. If devices are missing,

then organizations will suffer because they will create a poor user experience. Usability is

also one of the most crucial elements of SEO. If users aren’t staying on the site, they won’t

purchase from you.

Most companies are truly struggling with mobile, especially with mobile monetization.

Organizations that have a lot of people on mobile and make money from advertising aren’t

seeing a clear path as to how to produce that revenue from a mobile platform, especially if

traffic was previously coming from the Web on traditional browsers from computers.

I haven’t observed many companies that nail both mobile and desktop; it tends to be an

either/or situation. Organizations should start thinking in terms of one universal screen that

is going to resize itself.

The “Nth” Screen

How can analytics empower an organization to deliver a seamless omni-channel experience? And which channels are organizations struggling with the most?

Organizations create poor user experiences when they don’t consider all devices.

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The idea of data talking back to me is attractive, but inherently, I don’t think of the data.

I think like a user. It’s important to be an advocate for the user. So when you’re embarking

on a marketing program or you’re redoing your website, you really need to think, “Who is

the person on the other end of the tube? What do they look like? What are they going to

do? How are we going to compel them to take action?”

You may have a hunch, but the data is the tool that verifies that hunch, or tells you that

you’re wrong. Data shouldn’t have a voice. It needs to stay agnostic so that you can take

away from it what you need to in terms of individual campaign or effort.

Advocating for the User

What if your data talked to you like a trusted business adviser? How would that help your business?

It’s important to be an advocate for the user when working on new marketing efforts.

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Moving into the Future

It’s exciting to see what other people are doing with their

data and their plans for the future. I have my own ideas

of what data should be, and what we should do with it.

But as experts get together and share what they are doing

with their data, there will be many changes in business in

the coming years. It’s a good idea for organizations and

leaders to start preparing.

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IBM Commerce Can Help

There is an alarming gap between what brands believe they deliver and what customers actually experience. Eighty-one percent of consumer brands say they have a holistic view of their customers while only 37 percent of consumers believe their favorite retailer understands them.

IBM Marketing Cloud helps close the customer experience gap-making it easier to understand and design meaningful customer experiences across applications, devices and time to accelerate today’s results and tomorrow’s ambitions. It powers the delivery of exceptional experiences for customers across the buyer journey by leveraging customer data, providing analytical insights and automating relevant cross-channel interactions.

• Quickly design and automate consistent cross-channel experiences

• Make better decisions and deepen customer engagement with purpose-built analytics inside

• Gain faster time to ROI and increased agility through a cloud-based digital marketing platform that integrates easily with other customer data sources and applications

To learn more about IBM Marketing Cloud solutions, go to IBM.com/NewWayToEngage

Also, join the conversation on Twitter with Futurists like Anne Ward using #NewWayToEngage

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