1. Ecommerce is still growing in unpredictable times

Ecommerce is evolving rapidly and its growth shows no signs of slowing down. However, customers are facing economic challenges such as student loans, which can impact their purchasing power. 

Despite these challenges, some companies have found overnight success on platforms like TikTok, which has emerged as a major player in advertising and brand awareness. TikTok has quickly become a major player in the advertising space, and its influence on ecommerce is only continuing to grow.

2. The need for digital fluency and alignment of teams 

In today’s fast-paced business environment, digital fluency has become a critical factor for success. It’s no longer enough to simply have a website or an online presence – your brand needs to have an understanding of how to manage and utilize data effectively. This requires building teams that understand data management and flow. As well as having a well-aligned tech team that can adapt quickly to changes in data structures.

To drive revenue effectively, you need to have a deep understanding of product feeds and how data flows through your system. This means developing a clear and comprehensive strategy for data management, including data collection, storage, and analysis. It also requires having the right tools and technologies in place to support these efforts.

Also, it’s essential to have a well-aligned tech team that can work seamlessly with other departments to ensure that data is being used effectively across the organization. This means breaking down silos and creating a culture of collaboration, where everyone is working towards the same goals.

3. Plan your marketing budget

A well-planned marketing budget is essential for maximizing customer acquisition, retention, and overall return on investment. In particular, when working with a limited marketing budget, it’s essential to ensure that your resources are being used effectively. This means not only working to attract new customers but also focusing on keeping existing customers loyal and engaged. 

If you are looking to make the most out of your budget, here are some key tips: 

1. Be brave, yet measured, with budget allocations.
2. Invest in technology to weather changes such as cookie deprecation.
3. Utilize customer loyalty to onboard new customers.

4. Utilize personalization

Personalization is what sets ecommerce brands apart from one another. Customers want to feel valued and understood, and providing them with tailored experiences is a great way to achieve this. By collecting data on their behavior and preferences, you can customize your offerings to fit their unique needs.

However, it’s important to strike a balance between data collection and the user experience. You don’t want to overwhelm your customers with emails requesting information. Instead, try to create fun and engaging methods for gathering data, such as email quizzes or gamification.

5. Build trust and provide value

When it comes to personalization, building trust is even more critical as customers are willing to share their data and preferences with businesses only if they can trust them.

To build trust, it’s essential to keep the promises made in exchange for customer data. For instance, if a customer agrees to share their email address with you in exchange for a discount, you must ensure that they receive the discount as promised. If you fail to deliver on your promises, you risk losing the trust of your customers, which can lead to negative reviews and decreased customer loyalty.

In addition to delivering on promises, you should consistently provide value to your customers throughout their journey. Customers want to feel heard, and they want to know that you care about their satisfaction. You can provide value by engaging with your existing customer base, using their feedback and user-generated content (UGC) to improve your products or services and show that you value their opinions.

6. Top technology trends in 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital landscape. It has the potential to revolutionize your marketing strategy by automating repetitive tasks, improving decision-making processes, and providing valuable insights into customer behavior.

Using AI for creative tasks, such as content creation, can help you stay ahead of the competition. However, it’s important to start small and implement AI in a manageable way that aligns with your business needs.

As you become more comfortable with AI, you can gradually expand its usage to more areas of your business. The key is to approach AI with an open mind and a willingness to experiment, while always keeping your business goals and customer needs at the forefront of your decision-making. 

7. Women in ecommerce

At the Nashville Retail Summit, a panel of inspiring women discussed their experiences and how they have made an impact on this dynamic industry. I had the privilege of being one of the panelists, where I shared my thoughts on the role of empathy and creativity in connecting with customers and shaping successful marketing strategies.

During the discussion, I emphasized the importance of networking, learning from industry mentors, and pursuing your passion to succeed in ecommerce. I also highlighted the unique skills that women bring to the table and the significance of fostering a spirit of collaboration.

The panel highlighted the increasing presence of women in ecommerce and the important contributions they are making to the industry. By leveraging their strengths, being creative, and working together, women are making a mark in this exciting and rapidly evolving field.

And that’s a wrap on the Nashville Retail Summit

The Nashville Retail Summit 2023 was an exciting and enriching experience, and we are eager to bring these valuable insights back to the Dotdigital team and our valued customers. Stay tuned for more updates from industry events and insight from our in-house experts.

In this blog, we’ll explore the concept of responsible marketing, its importance, and examples of socially and ethically responsible marketing practices. So, let’s dive in and explore why you should be a responsible marketer.

What does responsible marketing mean?

Responsible marketing is a marketing approach that encompasses ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible practices while keeping the best interests of the customer at the core. It aims to deliver engaging and creative marketing campaigns that promote transparency, social responsibility, and a genuine connection with the target audience.

Why is responsible marketing important?

Responsible marketing is essential for creating strong customer relationships and ensuring sustainable business growth. Let’s explore the reasons behind the significance of utilizing an ethical and responsible approach to marketing.

1. Building consumer trust: With increasing awareness about data protection and privacy, customers are becoming more cautious about sharing their personal information. By using responsible marketing practices, you’ll build trust with your customers by being transparent about data collection, usage, and security measures.
2. Customer-centricity: You should prioritize the needs, preferences, and well-being of your customers. This can be achieved by actively seeking feedback, understanding their concerns, and providing relevant and meaningful experiences through your marketing initiatives.
3. Meeting regulatory compliance: Data protection regulations such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) require you to be diligent in protecting customer data and obtaining consent. Implementing responsible marketing helps you ensure compliance with these regulations, avoiding potential legal complications and financial penalties.
4. Enhancing brand reputation: Adopting ethical and sustainable marketing practices demonstrates to consumers and stakeholders that your brand prioritizes integrity and social responsibility. This enhances your brand’s reputation, sets your brand apart from competitors, and attracts customers who value ethical business practices.
5. Boosting customer loyalty: Organizations that practice responsible marketing tend to generate more personalized and meaningful engagement with their target audience. This, in turn, fosters an emotional connection with customers, driving brand loyalty and encouraging long-term relationships.
6. Social responsibility: You should consider the social impact of your products and services. This can be achieved by creating marketing campaigns that support social causes, raise awareness about important issues, or advocate for positive change.
7. Supporting sustainability: By integrating environmental and social considerations into your marketing strategies, your brand can reduce its negative impact on the planet and contribute to a more sustainable future. This not only benefits the environment but also appeals to the growing consumer base that values eco-friendliness.
8. Long-term brand success: Responsible marketing contributes to the long-term success of your brand by building strong customer relationships, enhancing brand reputation, and fostering consumer trust. These factors ultimately lead to repeat purchases, positive word of mouth, and customer referrals, which boost revenue and ensure the sustained growth of businesses.

How can I be a responsible marketer?

Becoming a responsible marketer starts with a mindset shift and a commitment to ethical practices. Here are six steps you can take to become a responsible marketer:

1. Understand your audience

When it comes to marketing, understanding your audience is critical. It’s not just about knowing their age, gender, or location. It’s about digging deeper and understanding their values, beliefs, and concerns. When you have this knowledge, you can tailor your marketing messages and strategies to resonate with your audience on a deeper level.

For example, if your target audience values sustainability, you can incorporate eco-friendly practices into your business operations and highlight them in your marketing messages. If they are concerned about the impact of your product on their health, you can provide detailed information about the safety and efficacy of your product.

It’s important to remember that your audience is made up of individuals with unique needs and preferences. By taking the time to research and understand your audience, you can create marketing messages and strategies that are more effective and meaningful.

2. Be transparent

Transparency is an essential aspect of building trust with your customers. When you are transparent, you show your customers that you have nothing to hide and that you respect their privacy. To achieve this, you need to be clear and open about how you collect and use customer data. You should also ensure that you have proper consent for any data collection activities. This means that you need to inform your customers about what data you are collecting and why you are collecting it. 

It’s also important to communicate your privacy policies and data protection measures in a way that is easy for your customers to understand. Make sure that you use simple language and avoid technical jargon. This will help your customers to make informed decisions about their data and understand how you are protecting their information. 

3. Be authentic

In today’s hyper-connected world, customers expect to be treated as human beings and not as targets. It’s essential to be authentic and honest about your business practices, from where you source your materials to how and why you are collecting customer data. The more informed customers are, the more they will trust you.

Customers are more cautious while making decisions and gaining their loyalty requires gaining their trust. Therefore, it’s crucial to adopt responsible practices that can help build trust with them. Explicitly explain to your customers why you need their data and what benefits they will receive in return for sharing their data with you, such as birthday discounts and invitations to local events.

4. Support social causes

Supporting social causes is a great way to showcase your brand’s commitment to making a positive impact beyond just selling products or services. It helps you align your brand with social causes that resonate with your target audience and can create a more meaningful connection with them. 

There are many ways to support social causes, such as donating a portion of your profits to a charitable organization, supporting community initiatives, or participating in volunteer efforts. You could choose to support a cause that is related to your industry or a cause that is important to your customers and employees. 

By supporting social causes, you can not only make a positive impact on society but also create a positive image for your brand. It can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors and build stronger relationships with your customers.

5. Embrace diversity and inclusion

Creating a culture of diversity and inclusion is important in today’s society. As a business, it’s important to ensure that your marketing campaigns and materials accurately reflect the diversity of your target audience. This includes featuring individuals from different backgrounds, abilities, body types, cultures, and abilities in your advertisements and promotional content.

By promoting inclusivity and challenging stereotypes through your marketing efforts, you not only attract a wider range of customers but also create a sense of belonging for all. When individuals see themselves represented in your marketing campaigns, they are more likely to feel connected to your brand and develop a sense of loyalty.

Moreover, promoting diversity and inclusion can also help to build a positive reputation for your brand. Customers appreciate companies that make an effort to celebrate diversity and create an inclusive environment. By embracing diversity and inclusion, you show that your company values all individuals, regardless of their differences, and is committed to creating a welcoming environment for all.

6. Educate and raise awareness

Responsible marketing is not only about promoting your products or services but also about creating a positive impact on society and the environment. One way to do this is by educating your customers and stakeholders about relevant social and environmental issues. 

By sharing informative content, organizing educational events, or supporting educational initiatives in your community, you can raise awareness about important topics and inspire others to take action.

As a brand, you can position yourself as a thought leader and advocate for positive change. By doing so, you can not only gain the trust and loyalty of your customers but also contribute to building a better world. 

For example, if you have a retail clothing brand, you can educate your customers about the negative impact of fast fashion on the environment and encourage them to choose sustainable and ethical fashion options. Similarly, if you have a food brand, you can promote healthy eating habits and support local farmers and producers.

Examples of responsible marketing

Many brands have taken the responsible marketing approach to heart and have succeeded in connecting with their audience. Here are four examples of responsible marketing campaigns that have made a significant impact:

1. Patagonia’s”Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign

In 2011, Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times on Black Friday, encouraging consumers not to buy its products unless they truly needed them. The advert aimed to raise awareness about the environmental consequences of consumerism. This bold move positioned Patagonia as a brand that prioritizes environmental sustainability and responsible consumption.

2. Dove’s”Real Beauty” campaign

Dove launched its “Real Beauty” campaign in 2004 to challenge unrealistic beauty standards and promote body positivity. The campaign featured women of different body types, ages, and ethnicities. By showcasing the diversity of beauty, Dove created an empowering message that resonates with women around the world, setting a new standard for the beauty industry.

3. Ben & Jerry’s social mission

Ben & Jerry’s has long been an advocate for social justice, using their ice cream to raise awareness about issues such as climate change, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ rights. They also focus on fair trade and environmental sustainability when sourcing their ingredients. By aligning their marketing efforts with their social mission, Ben & Jerry’s has cultivated a loyal customer base who share their values.

4. Warby Parker’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program

Warby Parker, an eyewear company, has a “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program where for every pair of glasses sold, they donate a pair to someone in need. This responsible marketing initiative not only helps people access affordable eyewear but also creates a positive image for the brand and motivates customers to support their cause.

These examples demonstrate the power of responsible marketing in fostering customer trust and loyalty, enhancing brand reputation, and making a positive impact on society.

Be a responsible marketer

In conclusion, being a responsible marketer is important in today’s society where consumers are becoming more aware and conscious of their choices. It’s important to prioritize transparency, honesty, and ethical practices in all marketing efforts to build trust among consumers and create long-term relationships. This will improve your brand’s reputation, image, and ultimately contribute to a better and more sustainable future for all. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of using SMS marketing in the sales process and share some best practices that will help you maximize your success. So grab your phone and let’s dive in.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing, also known as text message marketing, is a powerful communication strategy that utilizes texts to send targeted promotional messages, updates, and notifications directly to customers’ and prospects’ mobile devices. This global marketing channel offers an immediate and personal connection with your target audience, as it reaches them where they spend a significant amount of time – their smartphones.

How marketers can use SMS to fill the funnel for sales representatives

Before sales representatives can close deals, they need a steady stream of leads to work with. Marketers can use SMS to generate more leads by capturing the attention of potential customers. SMS marketing enables marketers to create a sense of urgency, encouraging prospects to take the desired action and re-engage inactive leads. Here are some effective ways to capture new leads through SMS:

• Promote valuable web content: Use SMS campaigns to share webinars, whitepapers, and other valuable resources with targeted prospects. 
• Share limited-time offers: Announce exclusive discounts and promotions through SMS to encourage prospects to act swiftly. Offering time-sensitive deals adds a sense of urgency and can be a powerful motivator for prospects to engage with your brand.
• Send personalized follow-ups: Connect with prospects who have previously shown interest in your products or services by sending tailored follow-up messages. This demonstrates your attention to their specific needs and can strengthen their interest in your offerings.

How B2B sales representatives can use SMS

Once leads are generated sales representatives can leverage SMS marketing to nurture relationships, engage with prospects, and ultimately close deals. Unlike emails or phone calls that may go unnoticed or unanswered, most people open and read their text messages within minutes.

Furthermore, SMS enables real-time conversations in a concise format. Sales representatives can quickly communicate key information about products or services without overwhelming potential prospects with lengthy emails or presentations.

Additionally, texts allow you to personalize and customize your messages. You can tailor your messages based on the specific needs and preferences of each prospect, creating a more personalized experience that resonates better with potential buyers.

Moreover, SMS provides an unobtrusive way for you to follow up on leads without being too pushy. With SMS you can send a well-timed message that can serve as a gentle reminder while keeping the lines of communication open between the sales rep and prospect.

SMS offers measurable results and tracking capabilities through delivery receipts and response rates. This data allows sales teams to analyze their efforts effectively, fine-tune their strategies if needed, increase conversion rates, and have happy long-term customers.

Advantages of SMS messaging in B2B sales

SMS messaging can help you break through the digital noise, capture your buyers’ attention, and close more deals, all while providing a preferred alternative to cold calling and emails.

Some key advantages of SMS messaging are: 

• Fast communication: SMS significantly speeds up B2B sales, and with Dotdigital’s one-click email-to SMS conversion, sending messages becomes effortless.
• Personal connection: Utilize customer data to personalize SMS marketing messages like you would in an email campaign. Built-in link tracking and shortening enable you to monitor engagement and conversion-driving links.
• Excellent open rates: SMS messages boost campaign open and click-through rates, ensuring your B2B sales content reaches key decision-makers.
• Increased engagement: SMS marketing simplifies engagement with prospects by providing a more direct communication method, promoting responsiveness, and raising the odds of closing deals.
• Smooth integration: SMS marketing expands your reach across channels and connects with your worldwide customer base in over 220 countries, delivering messages straight to their preferred devices.
• Performance tracking: Real-time reporting and analytics allow you to evaluate SMS campaign performance and make informed decisions based on data.

SMS for B2B: best practices

To harness the power of SMS for B2B sales, you need to be savvy with your approach. Here are a few strategies to help you get started:

1. Always obtain consent first

Before sending any SMS messages, make sure you have permission from your audience. Not only is this legally required, but it also helps avoid any negative impact on your business. Include opt-in forms on your website, making it easy for visitors to subscribe to your SMS communications.

2. Include a clear CTA

While it’s important to offer something of value to your audience, you also need to provide a clear call to action (CTA). Make sure your CTA outlines the next steps the recipient needs to take to benefit from your offer.

3. Keep messages concise

With limited character counts in SMS messages, keep your texts brief yet engaging. Remember to use Unicode elements, such as emojis, which can reduce your message length to 70 characters. Shorter messages can actually be more effective and easier to read.

4. Time your messages strategically

Just like your email campaigns, timing can make or break the impact of your SMS communications. Keep your prospects’ workdays in mind, aiming to engage during their most productive periods, such as mid-morning or right after lunch. Be aware of times when they’re less likely to read your messages, like early Monday morning or late Friday afternoon. And of course, remember not to spam your subscribers—give them some breathing space between messages for better effectiveness.

5. Test, test, test

Just like with email or social media, testing your messages is key to understanding what works best. Split-test different messages with different audiences and personas to see what resonates most.

Summary

Overall, SMS marketing is a powerful tool for B2B sales that can help you cut through the noise and stand out in a crowded digital landscape. By incorporating this method into your B2B strategy and following best practices, you can elevate your sales processes, drive growth, and stay ahead of the competition. 

Personalization and the human touch

Even in our technology-driven age, people appreciate a personal touch in interactions – that’s why personalization remains a vital marketing tool. Human-to-human (H2H) marketing strategies focus on creating individual experiences, like personalized videos or understanding prospects’ interests through social media. These tailored approaches attract quality leads and boost conversion rates.

Why not level up your workflow by blending personalization with marketing automation? Trust us, it’s a game changer, making your marketing feel even more genuine and engaging to your audience.

How to personalize with marketing automation

When done right, marketing automation adds a human touch by catering to each contact’s unique needs and preferences. It teams up with personalization effortlessly, helping you deliver tailor-made experiences at scale. Here are four ways to achieve that:

1. Segment your audience

When it comes to reaching your audience effectively, segmentation is key. Dotdigital offers powerful tools that allow you to create segments based on various criteria, such as age, location, and RFM score. This means you can tailor your marketing efforts to specific groups within your audience.

By utilizing automation programs, Dotdigital makes it easy for you to create segments and deliver targeted messages. This not only saves you time but also ensures that your audience receives personalized content that resonates with them.

2. Use dynamic content

Dynamic content is a game-changer when it comes to email marketing. It enables you to provide personalized and targeted content to your recipients in one email. Achieving this is possible by tapping into your customer analytics and creating engaging content, which can be delivered at scale using dynamic content blocks and smart program logic.

Imagine being able to display images of local stores to recipients based on their location, making them feel like you’re right there with them. Or recommending products based on their recently viewed or purchased items, giving them that extra nudge toward making a purchase.

With dynamic content, you can create highly relevant and engaging emails that cater to each recipient’s unique preferences and behaviors. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows exactly what your customers want, delivering the right message at the right time.

3. Customer-driven journeys

Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all approach to automation programs. In today’s customer-centric world, it’s all about giving your contacts control over their journey. Instead of bombarding your customers with generic content, why not offer multiple paths based on their actions and preferences?

But it doesn’t stop there. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches like remails to find what truly resonates with your audience. Keep testing and refining your strategies until you discover what works best for each segment of your contacts.

4. Leverage behavior data

Tapping into behavioral data is the key to understanding your audience by tracking their actions and responding in a way that resonates with them. With Dotdigital, crafting automation programs that respond to your contacts’ behavior as it happens becomes a piece of cake, paving the way for timely and relevant communication.

Imagine noticing a shopper leaving items in their cart, and effortlessly sending them a gentle trigger to encourage the completion of their purchase. Or, picture welcoming a new subscriber to your newsletter by guiding them through your brand’s journey, all the while showcasing meaningful offers, using marketing automation.

By harnessing the potential of behavioral data, you’ll never miss an opportunity to connect with your audience when it matters most, leading to stronger relationships and increased satisfaction.

Combine marketing automation and personalization for maximized results

Both personalization and marketing automation have their merits, but combining the two can help you unlock your full marketing potential. With tools like Dotdigital, you can provide personalized experiences at scale, catering to each contact’s unique interests and preferences, without sacrificing the efficiency and reach of automation.

Are you curious to learn more about Sarah’s data-driven approach and vision for customer loyalty’s future? Read on and explore her expertise in this compelling conversation that you won’t want to miss.

Q: Can you give us an overview of Spektrix and your role there?

At Spektrix, we’re a team of just over 200 people, providing cloud-based technology for ticketing, marketing, and fundraising to the arts & cultural sector. We partnered with Dotdigital to provide a comprehensive integration that enables our clients to deliver digital communications via Dotdigital. To ensure our users get the most out of our platform we also offer comprehensive and all-inclusive support, training, and consultancy services.

I originally have a background in arts marketing, and I brought that experience and my love of using data to Spektrix eight years ago. In my time at Spektrix, I have worked with numerous arts and entertainment organizations, consulting on loyalty strategy and best practices amongst other things. I co-authored the Spektrix Insights Report in 2019, leading the analysis of sector benchmarks across multiple areas such as loyalty, fundraising, and online purchasing trends. And I continue to lead initiatives to share data learnings, such as the Spektrix Ticket Sales Dashboard, with the sector.

Q: Have you attended the Dotdigital Summit before, what are you particularly looking forward to this year?

I’ve not attended before, so I’m really looking forward to experiencing it for the first time. The breadth of organizations attending and the variety of content being presented looks super interesting. 

At Spektrix we’re always interested in exploring digital communications best practices from other sectors, so we can share that learning with our users. Also, discovering how other experts are using tools like AI, automation, and incentives will be a great opportunity for me, and for our community.

Q: Your talk is focusing on loyalty in 2023, do you think loyalty is harder for brands to come by these days?

I think certain types of loyalty are harder for brands these days – people are much more likely to question their loyalty and look for alternatives rather than just remaining loyal to a brand as default. You can really see that shift in particular with things like switching banks or mobile phone networks. Or the ability to swap and change streaming services on the regular. 

The research also indicates that younger consumers are much more likely to be in tune with the values of a brand and really assess their credentials in terms of value for money, customer service, and bigger mission-driven values such as environmental impact or the way their staff is treated. As a certified B Corp, it’s certainly something that comes up increasingly often from organizations interested in working or partnering with Spektrix.

All this information is much easier to come by these days, rather than relying on the ‘polished’ brand that gets portrayed, you really have to ‘live’ your brand, or you’ll get called out. But I think this also opens up a world of possibilities in terms of loyalty, where you can build genuine loyalty to your brand, rather than repeatedly selling an individual product or service. This is arguably more complex, as you need to understand that your customers’ motivations are variable and ‘messy’.

Q: What will people learn from your talk at the Dotdigital Summit?

Hopefully, people will take away some learnings from specific examples from the Spektrix user community, and how this translates into a process for assessing the variable motivations of your customers. And therefore how you can communicate with them in a much more tailored way, and incentivize them to engage with you, using a more complex, less hierarchical model to the traditional customer loyalty ladder. I’ll be talking about examples from theatre and the performing arts, but the stories will apply to everyone – after all, theatre audiences are the same people who book holidays, buy clothes, or support charities.

Q: What are your top tips for brands who struggle with customer retention?

Try not to do everything. Delve into your data, measure some baselines, experiment, try to get under the skin of your customers and potential customers’ motivations, align your messaging to appeal to them, try things out, and refine it. Ditch anything that’s not working.

Q: What’s your favorite loyalty scheme you’re personally part of as a customer and why?

I’ve become much more aware over the last few years about where I spend my money/who I spend my money with. Often the loyalty scheme itself is not the deciding factor, but if a brand I engage with happens to have one then that is obviously a bonus and encourages me to continue shopping with them.

I’ve hit that time of my life where I have signed up to be a member of the RHS. They have just opened a new public garden on the outskirts of Manchester and I’ve deliberately bought a membership to incentivize me to attend more regularly. There are then the added perks of an excellent app where I can track the plants in my garden, and get regular personalized updates via email.

Q: How do you foresee the loyalty landscape changing in the future?

AI is going to be an interesting one to watch – those one-to-many communications are likely to be able to become hyper-tailored. And profiling to find similar, or lookalike, audiences is becoming much more sophisticated.

Q: You say you’re a self-confessed data nerd, what are your tips for getting the most out of your data?

Make sure you’re measuring what you’re doing – then you can use this to set baselines, compare with industry benchmarks, and test anything new you try. Also, come at your data with an actual question you want to answer. Time and again I see organizations measuring KPIs, but then they aren’t sure what to do with them. If you approach the data with an inquisitive mind and a question you want to find the answer to, you’re much more likely to find something useful.

If you’ve not got your tickets for this year’s Summit yet, grab them here.

Read on to get a sneak peek into their Summit talk, where they’ll discuss the Stroke Association’s innovative creative messaging techniques and the art of developing impeccably crafted welcome journeys.

Q: Lily and Emma, could you introduce yourself and your roles at the Stroke Association?

Lily: Hello. I’m Lily, one of the Digital Marketing Managers at the Stroke Association. I work as the email and SMS lead for the charity to develop and deliver campaigns and online journeys. I’m responsible for delivering digital marketing activity to drive digital income and ensure the retention of our database.

Emma: And I’m Emma, I’m the Supporter Experience Manager at the Stroke Association. My role is responsible for making sure our donors receive a great experience after their first donation. I work really closely with Lily and her team to make sure all our activity is engaging and is working across multiple channels.

Q: We’re excited for your talk at this year’s Dotdigital Summit. What are you looking forward to sharing most in this session?

Lily: I’m most looking forward to sharing our testing over the years and how far we’ve come as an organization. There’s loads to share, from copy to creative and audience segmentation to journey optimizations.

Emma: I joined Stroke Association four years ago and we’ve all worked so hard to completely transform the program. Before we used to celebrate if we got a handful of gifts – now we feel disappointed if we don’t go over our targets. There’s been a lot of learning in that time, and it’s been great to work alongside Lily, means a lot of our recommendations from activity to activity get implemented.

Q: How significant do you think customer journeys are for successful donor engagement?

Lily: Incredibly significant. It’s so important to thank donors, tell them about the huge impact they’re making, and bring them on your journey to further deepen their connection to the charity. Beyond welcome journeys, it’s vital to keep donors engaged through evergreen activity, for example, appeals, newsletters, and asking for feedback, so you can continually improve their experience.

Emma: Making sure you have the right journeys is crucial. People don’t fit in the nice little boxes you might want them to – they take up multiple actions, have lots of different interests, and give to us for all sorts of reasons. Many people give because they themselves have needed our support in the past. That’s why we’re also measuring donor engagement further down the line with our beneficiary audience after offering stroke support. We want to see if people engage further, for example, fundraising, volunteering, or helping us to campaign for change.

Q: Can you give us a sneak peek into the innovative messaging tactics that Stroke Association uses for deepening donor connections?

Lily: We started pretty much at the beginning with developing our email channel. Over the years we’ve focused on specific audiences, for example, cash donors, regular givers, supporters gifting in memory of someone, Legacy pledgers, and people receiving our stroke support services, and then tailored messaging to those individuals.

This has been done using personalization, segmentation, investigating previous donor history and behavior to tailor our copy accordingly, scheduling messages to send at the right time, and acknowledging the wider environment we find ourselves living in today.

Emma: I completely agree with Lily, we’ve been learning and building on what we had over the years. We’ve tried to make sure the program focuses on how amazing the donors are (not how great we are), make sure we’re always signposting to support they can access, and being as human as possible in the way we write to them. I do really long for the day when we can stop writing ‘It’s been another difficult year’ – I think we’re all just quite tired of things feeling really heavy. I am confident that our Christmas communications this year will have more hope than ever and be something uplifting this Christmas.

Q: A key topic of your discussion is strategic testing. How important is strategic testing in refining donor engagement tactics?

Lily: Strategic testing is crucial. I’m really lucky to work with our Supporter Experience Team who’re always supportive of trying something new. If you don’t test, you’ll never know what works, what could be developed, and equally important, what should be left in the past.

We’ve A/B tested everything from copy style, copy length, CTA’s, contributor stories, donation button placement, scheduling, donation web pages, donation block, and onward journey. From FY 21-22 to FY 22-23 testing has helped increase our email appeal income by +32%.

Emma: Testing is hugely important across all our channels. Often if the team is undecided about something or there’s a split in the vote, we try to test it. We’ve tested our outer creative, ask matrix, different pack inclusions, and even tested an aphasia-friendly summary in packs. I love this sort of stuff though, It’s so fun learning the results, and seeing which way it went – and you don’t always get it right either (hence why it’s so important to test and challenge your thinking).

Q: Could you walk us through the elements that made the Christmas campaign your best-performing campaign and its impact?

Lily: Over the past three years we’ve been continually developing and optimizing each appeal in the lead-up to our big Christmas appeal. We’ve implemented personalized messaging for our different audience segments, interrogated our data to deliver tailored gift asks dependant on previous donor history, tested copywriting styles, ensured our emails are visually engaging and aligned with our postal mailing creative, optimized journeys, and reviewed scheduling so all these elements work together to achieve desired results. Comparing Christmas 202 to Christmas 2021 main targets increased in terms of donations (+13%), revenue (+19%), and average gift (+5%).

Emma: Another key thing for us has been securing compelling stories to tell. We’re fortunate that the Stroke Association has invested in this area, and we now have a wonderful Storytelling Manager. They’ve found us a great story this Christmas, a young family whose father had a stroke last year. They overcame a lot of obstacles during recovery, not least being abroad when it happened, but they are so passionate about sharing their story and the help they received.

Q: Crafting welcome journeys is an art. Could you highlight a few enhancements you’ve made to these journeys that have significantly improved their effectiveness?

Lily: Our Cash Welcome journey was implemented back in January 2021 to thank supporters, introduce them to the charity’s work and its impact, secure a second cash gift, and convert to regular giving.

A split was added to this journey design, which tailored the email content and CTA depending on whether the recipient had already given an extra cash gift before the second gift CTA within the email welcome journey. Delivering personalized messaging for those who already gifted (additional thanks and impact) versus those who we hoped would gift again (donation ask and impact) improved the effectiveness of this email journey, as we delivered tailored messaging based on donor behavior.

Emma: It sounds simple but when we overhauled the program back in 2021, we very much thought about the basics; what were we trying to achieve? For our cash program, we wanted to thank and get people to give again. For our regular giving program, we wanted to keep people engaged and giving. For in memory, we wanted people to feel connected with us in the hope they might fundraise on our behalf. Keeping these goals in mind meant that all our postal and email communications had these ideas at the core. We weren’t just sending out communications for the sake of doing it or ‘because we should’.

Q: Could you discuss the Stroke Association’s approach to cross channel touchpoints for driving donor engagement?

Lily: The postal mailing and emails work in tandem to drive effective donor engagement. The mailing not only includes postal donations but also signposts recipients to our online donation pages and the ability to donate via QR codes. The emails utilize the mailing content and explore additional contributor (e.g. stroke survivor, researcher) stories further, compelling audiences to support the charity.

Emma: The postal mailing, donation web pages, emails, donation funnel, and transactional emails work in unison to provide a smooth and integrated experience. Its vital supporters have a seamless journey, with our content being relevant and inspiring them to take action and donate, thus building a deeper relationship with the charity and cementing donor retention.

Q: What valuable insights do you hope to gain from other attendees at the Dotdigital Summit this year?

Lily: I’m really looking forward to discussions around data and automation to drive engagement and successful cross-channel marketing. This is something we’re beginning to explore further as an organization, so these talks will be beneficial. I’m also looking forward to Tim Peake’s keynote session, as this should be pretty inspirational.

Emma: I’m really interested in discussions around reactive and triggered journeys – we’re still very much at the beginning of our organizational journeys. With some of our journeys further along than others, I’m keen to hear how other organizations make sense of the spider’s web and make it feel seamless to the customer. I’m excited full stop at being able to go to a conference in person, as I’ve not been to one since early 2020.

If you’ve not got your tickets for this year’s Summit yet, grab them here.

Can you give us some background about Le Col and your role? 

Le Col is a premium cycling apparel brand focused on making the best kit in the world. We use our unique insight from our legends such as Bradley Wiggins, Pro Cycling team (Bora- Hansgrohe), and founder/former professional cyclist Yanto Barker to help our customers ride faster and further.

I’ve been at Le Col for just over three years now and my role is to head up our CRM team to ensure that customers are having an optimum experience across all digital touchpoints and build long-term relationships with the brand.

Are you excited about this year’s Dotdigital Summit, have you attended before?

Very excited for this years Summit! Yes, I’ve attended before and really enjoyed it.

What do you like most about the Summit, and what are you looking forward to this year?

I like the opportunity to listen to a great group of speakers – I feel like you always get actionable insights at the Summit to bring back to what you’re doing in the office. 

Your talk will focus on Black Friday, how do you think it has changed over the years? Are customers getting fatigued by Black Friday messaging?

People have been talking about Black Friday fatigue since I started in ecommerce. Most people I speak to have really seen an increase in sending of poor quality messages from companies that you forgot you subscribed to or just feel the need to send because it’s Black Friday.

I think with the state of the economy now and the challenges brands are facing, Black Friday is still a crucial trading period for most. As long as you put a good plan together – offering timely, relevant, and valuable customer-centric messaging to campaigning – people will always be engaged.

What will people takeaway from the talk?

Hopefully, they will leave with a few new tips and tricks that I’ve learned implementing Black Fridays over the last couple of years at Le Col. I would also like people to go away remembering that Black Friday is also an opportunity to speak to customers than just a discount sale.

What tactics do you suggest brands employ to generate loyalty from casual Black Friday shoppers?

Make sure you focus on a wider range of metrics when it comes to your Black Friday shoppers.

Obviously, transactions and revenue are key drivers during Black Friday, but we also put a premium on maintaining long-term relationship building goals including brand awareness, loyalty acquisition, and net promoter score.

What are Le Col’s plans for the future?

One of our key goals is to build on our loyalty programme, the Le Col Cycling Club. We’ve seen massive spikes in customer retention and satisfaction since launching the free membership in 2021 and we want to continue to build and develop on the programme offering new cool features going forwards.

What do you think will be a big trend in marketing for 2024?

Apart from A.I? I’d say in a world where third-party advertising will become more difficult due to Apple privacy protection and general privacy laws and shorter attention spans, we’ll see a greater reliance on first-party data for targeting and reporting, and increased focus on creative to stand out from the crowd to drive real incremental gain.

If you’ve not got your tickets for this year’s Summit yet, grab them here.

It gives us enormous pleasure to announce that Dotdigital has retained all three of its ISO certifications after passing eight days of auditing with no non-conformities being raised. Since obtaining our ISO 27001 certification in 2020, we have undergone regular audits. However, this is the first time Alcumus (our external auditors) have assessed all aspects of our three standards (ISO 27001, ISO 14001, and ISO 27701) simultaneously.

Our commitment to ISO standards

Since 2020, Dotdigital has opted to implement 3 ISO standards, underpinning its commitment to the protection of Information, the promotion of sustainability, and positive environmental behaviors. The three standards Dotdigital is certified to are:

• ISO 27001 – Information Security Management 
• ISO 27701 – Privacy Information Management 
• ISO 14001 – Environmental Management 

The global significance of ISO certifications

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is an independent body that sets global standards for safety, security, and quality. As the name suggests, its goal is to define standards for best practices that can be implemented, irrespective of the size, type, or location of an organization. By holding these certifications, we can show global clients and prospects that Dotdigital is the obvious choice for responsible marketers wanting a customer experience and data platform. Not forgetting that we’re also the world’s first carbon-neutral, ISO 14001-certified CXDP.

What is customer intent?

Customer intent is often confused with buyer’s intent – i.e. the thoughts or actions directing customers to make a purchase. In basic terms, that would be the moment a shopper enters a brick-and-mortar store and heads to the jeans aisle. Their intent to buy is clear.

However, in the wide world of marketing, buyer intent doesn’t take into account the wide range of online actions customers can take before converting.

Some actions can be simple, such as an immediate click-through from your homepage to a product page. But with the extensive range of channels customers can interact with you on, there are many actions that, when added together, can express their intent.

Why is customer intent important?

Today’s customers demand fast, friction-free experiences. They want brands to understand what they’re after and help them achieve their goals in real-time.

At the same time, marketers are asked to do more with less; to make marketing budgets go further.

Identifying moments of customer intent is essential to meeting both goals. For marketers, data insights that highlight micro-moments of customer intent provide you with more opportunities to convert customers and drive revenue.

For customers, brands that use customer intent can deliver personalized messages at the right time, making them feel valued and driving them into action.

Why is customer intent more powerful than demographics?

Marketers who exclusively rely on demographic information to target customers risk missing more than 70% of potential mobile shoppers.

Demographic information and marketing preferences are great tools to help marketers build a customer profile and understand what they want from you. Unfortunately, they offer little insight into what they’re looking for in the moment.

When customers are looking for something; a product, a solution, or a service, they go to the web. More often than not, they turn to their smartphones. These intent-filled micro-moments are what brands need to target to connect with people.

How do you identify customer intent?

Marketing is no longer as simple as ushering customers down the funnel. The customer journey isn’t linear but cyclical and chaotic. We expect shoppers to visit our sites repeatedly and communicate with us on multiple channels before they’re ready to make a decision.

So now we know that we’re looking for intent-filled interactions to signify customer intent, how do we determine what these moments are?

Collect actionable data

Demographic and preference data is essential for creating personalized and engaging marketing messages. However, you need to collect more than just customer data. Actions such as category page views, product page views, registrations, on-site searches, and landing page clicks should all be measured.

These can help you identify patterns in customer behavior before they convert, such as how many times they visit a page before the point of conversion. You will then be able to target specific high-intent actions to drive customers towards completing your goal.

Spot the key customer starting points

Your homepage might be the page most frequently landed on, but it doesn’t reveal real customer intent. Instead, you need to decide where the customer journey begins. Site searches are always good indicators of customer intent. Shoppers are looking for something specific so you should act on this and make the journey to conversion as simple as possible.

Similarly, specific category pages or feature pages can clearly indicate what customers are looking for. If a customer knows what they’re after, then this is a vital place for you to track and target.

Create pre-intent content

Understanding customer intent goes hand-in-hand with understanding the pain points that have driven them to your website in the first place. By strategizing your content marketing to focus on these specific pain points, utilizing blogs and learning resource pages, you can capture customer intent before they realize yours is the solution they need.

For example, if your brand offers a kitchen fitting service you can create content targeting first-time homeowners with a checklist of things they need to consider when renovating a kitchen. This will help you pre-emptively capture customers interested in finding out more about your service. You can then guide them through your customer journey and lead them to the point of conversion.

How to use customer intent in your marketing automation?

Targeting intent-filled micro-moments increases revenue. There are several scenarios where customer intent can trigger timely, relevant, and personalized marketing messages.

Abandoned browse and cart abandonment emails

Active carts or high-intent page visits demonstrate clear intent. To turn this intent into conversions you need to build abandoned cart or abandoned browse programs. Our Global benchmark report shows that acting quickly can make a big difference – 45% of abandoned carts are recovered within 2 hours. So, it’s important to re-engage your customers quickly and guide them back to your site to boost the likelihood of securing a sale.

Repeat page hits

As part of your work identifying customer intent, you should have a clear idea about which pages on your website are essential to your customers’ journey. Using this intelligence, you can create automation programs that are triggered when a browser views the same page three times.

For example, if you’re a furniture company and have noticed customers frequently visiting your payment plans page, you can use this insight to trigger a campaign. When a shopper views the page numerous times, a friendly ‘ask us anything’ email might be just the push they need to convert.

Customer engagement

Customer modeling tools such as eRFM and lead scoring help you measure subscriber engagement. You can identify which customers are actively interacting with your brand and which have lapsed.

Customer modeling triggers campaigns when customers move between audience groups. So, when a customer stops engaging with your marketing and falls into a needs-nurturing or lapsed group, you can automatically enroll them into a win-back automation campaign.

Similarly, when an unengaged subscriber starts re-engaging, you can leverage the data you already have on them to deliver a personalized campaign that enhances their customer experience. Product recommendation blocks and dynamic content are just a couple of ways to drive newly engaged customers to convert.

Summary

Customer intent is the secret weapon for creating effective, relevant, and persuasive marketing campaigns. By examining your audience’s behavior, segmenting them based on their intent, and delivering tailored content that speaks to their individual needs, you’ll unlock unprecedented levels of customer engagement, conversion, and growth. So, tap into customer intent today, and take your marketing strategy to the next level.

Unfortunately, there is a significant disconnect between expectation and reality in CX. In research carried out by Adweek and Accenture Interactive, they found that while 80% of brands believe they deliver a superior customer experience, only 8% of customers agree.

Brands have to go further and break down boundaries to meet customers’ expectations.

What are interactive customer experiences?

Customer experiences have changed. Brands can do more with customer data. From personalization to augmented reality, savvy shoppers know brands can deliver exceptional experiences.

As a result, CX is less about fulfilling wants and needs and more about meeting increased expectations. Customers compare experiences with diverse brands across different industries. That means that a shopper who has a positive experience buying plants online expects a similar experience when buying anything; groceries, takeaways, jewelry.

Interactive experiences will help you continuously meet these experiences. Interactive content personalizes customers’ interactions with your brands and boosts overall engagement.

Think online questionnaires, web-based calculators, or gamified content. It’s content that lets users personalize and participate in it.

In-email customer experiences

Interactive experiences can come in many formats, but in recent years, email marketing has made massive strides towards providing customers with unique experiences.

AMP for email

AMP for email is a powerful tool that revolutionizes customer experience by allowing you to build web-like experiences right in their inbox. It allows readers to interact with your email and choose their own path.

This innovative feature is an excellent asset when it comes to showcasing various aspects of your brand, products, or services. While offering captivating and personalized customer experiences, you can also guide users towards accomplishing a specific goal. However, you also want to drive users to complete a specific goal. Using an AMP-powered carousel feature, email recipients can flick through your highlighted products or campaign photographs before clicking on your email’s main CTA. For example, a ‘register your interest’ button.

Similarly, customers can discover their own pathways by choosing what content they’d like to see in your email campaign. You can later use these insights to deliver a more personalized experience throughout their journey.

Real-time personalization

To create long-lasting relationships with customers, it’s important to provide a hyper-personalized experience. Real-time personalization is a way to achieve this by using up-to-date customer data. Typically, pulling in a subscriber’s first name using data field is an example of this.You can also use location data to provide location-based dynamic content, to make the campaign super relevant to the customer. By segmenting data and getting to know your audience, you can create targeted content that resonates with them. 

GIFs and videos

GIFs and videos bring joy and delight to your email openers. They grab your subscribers’ attention immediately, keeping them engaged and scrolling down your marketing.

Embedded videos have a great engagement rate which ultimately drives more conversions. Animations and videos make communicating complex ideas simple. In a matter of seconds you can explain your latest product launches and business updates.

Advice from interactive experience experts

Odicci helps brands boost customer engagement and drive customer loyalty with interactive experiences such as quizzes, games, and product finders. These are the top tips on creating interactive and engaging emails from CEO Founder of Odicci, Jacques Prothon:

Creating emails that work: how to jazz up your email design

Just because customers are interested in receiving emails doesn’t mean that you’re keeping them engaged. Thankfully, there are many things you can do to ensure your customers are engaged with your emails. We’ve listed six ways to jazz up your email with interactive experiences.

Gamification: can you beat the high-score?

By introducing gamification into your customers’ experience, you can enhance their engagement and increase clicks and conversions. By asking people to play a game such as a memory game or a matchmaker you are tapping into the creative potential of your subscribers. Add an engaging moving gif design to drive clicks and enjoy your dwell time stats go through the roof as people will be engaged for a long time on your website. Thanks to this pinball game Virgin Holidays experienced a 47% click-through rate.

FOMO: are you one of our lucky winners?

By using elements of accomplishment, envy, ownership, and scarcity you are driving your audience towards clicks. When signing up, subscribers are expecting to receive some type of value, such as a coupon, free gift, or a contest entry. If you want subscribers to continue being engaged with your emails, keep providing something of value and make them interact online with an online scratch card or shake your phone to reveal a prize. Feelunique is driving subscribers to an interactive summer spin for a chance to win special discounts.

Enhance customer experience: swipe your preference

To enhance customer experience Central England Co-Op used an interactive “Tinderesque” swipe survey behind email to collect customer preferences and deliver more personalized emails. The swipe survey running behind an email marketing campaign drove a 28% click-through rate with 20% of surveyed customers sharing their preferences. The swipe survey is a great experience to boost clicks and drive engagement.

Rewarding customers: thank you, here is something for you

Subscribers are looking for positive experiences with brands. One of the most popular customer rewards in use by many brands is when a subscriber reaches a certain level of a loyalty program. Paperchase uses various experiences to reward members of their TreatMe Loyalty program, here is an example of Spin the Wheel on PayDay for TreatMe members only.

With loyalty you can also combine experiences with other moments such as birthdays, special moments in the year, or the launch of a product by giving exclusive access.

Customer Feedback: how did we do?

After a purchase or a delivered service use interactive experiences to ask for feedback and make that experience engaging, fun and above all easy. TeamSport used a Net Promoter Score survey to get feedback from customers after their races. Valuable information is collected for each track and customers can be rewarded afterwards.

Intrigue: what does the future hold?

Instead of engaging your audience with a standard marketing message, use email to create interest, curiosity or intrigue. Use a clever hook to invite subscribers to an interactive personality quiz or a product profiler and deliver a personalized brand interaction

A great way to deliver the message and drive clicks from your emails to these engaging experiences is to use moving GIFs that demonstrate how the reward, game, quiz or interactive promotion works in a few seconds. Using moving GIFs is the perfect way to show what engagement and reward(s) subscribers can expect. To get the best results you can create moving GIFs that are personalized or tailored to a segment, or audience.

Summary

As we know email marketing is one of the best tools to drive sales and convert leads. With interactive experiences it is possible to substantially increase your click-through rates and conversions whilst delivering great value to your audience. Don’t be intimidated these interactive experiences can be published in just a few clicks. Give it a try or contact Odicci for more information about our pre-built interactive experiences, with more than 80+ out-of-the-box experiences you won’t be disappointed.