September 4th, 2008
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It wasn’t long ago that eMail Marketing was it’s own solution. Email Service Provider found they had enough value in the “creation of email”, the “delivery of email”, and the “consulting around email best practices” - that they could sell their product en mass to the world…which they did. Then suddenly, without hint or prevue, the industry matured.
The value that the market placed on “email marketing” began to rapidly shift away from “email” and onto the roll that email played in customer’s overall business model. With eMail acceptance into mainstream, odd words, scary word, words that struck terror into the hearts and minds of email sales reps started tripping off the lips of prospects. Words like “integration”, “automated lead nurture”, “customer lifecycle optimization”, and “engagement based content/offer targeting” began showing up in RFPs. Indeed, fair and gentle reader, in a period of roughly 2.5 years, email went from being it’s own value proposition and took it’s rightful roll as a complimenting component to both business process and other technologies..
Now, let’s turn the focus to product reviews. There is little doubt that the world of reviews is an integral part of modern on-site retailing - as it should be. Voice of the Customer, whether it be through surveys, retail blogs, or rating/reviews bolster conversion in ways that cannot be easily replaced. That said, this post isn’t to debate the value of ratings and reviews - but to illustrate that the “rating and reviews industry” - much like email before it - is being assimilated into larger solutions and other business processes.
Don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at
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September 3rd, 2008
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There is no doubt that cookies are important. We are all familiar with a cookie’s role for analytics, content optimization, promotion optimization, and preference/behavioral-driven merchandising. Yet the concept of “cookies” is the key to many WebNext solutions.
Cookies will allow you to identify the interplay of customers who “browse on-line,” but purchase from in-store (or call center). They will allow us to bridge mixed electronic channel experiences together, from desktop widget through mobile commerce. They allow us to do proper attribution of marketing impact. Cookies will be the glue that binds a global definition of “who” a customer is to our business intelligence applications and beyond…still, there is one problem.
How do we get past the age old problem of “cookie deletion,” yet still remain compliant with U.S. privacy laws and industry best practices? How about selling your website visitors and customers on an “opt-in” permanent cookie? It’s a far less radical idea than you may think.
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September 2nd, 2008
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Fair and gentle reader: I’ve talked with a LOT of retailers, big box to high fashion, niche multi-channel merchants to web pure plays. We talk about business problems, trends within their specific market, and tools/technology. I ask most of them “why did you buy your web analytics tool”…and you know what? None of them have said “reporting.”
Their answers range from “optimizing marketing spend” to “help with on-line merchandising.” The good retailers will rattle off a laundry list of vertically-oriented objectives and will generally include some advanced “remarketing and modeling” concepts - whether they call it that or not.
So WHY aren’t the analytics vendors developing specialization for our vertical? Yes, vendors will provide you different javascript that collects different data points to enable a handful of different reports…supporting categories and product pages, a conversion funnel or two…but throwing more reports at your retail customers isn’t helping them solve for the specific business problems retailers are struggling to address.
If you are going to sell your products to retail, it’s time for you to “support” retail. This DOESN’T MEAN
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August 27th, 2008
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We all have them…tools that enhance the customer shopping experience. They may be site search solutions, tools that aid in website navigation, or tools that can do product recommendations.
You are familiar with the names. On the site search and merchandising side you have Mercado, Endeca, SLI Systems, Celebros and emerging iGo Digital - these tools carry significant value on their own. They help your site visitors find the products they are looking for, they serve optimized product results (which products are most likely what the customer was looking for), and offer you the opportunity to practice Strategic Merchandising.
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August 20th, 2008
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The second Xchange conference, now owned and executed by both Gary Angel and Eric Peterson, was almost identical to the first…amazing. Before I begin posting on the concept of “lessons learned” this year, I would like to give those of you who are unfamiliar with the “Xchange” an understanding of what this conference is.
First, there are no presentations…at all. These are round table discussions focused on specific topics. For those of you who have ever been part of the eTail round table sessions - it’s very similar, except there are no vendors trying to sell you their products - it’s all about discussion.
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August 20th, 2008
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The following is a small list of take aways from the Xchange conference that I thought would be of value to many of my retail brethren.
- Testing and Optimization collide with CMS - I had heard about this in the past, but was surprised to find that Omniture’s “Test and Target“, Interwoven’s Optimost offering, and even Google’s Site Optimizer have become “go to” solutions for many retailers. Top brands at Xchange - actually MOST of them have introduced these tools as a framework for marketer managed CMS.This not only drives the control of content into marketers’ hands (or out of IT’s), but also puts them in full control of segmet level content optimization, not simply site wide testing. This allows experience management and tuning based on who a customer is. What becomes even more interesting? These solutions can even extend into email content targeting…but that is a different post.
- Bitter Realizations - Web Analytics is a “subpractice” - and not a tool to be relied on if you are trying to articulate firm sales (less product returns - as an example). Not if you are trying to articulate True LifeTime Value, or tune a “Transaction Life Cycle.”
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July 29th, 2008
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First, this post is going to be a bit more technical than some of my others…so I apologize for geeking out. Second, I am NOT a Microsoft proponent. My past has had me working in a variety of software environments, from Linux to Solaris, to Windows. Lastly, this post is NOT intended to “prescribe” a specific solution to any of you reading this - your needs, long term goals, and business requirements will be considerably different than my own.
That said…below are some of the factors that influenced my decision to use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence offering for my Customer Modeling and Merchandising solutions.
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July 25th, 2008
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What: eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit
When: Octber 20th - 23rd
Where: Washington D.C.
Greetings all. Based on my efforts with the Marketing Optimization Conference in San Fran last May, I’ve been asked to join the tour!
My presentation will be focused on “Engagement based Marketing” - or using visibility to what your prospects and customer do on-line to reach back out to them with relevant communications that generate results.
Much like the last presentation, this DC presentation will bridge “how” and “why” - illustrating how web analytics and email (and CRM) work together and why this is one of the best investements you can make. Examples in this vendor agnostic discussion include case studies from ExactTarget, Responsys, Omniture, Coremetrics, and Webtrends - with more on the way.
Register Today and get the early bird discount…worth nearly $700 off the full Summit price. Be sure to let me know you’ve registered for an invite to a special “after hours” event with some of the best minds in retail.
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July 25th, 2008
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With every email that goes out - you may be (and probably are) under the scrutiny of Yahoo. If you cross a certain threshold of “spammyness” - they aren’t going to decrease your page rank…no…they are going to let you keep your “top of the organic listing” search result. They will, however, label you as a spammer…right there…in the “number two” position you fought so hard, and spent thousands of dollars, to reach. It’s a brand nightmare…and many retailers have been caught dozing.
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July 24th, 2008
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Leaving the debate of “is it criminal or not” to other blogs and bloggers - we are going to discuss the cold hard reality and hidden opportunities of sites like www.currentcodes.com, www.jumpondeals.com, www.flamingoworld.com and www.dailydeals.com.
These websites are actively harvesting and presenting the codes you use to provide discounts and promotions and presenting them to anyone who happens by their website (or has subscribed to RSS feeds, has their widget installed, or receives email alerts). A question I get asked frequently by my retailers is “Are these websites for real?”
Let’s consider that Alexa has many of these websites flagged in the top 200,000 web properties, “reach” for a sample section of these websites has increased between 20 - 30% in the last 3 months and page views are also up between 15 - 20%. These website are among some of the fastest growing in popularity and represent either an amazing opportunity or a sizable threat. If you are like most retailers - it’s probably both.
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