It's All About The ExperienceA blog about managing and improving customer experience and improving profits.https://ronrassociates.com/Rons-BlogAI In CX Improvement? Five Great Exampleshttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/33/ai-in-cx-improvement-five-great-examples-of-how-its-doneArtificial Intelligence,Conversion Improvement,Customer Complaints,customer experience,Customer Relationship Management,Customer Service,Product Management,Profit ImprovementTue, 12 Mar 2024 14:40:11 GMT<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">As a lifelong tech enthusiast and internet start-up cofounder, I have embraced technology solutions in my daily life and business career. I have been here for it, from using primitive neural networking software in financial planning to deploying&nbsp;robot-cleaning devices at home and asking Google Max to use its collaborative filtering capabilities to play the music that Google thinks my dinner guests would like.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">However, as a professional with a lifetime of work in the brass-tacks of customer experience (CX)&nbsp;management, I was skeptical about artificial intelligence&#39;s effectiveness in addressing problems in the customer&nbsp;realm.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">My recent research on AI applications in customer experience improvement has been enlightening and, to be honest, sobering! Below are five powerful examples of companies using AI to revolutionize customer experience management at scale. Several examples are likely disruptive and industry-changing, but <em>all</em> are worth understanding. Let&#39;s dig in!</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Disney&#39;s Magic RFID Data Creates Magical Experiences</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Disney&#39;s RFID Magic Band technology provides my first example. The MagicBand is a bracelet Disney gives customers at its theme parks. The technology &quot;magically&quot; provides users with a room key, theme park ticket, and credit card all in one device, allowing guests to enter parks, unlock hotel room doors, pay for purchases, check in for rides, and sync photos to their account with a simple tap of the wrist (Hollander, 2022). The technology eliminates the need for guests to carry multiple items and reduces waiting times at ticket booths. Additionally, MagicBand enables staff to provide personalized experiences by quickly identifying guests and anticipating their needs based on data collected from the bands (Hollander, 2022). The appeal of this technology for frictionless purchasing and upsells is intuitively obvious on the revenue side.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">But there is more. There is the data. Disney uses the information from the MagicBand to optimize customer experience. It collects this information with RFID sensors installed throughout its parks and resorts. The data allows Disney to connect each tap of the MagicBand to a specific guest&#39;s profile, enabling data scientists to analyze customer behavior. Predictive analytics allow Disney to open and close attractions to maximize customer satisfaction, optimize staffing, and better manage restaurants, attractions, and park queues. (For more on Predictive Analytics and its applications, please see my previous <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/11/small-company-big-data-huge-impact">blog post on Big Data</a>.)</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">In terms of personalization, these bands help curate a visit personal to the last detail. The technology can orchestrate a timely appearance of one&#39;s favorite Disney character or a surprise birthday message during fireworks. The MagicBand technology has been a significant investment for Disney, with CEO Bob Iger approving approximately a billion dollars for its implementation (Sweeney, 2013). Based on what I have learned, it was a worthy investment.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Uber&#39;s COTA - Improving the Handling of Customer Tickets With AI</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Imagine the customer service challenge of handling hundreds of thousands of customer messages in thousands of cities worldwide every day. Uber&#39;s Natural Language Processing (NLP) System, COTA, enhances customer experiences. COTA, short for Customer Obsession Ticket Assistant, uses machine learning and NLP models to assist agents in providing better user support. NLP breaks words and phrases into components the computer can understand, then buckets them into response categories. COTA empowers agents to resolve issues more accurately and swiftly, reducing ticket handling time by about 10% (COTA: Improving Uber Customer Care With NLP &amp; Machine Learning | Uber Blog, 2018).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">COTA&#39;s success led to the development of COTA version 2, which integrated deep learning models into Uber&#39;s machine learning platform. Uber eponymously named the deep learning system Michelangelo. This second-generation system significantly outperformed its predecessor regarding accuracy, ticket handling time, and customer satisfaction. Additionally, COTA v2 introduced a model management pipeline to ensure continuous model updates so that Uber&#39;s Data Science team could continuously improve the model.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The second version also focused on enhancing the extensibility of future NLP models within Uber. According to Uber, adopting deep learning in COTA v2 significantly improved the breadth of support resolution solutions for Uber&#39;s diverse services and simplified service delivery across multiple languages and regions, thus making the system much more adaptable to future use cases as Uber&#39;s business grows. (Scaling Uber&#39;s Customer Support Ticket Assistant (COTA) System With Deep Learning | Uber Blog, 2018).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">In addition to CODA, he has been working with Converseon, a company focused on the AI specialty of sentiment analysis. Customer sentiment analysis involves identifying and categorizing the text&#39;s positive, negative, and neutral emotions. It assists brands in learning what consumers are saying about them in online testimonials and posts. However, Customer sentiment analysis has an added benefit in offering marketers qualitative and quantitative data that goes beyond the &quot;what&quot; to clarify the &quot;why.&quot; Uber used sentiment analysis to help manage its leadership transition and address customer satisfaction in 2017 (Dupre, 2017). More recently, Uber has used the technique to analyze and apply changes to Uber&#39;s rideshare maps. It uses the technique to identify customer dissatisfaction with its routing and identify and make needed changes based on customer feedback (Uber Engineering, 2018b).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong><img alt="Robot Placing Customer Rating 5-Star Ranking" src="/Portals/0/AdobeStock_668433937.jpeg" style="width: 400px; height: 267px;" title="Robot Placing Customer Rating 5-Star Ranking" /></strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Airbnb Solving Big Platform Problems During Hypergrowth</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Airbnb faces the challenge of managing a vast global platform of users and hosts on its platform and developing scaleable ways of creating optimal experiences for both. Airbnb has used Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in a variety of ways. To improve conversions on listings, the company used image classification computer models to label millions of listing photos accurately, improving the display of beautiful assets in listings (Standley, 2023). This approach allowed for more personalized experiences by enhancing user search, discovery, and personalization through machine learning ranking models based on user engagement data like clicks and booking rates.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">To solve a platform-wide problem using booked properties as party houses, Airbnb intensified its background check procedures by implementing advanced artificial intelligence. This initiative scrutinized wide-ranging online public data &mdash; including social media, blogs, and search results &mdash; to detect signals of potentially harmful behavior by users seeking accommodations. This patented process aimed to assess the authenticity and dependability of guests by contrasting online profiles with those processed by AI, thereby eliminating discrepancies and highlighting genuine identities (Owen, 2021).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The company also harnesses an algorithm to evaluate activities across external online platforms, formulating a &quot;trustworthiness score&quot; for each guest. In concert with Trooly, a firm acquired by Airbnb in 2017, the breadth of data assessed encompasses online posts and comments and extends to database entries and professional memberships. Reservations flagged as high-risk based on this metric are then treated to a meticulous manual review by Airbnb&#39;s team, underscoring their commitment to safeguarding the community (Owen, 2021).&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">With these enhanced measures and investments, Airbnb has invested in a secure environment for its global user base. It affirms that it will execute background verifications for guests from the United States and India within ten days before their stay (Owen, 2021).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Airbnb has utilized machine learning in various ways to combat fraudulent activities on its platform. One approach involves using network analysis to identify potential scam listings. By analyzing data on Airbnb listings, including reviews and host connections, researchers have uncovered networks of connected hosts with fake reviews, indicating potential fraudulent behavior (McAleenan, 2022).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Airbnb also employs machine learning techniques to fight financial fraud. They use &quot;targeted friction&quot; to prevent fraudsters from using stolen credit cards on the platform while minimizing negative impacts on genuine users. (Friction is ideally something that blocks a fraudster, yet it is easy for a good user to satisfy.) This proactive approach involves leveraging machine learning, experimentation, and analytics to identify and block fraudsters effectively (Fighting Financial Fraud With Machine Learning at Airbnb, 2018).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Airbnb employs image recognition technology to process and understand visual evidence through user photographs. When combined with customer comments, this AI guides the complaint-handling process, ensuring it takes the right actions to address the issue swiftly and accurately. Airbnb&#39;s AI has been trained to identify a cleanliness issue and analyze its severity. The automation and level of precision ensure that complaints are categorized relatively and consistently, something only possible with AI (TensorFlow, 2019).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>MacDonalds - Making Fast Food Dynamic</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">McDonald&#39;s Restaurants has harnessed predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to enhance their menu options and drive increased sales. MacDonalds is leveraging technology from Dynamic Yield, a Tel Aviv-based firm specializing in personalization and decision logic. Using this technology, McDonald&#39;s has begun to offer personalized suggestions on digital displays based on customer preferences and external factors such as time of day, weather, and previous menu choices. A snowy day might trigger the placement of hot chocolate as a menu option, while a hot day might cause the system to suggest lemonade (Kamal, 2023).&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The technology considers factors like time of day, current order selections, restaurant traffic, the popularity of items, and weather conditions and will update digital restaurant and drive-thru menu displays (Owen, 2022). MacDonald has tested the technology with kiosks, websites, drive-throughs, and restaurant menu displays.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">To optimize its supply chain order, McDonald&#39;s also plans to connect the AI and menu data recommendations with its supply chain network, improving the management of stock levels (McDonald&#39;s Is Using AI and Data to Optimize Its Supply Chain, 2023). By linking predictive customer demand with stock levels at individual stores, McDonald&#39;s hopes to optimize its inventory management and reduce waste throughout the entire chain.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Dynamic Pricing at Wendy&#39;s</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">A use case I am less sure about is Wendy&#39;s plan to use AI to develop dynamic pricing for its restaurants. Wendy&#39;s is using AI to develop dynamic pricing for its restaurants. The chain hopes to adjust prices based on demand and other factors like time of day and traffic levels. This strategy involves fluctuating prices similar to surge pricing used by ride-sharing apps like Uber or Airbnb. The fast-food chain plans to follow MacDonald&#39;s lead and invest in digital menu boards to enable these changes, with a similar focus on enhancing customer experience and increasing sales through suggestive selling and menu adjustments (Yeo, 2024)</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">CEO Kirk Tanner mentioned that Wendy&#39;s will trial dynamic pricing, potentially raising prices during busy times and lowering them during quieter periods. This move aligns with Wendy&#39;s broader investment in technology to enhance its digital business, including implementing AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling tests based on factors like weather. While dynamic pricing is typical in various industries, its application in fast food is relatively untested. For the future, Wendy&#39;s aims to modernize its operations by leveraging technology such as AI chatbots for drive-through orders. (Rogelberg, 2024).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>How Can AI Help Your Business?</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">So, how can you determine whether AI can help your business? As we have seen from the examples above, Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning (ML) can significantly benefit businesses that use them. AI models are good at completing repetitive tasks quickly and efficiently at scale but must be appropriately trained. They are rarely infallible.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Here are some ways of thinking about how these tools can apply to your business. Applications of AI/ML include:</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Driving Revenue Growth: </strong>AI can uncover new opportunities for products and services. As we saw with several examples above, AI tools can identify pricing, pairing, and upsell opportunities, improve service speed, and, through Natural Language Processing, provide customer insights for informed decision-making (Martech, 2022).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Boosting Efficiency: </strong>AI can automate processes, optimize supply chain operations, and, as we saw with Uber&#39;s example, help in decision-making by analyzing data faster than humans (COTA: Improving Uber Customer Care With NLP &amp; Machine Learning | Uber Blog, 2018). AI Automation can improve customer experience by providing faster decisions in consumer finance, insurance underwriting, and claims processing, for example, by replacing processes that took weeks or months with those that take seconds. Faster decisions mean higher transactional conversion rates, raising revenue (Finance Magnate Contributors, 2023).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Improving Customer Service: </strong>AI tools like chatbots can enhance customer service by providing prompt responses and reducing wait times. A chatbot, kiosk, or online food ordering process always gives you exactly what you requested in your preferred language. (How AI and Machine Learning Can Impact Your Business and Small Businesses, n.d.)</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Enhancing Product Quality Assurance:</strong> Machine learning can quickly identify patterns in large datasets to ensure product quality and detect fraud or cybersecurity threats (How AI and Machine Learning Can Positively Impact Your Business and Small Businesses, n.d.)</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Where to Start?</span></span></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">When considering implementation, I looked back at a Harvard Business Review article by Wharton AI Professor Kartik Hosagnagar and Apoorv Saxena. Saxena is the former head of AI at JP Morgan Chase and cut his teeth as the head of the AI Vertical at Google before that. Hosnegnagar and Saxena&#39;s advice on building an AI program in large organizations has aged remarkably well. The two AI leaders suggested a slow simmer rather than a rapid boil to implement AI in a large organization (Hosanagar, 2018).&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Here it is in a nutshell.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">1. <strong>Start with good, clean data.</strong> Start by developing data gathering and management capabilities throughout the organization. Early data projects help organizations gain experience with large-scale data gathering, processing (cleaning), and labeling&mdash;skills that companies must have before embarking on more ambitious AI projects. Establishing organizational learning on developing good data hygiene in a new AI platform is far more important than seeing a significant impact in the short run (Gruttadauria, 2024).&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">2. <strong>Develop a portfolio of short&mdash;and long-term projects </strong>rather than betting your organization&#39;s AI future on a single, massive &quot;moonshot&quot; project (Hosanagar, 2018).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">3. <strong>Focus on early wins by improving processes, </strong>but focus on more than individual touchpoints. Don&#39;t use AI to pave the cow paths. Instead, look at the entire process and explore how AI can improve it. Leaders can consolidate early wins by creating value for multiple parts of the organization, then press on to more significant challenges using a portfolio approach (Why Portfolio Management Is Essential for AI Projects, 2024).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">4. <strong>Don&#39;t Bet the Ranch! </strong>Remember, your business does not have to invest all its AI project-related money upfront. Managers can control costs by hiring slowly but steadily and using outside suppliers for AI and machine learning infrastructure early (Hosanagar, 2018). As the AI field has developed, outside resources have become increasingly available in various AI-related specialties. Leverage early wins using outsourced resources, then gradually build your in-house capabilities (Roy, 2023)</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">5.<strong> Hit Lots of Singles, Then Look For Home Runs.</strong> Your last step will be to swing for the fences by identifying new, game-changing customer experiences only your AI solutions team can create!&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>References</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">AI, Data &amp; Analytics Network. (2024, February 16). How Disney World collects customer data. AI, Data &amp; Analytics Network. https://www.aidataanalytics.network/data-science-ai/articles/disney-world-theme-park-or-massive-data-collection-apparatus</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Airbnb uses artificial intelligence to transform its business. (2023, August 28). BDO. https://www.bdodigital.com/insights/analytics/airbnb-artificial-intelligence-transform-business</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">COTA: Improving Uber Customer Care with NLP &amp; Machine Learning | Uber Blog. (2018, January 3). Uber Blog. https://www.uber.com/blog/cota/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Cruz, M. D. (2022, January 6). Analyzing Disneyland Reviews with NLP - Towards Data Science. Medium. https://towardsdatascience.com/analyzing-disneyland-reviews-b916b6dcccf4</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">David Koenig, Associated Press. (2023, September 20). Airbnb says it has removed 59,000 fake listings from the platform in effort to crack down fraudsters. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/airbnb-says-it-has-removed-59000-fake-listings-from-the-platform-in-effort-to-crack-down-fraudsters/3343055/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Dupre, E. (2017, July 10). Can sentiment and emotional analysis help Uber steer its brand around? - DMNEWS. DMNews. https://www.dmnews.com/can-sentiment-and-emotional-analysis-help-uber-steer-its-brand-around/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Editor. (2023, May 5). AI in Short-Term Rentals: How Machine Learning Shapes STR. AltexSoft. https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/ai-in-short-term-rentals/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Fighting Financial Fraud with Machine Learning at Airbnb. (2018, March 20). InfoQ. https://www.infoq.com/news/2018/03/financial-fraud-ml-airbnb/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Finance Magnate Contributors. (2023, June 13). The role of AI in insurance: From underwriting to claims processing. Financial and Business News | Finance Magnates. https://www.financemagnates.com/fintech/education-centre/the-role-of-ai-in-insurance-from-underwriting-to-claims-processing/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Gruttadauria, B. (2024, February 9). Unlocking the Power of AI with an Effective Data Hygiene Strategy. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unlocking-power-ai-effective-data-hygiene-strategy-brian-gruttadauria-oxfme/?trk=articles_directory</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hollander, J. (2022, October 28). Disney&#39;s MagicBand: Breaking Down One of Hospitality&#39;s Greatest Innovations. Hotel Tech Report. https://hoteltechreport.com/news/disneys-magicband</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hosanagar, K. (2018, July 24). The first wave of corporate AI is doomed to fail. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/04/the-first-wave-of-corporate-ai-is-doomed-to-fail</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">How AI and machine learning can positively impact your business and small businesses. (n.d.). https://www.datek.co.uk/blog/how-ai-and-machine-learning-can-positively-impact-your-business-and-small-businesses</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Https://www.paraspot.ai/. (n.d.). Paraspot Software Website.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hurler, K. (2023, February). I&#39;m hating it: McDonald&#39;s AI-Powered Drive-Thru sucks. Yahoo.com. https://news.yahoo.com/im-hating-mcdonalds-ai-powered-163800036.html</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Inc, A. (2023, November 28). AI in Short-Term Rentals: How Machine Learning Shapes STR. Medium. https://altexsoft.medium.com/ai-in-short-term-rentals-how-machine-learning-shapes-str-e158b6fc8302</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Kamal, N. (2023, March 7). How McDonald&#39;s utilized big Data - Nuha Kamal - Medium. Medium. https://medium.com/@nuhaaltoraby91/how-mcdonalds-utilized-big-data-c6016e8b46b5</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Marr, B. (2017, August 24). Disney uses big data, IoT, and machine learning to boost customer experience. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/08/24/disney-uses-big-data-iot-and-machine-learning-to-boost-customer-experience/?sh=1ae1ed0e3387</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Martech, A. (2022, January 19). How do businesses use artificial intelligence? Wharton Online. https://online.wharton.upenn.edu/blog/how-do-businesses-use-artificial-intelligence/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">McAleenan, J. (2022, January 7). Identifying potential scam listings on Airbnb - Towards Data Science. Medium. https://towardsdatascience.com/identifying-potential-scam-listings-on-airbnb-e9aed41611e5</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">McDonald&#39;s is using AI and data to optimize its supply chain. (2023, September 25). ProcureCon Supply Chain 2024. https://procureconsupplychain.wbresearch.com/blog/mcdonalds-ai-data-optimize-supply-chain</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">McDonald&#39;s: Loyalty program continues to beat inflation - The Anchor. (n.d.). https://anchor.placer.ai/the-anchor/mcdonalds-loyalty-program-continues-to-beat-inflation</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Mehta, I. (2023, November 8). Airbnb leans on reviews to make listings more reliable as it tests review summaries using generative AI. Tech Crunch. https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/08/airbnb-is-leaning-on-reviews-to-make-properties-more-reliable/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Owen, R. (2021, October 4). Artificial intelligence at Airbnb &ndash; Two Unique Use-Cases. Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research. https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/artificial-intelligence-at-airbnb/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Owen, R. (2022, January 26). Artificial intelligence at McDonald&#39;s &ndash; two current use cases. Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research. https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/artificial-intelligence-at-mcdonalds/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Payments. (2022, January 27). McDonald&#39;s leverages loyalty personalization to combat aggregators. PYMNTS.com. https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2022/mcdonalds-leverages-loyalty-personalization-combat-aggregators/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Rogelberg, S. (2024, February 27). Wendy&#39;s will implement Uber-style surge pricing for your Baconator&mdash;with the help of AI. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2024/02/27/wendys-uber-style-surge-pricing-baconator-ai/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Roy, K. (2023, January 17). 6 Business benefits of outsourcing your AI projects. Medium. https://medium.com/datatobiz/6-business-benefits-of-outsourcing-your-ai-projects-e8d084aef3ac</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Scaling Uber&#39;s Customer Support Ticket Assistant (COTA) System with Deep Learning | Uber Blog. (2018, August 23). Uber Blog. https://uber.com/blog/cota-v2/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Schaal, D. (2023, November 9). Airbnb&#39;s latest tools: &#39;Guest Favorites,&#39; AI photo tours, and more. Skift. https://skift.com/2023/11/08/airbnbs-latest-tools-guest-favorites-ai-photo-tours-and-more/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Standley, E. (2023, May 11). How AI is Revolutionizing the Future of Airbnb. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ai-revolutionizing-future-airbnb-edward-standley/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Sthapit, E., &amp; Björk, P. (2019). Sources of distrust: Airbnb guests&#39; perspectives. Tourism Management Perspectives, 31, 245&ndash;253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.05.009</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Sweeney, D. (2013, January 9). 4 Benefits that MagicBands bring to the wonderful world of Disney Parks. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahsweeney/2013/01/09/4-benefits-that-magicbands-bring-to-the-wonderful-world-of-disney-parks/?sh=f285de77446a</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">TensorFlow. (2019, March 6). Powered by TensorFlow: Airbnb uses machine learning to help categorize its listing photos [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPb2u9kwh2w</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Uber Engineering. (2018a, June 5). Uber Tech Day: COTA -- Improving Uber Customer Care with NLP, ML, &amp; DL [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIGHY7fz2XA</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Uber Engineering. (2018b, October 22). Applying Customer Feedback: How NLP &amp; Deep Learning Improve Uber&#39;s Maps. https://www.uber.com/blog/nlp-deep-learning-uber-maps/</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Vaičiulaitytė, G. (2018, January 2). Twenty-five funny tweets about Amazon Alexa that prove there&#39;s nothing artificial about her intelligence. Bored Panda. https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-alexa-tweets/?media_id=1120057</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Why portfolio management is essential for AI projects. (2024, January 17). https://www.apm.org.uk/blog/why-portfolio-management-is-essential-for-ai-projects/#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20unique%20nature%20of,value%20and%20ensuring%20ethical%20compliance.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Yeo, A. (2024, February 28). Wendy&#39;s is trying out dynamic pricing. It&#39;s not as Uber as it sounds. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/wendys-surge-pricing-dynamic-ai</span></span></p> 338 Innovative Ways to Improve Customer Retention Using Email https://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/31/8-innovative-ways-to-improve-customer-retention-using-email-or-notificationsBranding,Conversion Improvement,Customer Service,Digital Marketing,New Product Development,Product Management,Profit Improvement,Research,RetentionSun, 04 Feb 2024 16:01:27 GMT<p><meta name="uuid" content="uuidzcqdWG6dEMYn" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">In digital marketing, email remains a stalwart for direct communication with customers. For marketers looking to retain and monetize an existing customer base, email can be an affordable, customizable mechanism for improving retention. This blog investigates eight inventive strategies where email drives customer loyalty with personalized&nbsp;messages that&nbsp;delight customers.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>A Personal Touch from an Online Retailing Giant: Amazon</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Have you ever received a &quot;Just for You&quot; email from Amazon? Using complex algorithms, Amazon crafts individualized product recommendations based on a customer&#39;s purchase history and browsing behavior. This personalized optimization encourages further purchasing and makes customers feel understood and valued, enhancing their loyalty to the brand (Ghelber, 2020).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Exclusive Perks and Prestige: Sephora&#39;s Beauty Insider Program</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The way Sephora uses email to reinforce customer loyalty is unparalleled. Their Beauty Insider program members receive status upgrades, birthday gifts, and special access to deals&mdash;all communicated through personalized emails. These perks make members feel part of an exclusive community, building brand affinity and retention (<em>About Beauty Insider Loyalty Program | Sephora</em>, n.d.).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>A Screen-Full of Interest: Netflix&#39;s Show Updates and Recommendations</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Netflix&#39;s user engagement emails are a staple of its retention strategy. Emails entice subscribers to return to the platform with updates on shows they might enjoy, directly aligning content with their viewing behavior. These recommendations drive engagement and demonstrate a detailed understanding of each user&#39;s preferences, fostering loyalty (Io Digital Agency, 2024).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>The Soundtrack of Your Life: Spotify&#39;s Curated Playlists</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Understanding that music is a profoundly personal experience, Spotify offers curated playlists directly delivered to inboxes. Based on a user&#39;s taste and listening habits, these playlists function as personalized entertainment and offer a nudge to revisit the platform&mdash;providing a harmonious approach to customer retention through email (Anderson, 2024).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Step into the Customer Service Hall of Fame: Zappos&#39; Follow-Up Emails</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Zappos is renowned for its customer service, and email plays a significant role. After a customer interacts with Zappos&#39; representatives, they receive a follow-up email ensuring all is well. This extra mile in customer care ensures a lasting positive impression is maintained even when things might not have gone perfectly (Sharpen Staff Writer, 2024).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Write into Success: Grammarly&#39;s Progress Reports</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">As a linguistic companion, Grammarly doesn&#39;t just fix language errors but also educates users with insights into their writing. Weekly emails with writing stats and personalized progress reports are educational and engaging. They instill a desire for improvement, measure how much the user uses Grammarly in their writing, and make users more likely to stay with the service (Reallygoodux &amp; Keen.io, 2023).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Educate to Elevate: HubSpot&#39;s Helpful Content</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">HubSpot&#39;s educational content emails are an underappreciated gem. By consistently providing value through blog posts, whitepapers, and webinars, HubSpot nurtures customer relationships beyond its platform. This act of &#39;giving before expecting&#39; is a powerful customer retention method that positions the brand as a source of knowledge (Storm, 2023).</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>A Trip Down Memory Lane: Google Photos</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Google Photos is the default photo storage solution for Android phones. The Google Photo application stores photos in the cloud and then mines this database of photos to create collages of photos from the past. Facial recognition technology, timeline information, location data, and event-related information allow Google algorithms to organize the pictures into collages and, more recently, movies set to music. Google creates and shares these trips down memory lane via user notifications (Ben-Yair, 2021).&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Users can share the output by text or email or customize the output (e.g., to stop seeing photos of exes) using the app user settings. Recently, Google created a separate tab to store these &quot;Memories&quot; within its Google Photo application. Google&nbsp;added functionality to allow users to name, rename, and edit the Memories that Google created (Brinkmann, 2023).&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Data Mining, Personalization, and Links to the &#39;Mother Ship&#39;</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Note that most of these examples rely on three critical elements. First is mining customer information and preferences to understand their needs. Second is personalizing the email or system notification relevant to those needs; third, the messaging provides links to bring the customer back to the website to enjoy or act upon custom offers and opportunities.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Summing up: Five &quot;izes&quot;</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">From special offers to customer education to excellent service follow-up to trips through your photo memories, retention messages engage, excite, and entwine your customers in the fabric of your brand. To deliver this experience,&nbsp;<strong>synthesize</strong>&nbsp;customer data,&nbsp;<strong>analyze&nbsp;</strong>your users&#39; needs,&nbsp;<strong>personalize</strong>&nbsp;your messaging, product, or service&nbsp;to provide a value-added offering, and then&nbsp;<strong>publicize</strong>&nbsp;it to your community using&nbsp;<strong>customized</strong>&nbsp;email. To learn about other digital marketing technologies that you can use to improve customer retention, check out our blog article on <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/30/eight-digital-marketing-technologies-that-can-improve-retention" target="_blank">Eight Digital Marketing Technologies</a>.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>References</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><em>About Beauty Insider Loyalty Program | Sephora</em>. (n.d.). Sephora.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sephora.com/beauty/loyalty-program" target="_blank">https://www.sephora.com/beauty/loyalty-program</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anderson, A. (2024, January 24).&nbsp;<em>Making Personalization the Center of Your Customer Retention Strategy like Spotify</em>. Sharpen.&nbsp;<a href="https://sharpencx.com/spotify-customer-retention/" target="_blank">https://sharpencx.com/spotify-customer-retention/</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Ben-Yair, S. (2021, May 18). Your photos, your memories, your way.&nbsp;<em>Google</em>.&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/products/photos/new-memories-features-look-back/" target="_blank">https://blog.google/products/photos/new-memories-features-look-back/</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Brinkmann, M. (2023, August 16).&nbsp;<em>Your memories have a permanent place now in Google Photos</em>. gHacks Technology News.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/16/your-memories-have-a-permanent-place-now-in-google-photos/" target="_blank">https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/16/your-memories-have-a-permanent-place-now-in-toogle-photos/</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Ghelber, A. (2020, November 24). Seven steps to achieve customer retention like Amazon.&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/24/seven-steps-to-achieve-customer-retention-like-amazon/" target="_blank">https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/24/seven-steps-to-achieve-customer-retention-like-amazon/</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Io Digital Agency. (2024).&nbsp;<em>iO &mdash; blended agency with wide-ranging and in-depth expertise</em>. https://www.iodigital.com/. Retrieved January 30, 2024, from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iodigital.com/en/history/raak/how-netflix-defined-email-marketing-for-streaming-platforms" target="_blank">https://www.iodigital.com/en/history/raak/how-netflix-defined-email-marketing-for-streaming-platforms</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Lambert, S. (n.d.).&nbsp;<em>This is Why HubSpot is the Best Content Marketing Platform</em>. Retrieved January 30, 2024, from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.xcellimark.com/blog/this-is-why-hubspot-is-the-best-content-marketing-platform" target="_blank">https://www.xcellimark.com/blog/this-is-why-hubspot-is-the-best-content-marketing-platform</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Reallygoodux &amp; Keen.io. (2023). Grammarly&#39;s re-engagement emails.&nbsp;<em>GoodUX.appcues.com</em>. https://goodux.appcues.com/blog/grammarly-engagement-emails</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Staff Writer, S. (2024, January 3).&nbsp;<em>The customer service strategies behind Zappos&#39; success</em>. Sharpen.&nbsp;<a href="https://sharpencx.com/zappos-customer-service/" target="_blank">https://sharpencx.com/zappos-customer-service/</a></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Storm, A. (2023, September 9). Crafting Customer Retention Emails: The Complete Guide.&nbsp;<em>Blog.Hubspot.com</em>.&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-retention-emails" target="_blank">https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-retention-emails</a></span></span></p> <aside arial-label="Suggestions panel" data-name="sidebar-tier">&nbsp;</aside> 31Eight Digital Marketing Technologies That Can Improve Retentionhttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/30/eight-digital-marketing-technologies-that-can-improve-retentionConversion,Conversion Improvement,Customer Complaints,customer experience,Customer Relationship Management,Customer Service,Digital Marketing,New Product Development,Profit ImprovementRetention,Social MediaMon, 29 Jan 2024 15:34:48 GMT<p><meta name="uuid" content="uuidrMHno6Xr8OgI" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Over the past decade, a big part of our consulting practice has been helping companies determine how to improve customer retention.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">A recent series of requests for contributions to a marketing blog on LinkedIn led us&nbsp;to develop this article. Below are&nbsp;<strong>eight digital marketing technologies</strong>&nbsp;marketers can use to help improve customer retention and grow revenue.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><em>(Please note that while we provide vendor names, the list of software providers mentioned under each category is&nbsp;</em><strong><em>not</em></strong><em>&nbsp;exhaustive. New technology vendors emerge almost monthly, so please search for and compare competitors of the software vendors listed to find the right one for your company.)</em></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Email Marketing Software.</strong>&nbsp;Email marketing is first on our list of customer retention technologies. Why? With email, a business can regularly touch its customers by sending information and messaging that&#39;s relevant to customer interests. The critical adjective here is&nbsp;<strong><em>relevant</em></strong>! The most effective emails are personalized based on valid segmentation schemes. They are consistent in branding and well-timed. They are carefully tested. The test data should show that they will reliably resonate with your customers. Retention emails bring customers back by speaking with your brand voice and offering incentives, discounts, special offers, or unique experiences otherwise unavailable to noncustomers. Email is a powerful tool. But use your email list carefully. Please don&#39;t abuse it, or your list of receptive customers will quickly dwindle. Tools for email marketing include <strong>Vertical Response</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Mailchimp</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Constant Contact</strong>, and<strong>&nbsp;HubSpot</strong>. For more on this topic, check out our blog article with <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/31/8-innovative-ways-to-improve-customer-retention-using-email-or-notifications" target="_blank">eight examples of companies that do retention email well</a>.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Customer Relationship Management (CRM)</strong>: Marketers use CRMs to store customer data like email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, and communication preferences. They also use CRMs to track marketing interactions with current and potential customers. Leverage CRM data to discern customer behavior. Use it to understand individual preferences and track purchase history. If you sell shoes, for example, does this customer buy when shoes are on discount, or is their purchasing more fashion-conscious? Is it event-related (i.e., snow boots after a major snowstorm) or seasonal (summer, winter, fall, and spring collection purchases)?&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">With some imagination and elbow grease, CRM data can give us the information we need to reach these conclusions. It allows marketers to create personalized, high-converting marketing campaigns and ensures that customers who bought from us before keep buying. Integrate your CRM with Marketing Automation (see below) to improve your communication with customers and prospects. Use this integration to build repeat sales funnels with existing customers, driving repeat purchases and improving retention. CRM software providers include&nbsp;<strong>Salesforce</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Zoho CRM</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Microsoft Dynamics</strong>. For more on <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/8/customer-relationship-management-not-just-for-big-business" target="_blank">CRM and its uses</a>, see our blog article on how CRM can help improve conversion and retention.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Social Media Management Tools</strong>. Social media has become an integral part of any retention strategy. Use social media to provide brand updates and inform your customers of reasons to maintain a relationship with you.&nbsp;<strong>Hoot Suite</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Buffer</strong>&nbsp;are two examples of software enabling marketers to schedule social media updates and track social activity across platforms. Social media can increase customer engagement and maintain customers&#39; interest in your brand. See also our blog article on <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/24/28-examples-of-social-media-advertising-campaigns-small-businesses-can-use-to-build-their-brands" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing for 24&nbsp;examples </a>of ways you can use Social Media to increase sales, improve customer retention, and support your brand.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Marketing Automation Platforms.</strong>&nbsp;Marketing automation platforms provide tools for automatically triggering marketing execution, including email campaigns, social media posts, remarketing campaigns, and more. If properly configured, marketing automation can track and manage lead generation from all your customer touchpoints and automate follow-up throughout the customer life cycle. Marketing automation systems allow retention marketers to personalize emails for post-purchase follow-ups, upsells, and cross-sells. It can trigger social media posts, offer targeted promotions, and send follow-up requests to salespeople or customer service representatives. Think of these tools as brilliant conductors in your brand marketing symphony. Research and map your online marketing funnel activities to see what works now, then automate it! These tools can save e-marketers time and effort while ensuring consistent, branded customer retention follow-up and communications. Popular options include&nbsp;<strong>Keap</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Marketo</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Pardot</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Drip</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Eloqua.</strong></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Remarketing Tools.&nbsp;</strong>Another favorite way of turning suspects into prospects and customers into return customers is&nbsp;<strong>remarketing</strong>. With remarketing, a website visit can trigger a series of personalized advertisements on platforms like&nbsp;<strong>Google</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Facebook</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>LinkedIn</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Twitter</strong>. Marketers can design experiences around the web content visited by linking a website product page to a particular advertisement on Google or a social media platform. These tools are especially useful in marketing luxury or high-involvement products or services because they direct advertising toward people who have already shown purchase intent. While generally reserved for new product sales, we have also seen this technology used successfully to grow revenue from service or parts upsell to customers who have visited company websites related to after-sale subjects. For more on this topic, check out our <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/11/small-company-big-data-huge-impact" target="_blank">blog article on Big Data</a>.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Customer Feedback Software.&nbsp;</strong>We all think we listen to our customers. But do you systematically keep track of their feedback and then take action to address their concerns? Those two final steps are crucial for improving customer retention.&nbsp;<strong>Verint,</strong>&nbsp;<strong>SurveyMonkey</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Qualtrics&nbsp;</strong>are software vendors that sell technologies that gather valuable customer insights and allow users to aggregate the information to identify actionable trends. Use that information to tease out customer service needs, gaps in your product and service offerings, complaint trends, and brand challenges. Use these technologies to develop systematic ways to leverage customer feedback and improve. See our <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/7/finding-increased-profits-through-better-complaints-management" target="_blank">blog article on customer complaints </a>for more on this topic.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Personalization.&nbsp;</strong>Personalization is another meaningful way of retaining customers, making them feel valued by the brand. Personalization tools such as&nbsp;<strong>Optimizely</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>Adobe Target</strong>&nbsp;are software designed to permit marketers to create customized experiences. Design individualized experiences or offers for each customer persona based on their segment&#39;s preferences and behavior. Build customer experiences that make their lives easier. See <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/22/buying-and-delivery-preference-the-new-battleground">our article on buying preference</a> for more on this topic.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Loyalty Program Software.&nbsp;</strong>Ever since a coffee shop figured out how to offer punch cards to give loyal customers a tenth coffee free, loyalty programs have become a time-honored way to drive customer retention. Reward customers for their continued business. As with everything, software now exists to track and manage this activity. Loyalty program software vendors include&nbsp;<strong>Smile.io</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>LoyaltyLion.&nbsp;</strong>Both can help create and manage new loyalty programs and make starting a program more manageable. Create incentives and rewards for customers, and design programs that encourage them to return. Then, watch retention numbers improve. See our <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/BlogPage/3" target="_blank">blog on Customer Lifetime Value</a> for more on how companies manage customer loyalty.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><strong>Integration and Reporting.&nbsp;</strong>Before pulling the trigger on any software purchase, carefully examine how well these systems integrate with your existing marketing infrastructure. Pay special attention to reporting, scalability, and customer support capabilities (and support cost). Many of the leading vendors in each category above offer capabilities in other categories. For example, many marketing automation providers also provide CRM capabilities.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Also, make sure that the reporting system for the software can exactly replicate what you are currently providing to senior management. Senior leaders want what they want, and if the new software can only provide a slightly different report from what leadership likes, you may spend the next couple of years downloading and formatting data to meet their needs.&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">For more on integration and marketing, see our blog article about <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/15/integrate-or-die" target="_blank">integration as the modern marketing superpower</a>.</span></span></p> 30Buying and Delivery Preference -- The New Battleground?https://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/22/buying-and-delivery-preference-the-new-battlegroundConversion Improvement,Customer Complaints,customer experience,Customer Relationship Management,New Product DevelopmentWed, 15 Mar 2023 16:58:00 GMT<p><meta name="uuid" content="uuidmmd6o7mSTz8l" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The most important thing we do as marketers is to segment our markets. Segmentation allows us to define target audiences and customize our products, services, and advertising. However,&nbsp;segmentation should be based on traditional demographics like age, income, or psychographics and&nbsp;<strong><em>how&nbsp;</em></strong>customers prefer to buy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">By considering customers&#39; purchasing behavior &ndash;&nbsp;<em>when they purchase, which distribution channels they use, which payment method they use, what they are doing when they buy, and how much time they take to make purchase decisions</em>&nbsp;&ndash; marketers can ensure improved product and service designs. They can better target their advertising messages and establish more robust and profitable connections with their clients.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">This blog post will explore how understanding&nbsp;<strong>customer purchasing behaviors</strong>&nbsp;can enhance segmentation efforts, create new paths to the market, and lead to a more successful business!</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>How Do You Like Your Coke?</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Emory University Marketing Professor Sandy Jap, the co-author of<strong><em>&nbsp;A Field Guide to Channel Strategy&nbsp;</em></strong>(Coughlan &amp; Jap, 2016), reminds us that the best marketers &quot;<em>think about market opportunities and harness value in a broader way than only with a product or a price..</em>.&quot; As an example, in an <a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/marketingchannelbenefits#syllabus">online lecture</a>, Professor Jap cites the many ways we might consume the soft drink Coca-Cola: with a Big Mac (as a fountain drink), with a 7.5-ounce mini bottle served with Bacardi and lime (at an elegant bar), in twelve-ounce bottles during a late-night drive home (at a gas station), in 32-ounce bottles as a mixer at a party (purchased at a grocery store chain.) Each way of consuming a Coke represents a&nbsp;<em>different use case</em>,&nbsp;<em>cost per ounce</em>, and a distinct&nbsp;<em>distribution channel</em>&nbsp;for Coke. Indeed, one of Professor Jap&#39;s central messages is that consumers are often willing to pay&nbsp;<strong><em>premium prices&nbsp;</em></strong>to receive the good or service the&nbsp;<strong><em>way</em></strong>&nbsp;they want to consume it when they want to drink it.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Pandemic Impact</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The need for differentiation goes beyond product extensions in the consumer packaged goods industry. The Pandemic has poured gasoline on a user experience fire ignited by the Internet a decade ago. The Pandemic stay-at-home rules forced users to experiment with new product and service delivery mechanisms. This need, in turn, has driven business leaders to quickly adapt and focus on consumer buying preferences and behavioral segmentations. New segments pop up almost monthly as consumers explore, then expect, alternative buying and delivery channels for goods and services.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/New-delivery-buying-post-pandemic2.png" style="width: 800px; height: 800px;" title="" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Not Just A Product, Not Just A Service -- Something In Between</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">We now have the hybridization of products and services as online access becomes integrated into the purchase process. Here is a list of service trends that have emerged recently:</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Ordering Online With Home Delivery.&nbsp;</strong>Amazon&#39;s excellence in logistics has forever changed how we buy. Home delivery is convenient. Online ordering of goods we used to drive to the store to buy has experienced rapid growth since the Pandemic. We have learned that it is nice not to leave our homes and still receive items we order online. We have come to expect two-day delivery of just about anything. Today, retail companies offer home delivery via UPS, FedEx, and the Postal Service. It has not stopped there. Door Dash or Uber Eats will bring food orders to your home or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3xiLGFRiLM" target="_blank">place of work</a>&nbsp;in minutes (PSC Highlights, 2023). Fast food providers have begun to differentiate themselves with home food delivery around food delivery occasions like watching the Super Bowl or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6RaVv3s3qw" target="_blank">NBA basketball</a>&nbsp;(DoorDash, 2022). Instacart will deliver an electronic game to a user&#39;s home, so they don&#39;t have to stop gaming with friends! (<em>Bop It Electronic Games Products Delivery or Pickup Near Me | Instacart</em>, n.d.) Carvana will allow users to compare, select, finance, and receive delivery of a used car -- all online (Betterton, 2022).</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS)&nbsp;</strong>is another service permutation. This offering allows customers to order products or services online and then pick up the product at the store (Polson, 2022). Demand for these services already existed, but it has burgeoned as the Pandemic has driven trial. Online ordering is convenient for customers as they can shop from home or work but still have the immediacy of same-day availability. Examples abound. Best Buy has leveraged the combination of its brick-and-mortar network and its online presence to offer customers this option. Amazon has already started leveraging its Whole Foods locations by adding lockers where customers can pick up orders by entering a delivery code emailed with the delivery confirmation information. Home Depot has been experimenting with a similar service to allow customers to pick up smaller products in lockers outside their stores. Need lumber or other building supplies? Users can order them online, and both Lowes and Home Depot will cart them up and bring them to their car or truck.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Custom Manufacturing with In-Store Pickup (MOPUS) or Home Delivery.&nbsp;</strong>(Polson, 2022) Computer manufacturers like Dell and Apple and furniture manufacturers like Ethan Allen have long provided users with the ability to select custom features for products and have them manufactured to order. A small number of auto manufacturers are beginning to do the same thing. Tesla offers this purchase structure with its products. To compete, Volvo has started offering this service with its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kbb.com/electric-car/" target="_blank">electric vehicles</a>, such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kbb.com/volvo/c40-recharge/" target="_blank">C40 Recharge SUV</a>, which is ordered online and picked up at a dealership. As Industry 4.0 brings forth intelligent, autonomous, and flexible manufacturing capabilities, we should see increasing innovation in this area (<em>What Is Industry 4.0? | Definition, Technologies, Benefits | SAP Insights</em>, n.d.).</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Subscription Services.&nbsp;</strong>Companies offer subscription services, allowing customers to receive products or services regularly at previously agreed intervals, another type of service. Subscription purchases are convenient for customers as they do not have to remember to order the products or services on their own. My pest control company visits our home six times a year. Regular replacement products that are hard to remember but need to buy at regular intervals (pet food, refrigerator water filters, HVAC filters, disposable razors, and contact lenses, for example) are perfect for these automatic sales methods. See&nbsp;<a href="https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/254744528" target="_blank">my Video</a>&nbsp;about this product delivery strategy here.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Similarly, a subscription can work well for high-value-added or unique goods that need to be organized or sourced from an unusual vendor. For example, <a href="https://sitkasalmonshares.com/products/premium-seafood-subscription-box">Alaskan fish processors</a>, <a href="https://www.cawineclub.com/">California Vintners</a>, and <a href="https://thehonestbison.com/about/">South Dakota&nbsp;Bison</a> farmers are examples of types of vendors that send monthly shipments of their products to households nationwide.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Closer to home here in Tennessee, a farm cooperative allows neighborhood groups in Knoxville to sign up for and receive routine deliveries of fresh vegetables to centralized locations throughout the summer months. A local doctor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has patients pay an annual fee to gain access to a broader suite of services and manage their total health. Subscription services are convenient for customers and save businesses money by reducing client acquisition costs and allowing the companies to predict how much product or service customers will need and when.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Membership Programs.&nbsp;</strong>Membership programs are another service designed to differentiate the offering by giving customers exclusive benefits and making buying easier. Membership programs offer discounts, early sales access, and free shipping.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=23945845011">Amazon&#39;s Prime</a> is one such membership program. Prime customers gain access to music and entertainment streaming and free package delivery annually. Prime members spend about two or three times as much as non-prime customers and enjoy higher&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/9/the-amazing-healing-power-of-clv" target="_blank">customer lifetime value</a>&nbsp;(Ryan, 2018). Membership programs benefit businesses and customers as businesses can increase customer loyalty and spending while customers can save money on the products or services they purchase.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Industries with Large Customer Information Requirements.&nbsp;</strong>Often, membership programs can front-load heavy information requirements in exchange for point-of-sale buying convenience. For example, in car rentals, membership programs like <a href="https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/misc/index.jsp?targetPage=gold_plus_rewards_overview.jsp">Hertz Number One Club</a> can leverage a robust Customer Relationship Management System to store a great deal of information in advance (driver&#39;s license, credit card, car preference, etc.) Busy business customers can enter the car and drive away by showing identification at the gate, reducing business travel time.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Innovative Service Contract Structures.&nbsp;</strong>Customer segmentation around purchase preference extends to service industries as well. For example, competitors in the telecommunications sector differentiate their service offerings around different contract terms to entice new customers (Blumenthal, 2023). A common innovation is adaptations that help younger, less creditworthy customers obtain phone service.</span></p> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Cricket Wireless&nbsp;</strong>offers a prepaid wireless service that allows users with little or no credit experience to gain access to the AT&amp;T wireless network (Cox &amp; Timmermann, 2023).</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>T-Mobile</strong>&nbsp;likewise offers service contracts that do not require a credit check for new customers. Customers with poor credit can still sign up for T-Mobile service. (Herosmyth Staff, 2020).</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Verizon</strong>&nbsp;targets families by offering discounts for customers who sign up for multiple service lines. For example, a customer who signs up for several service lines, one for each family member, will receive a discount.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>AT&amp;T</strong>&nbsp;offers discounts for customers who bundle their services. For example, customers bundling their wireless, home internet, and home phone services will receive a discount.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>US Cellular</strong>&nbsp;offers free phones for new customers, allowing customers to get a new phone without paying any upfront costs.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Virgin Mobile</strong>&nbsp;offers only month-to-month contracts, not annual ones, allowing customers to cancel their service without paying termination fees.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Differentiation In Financial Services.&nbsp;</strong>For a final example, we use the online stock brokerage industry, which has seen large amounts of new product development to make it easy for new investors to purchase and manage investments (Monchau, 2021). Here are several examples:</span></p> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://www.acorns.com/"><strong>Acorns</strong></a>&nbsp;allows users to automatically invest their spare change from everyday credit card purchases into a portfolio of ETFs. Acorns charges a monthly fee but is currently waiving all fees to students.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://www.betterment.com/resources/how-betterment-technology-manages-money"><strong>Betterment</strong></a>&nbsp;is an online financial planning and investment management service that provides &quot;robo-advisor&quot; financial planning services, such as tax optimization and portfolio rebalancing. This structure allows Betterment to charge a lower yearly fee than many competitors for its services (Betterment Editors, 2022).&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/m1-finance-review/"><strong>M1 Finance</strong></a>&nbsp;is an online platform that introduced fractional share trading in 2017. Fractional share trading is a boon to small investors. It allows an investor to buy a portion of a share rather than pay for an entire share. M1 has taken this one step further to develop a &quot;pie&quot; system that allows users to create custom portfolios of individual stocks or ETFs.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong><a href="https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/robinhood-review/">Robinhood</a>&nbsp;</strong>offers commission-free trading of stocks, ETFs, and options. Robinhood also offers access to cryptocurrency trading. A unique feature of Robinhood is its &quot;Gold&quot; subscription service, which allows investors to trade on margin and access after-hours trading. Robinhood began offering fractional share trading in 2019.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="https://www.stash.com/stock-back-debit-card"><strong>Stash</strong></a>&nbsp;is an online investing service that rewards its users with stock when they purchase with certain retailers using their debit card linked to their Stash account.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: justify;"><meta name="uuid" content="uuid7rNd2FYKWUp8" /><meta charset="utf-8" /><span style="font-size:larger;">In the insurance industry, where I have spent much of my career, companies have likewise segmented users based on purchase preferences. They are leveraging&nbsp;the Internet to deliver new ways to buy&nbsp;insurance coverage:</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Comparison Shopping.&nbsp;</strong>Two decades ago,&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/compare-car-insurance-rates/" target="_blank">Progressive Insurance</a></strong>,&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.answerfinancial.com/" target="_blank">Answer Financial</a></strong>, and&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.insurance.com/" target="_blank">Insurance.com</a></strong>&nbsp;were pioneers in allowing consumers to compare insurance rates online and purchase coverage. Permutations&nbsp;now abound.&nbsp;</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Policy and Dealer-based Shopping Services.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gabi.com/" target="_blank">Gabi.com</a></strong>, for example,<strong>&nbsp;</strong>provides a unique service that lets people upload their current policy. Gabi uses it to find cheaper policies with similar coverage, thus avoiding the sometimes painful process of combing through existing policy details.&nbsp; &nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.autocomplete.io/dealers" target="_blank">Autocomplete.io</a></strong>, a more recent entrant, noted that many people buy from auto dealers when they purchase a car. Autocomplete has developed a sales platform addressing that channel&#39;s unique needs.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Picking your price.</strong>&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/name-your-price/" target="_blank">Progressive.com</a></strong>&nbsp;has developed a trademarked tool, &quot;<a href="https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/name-your-price/"><b><i>Name your own price</i></b></a>,&quot; that allows consumers to indicate how much coverage they can afford and use the rater to find a policy that fits their budget.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Usage-based pricing.&nbsp;</strong>Progressive was one of the first insurance companies to offer usage-based insurance programs and is now one of the largest providers of such programs in the United States. The company&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/snapshot/" target="_blank"><em>Snapshot</em></a>&nbsp;program uses a plug-in device that tracks various driving factors, including mileage, time of day, and braking habits. Drivers who sign up for the program can receive discounts of up to 30% on their premiums.&nbsp;<strong>Allstate</strong>&nbsp;offers two usage-based insurance programs:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allstate.com/drivewise" target="_blank"><em>Drivewise</em></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.allstate.com/auto-insurance/milewise" target="_blank"><em>Milewise</em></a>. Drivewise uses a plug-in device to track driving habits, while Milewise uses a phone app to track mileage. Drivers who sign up for either program can receive discounts of up to 20% on their premiums.&nbsp;<strong>State Farm,</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Liberty Mutual</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>Nationwide</strong>, among others, use a similar telematics device to track various driving factors, including mileage, speed, and braking habits. Insurers boast that careful, low-mileage drivers who sign up for the program can receive up to 50% discounts on their premiums.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Affordable Research Methods</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Many think, &quot;we can&#39;t afford expensive focus groups to figure out how our customers want to buy!&quot; Here is a list of guerilla tactics -- affordable ways -- to understand how customers want to buy without spending much money. Pay particular attention to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/7/finding-increased-profits-through-better-complaints-management" target="_blank">complaints</a>. The issues that make consumers mad in shopping and purchasing can be a gold mine of opportunities (Ryan, 2018).</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>CSRs and Others Involved in Customer Support.&nbsp;</strong>The first place to gather information on buying preferences is your organization&#39;s customer support teams. They will be able to provide anecdotal information on what is making their life and the lives of your customers difficult. Use this information for hypotheses, then go out and test with affordable online surveys.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Internal Complaint Logs.&nbsp;</strong>Many companies track customer complaints with either formal or informal tracking mechanisms. This data can provide invaluable insights into who is having trouble buying from you and how this is occurring. See my&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/7/finding-increased-profits-through-better-complaints-management" target="_blank">blog piece about complaints and complaints management</a>.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Social Media.&nbsp;</strong>Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great ways to research how customers like to buy. Researchers can use the platform&#39;s search function to look for relevant hashtags, such as #buyonline or #shoplocal, and see what users say about purchase preferences. They can also follow relevant influencers in their industry and see how they promote their products or services. For more examples of social media marketing techniques, see our article,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/24/28-examples-of-social-media-advertising-campaigns-small-businesses-can-use-to-build-their-brands">24&nbsp;Examples of Social Media Advertising Campaigns.</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Online Forums.&nbsp;</strong>Online forums are another great way to research how customers like to buy. There are forums for every topic, so finding one relevant to the industry is easy. Once a researcher has found a forum, they should take some time to read through the threads and see what kind of questions people are asking and what type of advice they are giving.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Google Trends.&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/trendingsearches/daily?geo=US&amp;hl=en-US"><em>Google Trends</em></a>&nbsp;is a free online tool that lets users set the popularity of e-specific keywords. This tool can help research how customers like to buy because researchers can see which keywords users search for more frequently. For example, if the company sells products online, marketers might want to research the keyword &quot;online shopping&quot; or &quot;how to buy [product x or y]. They can then use this information to adjust their marketing strategy accordingly.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Amazon Reviews. </strong>Marketers&nbsp;should use the platform&#39;s review system if the company sells products on Amazon. Customers who leave reviews are typically candid about their experience, so reading through them can give valuable insights into how customers like to buy. Just take the time to read through both positive and negative reviews to get a balanced understanding.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Blogs.&nbsp;</strong>Blogs can be a great source of information when researching how customers like to buy. Bloggers write about their personal experiences with different products and services. Search on Google or another search engine using relevant keywords to find relevant blogs. Once they find some blogs that look promising, take some time to read through them and see what insights they offer.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Podcasts.&nbsp;</strong>Podcasts are another great way to learn how customers like to buy. Many podcasts feature interviews with experts in various industries who share their insights on topics related to their expertise. Search on iTunes or another podcast directory using relevant keywords to find relevant podcasts.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">As we have seen, understanding&nbsp;<strong><em>how</em></strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong><em>why</em></strong>&nbsp;people want to buy is as important as understanding&nbsp;<strong><em>who</em></strong>&nbsp;wants to buy. Companies that know&nbsp;<strong><em>how</em></strong>&nbsp;we want to purchase are more likely to earn our business and keep us as customers. Customer complaints, social media, online discussion forums, Google Trends, blogs, and podcasts provide affordable sources of information on consumer preferences and are accessible to companies with even the tiniest budgets.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Go forth and learn how your customers want to buy --&nbsp;<em>then</em>&nbsp;segment. You will be happy you did!&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>References</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em>2023 Volvo C40 Recharge Price, Reviews, Pictures &amp; More | Kelley Blue Book</em>. (2022, September 1). KBB.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kbb.com/volvo/c40-recharge/">https://www.kbb.com/volvo/c40-recharge/</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Best Electric Vehicles of 2023 - Top-Rated New Electric Vehicles Ranked | KBB.com</em>. (n.d.). Kbb.com. <a href="https://www.kbb.com/electric-car/">https://www.kbb.com/electric-car/</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Betterment Editors. (2022, September 1).&nbsp;<em>How Betterment&#39;s Tech Helps You Manage Your Money</em>.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.betterment.com/resources/how-betterment-technology-manages-money">https://www.betterment.com/resources/how-betterment-technology-manages-money</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Betterton, R. (2022, October 6).&nbsp;<em>How to use Carvana to buy a car</em>. Bankrate.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/guide-to-carvana/#proscons">https://www.bankrate.com/loans/auto-loans/guide-to-carvana/#proscons</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Blumenthal, E. (2023, January 9).&nbsp;<em>Switching Phone Carriers in 2023: What to Know Before You Switch Providers</em>. CNET.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/switching-cellphone-carriers/">https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/switching-cellphone-carriers/</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Bop It Electronic Games Products Delivery or Pickup Near Me | Instacart</em>. (n.d.). Instacart. <a href="https://www.instacart.com/categories/5059-toys-and-games/5060-games/5075-electronic-games?brand=bop-it">https://www.instacart.com/categories/5059-toys-and-games/5060-games/5075-electronic-games?brand=bop-it</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Coughlan, A. T., &amp; Jap, S. (2016).&nbsp;<em>A Field Guide to Channel Strategy: Building Routes to Market</em>. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Cox, D., &amp; Timmermann, M. (2023, February 23).&nbsp;<em>Cricket Wireless Review: 5 Things To Know Before You Sign Up</em>. Clark Howard.&nbsp;<a href="https://clark.com/technology/phones-mobile-devices/cricket-wireless-review/">https://clark.com/technology/phones-mobile-devices/cricket-wireless-review/</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">DoorDash. (2022, October 19).&nbsp;<em>DoorDash x NBA 2022 - Secret Handshake</em>&nbsp;[Video]. YouTube.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6RaVv3s3qw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6RaVv3s3qw</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Herosmyth Staff, H. (2020, February 24).&nbsp;<em>9 Perfect Brand Examples of Why It Pays to Differentiate</em>. Herosmyth. <a href="https://www.herosmyth.com/article/9-perfect-brand-examples-why-it-pays-differentiate">https://www.herosmyth.com/article/9-perfect-brand-examples-why-it-pays-differentiate</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Monchau, C. (2021, March 26).&nbsp;<em>Thanks to Fractional Shares, Trading Is Accessible to Everyone</em>. Entrepreneur.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/money-finance/thanks-to-fractional-shares-trading-is-accessible-to/367129#:~:text=Regarding%20the%20introduction%20of%20fractional,and%20Charles%20Schwab%20followed%20suit">https://www.entrepreneur.com/money-finance/thanks-to-fractional-shares-trading-is-accessible-to/367129#:~:text=Regarding%20the%20introduction%20of%20fractional,and%20Charles%20Schwab%20followed%20suit</a>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Polson, K. (2022, August 16).&nbsp;<em>What is BOPIS Fulfillment? A Guide for Retailers</em>. <a href="https://blog.deckcommerce.com/what-is-bopis">https://blog.deckcommerce.com/what-is-bopis</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">PSC Highlights. (2023, January 26).&nbsp;<em>food delivery guy walks on the court during a college basketball game</em>&nbsp;[Video]. YouTube.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3xiLGFRiLM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3xiLGFRiLM</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Ryan, R. (2018, February 28).&nbsp;<em>Finding Increased Profits through Better Complaints Management |</em>. www.ronrassociates.com/blog. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/7/finding-increased-profits-through-better-complaints-management">https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/7/finding-increased-profits-through-better-complaints-management</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Ryan, R. (2018, February 8).&nbsp;<em>The Amazing Healing Power of Customer Lifetime Value | RonRAssoci</em>. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from <a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/9/the-amazing-healing-power-of-clv">https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/9/the-amazing-healing-power-of-clv</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em>What is Industry 4.0? | Definition, technologies, benefits | SAP Insights</em>. (n.d.). SAP.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sap.com/uk/insights/what-is-industry-4-0.html#:~:text=Industry%204.0%20is%20powered%20by,machinery%2C%20robots%2C%20and%20vehicles">https://www.sap.com/uk/insights/what-is-industry-4-0.html#:~:text=Industry%204.0%20is%20powered%20by,machinery%2C%20robots%2C%20and%20vehicles</a>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> 22How Controversy Can Be Good For Your Brandhttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/19/how-controversy-can-be-good-for-your-brandBranding,Content Development,Conversion ImprovementFri, 18 Nov 2022 14:44:00 GMT<p><meta name="uuid" content="uuidcAWj4GjQIuvH" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Based in Knoxville, Tennessee, I have watched the University of Tennessee Volunteers football team enter the national argument over which teams deserve to be in the National Championship and whose quarterback deserves the Heisman Trophy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The controversy spilled over at the Country Music Awards show last week. Volunteers Football Alumnus Paton Manning introduced&nbsp;<em>Rocky Top</em>, the Volunteers fight song, as his favorite country song while sharing the stage with notable Georgia Alumn and country star Blake Shelton.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:larger;">On repeat 🎧🔂 <a href="https://t.co/9F0DDxbcdx">pic.twitter.com/9F0DDxbcdx</a></span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:larger;">&mdash; Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) <a href="https://twitter.com/Vol_Football/status/1590674173042786308?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2022</a></span></blockquote> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><meta name="uuid" content="uuidqOF03BP3fVRD" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Controversy, if appropriately handled, increases brand awareness and&nbsp;<em>improves</em>&nbsp;brand equity. As marketing genius PT Barnum once famously said,&nbsp;<strong><em>there is no such thing as bad publicity</em></strong>. Below are six companies embroiled in controversies that they ultimately managed in their favor.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">1.&nbsp;<strong>The Pepsi Challenge&nbsp;</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">In 1975, Pepsi launched the &quot;Pepsi Challenge.&quot; The Pepsi challenge was a marketing campaign that pitted Pepsi head-on against Coca-Cola using a blind taste test. Pepsi used a corn syrup-based sweetener in a slightly sweeter formulation. The taste test results showed many people choosing Pepsi over Coca-Cola. The controversy resulted in a significant sales increase for Pepsi, increased brand awareness, and led Coke to develop its disastrous &quot;New Coke&quot; product.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">2.&nbsp;<strong>Red Bull&nbsp;</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">In 2014, Red Bull became embroiled in a controversy. Reports revealed that the company had been using DEHP, an ingredient in its energy drinks banned by several countries. The ingredient, known as DEHP, is a plasticizer linked to health problems such as cancer. After the story broke, Red Bull announced that it would reformulate its energy drinks to remove DEHP. Red Bull ran ads apologizing. The ads reassured&nbsp;customers that its products are safe. As a result of its handling of the problem, public opinion shifted. Red Bull&nbsp;sales increased by 9% in the following year.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">3.&nbsp;<strong>Nike&nbsp;</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Media reports in 1991 revealed that some of Nike&#39;s Asian factories were using child labor. The reports accused Nike of exploiting workers in developing countries and putting profits ahead of people. The company responded by publicly committing to improving factory working conditions and increasing transparency around its supply chain. As a result of the way Nike handled the situation, Nike&#39;s reputation improved. Sales increased by 27% in the following year.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">4.&nbsp;<strong>Ben &amp; Jerry&#39;s&nbsp;</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">In 2009, media outlets reported that Ben and Jerry&#39;s was sourcing some of its milk from cows fed genetically modified (GM) corn. A consumer group questioned the safety of consuming genetically modified&nbsp;foods. Anti-GM activists&nbsp;called consumers to&nbsp;boycott Ben &amp; Jerry&#39;s ice cream&nbsp;products. The company responded by sourcing milk from cows certified to have eaten non-GM corn. Because of how it handled the situation, Ben &amp; Jerry&#39;s reputation improved, and its sales increased by 11% in the following year.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">5.&nbsp;<strong>Starbucks&nbsp;</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Starbucks found itself at the center of a controversy in 2015 when media reporting showed that Starbucks paid less taxes than smaller businesses in its industry. Some consumers accused Starbucks of tax avoidance. There were calls to boycott the company&#39;s products. Starbucks responded by voluntarily paying more taxes than legally required and investing in small businesses in disadvantaged communities. Starbucks handled the situation well. Sales increased by 13% in the following year.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">6.&nbsp;<strong>Volkswagen and Dieselgate</strong>&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">In 2015, US Federal Regulators caught Volkswagon cheating on emissions tests for its diesel vehicles. The scandal became known as &quot;Dieselgate.&quot; The US government levied billions of dollars in fines and settlements on Volkswagen. Notwithstanding all the negative publicity, Volkswagen&#39;s sales increased after the scandal.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">What lesson can we learn from these&nbsp;examples? Controversy need not be a death sentence for a brand. Controversy can be good for a brand if managed correctly, but only if management handles the situation appropriately. Be careful. It can take vast commitments of corporate resources to weather a storm like the ones identified above. To get through, tread lightly and seek the most ethical path possible. Acknowledge mistakes and move publically to fix them. A brand that did something wrong but moved swiftly to do the right thing can ultimately win consumer support.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> 19 Six Ways A Strong Brand Improves Profitshttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/17/six-ways-a-strong-brand-improves-profitsContent Development,Conversion Improvement,Product Management,Profit ImprovementTue, 08 Nov 2022 20:18:00 GMT<p><meta name="uuid" content="uuidXIICyAIe2mVk" /><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><meta name="uuid" content="uuidtI2jXBQVR6hq" /><meta charset="utf-8" /><span style="font-size:larger;">One of the most challenging conversations you will ever have is to explain the power of brand and branding expenditures in a small business context. Most of us find the notion of &quot;brand&quot; hard to define, though we know a superior brand when we see one. How does a strong brand make a company better off? To answer this question, we list six common ways a strong brand can improve profits.</span></p> <ol> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>A strong brand helps to increase sales.&nbsp;</strong>Which products are easier to find, branded or off-brand products? Walk through any store looking for a particular kind of product. Which product are you drawn to? The branded one, of course. Customers are more likely to buy if they can easily find the products they need from a recognizable brand. This behavior occurs because customers prefer convenience over other factors, such as price.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>A strong brand helps to attract new customers.&nbsp;</strong>A strong brand can increase sales by facilitating positive word-of-mouth. It is easier to tell friends and family about a branded product than an off-brand one. We can remember the names of branded products. When customers have a good experience with a brand, they spread the word. This word-of-mouth can be extremely powerful in increasing sales by making people aware of the brand and its products or services. Consumers value word-of-mouth referrals more than other information about a product or service. A strong brand makes the referral process more manageable by making your brand a &quot;known quantity.&quot;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>A strong brand drives customer loyalty.&nbsp;</strong>Customers loyal to a brand are more likely to continue buying that brand. Brand-loyal behavior continues even when other options are available. Companies develop customer loyalty by providing excellent customer service or high-quality products that solve consumers&#39; problems. Brand loyalty also gives companies a mulligan; we tend to be more forgiving of products or services that fail to fill our needs when they have strong brands. For example, let&#39;s take the simple case of a new waiter who messes up your order in a restaurant you love. You are far more likely to forgive this one slip than at a restaurant you are trying for the first time. That response is in part due to the&nbsp;<em>brand</em>&nbsp;of the restaurant you love.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>A strong brand can help increase a product&#39;s perceived value.&nbsp;</strong>Strong brands achieve higher perceived value by making their product or service appear more exclusive, higher quality, trustworthy, searchable, or memorable. This perception of value, in turn, can help with point-of-sale conversions and increase sales.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>A strong brand reduces marketing costs.&nbsp;</strong>Customer loyalty, greater awareness, a better definition of customer preference, and higher customer lifetime values are all reasons a strong brand reduces marketing costs (or makes the same marketing spend more effective).</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>&nbsp;A strong brand helps companies connect emotionally with customers.&nbsp;</strong>When customers feel emotionally attached to a brand, we are more likely to purchase its products, even when cheaper alternatives exist. Marketers can create an emotional connection by aligning the brand with the customer&#39;s values. Consider Suburu&#39;s evocative&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmEkuACGSvk" target="_blank">&#39;Subaru is Love&#39;&nbsp;</a>commercials, for example. Marketers carefully research their target market to align with customers&#39; values&mdash;studying customer demographics and interests - so they know how to tug at our heartstrings. Then, they make life better for those customers by ensuring their products or services solve a problem their target market cares about. (One example is automotive longevity and safety in Subaru&#39;s case.) In advertising, marketers use language that resonates with their target market and is authentic and transparent. Customers are more likely to trust and respect a brand if it is genuine and honest!</span></li> </ol> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Brand equity,&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@keatonhawker/kellers-brand-equity-model-what-it-is-how-to-use-it-84e42d562299" target="_blank">the corporate staple measurement of brand strength</a>, is an acknowledged measure of the value of a brand. Brand equity considers many of the abovementioned variables: customer loyalty, name recognition, customer awareness, and market share. However, name recognition and customer awareness are often difficult to measure in a small business context. This challenge is prevalent in small businesses with no market research budget.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">What to do? Instead, take a baby step. Consider concrete actions you can take to learn what your customers think of your brand, then work to improve it by working through the list above. We&#39;ll share&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/18/7-ways-to-build-a-small-business-brand" target="_blank">ideas on ways to enhance brand equity</a>&nbsp;in upcoming posts.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Happy brand building!</span></p> 17Why Marketing Post-Covid Will Be About Community and Connectionshttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/13/why-marketing-post-covid-will-be-about-loveContent Development,Conversion Improvement,customer experience,SEOThu, 11 Mar 2021 20:22:19 GMT<p style="text-align: justify;">In the post-Covid-19 economy, our businesses will become increasingly dependent on our digital connections with our customers and community. The longer you have been working in marketing, the more counterintuitive this brave new world will be.&nbsp;&nbsp; From direct mail to email to television and display advertising, traditional marketing weapons are becoming increasingly ineffective. The online search drives nearly everything these days. It is time for a new approach. Today&#39;s marketing must leverage&nbsp;technology&#39;s power and integrate&nbsp;the community&#39;s human appeal.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Here are some examples driving this trend:&nbsp;</p> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;">Online Meeting Platforms, Zoom, and Teams wake up to find their online meeting platforms&#39; businesses are exploding. Everything from bible study to classrooms to business meetings has gone online.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">The online streaming service, Hulu, offers a&nbsp;&quot;Watch Party&quot; service that <a href="https://help.hulu.com/s/article/watch-party?language=en_US" target="_blank">permits subscribers to watch movies and shows together</a>, using Hulu to connect online and jointly watch synchronized content from different locations.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://portal.facebook.com/products/portal/?utm_source=gg&amp;utm_medium=a_ps&amp;utm_campaign=6466155258&amp;utm_term=facebook%20portal&amp;utm_content=502615399172&amp;utm_ad=74850662342&amp;utm_location=9013447&amp;utm_location2&amp;utm_placement=kwd-391571568194&amp;utm_adposition&amp;utm_device=c&amp;utm_matchype=e&amp;utm_feed=134437763763&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds&amp;&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAnKeCBhDPARIsAFDTLTJSfE8ERaWjFUjOVHtzsue3fLuIriFi_F_-EtvP2vLzT6kZWfvI1L4aAtrVEALw_wcB" target="_blank">Facebook&#39;s portal system</a> allows users, families, and friends to make smart video calls from a device in their living rooms.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Amazon Prime turns 150 million Prime members into a streaming, online books, audiobooks, and entertainment distribution channel.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Girl Scouts are leveraging geo-lookup technology and <a href="https://www.today.com/food/girl-scout-cookies-home-delivery-here-s-how-order-online-t177027" target="_blank">have partnered with Grub Hub</a> to make&nbsp;cookies more available. You can even&nbsp;arrange contact-free delivery in many locations across the US.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;">Ministry Brands, a software company for nonprofits, helps churches around the United States manage everything from <a href="https://www.ministrybrands.com/solutions/live-streaming/" target="_blank">online Church service video streaming</a> to <a href="https://www.easytithe.com/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_term=%2Bonline%20%2Bgiving&amp;utm_campaign=Giving+BMM&amp;utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;hsa_acc=3413534549&amp;hsa_cam=331299986&amp;hsa_grp=29696239826&amp;hsa_ad=418256446231&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_tgt=kwd-19412610014&amp;hsa_kw=%2Bonline%20%2Bgiving&amp;hsa_mt=b&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAnKeCBhDPARIsAFDTLTKc4AgU-KhouK3iXCY7t2ZNubWJwFAbW1ofAjO9qlFKa-DjD1sPEZYaAtncEALw_wcB" target="_blank">online offering collections</a> and <a href="https://www.ministrybrands.com/solutions/background-screening/" target="_blank">background checks online</a>. Business is brisk.</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What&#39;s going on here?&nbsp; </strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The answer is one part Pandemic, two parts software development.&nbsp;&nbsp; Nir Eyal can help us understand how and why this happens from the software perspective. Eyal is&nbsp;Stanford MBA and behavioral scientist who wrote a book called,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LMGLXTS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" target="_blank">Hooked</a>. The book&nbsp;has taken the software development world by storm. Eyal started creating online games and learned how to make communities of gamers who couldn&#39;t stop playing his company&#39;s games.&nbsp; &nbsp;In his book, Eyal builds on the gaming software paradigm to show how to build habit-forming products of all kinds.&nbsp;&nbsp; His formula for success involves a four-step process of creating a trigger (say, an email from Facebook saying one of your friends posted on Facebook), action (posting a comment), variable reward (likes for your comment), and investment (making some posts of your own gradually over time.)&nbsp; Community, it turns out, is addictive. By isolating us, the Pandemic has added fuel to the fire.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The Big Changes Afoot in Marketing</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em>&quot;Two-thirds of marketing is taking place without us [the marketers]&quot; </em>intones East-Tennessee-based <a href="https://youtu.be/3cg5oLPCzd4?t=73" onclick="window.open(this.href, '', 'resizable=yes,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no,fullscreen=no,scrollbars=no,dependent=no'); return false;">Mark Shafer, online marketing guru and author of <em>Marketing Rebellion</em></a>, &quot;<strong><em>...</em></strong><em>Our hyper-empowered, tech-enabled customers have moved to a different place.&quot;</em><strong><em> </em></strong>In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/01/when-community-becomes-your-competitive-advantage" target="_blank">When Community Becomes Your Competitive Advantage</a>, HBR&#39;s Jeffrey Bussgang and Jono Bacon take the idea one step further<strong>: &quot;</strong><em>If a company can transition from simply delivering a product to building a community, they can unlock extraordinary competitive advantages and create a superior business model.&quot;&nbsp;</em>Among Mark Shafer&#39;s solutions is User Generated Content (UGC). Shafer suggests <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2020/08/24/content-isnt-king/">leveraging UGC content</a>, much as a surfer might ride a wave (rather than be hit by it.) HBR authors Bussgang and Bacon believe businesses need to create an environment that &quot;incentivizes the behavior [the business wants] to see, exposes the value generated, and highlights and rewards great participation.&quot;&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">There are social, business, and technological underpinnings to these trends. &nbsp;</p> <ol> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Social - We crave connections of all kinds.&nbsp;</strong>The past year of Covid-19 isolation has been a lonely one for most of us. The big winners of the Pandemic have been pound dogs, suburban real estate agents, and, well, online communities. To give some dimensions to this trend, Facebook has reported <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-statistics/" target="_blank">1.8 Billion people to use Groups</a> to join communities of different kinds on Facebook. As Eyal&#39;s model prescribes, we are rewarded with likes from like-minded individuals when we contribute views and content to Facebook Groups. Affinity is revenue in many fields, such as journalism, entertainment, and product promotion. Tweets, clicks, and likes drive this.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Business - Social Proof Drives Conversion and Lowers Acquisition Cost.&nbsp;</strong>Positive comments from third parties about you, your company, or your product provide&nbsp;<em>social proof</em>. Social proof is valuable. While it may not necessarily be from a friend or family member, social proof offers an endorsement that says this product or service is trustworthy. Think about the last time you went somewhere new. &nbsp;&nbsp;Did you ask someone where the best place to eat or shop was? Did you take them up on their recommendation? This is how social proof works. From Amazon&#39;s &quot;People who shopped for this, also bought&quot; to Shopify add-ons to Google My Business page customers reviews, <a href="https://optinmonster.com/social-proof-software-tools/" target="_blank">software tools for providing social proof</a> abound. We trust, therefore we convert.&nbsp; &nbsp;</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Technology - User-Generated Content Improves Search Rankings.&nbsp;</strong>There are several reasons User Generated Content makes it easier for search engines to find you:</li> </ol> <ul style="margin-left: 40px;"> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Constantly Updated Content.&nbsp;</strong>Harnessing the power of customer comments means your customers are doing the content development for you 24/7. This keeps you on your toes as to both trends and problems. Google treats user-generated content of a site as your content but gives you tools to manage it as well. See a recent video on <a href="https://youtu.be/muCwZcORL0k" target="_blank">how Google Search handles UGC here</a>.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Keywords Oh My!&nbsp;</strong>When customers write about your product in their own words, they increase your site&#39;s amount of content. The users&#39; vocabulary is not yours, so the content they create provides large numbers of <a href="https://neilpatel.com/blog/7-brilliant-examples-of-brands-driving-long-tail-organic-traffic/" target="_blank">so-called long-tail (less-frequently used) keywords</a> to your site. Think of it as casting an ever-broader SEO net for your content.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Links Galore.</strong>&nbsp; &nbsp;Users pepper their content with links to content on your site, links to other sites, and social media connections. These links improve SEO. The more high-authority websites link to your site, the higher your page ranking becomes.</li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>More Trust.&nbsp;</strong>Research has shown that <a href="https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/" target="_blank">consumers trust other users much more than brands</a>.&nbsp; &nbsp; Google and other search engines trust user-generated content as much as they do yours because&nbsp;users speak the truth about their interactions with your brand.</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Start with Google My Business and Facebook</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">So, how should your business leverage this trend? We recommend our clients start with baby steps. Since Google owns the ranch in search, we recommend spending the small amount of time it takes to have a robust Google My Business (GMB) page. GMB pages are free to set up, and your GMB page is what people are searching for your business usually see first.&nbsp;&nbsp; Ensure every satisfied customer writes a review by following up with them post-purchase with a link to your GMB reviews page. Integrate hours information and appointment setting capabilities, and if you have multiple offices, make sure all of them appear in the GMB locations. Add answers to frequently asked questions and take the time to tell Google detailed information about your products and services. GMB&#39;s capabilities are growing almost daily, so <a href="https://www.callrail.com/blog/guide-to-google-my-business/" target="_blank">stay abreast of changes and update GMB</a> once a quarter. Facebook small business pages offer a similar suite of capabilities to GMB and should be managed and updated similarly.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Building A Product Reviews Capability</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">For larger organizations with larger budgets, consider adding user-generated content to any products you sell online. Ensure that you find ways to provide social proof to your product profiles.&nbsp;&nbsp; Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings in this category is growing quickly. Larger, more established providers include <a href="https://www.bazaarvoice.com/" target="_blank">Bazaarvoice</a> and <a href="https://www.trustpilot.com/" target="_blank">Trustpilot</a>, among many others. Even Shopify offers a <a href="https://apps.shopify.com/product-reviews" target="_blank">product reviews app</a>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>B2B Solutions</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">For companies operating in the B2B space, the advisory council is a valuable way of creating community. As the Pandemic allows, select a group of your best customers and invite them to join you are a resort somewhere pleasant. &nbsp; &nbsp;Pay for their hotel and meals for a few days in exchange for their input in round table discussions. If this is not possible, a zoom meeting or two rewarded by some gifts can work. For example, ten years ago, one vendor gave me a Gortex golf suit which I still have today! &nbsp; Use these customer councils to test your hypotheses about new products and enlist their help defining new ones. &nbsp; Prioritize opportunities to improve margins, create a competitive advantage, and enhance the customer experience. &nbsp; Make sure to take action on their gripes so that they know you value their insights.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Community Building</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Digital or not, our community is where we find it. Here are some examples from my community. My friend who owns a fence contracting business gets referrals from the neighborhood Facebook page. Another friend, who owns smoothie franchises, donates smooth drinks at local golf fundraisers and hands out free drink cards to student-athletes to build customer-trial. A local orthopedic clinic provides its staff to work the sidelines of local football games and prioritizes scheduling&nbsp;injured athletes. A local restaurant hosts post-game&nbsp;drinks&nbsp;and snacks for a&nbsp;local high school football team&#39;s parents and coaches. Another company I know monitors post office address changes and offers welcome wagon security upgrades to new arrivals. Our church&#39;s&nbsp;services and giving are online now.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The possibilities are endless! Make them digital and see them scale!</p> 13Small Company + Big Data = Huge Impacthttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/11/small-company-big-data-huge-impactConversion,Conversion Improvement,Customer Relationship Management,Nonprofit ManagementWed, 28 Aug 2019 17:23:49 GMT<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Using Big Data to Better Serve Customers, Donors and Prospects</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">You&#39;ve completed an analysis of your customers or donors. You know which customers are profitable.&nbsp;Or, if you are a nonprofit, you know which donors are most supportive of your cause.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">But you still have an incomplete picture of those individuals as people. Where do they live? Where do they shop? Where do they work? Who are their friends? How do they spend their free time? With what organizations are they affiliated? What other, perhaps related products do they buy? In short, you still need an understanding of their demographics and behavioral traits. How else can you go out and find more of these profitable customers? It is on these occasions that Big Data becomes the marketer&rsquo;s friend.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Go Fish?</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Here&#39;s how the process works. Take email addresses, phone numbers, names, social security numbers, or other identifying information. With permission, of course, use this information, you&nbsp;<em>do</em>&nbsp;know to reference more data in a data vendor&#39;s warehouse about what you&nbsp;<em>don&#39;t&nbsp;</em>know. Tap the database to find information about essential attributes like age, income, mailing address, location, driving record, credit, or assets. Select the variable based on what is useful to your business intelligence needs. Analyze and summarize&nbsp;<em>those attributes</em>&nbsp;to inform your marketing strategy and boost marketing performance.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">By enabling this kind of analysis, Big Data allows marketers to understand customers deeply. Even better, with predictive modeling, marketers can even predict how likely customers or users are to buy or donate in the future. The Gartner Group surveyed its Gartner Research Circle members worldwide. The technology research firm found that most (73%) of those surveyed in its customer base planned to use Big Data in the future.[i] The bottom line? Smaller organizations are going to have to develop similar information to compete.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>A Toe In The Water --- Social Media Custom Audiences</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Facebook and LinkedIn provide small business advertisers alternatives to buying data about customers. Instead, Facebook advertisers can upload CSV files with email addresses of customers. If the emails uploaded match those of their members, Facebook will place advertisements in the members&#39; timelines. Similarly, LinkedIn allows users to provide lists of company names. Marketers can advertise to LinkedIn, its members who work for those companies. See information on LinkedIn&rsquo;s Service&nbsp;<a href="https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/marketing-solutions/a/targeting/matched-audiences/pdfs/Account-Targeting-Checklist-v01.07.pdf" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a>.)</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">It gets better. With the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/a/custom-audiences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Facebook</u></a>&nbsp;<em>custom audience tool,</em>&nbsp;marketers develop ads for&nbsp;<u><a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/a/lookalike-audiences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">&ldquo;lookalike&rdquo; audiences</a></u>. These audiences have similar demographics to those of existing customers. So, identify a list of profitable customers, donors, or B2B companies you currently serve. Upload them to the appropriate social media platform. Then, let&nbsp;<em>their</em>&nbsp;data scientists take care of the rest. Cool right?</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Facebook Partners</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The behind-the-scenes magic that has allowed social media marketing to work so well for Facebook has been a database of&nbsp;<a href="https://wapo.st/2bz22Cb?tid=ss_mail&amp;utm_term=.0e8310059f20" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>98 attributes.</u>&nbsp;</a>Facebook worked with its data partners, companies like Experian, Epsilon, and Oracle Data Cloud. They helped Facebook complete its detailed knowledge of us. We members give Facebook our age, gender, location, education, relationship status, and employment. We do this to improve our connections with former classmates, colleagues, and friends. Our likes tell Facebook how we feel about many topics. Yes, Facebook knows our politics, our hobbies, our true loves, our family, and even our musical tastes.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">To this, Facebook&rsquo;s Data Partners program concatenated information from large data providers. How many credit cards do we have? What kinds of restaurants do we frequent? How likely are we to move? Are we likely to buy a new car?</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The Facebook data and target market interface gave even the smallest businesses the targeting power of big companies. For small businesses, gaining affordable, easy access to this kind of data was revolutionary. It democratized Big Data. A small restaurant or hotel had access to the same information as so its national chain competitors across the road.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">That was true until recently. The controversy over the&nbsp;<u><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Cambridge Analytica Affair</a></u>&nbsp;dragged social media executives before Congress. Other challenges included the new Privacy Rules in the European Union (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>GDPR</u></a>). Facebook announced it was phasing out access to its Data Partners this year. (See Facebook&rsquo;s short Partner Categories Article&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/298717656925097" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a>.)</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Despite the change in policy, we think Facebook will continue to be an excellent advertising resource for small businesses targeting consumers.&nbsp;LinkedIn remains the most effective way to target B2B customers by industry and position affordably.&nbsp;&nbsp;Both platforms will allow small companies to pinpoint critical segments in their customer base&nbsp;<em>affordably</em>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Large Data Purchase - 100 Attributes for Under $1.00</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Plan B is to buy your own demographic or propensity data. And there is lots of it available out there. A typical database vendor such as Acxiom, LexisNexis, Choice Point, or Trans Union has hundreds of pieces of information for sale. This information is gathered from many providers and sources, then cross-indexed and cross-referenced. Here is a link to one provider, USADATA (also branded as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usadata.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>MyAcxiomPartner.com</u></a>). USA DATA has a self-serve data mart targeting small and medium-sized businesses. We expect more small business-focused offerings from other large data providers in the future. Make no mistake.&nbsp;The market will find a way to fill the void left by Facebook&rsquo;s policy changes.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Big Data - A Fundraiser&#39;s Life Blood?</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Big Data is also crucial in the nonprofit fundraising sector. CRM vendors to nonprofits offer a series of services using Big Data. These services include data cleaning through the US Postal service relocation database. They also provide wealth indexing, and Social Security sweeps for recent deaths.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">An example is Blackbaud Group&#39;s Raiser&#39;s Edge product.[ii] The Blackbaud Group integrates the Raiser&#39;s Edge Product and ResearchPoint databases. This integration allows fundraisers to access information about prospective donors, such as net worth.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Want more? They can access even more granular information, as well. What securities do they own? What real estate properties do they own? What are some of their other sources of wealth?[iii] The Research Point integrated data service also provides data about a prospect&#39;s past giving. It also can provide information on prospective donors&#39; Board Relationships. The software even identifies people who live near the prospect who might be donors as well. For fundraisers seeking high net worth donors, these kinds of tools can be invaluable.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Computer, &quot;Go find this customer&rsquo;s VIN, please.&quot;</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Insurers, banks, and other financial services institutions also use Big Data. Big Data allows them to make quick decisions about selling us insurance or lending us money. Insurance companies can buy underwriting data about prospective customers and can use that data, so the customer doesn&#39;t have to remember it or enter it themselves. Here&rsquo;s an example of how consumer database information was applied to improve customer experience.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">A client in the auto insurance industry was having difficulty keeping customers engaged. Customers had to fill out 100-question application forms to purchase auto insurance. Users couldn&#39;t for the life of them remember one piece of information needed to quote the risk accurately. Who do you know who can remember their vehicle identification number (VIN)? (The VIN is a 17-digit alphanumeric number appearing on the left of corner of the windshield.) Our client studied the drop-off of users. Many who were requested to provide their vehicle identification numbers departed, never to return.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">It was clear. The client could increase the number of completed applications. How? Get the VIN from data warehouse vendors. Don&#39;t force the customer to provide the information she doesn&#39;t have easily accessible. Instead, pull the data out of the cloud. Then ask customers to confirm a picture of their make and model. Large insurers are learning that the best way to pull customers through the online sequence is to purchase as much data as they can. Recent competition among auto insurance sellers to have the shortest quote time is an example of this trend.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Here are two more examples from a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>recent article</u></a>&nbsp;in Inc. Magazine. Carvana, a mid-sized and entrepreneurial used car dealership, employs five data scientists. They held an online Kaggle competition to solve a complex analytical problem. Carvana asked the data science community for help in developing a better way to predict whether cars purchased at auction were lemons. The data model allowed Carvana to buy higher-quality cars &quot;for $500 below what similar cars would sell for.&quot; The same article shared how a zoo in Tacoma, Washington, was able to save money on staffing. Zoo management correlated local climate data with attendance peaks and valleys. The resulting analysis allowed them to build a better staffing model, saving the organization thousands. The zoo later improved membership by 13 percent by upping its marketing spend in the zip codes of its most frequent guests.[iv]&nbsp;All of the preceding was thanks to the application of Big Data to small/medium-sized business problems.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Why Math Is Our Friend</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">So how do the professional data &#39;wranglers&#39; do this? Does your company have large amounts of data about its customers? Can you afford to purchase more data about them? If so, here are some examples of techniques from a favorite article by two FICO data scientists in&nbsp;<a href="http://analytics-magazine.org/consumer-insight-driving-profitability-with-retail-analytics/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Analytics Magazine</a>. Even if you aren&#39;t the one doing the analytics, you can benefit from understanding how these analytical techniques apply to your marketing. We summarize the methods in the below infographic; then explain them in more detail in the body of the article.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><img data-li-src="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4E12AQG_CzlsXVkvRw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0?e=1572480000&amp;v=beta&amp;t=1IrdnidBCGgpojH3HEXg72bcylzF3nHE8BUM3iQEuOM" data-media-urn="" src="https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C4E12AQG_CzlsXVkvRw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0?e=1572480000&amp;v=beta&amp;t=1IrdnidBCGgpojH3HEXg72bcylzF3nHE8BUM3iQEuOM" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Clustering Algorithms</strong>&nbsp;offer the opportunity to create broad behavioral segments. Examples are animal lovers, people who enjoy traveling by RV, or people who buy only local farmer produce. These clusters bring together large numbers of customers who may be different in other ways, but who may have similar beliefs or tastes. Quite often, retail stores will use this kind of segment information to create decors. Marketers can also use it for product groupings, or in-store departments targeting this segment. They use this technique for cross-selling products. For nonprofits, this kind of segmentation offers obvious opportunities to identify like-minded individuals. These individuals may believe in the non-profit&#39;s mission. But they may not have had the chance to learn about the organization. Here&#39;s another use: translate these segments into keywords. Then, use the keywords to improve online advertising yields and organic search.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Propensity models</strong>&nbsp;are predictive models. These models bring together an extensive line of attributes that are predictive of buying or giving behaviors. For example, Scottish Terrier owners who live in urban environments may be more likely to donate to specific animal-related causes. Sometimes wacky, these predictive models have become a keystone analytic of direct-mail organizations. More recently, online marketers study clickstream data to try to identify when people are ready to engage in a valuable activity. For example, they may be prepared to make a significant purchase or, perhaps, donation. In a world where constant marketing noise is the norm and in which client acquisition costs are soaring, these models can move the numbers. They do this by predicting who will buy or donate so that we can give them a nudge at that golden moment.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Collaborative Filtering</strong>&nbsp;is a way of taking data about existing customers and applying the data to prospective ones. Often called a &quot;look-alike model,&quot; companies can use these models on the Internet to find new customers. Facebook does this with its lookalike audience feature discussed above. Amazon applies this technique with the &quot;customers who bought this item also bought.&quot;[v] The method is also used by entertainment media companies. TiVo Suggestions. Netflix, Yahoo!, and Apple&#39;s Genius also reportedly use it to make their decisions.[vi]</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">A data scientist named Jonathan Goldman, a physics Ph.D. by training, joined LinkedIn in 2006. Legend has it he developed a module that allowed users to see the names of people to whom they were, &quot;Not connected but were likely to know.&quot;<a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_edn7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[vii]</a>&nbsp;The technique was an immediate success. The discovery reportedly threw LinkedIn into hyper-growth.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Flunked Stats in College?&nbsp;Here&#39;s Technical Help for English Majors!</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Software as a service solutions (SaaS) offerings is emerging that incorporate many of these analytical capabilities. A Canadian company named&nbsp;<a href="https://canopylabs.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Canopy Labs</u></a>, for example, provides an online tool-set for marketers. The tools are designed to allow customers to consolidate consumer data and analyze the &ldquo;customer journey.&rdquo; The software includes different kinds of statistical analyses.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Another company, called&nbsp;<u><a href="https://www.retentionscience.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Retention Science</a>,</u>&nbsp;provides a similar online platform. Retention Science claims data cleaning, analysis, and marketing automation on its platform. The software boasts behavioral and transactional profiling. It also offers customer life cycle analysis, and analytics to measure campaign performance.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.insightsquared.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>Insight Squared</u></a>&nbsp;has a product that integrates with QuickBooks, Google Analytics, or Zendesk. Even the mighty IBM&rsquo;s talking artificial intelligence avatar, &ldquo;Watson&rdquo; has gotten into the act. An&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ibm.com/watson-analytics/pricing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><u>analytics package</u></a>&nbsp;that starts free and grows with your knowledge and the value created is available under the Watson brand. Thanks to IBM&#39;s big Watson branding advertising push, senior management understands what you are trying to achieve!</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Solutions like these greatly simplify the analysis. Other solution providers are emerging daily, so shop around.&nbsp;They usually provide engagement teams with human beings who you can call and ask questions about what the data is telling you.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Professional Advisors &ndash; Ask them to focus on &lsquo;Keeping It Real.&rsquo;</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Like everything else, there is the opportunity for a great deal of puffery in the analysis and interpretation of data. If a service provider overwhelms you with a long concatenation of buzzwords and hard-to-understand terms, find someone else. A plain-spoken expert can do the same work! Our recommendation is to keep it simple, go one step at a time, and get analytical help as you can. Quite often, a local university statistics professor or graduate student would be glad to help. They love a real-life problem on which to test their latest models. If your company&#39;s a little bigger and can afford to hire a data wrangling consultancy, don&#39;t be shy about hiring the right talent. Look for someone with a strong track record with clients like you. Make sure they provide references. Have them include Ph.D.&rsquo;s as well as a few liberal arts-trained executives. Make sure they have led to real value-added for clients like you.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Do you know everything you should about your profitable customers? If not, it&rsquo;s time to find out!</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Notes:</strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[i]</a>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2848718" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2848718</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[ii]</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.blackbaud.com/fundraising-and-relationship-management/raisers-edge" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.blackbaud.com/fundraising-and-relationship-management/raisers-edge</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref3" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[iii]</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRFAGB8DHE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nRFAGB8DHE</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[iv]</a>&nbsp;Kelleher, K. (2017). What 3 Small Businesses Learned from Big Data. Retrieved from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.inc.com/magazine/201407/kevin-kelleher/how-small-businesses-can-mine-big-data.html</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref5" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[v]</a>&nbsp;New Advances in Intelligent Decision Technologies: Results of the First KES International Symposium IDT&#39;09 (Google eBook) Kazumi Nakamatsu, Gloria Phillips-Wren, Lakshmi. Jain, Robert J. Howlett Springer Science &amp; Business Media, Apr 28, 2009 - Computers - page 103.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref6" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[vi]</a><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/%20http:/sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-prediction-loverrs-handbook/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-prediction-loverrs-handbook/</a></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://fixingleaks-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ron_ronrassociates_com/Documents/Fixing%20The%20Leaks/Blog/Small%20Company_big_data_huge_impact.docx#_ednref7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">[vii]</a>&nbsp;Davenport, Thomas H., and D. J. Patil. &quot;Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century.&quot; Harvard Business Review 90, no. 10 (October 2012): 70&ndash;76. See&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/</a></p> <hr />11The Amazing Healing Power of Customer Lifetime Valuehttps://ronrassociates.com/Rons-Blog/PostId/9/the-amazing-healing-power-of-clvConversion,Conversion ImprovementWed, 28 Feb 2018 05:52:00 GMT<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>The Symptoms</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The symptoms are often the same.&nbsp; A company achieves early success, growing rapidly, adding products, services, and distribution channels as it reaches scale.&nbsp;Usually, a private equity-backed for-profit company or a dynamic nonprofit, there is intense pressure from the Board for this organization to grow fast.&nbsp; Suddenly, after a few years of rapid growth, the organization starts to founder and, with the entrance of competitors or other changes in the competitive environment, the organization begins to hemorrhage cash.&nbsp; Management doubles down, focusing on improving conversion and lowering acquisition costs.&nbsp; The Board begins to ask questions about the business model, and management is sent off in&nbsp;many directions at once to explore seemingly random options.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>What&#39;s Going on With Our Profitability?</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Sound familiar?&nbsp; What to do?&nbsp;&nbsp; We tell companies to return to first principles.&nbsp; Think back to what made the Company successful.&nbsp; Then, use a per-customer profitability metric called&nbsp;<strong>Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)</strong>&nbsp;to help diagnose what is going on now.&nbsp; Here are some recent examples where CLV has effectively identified sources of lost profits:</span></p> <ul> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">A Midwestern online insurance site drives acquisition costs down by focusing on high-converting online leads.&nbsp; A CLV analysis identifies customer segments with very high conversion rates but which are losing the company money.&nbsp; The study shows the negative CLV customers are not keeping their policies post-purchase, robbing the company of valuable renewal commissions critical to favorable LTV.&nbsp;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">A </span><span style="font-size:larger;">healthcare</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> services outsourcing company spends tens of thousands of dollars acquiring corporate customers only to see per-client utilization and profitability drop, and many of its client accounts churn.&nbsp; An analysis </span><span style="font-size:larger;">of</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> the business models of positive CLV customers identifies profitable and unprofitable institutional profiles, allowing the company to refocus its marketing activities.</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Low CLV customers, many of whom haven&#39;t bought anything at a major department store since Black Friday last year (and likely won&#39;t be back again until next November), are rewarded with steep discounts by being the first in line on Black Friday morning.<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn1">[1]</a>&nbsp; Wharton Professor and Consultant, Peter Fader, suggests, &quot;Stop spending so much precious energy, time and money courting your worst customers...</span><span style="font-size:larger;">Ask yourself [instead]: What can we do now to identify and reward our high-value customers and attract more like them?&quot;<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn2">[2]</a></span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> &nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Why CLV Analysis Is Effective</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The reason CLV is useful is that it combines five critical elements of customer profitability:&nbsp; 1) revenue, 2) costs, 3) duration of the client relationship, 4) the time value of money, and 5) the value of the client relationship across the&nbsp;<em>entire</em>&nbsp;organization.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">By including the duration of the client relationship, CLV is a terrific antidote to what we refer to as the &quot;<em>Fool&#39;s Gold</em>&quot; of Google AdWords Conversion Metrics.&nbsp;&nbsp; The daily grind to acquire customers or members cheaply leads Management, over time, to focus on how leads perform in terms of conversion and acquisition cost, as measured only by Google.&nbsp; Rare is the organization that builds the critical analytical bridge from its client<strong><em> acquisition optimization</em></strong>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<strong><em>client profitability optimization. </em></strong> How long do customers stay around? How frequently do they come back? How much additional revenue do they generate once you acquire them?<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn3">[3]</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Lessons from Amazon</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Picking up a thread from a previous post, Amazon.com provides a great example of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the management of Customer Lifetime Value.&nbsp; A money loser for much of its corporate history, Amazon has grown </span><span style="font-size:larger;">its</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> per-customer revenue, in part by investing in, and managing CLV across its&nbsp;<em>entire</em>&nbsp;platform.&nbsp; For example, in a 2012 interview, Jeff Bezos admitted that Kindle Paper White Readers and the Kindle Fire were sold at cost to capitalize on future sales of books and other content.<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn4">[4]</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;The same interdependency applies to its Prime Memberships.&nbsp; (For the uninitiated, Prime members pay Amazon an annual membership fee &ndash; usually about $70-$80 to gain access to a yearly menu of free services including free two-day shipping, access to movies and books, and discounts on a variety of Amazon.com products.)&nbsp; A 2013 study by the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, showed Amazon Prime members spend $1,340 annually -- more than twice as much as non-Prime shoppers, who spend $650 annually.&nbsp;&nbsp; Fool.com investment analyst, Brendan Mathews, made a back-of-the-envelope estimate in a 2014 article showing that the CLV of a Prime Member was approximately 2.5 times that of non-Prime customers or $2,283 for members versus $916 for non-Prime members.<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn5">[5]</a>&nbsp; No wonder the investment community post-2014 greeted Amazon&#39;s strategy to grow the Prime membership base with such enthusiasm!&nbsp; Today, in 2016, when Amazon drives Black Friday promotions to add Prime Members, what does it provide </span><span style="font-size:larger;">as</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> an </span><span style="font-size:larger;">incentive</span><span style="font-size:larger;">?&nbsp; Discounts on Alexa, a voice command-driven device, which, among other things, allows users to purchase audio content quickly, and, of course, facilitates shopping on Amazon.com.<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn6">[6]</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Identifying Technologies That Lock-in Downstream Profits</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The Amazon.com example brings to light another critical aspect of CLV analysis: the CLV metric can be used in companies with many different technologies and verticals to manage and grow profitable business interdependencies, which improve lifetime profits for the&nbsp;<em>entire</em>&nbsp;company.&nbsp; Unlike many other more mono-dimensional metrics, CLV analysis can underscore business activities or technologies which lock in benefits for other businesses in the corporate portfolio.&nbsp; So, it is with Amazon: per a 2012 BBC Interview with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Kindle purchasers buy four times more books;<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn7">[7]</a>&nbsp;In the same way, Kindle Fire owners watch more movies</span><span style="font-size:larger;">, and</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> Alexa users presumably listen to and buy more music.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>How to Make the CLV Calculation</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">How is the CLV number calculated?&nbsp;&nbsp; To make the CLV calculation, Management needs to analyze client acquisition date, all revenue associated with the client account, the imputed costs related to each client, and the&nbsp;<em>duration</em>&nbsp;of the relationship with each client. &nbsp;For each of the clients, attribute as accurately as possible all costs associated with acquiring&nbsp;that customer. Add in the expenses of servicing that customer. If the organization needs to reacquire the customer through additional marketing to achieve further, repeat sales, the costs of this activity must be added in as well.&nbsp;&nbsp; Use this data to calculate an operating profit for each customer over the life of the relationship.&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Once Management has computed an operating revenue for the customer, they use their organization&#39;s weighted average cost of capital to discount these cash flows. For most retail organizations, this analysis may go out only a few years; however, financial services firms like the one described above must recover very high costs of client acquisition.&nbsp; For these companies, the analysis will need to go out much further &ndash;&ndash; as many as seven years or even a decade if the data are available. Many theoreticians will spend a great deal of time and energy debating how this number is best calculated (see our notes to this article for links to authoritative writings on this topic). <a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn8">[8]</a>&nbsp;Our focus (and yours) should be more ongoing through the exercise of identifying costs, how costs are different for different customers, and, most important of all,&nbsp;<em>how long</em>&nbsp;those customer relationships last.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>CLV for Nonprofits</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">Can CLV be applied to nonprofits?&nbsp; Absolutely.&nbsp; Here again, the analyst in the nonprofit setting needs to look at each direct marketing campaign, online promotion, or event as an investment of both money and volunteer time, the fruits of which result in the acquisition of a donor whose contributions hopefully stretch out for years.&nbsp; Except for a few quirks like ascribing a dollar cost to volunteer time and changing around data to show donors as a revenue stream, the CLV math will be substantially the same for the nonprofit as it is for a for-profit institution.<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn9">[9]</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">It is in the &#39;identify customer segments&#39; step where art meets science.&nbsp; After the initial customer lifetime value calculation is complete, segment the customer base into groups. To do this, identify common traits highly correlated with profitable and unprofitable customers. The goal here is to create groups with shared attributes that behave in predictable ways to generate profits or losses to your organization.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Torturing the CRM Data Until the CLV Confesses</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">It is in this exercise that your CRM truly pays for itself.&nbsp; The more robust your customer database, the better the inferences you will be able to draw from your Customer Lifetime Value analysis.&nbsp; This activity may require some detective work on your part and may require you to obtain additional customer data to test hypotheses about the sources of lost profitability.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">When the results come in, be prepared to throw conventional wisdom out the window.&nbsp;&nbsp; Three findings most surprise executives making this calculation for the first time:</span></p> <ol> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">How long it takes the organization to make a client relationship profitable;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">How many more clients are&nbsp;<em>unprofitable</em>&nbsp;than you initially thought;</span></li> <li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">How clients, donors, activities, or even distribution channels, once thought to be productive, are, under the cold, harsh, light of CLV analysis,&nbsp;<strong>not</strong>&nbsp;profitable at all.</span></li> </ol> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> &nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>Be Prepared to Be Amazed</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">The results of CLV analysis can be powerful and company-saving.&nbsp;&nbsp; Imagine, for example, the surprise of a CEO of a hospital services company when he realized each new account he added cost tens of thousands of dollars in marketing expenditures to develop and almost two years to reach breakeven.&nbsp; Imagine learning that your best-converting leads are the ones that generate the least revenue or, worse, are the ones causing your company to lose money!<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn10">[10]</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;Imagine being a retail leader and learning, &quot;On top of all the stress of opening up early, paying employees for extra hours, preparing contingency plans if things go awry, and spending a ton on advertising and PR [for Black Friday retail activities] &hellip;. it&#39;s not even as good as a lottery ticket: at best, your Black Friday sales won&#39;t disappoint you.&quot;<a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_edn11"><sup>[11]</sup></a>&nbsp; &nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">These examples are just a few of the insights that have come from CLV analyses.&nbsp; They have permitted companies to refocus their activities by focusing on their&nbsp;profitable customers.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">What will&nbsp;<em>you</em>&nbsp;learn from CLV analysis?</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;">&lt;&lt;&lt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> &nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref1">[1]</a>&nbsp;See Wharton Marketing Professor, Peter Fader&#39;s,2016 article in Forbes Magazine,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/11/22/is-black-friday-the-best-day-to-meet-your-worst-customers/#4d254ca66dc4">http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/11/22/is-black-friday-the-best-day-to-meet-your-worst-customers/#4d254ca66dc4</a>.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref2">[2]</a>&nbsp;Ibid.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref3">[3]</a>&nbsp;We hasten to point out that this is not Google&#39;s fault. The AdWords toolset provides user plenty of tools to correlate costs of acquisition and other metrics to leads conversions.&nbsp; &nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref4">[4]</a>&nbsp;See&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/10/12/amazon-confirms-it-makes-no-profit-on-kindles/#7a2cb2d14dc7">http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/10/12/amazon-confirms-it-makes-no-profit-on-kindles/#7a2cb2d14dc7</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-profits-what-people-dont-understand-2013-10">http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-profits-what-people-dont-understand-2013-10</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref5">[5]</a>&nbsp;See Brendan Mathews 2014 article on Fools.com&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/21/whats-a-prime-member-worth-to-amazoncom.aspx">http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/21/whats-a-prime-member-worth-to-amazoncom.aspx</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref6">[6]</a>&nbsp;See&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-black-friday-deals-prime-members-get-alexa-exclusive-access-2448067">http://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-black-friday-deals-prime-members-get-alexa-exclusive-access-2448067</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref7">[7]</a>&nbsp;See again,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/10/12/amazon-confirms-it-makes-no-profit-on-kindles/#7a2cb2d14dc7">http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/10/12/amazon-confirms-it-makes-no-profit-on-kindles/#7a2cb2d14dc7</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref8">[8]</a>&nbsp;For a scholarly discussion on CLV and other profitability metrics, see Kumar, V. (2008-01-10). Managing Customers for Profit: Strategies to Increase Profits and Build Loyalty (Kindle Location 677). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.&nbsp; Also, for those who don&#39;t mind wading through an equation of two, a great round-up of different CLV calculation methods may be found in the following 2006 JOURNAL OF SERVICE RESEARCH article:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/Documents/areas/fac/marketing/JSR2006%280%29.pdf">http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/Documents/areas/fac/marketing/JSR2006(0).pdf</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref9">[9]</a>&nbsp;See for example a 2007 report by Maria Nobles in the Non-Profit</span><span style="font-size:larger;"> Times online,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/research-examines-true-cost-of-a-solicitation/">http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/news-articles/research-examines-true-cost-of-a-solicitation/</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref10">[10]</a>&nbsp;See the example of Hubspot Case Study, fictionalized in Harvard Business Review,&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2012/10/target-the-right-market-2">https://hbr.org/2012/10/target-the-right-market-2</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><a href="http://www.ronrassociates.com/Lists/Posts/NewPost.aspx?Source=/blog#_ednref11">[11]</a>&nbsp;See previously cited article by Dr. Fader,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/11/22/is-black-friday-the-best-day-to-meet-your-worst-customers/#4d254ca66dc4">http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/11/22/is-black-friday-the-best-day-to-meet-your-worst-customers/#4d254ca66dc4</a></span></p> 9