According to Experian Marketing Services’ State of Cross-Channel Marketing Report, marketers from around the world are adopting more customer-centric engagement strategies. With cross-channel marketing technology and predictive analytical tools becoming smarter and more accessible to marketers, they have the ability to help brands manage data, understand the preferences of their customers and most importantly, turn that intelligence into action across every channel at scale.

This evolution of technology has created a clear shift in the industry as more marketers look to technology providers like Experian to help them get and stay close to their customers.

As described in the report, brands today are more customer-centric in their marketing than they were just a year ago. The report, which leverages year-over-year survey results, highlights several trends:

Organizations today are more customer-centric than in 2013

Enterprise brands, like multichannel retailers, are asking their customers to set their own preferences: Brands today are 62 percent more likely to give their subscribers the ability to set their own preferences for branded communications than they were in 2013. Further, they are 89 percent more likely to allow them to select the type of messages that they receive and 48 percent more likely to give options for how often subscribers want to receive those communications.

Retailers are 87 percent more likely today to ask their customers to set their own preferences on communications channels (email, mobile, direct, social, etc.) and 65 percent more likely to allow them to set their category and product preferences. Further, retailers are 131 percent more likely to acquire mobile numbers through preference centers than nonretailers.

Marketers are taking action to improve their data hygiene: Marketers are 53 percent more likely to execute data hygiene techniques than they were in 2013. Retailers are 13 percent less likely to undertake some form of data-hygiene process than nonretailers. However, when they do prioritize data hygiene, retailers are 38 percent more likely to use a data-hygiene provider than nonretail brands.

Brands are leveraging segmentation well beyond simple demographics: More marketers are building segmentation strategies that focus on behavior and lifetime customer value over demographics. Overall, the majority of marketers (25 percent) segment customer based on past activity or behavior.

When it comes to email marketing, marketers are 6 percent more likely to execute some form of email segmentation than in 2013. The most popular forms of email segmentation are activity- and transaction-based triggers. Interestingly, the amount performing language segmentation increased the most year-over-year (+76 percent), followed by value segmentation (+40 percent).

Marketers are testing their campaigns to understand what works for their customers: Ninety-two percent of marketers are testing their marketing programs to understand customer preferences and marketers are more likely to focus on testing campaign performance in email than in other channels. Testing allows marketers to identify underperforming campaigns and adjust in real-time.

For example, marketers testing offers may bring to light that a target consumer responds better to a “dollars off” than a “percentage off” offer. Those results can be used to determine where similar improvements can be made to other channels. Marketers are 42 percent more likely today to view time-of-day testing as an effective test in 2014 than they did in 2013. Meanwhile, nonretailers are 64 percent more likely to claim effectiveness in creative testing than last year.

Significant barriers to customer-centric marketing remain

While marketers clearly are showing improvement in their customer-centric marketing strategies, only 4 percent of brands reported having an integrated customer journey across touch points. Marketers cited siloed marketing organizations (39 percent) and a product-focused structure versus a customer-focused one (28 percent) as the primary barriers.

The research indicates that marketers need to improve in several key areas:

Data Management and Linkage: Seventy-nine percent of companies face challenges when connecting disparate data to create a single customer view.

Attribution: Marketers continue to struggle to measure results and understand how to improve. Last-touch attribution is prevalent among brand marketers, with 70 percent giving credit only to the last channel that the customer interacted with before making a purchase.

A marketer’s ability to collect, integrate, analyze and optimize data intelligently to arrive at meaningful and actionable customer insights is central to cross-channel marketing success and is the key to customer-centric marketing.

In today’s industry, marketers have the means to extract actionable business intelligence from their data and can now access how well they can use that intelligence to drive enhanced results for the customer.

Those marketers who are struggling with customer-centricity need to prioritize attribution. If they have the ability to show how cross-channel relevance drives customer loyalty and ultimately benefits their business’s bottom line, this gives the marketing organization a clear business case to make the customer, rather than a channel, a top priority across the organization.

To learn more about customer-centricity and the state of cross channel marketing, download the report, here.

The post How Tech Is Bringing Brands Closer To Their Customers appeared first on Experian Global News Blog.

Download the Holiday Marketing Fraud Survey: http://snip.ly/JoyF

With holiday shopping in full stride, 35 percent of businesses said they planned to increase their digital spend for the 2014 holiday season. Furthermore, Experian Marketing Services reported that during 2014, 80 percent of marketers planned on running cross-channel marketing campaigns. As marketers integrate more channels into their campaigns, new challenges emerge for fraud-risk managers who face continuous pressure to adopt new approaches. Here are three steps to help marketers and risk managers maintain a frictionless experience for customers:

• Marketers should communicate their plans early to the fraud-risk team, especially if they are planning to target a new or unexpected audience. Making this part of the process will reduce the chances that risk management will stop or inhibit customers.
• Ensure that marketers understand what the risk-management department is doing with respect to fraud detection. Chances are risk managers are waiting to tell you.
• Marketers shouldn’t assume that fraud won’t affect their business and talk to their risk-management division to learn how much fraud truly costs their company. Then they can understand what they need to do to make sure that their marketing efforts are not thwarted.

“Marketers spend a great deal of time and money bringing in new customers and increasing sales, especially this time of year, and in too many cases, those efforts are negated in the name of fraud prevention,” said David Britton, vice president of industry solutions, 41st Parameter. “Marketers can help an organization’s bottom line by working with their fraud-risk department to prevent bad transactions from occurring while maintaining a seamless customer experience. Reducing fraud is important and protecting the customer experience is a necessity.”

Few marketers understand the resulting impact of declined transactions because of suspected fraud and this is even more pronounced among small businesses, with 70 percent saying they were unsure of fraud’s impact. Fifty percent of mid-sized business marketers and 67 percent of large-enterprise marketers were unsure of the impact of fraud as well.

An uncoordinated approach to new customer acquisition can result in lost revenue affecting the entire organization. For example, the industry average for card-not-present declines is 15 percent. However, one to three percent of those declined transactions turn out to be valid transactions, equating to $1.2 billion in lost revenue annually. Wrongfully declined transactions can be costly as the growth of cross-channel marketing increases and a push towards omnichannel retailing pressures marketers to find new customers.

“Many businesses loosen their fraud detection measures during high peak time because they don’t have the tools to review potentially risky orders manually during the higher-volume holiday shopping period,” said Britton. “Criminals look to capitalize on this and exploit these gaps in any way possible, taking an omnifraud approach to maximizing their chances of success. Striking the right balance between sales enablement and fraud prevention is the key to maximizing growth for any business at all times of the year.”

Download Experian’s fraud prevention report to learn more about how businesses can address these new marketing challenges.

The post Sixty percent of marketers are unsure of the cost of fraud to their organization appeared first on Experian Global News Blog.

“While the majority of companies are investing in analytics and looking to improve the customer experience through personalization, many lack the data backbone necessary to support this effort,” said Thomas Schutz, senior vice president, general manager of Experian Data Quality. “Companies are able to obtain compelling types of information at impressive volumes, but most struggle with basic data quality that allows them to ensure accurate and accessible information.”

Experian Data Quality also found that:
• Of those that leverage personalization, 84 percent do so to improve customer engagement
• Ninety-four percent of companies have challenges related to personalization
• More than two-thirds of companies are investing budget into analytics and have an analytics team
• Ninety-four percent of companies are linking customer information across channels, but 83 percent are having a difficult time accomplishing this

“Without a foundation in data quality, organizations simply will be unable to fully achieve personalization goals,” added Schutz. “Organizations need to continue to invest in analytics, but they also should leverage resources to consolidate information and ensure its accuracy.”

To obtain a copy of Maximizing personalization from Experian Data Quality, please visit http://www.qas.com/whitepapers/maximizing-personalization/contact-form.htm.

The post Companies struggle to access information quickly for marketing personalization appeared first on Experian Global News Blog.

A complimentary download of the full report is available here: http://ex.pn/1l4VlrS.

Additional findings from the email remarketing best practices analysis confirm:
• Abandoned cart emails should be delivered in a three-part series. Brands that send second abandoned cart reminders had a 50 percent increase in abandoned cart revenue compared to just their first abandoned cart mailing. Those sending three mailings saw a 56 percent increase in revenue compared to just sending the initial abandoned cart email.
• Test including an offer. Including an offer in the first abandoned cart mailing boosted transaction rates by 54 percent. The highest transaction rates for offers were for dollar-off offers (2.05 percent), followed by free shipping (1.87 percent) and percent off (1.15 percent) offers.

“Mastering email remarketing through a series of personalized content can have a real and direct impact on a brand’s bottom line,” said Peter DeNunzio, general manager for cross-channel marketing at Experian Marketing Services. “We’re seeing that brands that are able to ‘test and learn’ their way to personalization are particularly successful as they embrace cross-channel programs. By understanding the impact of timing, creative messaging and personalization – and adopting a continuous improvement mindset – brands are incorporating cross-channel tactics more seamlessly in their remarketing strategies.”

Industry performance analysis
The Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report details overall email marketing trends for the first quarter of 2014 as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that shaped the success of email programs over the past two years across seven major verticals: business products and services, catalogers, consumer products and services, media and entertainment, multichannel retailers, publishers, and travel.

Total email volume increased by 15.6 percent in Q1 2014 compared to Q1 2013 but volume declined in Q1 as compared to the previous holiday quarter (Q4 2013). Additional findings from specific industries include:
• Catalogers had the highest gain in volume as 100 percent of brands increased mailings in Q1 2014.
• More than half of the multichannel retail brands had statistically significant year-over-year increases in total and unique open rates in Q1 2014.
• Fifty percent of total email opens are occurring on mobile devices. However, this varies by vertical. While 63 percent of emails from multichannel retailers are opened on a mobile device, mobile opens account for only 22 percent of email opens for business products and services.

Increasing bounce rates highlight deliverability and data quality challenges
According to a recent Experian Data Quality study, 66 percent of companies have experienced email deliverability issues in the last 12 months. Similarly, the Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report highlights a 14.3 percent year-over-year increase in email bounce rates, with large percentage increases across several of the industries.

Compared to bounce rates for the past two years, 2014 Q1 business products and services rates were constant, while catalogers and multichannel retailers experienced much larger increases in bounce rates year-over-year. The dramatic increase in bounce rates is due to the new practices of Internet Service Providers who are now shutting down inactive accounts more frequently to keep their own performance healthy.

“It is vital companies adopt more effective targeting, list cleaning and data quality practices to improve the deliverability of their emails and the health of their cross-channel marketing programs,” said DeNunzio.

Experian Marketing Services’ Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report is available to download: http://ex.pn/1l4VlrS.

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Experian Marketing Services also found that World Cup fans are:
• 60 percent more likely to use their phone to keep up with sports
• 65 percent more likely to stream video from a work computer
• 20 percent more likely to multitask while watching TV
• 37 percent more likely to use a digital tablet
• 60 percent more likely to use sports apps on their phone during a typical week

“Adult fans of the World Cup don’t need a TV to watch video,” said Bill Tancer, general manager, global research at Experian Marketing Services. “This is a digitally and technologically savvy audience that doesn’t care how they watch their favorite programs, just as long as they are able to watch them. Expect to see the 2014 World Cup broadcasted everywhere the fans are this year, whether that’s at their desk computer or during their morning commute.”

According to Tancer, because World Cup fans are such heavy users of digital media while they watch TV, Experian Marketing Services will be analyzing key online and search trends throughout the 2014 games. The Experian Marketing Services’ 2014 World Cup Online Trends Dashboard will be updated every Monday from June 9 to July 13, 2014. The dashboard will reveal the most popular daily searches from World Cup fans, including top players, search terms driving traffic to FIFA.com and the most popular Websites for soccer updates. So far, data has shown that ESPN Soccernet.com is the leading Website for soccer updates and Cristiano Ronaldo is exponentially the most searched individual player.

Experian Marketing Services’ live 2014 World Cup Online Trends Dashboard can be viewed here: http://ex.pn/1hBc46F

“The World Cup is a unique event for viewers but also for marketers because it attracts a fully engaged, globally diverse audience that loves to shop and engage with brands for an entire month,” said Tancer. “Our analysis reveals that World Cup fans are 29 percent more likely to have a strong connection with branded goods and services placed in the context of TV shows. It’s not just that they are aware of and engaged with branded products; they also are more likely to buy those products. Interestingly, we found the opposite in our analysis of Olympics viewers.”

What do these viewers like to buy? World Cup fans are frequent shoppers overall, but they have an affinity for upscale stores like Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom and Saks. They also shop at athletic stores like REI, Foot Locker, Modell’s and Nike and electronics stores like Apple.

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Experian Marketing Services showed that email volume has increased 10 percent in Q2 2012 versus Q2 2011 according to the Experian® CheetahMail® 2012 Q2 email benchmark report.

Experian CheetahMail also found that total open rates increased 1.5 percent in Q2 2012 versus Q2 2011.

Analyzing the email volume among different industries shows that Travel and Consumer Products and Services emails reported the largest increases, with 41 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Media and Entertainment emails also reported a double-digit increase (17 percent) in Q2 2012 versus Q2 2011.There was only a 2 percent change in All Industry email volume from Q1 to Q2 in 2012, as all verticals except Travel had less growth from Q1 to Q2 in 2012 than they had for the same time in 2011.

“For Q2 2012, overall email volume increased 10 percent while open rates were slightly above the 2011 Q2 rates, as more than 55 percent of brands had statistically significant increases in open rates for Q2 2012,” said Regina Gray, vice president of strategic services, Experian CheetahMail.

“While click rates continued to show a year-over-year decline, there is some evidence that the rates are stabilizing. Email is still the most effective channel to connect with customers as we’ve seen a growing trend of brands utilizing social capabilities to acquire and engage consumers and fans across these new media channels.”

The Email and Social Media Connection
The Q2 benchmark report analyzed the Q2 2012 mailings that had a reference to a social media site in the mailing name or subject line of the email – such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest – and then were compared to the performance of all other mailings from the same clients for the same time period found that:

• 70 percent growth in brands sending ‘Like us’, ‘Follow us’ or ‘Pin us’ email campaigns.
• Pinterest ‘Pin us’ mailings are generating unique click rates that are almost 25 percent higher than other mailings.
• Unique open rates for Twitter ‘Follow us’ mailings are 9.5 percent higher than those for their other mailings, but unique click rates are virtually identical to all of their other mailings.
• Coupons had over 50 percent higher click rates and double the revenue per email than campaigns without offers.

Experian CheetahMail’s Q2 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study is available to download.

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Experian Marketing Services is hosting its annual Digital Summit (today through Friday) at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

This premier digital marketing event, with the theme, “Customer Obsession: Empowering Meaningful Relationships,” features highly engaging and inspiring learning sessions, providing marketers with key insights and best practices for keeping their customers at the heart and center of everything they do.

Attendees are learning from marketing experts about the latest trends in digital marketing across email, mobile, social, search and display. In addition, content from the event delves deep into understanding the new American consumer and the latest in cross-channel marketing.

Here are a few highlights from today’s Digital Summit main stage and breakout sessions:

And here are some of our favorite tweets:

Learn more about the 2012 Digital Summit and follow along on twitter #CMSummit and view photos on our Pinterest board.  View this blog tomorrow for updates.

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