Personalizing the Shopper Experience

About

On May 18th, Searchspring hosted a 1-hour live webinar with an expert panel from Yotpo, Verbal + Visual, and Searchspring where we talked about the latest trends, stats and best practices to scale personalization across your Ecommerce site.

Profits Soar with Personalization 

Did you know that personalized websites yield 10-15% higher conversions and 20% higher customer satisfaction? The cost of acquiring new customers declines and retention rates improve – which is 25% cheaper than acquiring new customers. Brands that personalize their sites typically see their profits soar by 25% to 95%. 

But, most retailers are still in their personalization infancy. Mckinsey research shows that only 15% of retailers have fully implemented personalization and 80% are still defining their strategy or have a small personalization footprint. It’s not easy! Between data management, analytics cross-functional alignment, and all the tools on the market, retailers have a difficult time getting off the ground.

To help you overcome these blockers and build a personalization strategy that works, we invited an expert panel to discuss the following areas:

• Why it is important to personalize your ecommerce site
• Learn to build your personalization strategy
• How to overcome  internal and external obstacles 
• Best practices and 2022 trends
• Real-life examples of awesome and not-so-awesome personalized sites 

Ready to personalize your site? Watch the webinar today!

0:00

Everyone, thanks for joining today’s webinar. Today we’ll be talking about personalizing the shopper experience. We’re going to take a deep dive into how to scale personalization across your site. So we’ll touch on a few key items, will talk about the importance of personalization. We’ll talk about building a personalization strategy. Will even define what personalization means because it’s one of those terms that we can unpack to mean a number of other number of different things. So that’s very exciting. We’ll get all that started today. First, I just want to introduce myself. My name is Jason Ferrara. I’m the Chief Marketing Officer at Searchspring.

0:40

You know, our focus at Searchspring is really to help drive an amazing shopper experience, because like all of you, we know the shoppers hate it, when they go to a site, and they can’t find what they want. Typically, those shoppers will leave. And they won’t come back.

0:56

So what our focus at Searchspring is all about is driving the right product to the right person, at the right time, through site search, and product merchandising and personalization all pulled together with insights about your shoppers and your site.

1:14

What we will do today is, have a really great panel with our two panel guests.

1:22

Christina Dinozo and Caroline Dau, I will have them introduce themselves, because it’s way more compelling than when I introduce them. So Carolyn, how about you? take it away, and then we’ll move on to Chris.

1:35

Sure. Hi, everyone. I’m Caroline Tao, Director of Product and a Partner at Verbal Plus Visual.

1:41

I’ll tell you a little bit about BPD. We are a digital agency and consultancy focused on helping high growth brands.

1:49

Not only grow and optimize, but really re-imagine and rediscover what their e-commerce businesses can be.

1:55

Our primary goal is to become the consultancy for sustainably minded and sustainably focused brands, and it’s important for us to really remain on the forefront of implementation strategies to help grow these e-comm businesses.

2:10

And personalization is a huge part of that so I’m excited to talk about it today.

2:14

Great, Thank you.

2:15

And Chris, how about you, Jason, thanks for having me back, I love to Searchspring Webinar series. I’m Cristina, those I oversee brand Marketing at Yotpo, if you’re not familiar with us, where we just celebrated our 10th birthday last year, actually. So, we feel like a startup, but we’re kind of an e-commerce veteran now, I guess. We have an e-commerce marketing platform that helps brands to strengthen the relationship with consumers. And we do that by offering an integrated suite, suite of solutions for SMS marketing reviews, loyalty referrals, and more to come, and we’re, and they’re built on a Common Data layer. So, that helps brands understand our consumers better. Predictor unlikeliness purchase allows your brand to personalize experiences, which is very much the topic today, and in most important, to build brand loyalty. So they come back to you and again and again. So, thanks for having me.

3:09

Yeah, great, Thanks for being here, I appreciate those introductions. So let’s take a quick swing through the agenda before we get into the meat of the webinar, so we’d like to do some audience polls.

3:21

It’s a great way to have the audience engaged, and it’s a great way for us on the panel to learn a little bit more about, about who’s in the audience. So, that’s, that’ll be the first thing we’ll do. We’ll move on to panel discussion. I’ve prepared some questions, as we’ve talked about, and then we’ll have some time for some Q and A So what I want to make sure in terms of Q&A is, if you’re out there in the audience and you have a question, don’t hesitate to ask.

3:46

You can put that question in the questions queue in the GoToWebinar panel in the interface that you’re that you’re watching this through. So, ask a question at any point.

3:57

It can be as basic or as complex as you want to ask, and we’ll ask, the will get the panelists opinions about your questions, so don’t hesitate there. And, also, I should introduce Charles Summers, who’s our webinar producer, He’s back behind the scenes. Sometimes, you’ll hear me talk to him like, OK, Charles will move on to the next slide. So, I just want to introduce him so you don’t think I’m talking to an imaginary friend. So here we go.

4:21

The next next slide is just a quick focus on personalization. So, at the end of last year, at Search Spring, we, we, we surveyed our clients and some prospects around what were the important things for 2022.

4:39

And personalization was the number one item. So that really drove a big part of this particular webinar and a number of other topics and pieces of content that we’ve been driving. So just wanted to share that with you. We’re talking about personalization because everybody cares about personalization right now and really wants to, to talk and understand that better.

4:59

So let’s start off with some polls. So we’ve got three polls in a row. So, here we go, First poll, How do you define personalization?

5:10

And that can be recommendations, on-site, recommendations on-site and other communications, using schaeffler behavior to drive site interactions or something else.

5:20

And you can enter that something else in the chat if you want, watching the results come in here.

5:27

It’s always very exciting.

5:28

It’s like active voting is, is a fun thing. Let’s see.

5:33

Getting there about half of you who voted already, which is great.

5:42

All right, I think we’re good.

5:44

I think we’re good there, Charles.

5:50

All right, Excellent. So, we will talk about those poll results in just a second.

5:55

What it looks like to, in the, in the responses, was, vast majority of you, defined personalization, is using shopper behavior to drive site interactions, and then about 30% of you said recommendations on site and other communications.

6:11

So, we’ll come back to that, Carolyn and Chris, and Chris, and we’ll talk about those, those poll results, but let’s do poll number two quickly, so we can get our results in for poll number two. And that is, To what extent are you leveraging personalization on your website?

6:30

So, fully implemented a personalization, strategy, some personalization, or very little to none at all.

6:40

Again, active voting is exciting to watch.

6:49

Cruising along here. Thanks very much.

6:53

And I think we’re about.

6:54

we’re about good Charles.

6:58

Great.

7:00

Thank you.

7:03

Alright, looks like some personalization And very little to none at all. So fantastic. That helps. Helps us drive the conversation and should be, should be a good one as we walk through and sort of define and work to understand personalization. A little more in depth. And then poll number three, Charles. Let’s launch that.

7:26

What do you feel is the biggest benefit of personalizing your website? So increase call to actions and landing page conversion rates.

7:35

Make product Rick, excuse me, recommendations more relevant.

7:39

Improve customer retention and loyalty or something else. Which, if it’s something else, feel free to pop in the chat and weekend.

7:46

Look at that.

7:56

All right, We’re getting close, Getting close.

8:03

Almost there.

8:06

Alright, Charles, I think we’re good.

8:11

Orange, make quick, Quick notes. Excellent, thank you. So 53% of you will have improved customer retention and loyalty.

8:22

30% increase conversion rates and just under 20%, making recommendations more relevant. So fantastic, Thank you for, for taking, taking those polls for us, and that will begin to drive the conversation.

8:37

And I think one of the things I’d like to start with is defining personalization.

8:45

And we had, we had discussed, again, big term, probably want to unpack that, so we can talk in more specifics about that.

8:53

So, Carolyn, why don’t you start for us here?

8:58

Sure, sure, yeah. So, I think personalization is one of those terms.

9:02

People define it very differently, and we have brands come to us saying they want, they want to focus in on personalization on the website. And the first thing we ask is, what do you mean by that?

9:14

So, so, broadly speaking, I think personalization, The poll kind of showed this. Personalization really is thinking about how you can optimize the, the experience, and that’s not even just jump on the e-commerce site. That’s really omnichannel, But how can you ensure that a customer’s experience is really targeted towards their wants and their needs?

9:39

And a lot of that is based on information we get from their behaviors, such as, you know, past purchase, product views, product clicks, and it’s also taking the information from other similar users. And seeing kind of how their behaviors can drive conversion and those sorts of things. So, I think, from my perspective, it’s a very broad term, but the goal is really to make sure that users are seeing what they want to see, when they want to see it, and, you know, making sure that experience is optimized for them.

10:14

And, Chris, how about anything to add there?

10:17

I would say that personalization has kind of entered a next chapter, and I feel like we all work with amazing brands who help define how brands engage consumers today, and I think personalization also, if you can even narrower adapted, Part of that word is person.

10:34

And I think brands today have done a really good job of shifting it from being like this third party, retail, kinda cold entity to more human and helpful. You know, like, like, what Caroline was saying. It’s like, you want to be there for a consumer when they need you there and serving up the the products that they’re looking for and, You know, and really just like hyper focus on how can I be helpful here as a grant. So, I think, like, when you check all of those boxes, You’re, you’re helpful. You’re being human and authentic and you’re listening to them as if you’re, you know, you’re not just a company, but you’re, you’re a brand Who cares about their customers? It really like, Just moves the needle towards a more personal and personalized experience that is going to be rewarding on both ends.

11:21

Yeah, great. Thanks for, thanks for those comments. It’s, it’s the second webinar that we’ve had in a row where we talked about …, talked about the person.

11:31

The last time we had a webinar, we got sort of in mired in this data topic, and then we pulled back and symbol Weight.

11:38

It’s not data, it’s about people.

11:40

And I know we don’t want to sit here and for and just think about the computer screen and not think about the, the people back behind their site and that’s really, that’s really important. So thanks for that.

11:52

And in terms of like all those pieces of personalization, what are the currents?

11:57

Like, are there, are there current trends that are happening? Right?

12:02

Like, Chris, you mentioned that you think it’s in the personalization is in the next phase of that. Why don’t we start there? Chris, like, what what trends do you see happening in personalization? Places that we should be looking at when we think about personalization?

12:16

Well, I think we can take a step back and look at the macro trends that are happening. I mean, that’s not new to us anymore, that privacy regulation is Barry, not just a hot topic, but the new reality for anybody wanting to engage online nowadays.

12:31

And, you know, we actually conducted a survey with consumers a couple of months back.

12:37

And, you know, the shift that we’ve seen there is that more than ever, consumers are open to brands asking for their data.

12:46

But it needs to be worth it, There needs to be some kind of value exchange.

12:49

So, in this world, in this privacy, first world, we’re opt in, is becoming more important than ever.

12:57

You know, brands need to really rethink their strategy around how they’re, they ask their customers for that direct engagement, how to gather zero, first party data, and how to make it worthwhile for customers to do it.

13:09

Because consumers themselves said, Yeah, I’ll do it, but it needs to be, there needs to be value for me. And so, I think that’s a huge, huge trend that we’re seeing.

13:19

Yeah, definitely, I’m, Yeah, definitely aligned with that.

13:23

I think that’s a big piece of the puzzle we’re trying to figure out, is what is the best way to collect that data and information, in a way that customers are willing to give it.

13:33

Because, to your point, Chris, as long as there’s value, ultimately achieved, be it, you know, a helpful resource, Be it, you know, serving them up information that’s, that’s interesting to them, customers or not, always turned off by by being approached in that way.

13:50

So, I think thinking about asking for that data in a way that’s really authentic to the brand is important.

13:57

Um, and also, another trend I think we’re seeing more is, is making sure that entire brands, teams, are working on their personalization strategies together. I think in the past, it’s been a very siloed approach to, you know, the e-comm team focusing on personalizing the site. And, you know, maybe the retail team focused on personalizing the retail store experience.

14:20

And something that we’re seeing is everyone understanding that because this is such an omnichannel world.

14:27

That it’s so vital that the strategies determined are shared across the brand. Because that’s a big piece of this is if you have fractured experiences, it doesn’t ultimately work.

14:39

So you really need to make sure that all of the right players are at the table when discussing person’s personalization technique.

14:46

And who’s the, who’s the right person in the company to, to get all those people at the table?

14:52

Like, if I’m listening to you say that, it’s a yeah, great, but, it’s at my responsibility As other CEOs responsibility who do that.

15:00

It’s a good question, it depends a lot on the makeup of the brand, but the key, you know, some key players that we are, stakeholders, we tend to see involved are, you know, if you have a director of e-commerce, a Director of Marketing or, or CMO. So, someone from, someone’s, let’s say, put it this way, someone to represent the e-comm side, the brand side, the marketing side. And oftentimes actually product as well, like the products that you’re ultimately selling. I think having someone to speak for for that is another important piece.

15:31

So those are, you know, everyone has different terms or names, or whatever their positions are called. But I think having stakeholders from each of those departments can be really powerful.

15:43

With, I’m sure, a healthy dose of no time. Like the present, Right, If you think you need to get all those people at the table. Get them all the table. It doesn’t matter who you are. Just get them all table. Yeah, exactly.

15:53

If you’re If you’re the one championing personalization at your organization, bring in whoever you fix them for and for, yeah. No time. Like now. And, Chris, you talked about a value exchange, what?

16:07

Give them, give us some examples of what you hear.

16:11

Shoppers say, yeah, I guess that’s value to me.

16:14

I will give you my information, like, what are those, What are those that people are defining value? What are those things that people define as value?

16:22

Well, the easiest one there is the discount, I’m willing to give my mobile number, my personal cell. For a discount, I’m willing to, you know, like e-mail is a no-brainer thereabout.

16:34

You know, brands also don’t necessarily want to hear that the, no, not another discount, right?

16:39

But there are other ways that brands are engaging their customers to provide this data. So for example, quizzes are very, very popular where if you’re a fashion brand, do a fit quiz. If you are a beauty, kind of like cosmetic brand, do like a skin type quiz? And I think there are, you know, first of all, it’s fun. Everybody loves the quiz. As a consumer nowadays, like Buzzfeed has all trained us to enjoy it, and also the the, you know, you as a consumer, even if it’s like one of your initial, like introductory experiences with the brand, you already know that the reason why the brand is doing this is to tailor your experience and recommendations.

17:18

So I know it’s something that more consumers are OK to do, whether without incentive, and I think it really does goes to show that Yep, you know, I’m here for the brand. I’m interested. And what I’m interested in taking this quiz is what’s going to craft that experience for me across my journey with you? Let’s do it.

17:38

And we get like so much engagement from, know, even just that one tool. And there are other other ways that you can engage consumers, too, and interactive ways, whether or not it’s, like, through your website. If there’s like a journey, what they’re clicking on, you, know, like, structure it, so you know, if they bought a piece of like a pair of pants. Like, you have a collection.

18:00

So, again, there are many organic ways that are not necessarily super intrusive, that is, design, to kind of better understand your customers, and maybe that’s kinda like what you want to think about. It’s like, how can I better understand you and structure this customer experience from my website and across my different channels?

18:19

That helps elicit that information. Inorganic ways.

18:25

Yeah. That goes, goes to your, the, the authenticity. Right, That we were talking about, because I’m interested, I care if I want to understand you more, and then that one when I learn something that I do something positive. That makes me as a shop, or feel good. So, I want to talk a little bit about how to get started with personalization. I’m just looking at the at the poll results here.

18:50

No.

18:50

It looks like we’ve got It looks like we’ve got people who are dipping their toe into the personalization pool of people who really see that, personalization is about, um, driving loyalty and conversion rates. So, I’d like to start tying those things together, so let’s start with, how do you get?

19:17

How do I get started? If I know that personalization is about optimizing an experience, where do I go to get started, and how do I get started with it?

19:24

Carolyn, you want to start there?

19:26

Yeah, so, I would highly recommend starting small, and because, like I said, personalization is very broad, It can touch a lot of aspects of the business.

19:35

So, what I recommend is start somewhere that, you know, more often than not, your site is going to have recommendation widgets or modules already peppered throughout the site.

19:47

Now, a way to kind of test personalization and kind of dip your toe is to make sure that those are actually personalized. So, a lot of times, you might be, you know, segmenting or using some sort of, rules, or strategies to target users there.

20:02

But, by actually implementing personalization, you’re, you’re tracking that user’s behavior on-site, and serving up, serving up more personalized product recommendations. It’s, the reason I say, start with something like that, is, again, you don’t really need much buy in from the rest of the org, because you’re already doing it and it’s just a kind of a different way to do it.

20:25

So, that’s where I would start, and also start ensuring that you’re collecting and storing this data in a way that you can actually action on it. I think that’s really important. Chris, you alluded to quizzes, which are which are a great way to get that data.

20:39

But if that quiz information is just going off into the abyss and isn’t stored in a solid CRM or on the customer record, you’re not gonna really be able to do much with it in the future or see how successful your personalization strategies are.

20:53

So making sure you have that foundation to track so that you can ultimately see how these strategies are working is going to be vital before you go ahead and just personalize everything that you’re working on.

21:07

Chris, anything to add there?

21:11

I would say that, if you have a loyalty program, that is inherently personal lives. You know, and it’s also Omni channel, right. Like, it attracts your customers across their engagement with you and also allows you to reward them.

21:25

So, I think that the segmentation capabilities, again, if you’re like, if you want to start on the smaller side and just like easy way, it’s, like, OK, You can craft a journey and communications and messaging and timing per your loyalty tier in such easy ways. And also, like loyalty programs. Like, collect your birthday data already, you can like have that personalization opportunity to say, happy birthday when the time comes, you know. So, it’s really great to see that as the top poll answer, you know, in terms of like driving loyalty and retention. Because that really should be the, you know, what you’re trying to do as a brand is to create long lasting relationships.

22:08

And it’s not just like, you know, personalization for that quick purchase ads, personalization throughout your experience with that brand, As long as you can make that experience.

22:18

And, I think, you know, an investment in a loyalty program, signals to your customers as well, that you as a brand are willing to enter into a relationship with your customers. For the long run.

22:29

Yeah, So it does, It does sound, to me.

22:31

Like personalization is one of those things that can do, can do, can do both the shorter term And the longer term, have impact on the short-term and the long term, which, which is nice.

22:44

And I think that, you know, if I, If I think about specific recommendations and then loyalty program, those are almost like two different areas that I, that I’d want to focus on.

22:54

When?

22:55

So, so it has always gets back to the data, right, I’ve got this, is it stored properly? So?

23:03

I know that, but I might not be the person who sits on the database, who knows how to use the database, and analyze it and everything. Who’s that? Who is that person in the business, who can help me with that, with that data? Like, where do I go to understand what we’ve got?

23:20

What format, It’s a, and all that other kind of more tactical, verbal plus visual. Honestly, yes, agency partners can be very helpful in ensuring that you have the foundation to collect the data and also reporting back on it. But honestly, a lot of that is going to be based on the tech stack that you’re using as well.

23:40

So selecting the tools and products that come with this sort of reporting mechanism in place already is a great way so that you don’t have to do some sort of really complex custom implementations. They’re actually able to report, And actually, Search Spring is really good partner in this. You know, they have dashboards, they have ways for you to kind of see where that data is going, and how it’s working.

24:05

And, you know, we can, your agency partner, or, someone, even, on the … team, can work to just align around what are really the KPIs you don’t need to. There are some high level metrics you can look at here, that will give you information without having a team of data scientists. You know, at your fingertips, although data scientists are great. If you do have them at your fingertips, I highly leveraged them, but it’s really not a requirement to get started in this space.

24:33

Chris, anything to anything to add?

24:36

I would say, Jacco, I mentioned that we have an e-commerce marketing platform, but, you know, I don’t want to necessarily make this a marketing tool for us.

24:45

It’s more the, the, the point of view about data and technology, that the closer, you know, the closer you get closer and deeper, your integrations are with your, you know, with your different point solutions. The more you can break down those silos that get in the way of a more seamless customer experience.

25:03

So, just like our approach, right, now, we have reviews, we have loyalty, we have SMS, and we are building more on one layer of data. So, that all of that customer information that together, which then makes it more, gives a marketer, an automated way of understanding, and then being able to, you know, run campaigns against different segments. And I feel like, you know, integrations with amazing partners like search string and other wants to, within the ecosystem. I feel like that. The reason why we have an open ecosystem in the e-commerce, which is really fantastic, is because we all share this vision of, like, we want to make the most integrated seamless, and like experience and e-commerce possible for shoppers. And, you know. And I think in varying levels, whether or not it’s jaco, which is building all products on one platform, or having those integrations.

25:54

And, also, then, eventually, like, delivering, unlike an analytics dashboard, let’s say, that pulled in all this data, that give them more, you know, kind of, like, one source of truth. The closer we can get to that.

26:06

The better that, you know, teams of e-commerce, like e-commerce teams, marketing teams, can really achieve, know, a personalized experience, because the more fractured it is, the more fractured that, you know, personalization separate might be.

26:22

Sure. What are some of the KPIs that we should be looking at?

26:28

You know, if I, if I’m, if I’m entering this per, if I’m entering this journey of personalization, what what should I be looking at today to tell me kind of where I should be going, and what can I? what KPIs, can I look at that should say? Tell me if something’s working?

26:43

Yeah, it’s a good question. So so obviously conversion rate is, I think what everyone always anchors on. And I would say that oftentimes could be a key indicator, but but not always, because a lot of things kind of make up that conversion rate number, I think, to Chris’s point earlier, and Jason, you mentioned this, as well.

27:03

Personalization can be very impactful for both the new customers, as well as return customers, but I do think it’s most powerful for retention and return customers. And again, it’s back to, I’m talking about this omnichannel experience a lot. But it’s because of that, right? So if I, you know, we know more often than not, customers aren’t landing on your site for the first time and making a purchase. That’s just not really what the user journey typically is.

27:29

They might be on their phone browsing and see, you know, clicking around on your site, go home, sit at their desktop, and decide then to make a purchase.

27:37

And that’s where the personalization piece can be really impactful is, because if you’re able to, to retain, you know, to show that customer after their initial exploration, what they’re actually most interested in, that’s when those conversion techniques are gonna come up and loyalty plays into that retention piece really nicely. So thinking about return customer rates, and thinking about conversions specifically on return customers is something I would definitely look into and, you know, add to cart.

28:10

Things like that. There’s a number, but I would definitely focus on retention.

28:20

Let me just make a note of that.

28:24

Sorry, sometimes I get excited enough to make a note that I want to follow up on it and then I would dare. So Chris, any KPIs that you are telling your clients to focus on and look at that say, gosh, this is really a this is really a tell-tale sign here. You wanna look at these numbers?

28:41

Well, I’d like to take a step back, obviously. We want those repeat purchases. You know, that’s the end goal at the end of the day, But we also advise our clients to think about what are, what are the engagement touchpoints that you’re offering with your brand. Because they’re not, it’s not, oh, that’s not the only way that you can draw a customer back yet.

29:00

Right.

29:00

So if they are redeeming on the loyalty program and you structure your campaigns to remind them and to give them personalized product recommendations based on their behavior and their tier, you know, if you personalize their reward so that they would actually want to engage in more. So, kind of like, look, when you look at the repeat engagement and what are the KPIs that you’re looking at.

29:24

It should definitely be like, a, focused on that consistent engagement in many different ways that build emotional connection as well, and not just like, again, fast forward to that.

29:35

How can I get you to buy this sunblock Because he ran out, you know, so thinking more holistically, around, like, OK, we want them to convert, but what are your conversion touch points? They’re, like, what is it about?

29:45

Is that engagement is a repeat purchase, is an order volume. Is that, you know, like multiproduct offerings?

29:53

I think that you can really, the more you refine, the way you want to think about that experience, the more that you’ll get, it’s gonna be a little bit more achievable because your strategy should align Would what you’re trying to accomplish with your customer.

30:07

Yeah.

30:07

You know, it’s interesting, just in my career and the evolution of marketing and metrics, how exciting a multi touch attribution model is. And that’s a really wonky thing to talk about, but essentially, that’s what you just were talking about. Chris, right? You got all these ways to engage with your shoppers. And each one of those is an important engagement point. And that multi touch attribution is super exciting. And I introduce Charles at the beginning of the webinar, he, and I talk about that all the time, But how different that is today than what it was when I started my career?

30:41

Which, which was much more of a, well, what’s the conversion rate?

30:45

Without it? Without thinking through all the different, all the different touch points. And so. yeah, and you have to take that journey, right? You got to go figure out the conversion rate.

30:54

To then ask the question, what’s driving the conversion rate?

30:58

So, I just, It’s really, I don’t know if, that’s exciting to me, That’s exciting to me, hopefully it is exciting. The other people are listening on the phone or on the call.

31:07

Had a question came up here in that I think is great, It’s a very specific personalization question, but I think it gets to the root of how to get started and best practices, which is where I think we should begin to take the conversation.

31:22

Is it only possible for me to personalize my site and understand shopper behavior?

31:29

If shoppers are logged in?

31:31

Like, is this? so, if you’re not logged into my site, in my, in my dead in the water, how, what can I do?

31:37

So, what is that relationship between shopping logging in, collecting data, that sort of thing, OK?

31:44

A lot of a lot of tools don’t require user login to be able to take the clic data.

31:51

So, really think about it in in the moment when you are clicking around a site and you are, there’s intention there. There’s intentionality.

32:00

And we should assume that, that, that there is data. There is information coming from that intention.

32:06

So, if I land on a site and start clicking, you know, they sell tops, bottom, sneakers, et cetera. And I searched for the word sneakers and then I click on two pairs of sneakers.

32:17

We should, we can make some assumptions there on what their experience of what they’re looking for. Right.

32:22

And, we can start serving up product recommendations and example, tailored towards that experience.

32:31

So, that doesn’t require a user to be logged in. You don’t really need to know anything in the past about the user. Now, of course, there are times, you know, for that first party data. For example, if someone’s taking a quiz and we’re going to associate all of this with a customer profile, a lot of really rich information can be associated with an account login. And so, I definitely would encourage, you know, building out really thinking about account profiles in a way that in the past, I think a lot of times, accounts are.

32:59

Secondarily, no one really thinks about that experience.

33:01

But, I do think building that out is super-rich, as well.

33:06

But there’s definitely opportunities for new customers or returning customers that haven’t logged in, or maybe are, you know, incognito or something like that for you to still personalize the experience to an extent with the information collecting.

33:20

Chris, you’re nodding your head, so jump on it.

33:24

Yeah, because you can also think about personalization and doesn’t have to be at that, like, unique user level.

33:29

You can think about, like, your different, you know, audience segments or personas, Know, when you’re thinking about and trying to assess what is driving content, what is, again, you know, grabbing that engagement from your customers. So, like, you know, this is a little bit, you know, further, let’s say, about, 1, 1 of our customers, Pence’s Poly, It’s a very Genevieve brand, fashion brand. And, you know, there are, obviously, you’re gonna be killing it on social media.

33:58

And so, they know that that’s where their customers live, and that’s kinda like the experience their customers enjoy. So, they built out, like a Tech Talk gallery and Instagram gallery on their, on their website, because the Tschida like, kind of, you know, enlarge that experience, because that they know that’s what their customers are and do.

34:18

So, other signals that you can look at from your other touch points, that, again, may not necessarily be at that individual customer level. I think you can, like draw those conclusions, like, well, Carolyn is saying, because at the end of the day, you know, like, we are individuals, But, we’re also, you know, where, we share a commonality and that we’re interested in the brand, and maybe we’re interested in any part of your brand, like, in your shoes, or your bags, or you’re a founder. And, figuring that out, and really like, investing in, building out those experiences, and creative ways on your website.

34:50

Yeah.

34:51

And, well, so, we’ve, we’ve talked in terms of personalization, as, you know, your, your customers and then, in my head, I think about a customer, as someone who’s Has made a purchase, making a repeat purchase, is a known quantity to me. How do we use personalization to help us get new customers?

35:11

Because there are a whole bunch of people out there that don’t know that we exist. But I want them to come to the site random, spending all my money to try to get more and more people to the site.

35:20

So, is there, is there a way to use personalization, to generate new, to generate new customers, get new people to the site?

35:31

I mean, I think what took what Chris is talking about.

35:33

A lot of that is going to be based on like, segments of data that you see with existing customers. So like, you can tailor marketing campaigns based on what you’ve seen be successful on your current site, right.

35:45

So, there’s assumptions that go into that new customer acquisition for sure, but you can help kind of target and shape what those campaigns are looking like. What are those landing page experiences feeling like based on what you’ve seen be successful from other customers that were new when they landed, and what, you know, what drove them to ultimately either make a purchase or just be engaged in some way.

36:07

So, I think you can definitely take information that you’re learning from the personalization techniques, and, and help drive.

36:14

And one thing we actually really haven’t talked about a lot today, because I do think it is a bigger discussion, but it’s, it’s content personalization, which is another kind of trend I’m starting to see.

36:25

Which requires a lot more organization across a brand, but, and requires, you know, a lot of effort to create assets, and, and content, but, can be, extremely, extremely powerful if you are serving up. You know, someone clicks on a Facebook ad about something specific, and they land on the site, and the hero of the site is also reflecting a similar message. You know, those sorts of levels of personalization. When done, right?

36:51

You also don’t want to push it too far, But when done right, can really, be powerful.

36:59

So, Chris, I’d like you to comment on that, but I want to go back to something you said just a moment ago about, about persona, and this concept of segmentation.

37:10

So, uh, I just, oh, this is a pretty basic thing, but I’d like you to just give your, your opinion on this, which is, how much time should I be spending building my persona, understanding my persona, and putting that into into that personalization framework?

37:34

I think it’s a, it’s a very worthwhile investment, especially, you know, it goes hand in hand in defining who your brand is.

37:41

So, defining who your brand is also like, helps understand, like, who your baseline kind of core customers are and really crafting that experience down to that individual level, so that they can create that bond, right.

37:55

So, to put it in a more like practical term again, like, I’ll just use the loyalty program as a, As a construct here, because it’s easy to tell that story.

38:04

It’s like, you know, the way a lot of brands do their program now is not just kind of like that. You know, punch card moment.

38:11

But it really is like all the different ways that A customer who you know, who engaged with you the first time and keeps coming back. Different ways that they can like have that moment with your brand. You know, whether it’s their birthday or whether or not it’s they, they follow you on social media. And then the weight. And then you can track kind of like how deep that engagement is from like the repeat purchases or how often they’re redeeming or how often they’re like.

38:38

You know, going to the VIP event or like taking advantage of an Exclusive for there for the top tier You know, and really understand like OK, like these Are the customers that I know are gonna keep buying more more often, or more frequently and so who are these customers? And how do I craft and experience so that it will kind of attract?

39:01

Know, like customers like, How did I engage them in the first place? What are the things that they’re engaged and what do they like from my my brand? And, really, like, build out a program, because those are the kinds of behaviors you do, want to reward. And those are the kinds of customers that you want to attract.

39:16

Then, you know, like, and from there, if you kinda like start from there, and your biggest fans, let’s say, who really are like, literally investing in your brand, then you can kind of open the doors up more, and more and more to a bigger consumer base, but you’re still kind of like keeping, you know, kinda like, you’re keeping that core customer really happy. And you know that, that’s what’s powering your business.

39:39

Yeah. We actually, one brand that we’re working with, …, has a very, they’ve invested a lot in making sure what they call their Inner Circle members are feeling the love.

39:50

Because, to your point, Chris, those are the ones that are, they become not only did it, or they, you know, great in terms of conversion and average order value, and they’re coming back and back. They also become brand loyal, some brand evangelists. They’re the ones that are sharing.

40:04

They’re the ones that are, you know, praising the product they’re the ones that are leading the reviews so other people.

40:11

So, you know, it is important to really invest in a strategy that does focus in on, you know, I would definitely start with forming your personas around those that you know are coming back and then break other segments down that are maybe more like, the you, the customers that you want to capture, but you really should be thinking about how to reward your top customers.

40:34

Yeah, yeah. I love that reward behaviors and then it gets them. Just look at my notes here. It gets back to the, you know, idea that I’m willing to give you information if there’s a value exchange there, that that makes sense to me. So I really like that as a, as a best practice. And I want to talk a little bit about about best practices.

40:51

I mean, I’m starting to make a list of the things that keep that keep popping up here, but, obviously, loyalty is a best practice. We’ve talked about that. You know, I think recommendation is a best practice. We’ve talked a little bit about that persona. What we just talked to the segments, and the personas is a best practice. We talked about that.

41:10

What other, best areas of best practice?

41:12

We just say, OK, if you’re getting into personalization, you, this is a must or must do, Christine. Oh, I’m sorry, Chris, you wanna go?

41:24

OK, I would say, definitely start thinking about the other touch points, as well.

41:27

So, e-mail, being a big one, obviously, you’re able to personalize and customize messages, based on the data, that information that you have. Birthday is one we’ve heard come up a number of times, if that’s something, you know, birthdays, or if there’s other information that they provided to you.

41:44

Kind of understanding what their interests are and shaping your e-mail or SMS campaigns as well is another area I would definitely focus on.

41:56

And I also think giving users an opportunity like something I’ve seen be really successful as it relates to apparel, is around the sizing.

42:06

So, for example, reviews, Jaco does a great job of allowing you to basically filter review is based on, you know, either size of similar attributes to you. So if I, you know, I want to see what people are saying that are similar in size and stature to me, how does it fit them?

42:24

So giving them, kind of the optionality too, almost personalize the site for themselves based on inputs that they’re most interested in, is something that I would say is, it’s definitely, yeah, A big opportunity.

42:41

Yeah, and thank you for mentioning reviews. I also wanted to say you can per actually personalize with reviews as well. Something that we’ve explored is kind of understanding, like using those reviews as a way to understand sentiment.

42:55

So you can actually personalized, based on somebody who left the five star review, versus someone who left the, a one star review, actually. Like, the one star review is really, really powerful.

43:04

Because, you know, that somebody who is unhappy, that could be flagged in your system, and you can use that as a way to kind of like go back to them and engage and develop a relationship. And here, what happen there, you know, give them a discount to come back and try again.

43:19

So, one thing that we have done in terms of our segmentation for SMS is give them, give our brands an opportunity to, like, engage based on that sentiment as well, you know, married with like, OK, what have you purchased before, like the sizing considerations? You know, whether or not you’re in a loyalty program.

43:40

Again, you have so many touch points now and to your point, it’s like, I don’t have a data scientist. How do I do this? But I think with the right providers, you can really automate a lot of these things so that all you have to do is think about, OK, I already said an automated flow, or whenever somebody leaves a one star review already.

43:57

I can trigger like a tax that says, oh, no, what happened here?

44:02

Please, You know, like, like, click this link so we can set up time to talk and imagine what a great kind of like very personal, unhelpful experience that is.

44:12

And I was also going to say that one way that you can really help your personalization tactics be super successful is make it super easy for your customers to transact. You know, Because sometimes you want what you want and you don’t want things to get in your way. And so yes, you can setup everything to be kind of like according to, oh, you’re looking for this, great. Oh, we see that you.

44:35

You know, you looked at something before it was to the size, maybe you can personalize the size option, you know, for their landing page. But one thing that we have done is personalize the ability to do a product recommendation based on whether or not you’d like something before your sentiment.

44:53

If you’ve left like a five star review in previous products, down to the size, down to a color, particularly and even down to a product image for SMS.

45:04

So do a product recommendation on SMS, if it’s a loyalty member, maybe you have a reward attached to it for that customer for that Chopra to click that SMS, if they are interested, and it will pre populate the reward kind of like the coupon code for that product recommendation. And that way, you don’t have to, you know, like, take the few extra steps of like, Oh, wait, I’m a loyalty. I earn like, you know, like a free shipping reward. Now, I have a code. Free ship.

45:31

If I want something, like, you trigger a recommendation to me on SMS, I click on it, Oh, wait, I, now, I have to, What’s my thing again? OK, free shipping.

45:40

Just pre populate, make it super seamless.

45:42

Again, it’s like talking about like you, your experience as a shopper, we want to make it super easy, and that’s why we’re doing this personalization, You know, like all of its, kinda like inherent like subtext, that what you’re saying as a brand, like, showcases, in your action.

45:57

So, if you create that experience that is just ultra smooth, removing the barriers, giving you what you want, it’s going to be a win-win every time.

46:09

Yeah. The first thing I thought of, when you were talking about, make it easy to purchase and remove barriers and I know what I want. And I’m just, there’s, there’s one store where I shop for very specific camping stuff. I know exactly where it is. I walk in the door. I go right to the place, I get what I need. I mean, literally in the in the store for five minutes or less. and, and That’s the kind of experience that, if I know exactly what I want, That’s, that’s what they kind of experience. I want an e-commerce site as well, right. So, just make it super easy for me.

46:42

Because, my, my focus and intent is very specific.

46:46

Yeah, and that’s personalized, right? That’s a different user journey than someone that’s just interested in the brand and isn’t looking for something specific and maybe discoverability is more important for them. So, that’s, that’s exactly a JSON.

46:57

Making sure that you’re understanding, you know, you never want to experience to be difficult for a user, but understanding where they are in their journey, you know, and are they just browsing?

47:09

Are they, are they there to convert, and that’s where, know, somebody’s tactics can really be helpful to make sure you’re either pushing them where they need to go, or maybe providing some additional discovery opportunities.

47:25

Yeah, I love it.

47:26

And, you know, I want to go back to something we talked about, briefly, which is that connection and collaboration across the company, because all the things that the two of you just described are impossible. If you try to go it alone, right? You need the, the right data, and you need and you need the, I think the collective energy to Ideate on all this, to say, Oh, wait, we could do that too, and, Oh, wait, we could do that, too.

47:49

And and build, maybe build something. That’s almost a little bit too complex before you start stripping it away and so we’ll start this way.

47:55

And then we can And then we can layer on complexity when you do, but that’s all about collaborations, right? Which is, Yeah.

48:02

one thing I don’t, I don’t want people to walk away thinking that the ins and outs of what information got served. Exactly. Want, like, the algorithms themselves are, what you need to come up with that, is that that is the power of some of these great partners and tools.

48:18

Is that they are actually the underlying technology, and serve up the press, the right information. So don’t think that this becomes a huge merchandising nightmare, that you are trying to make the decisions for the user.

48:31

Know the power now is that these tools do that for you. What you really need to do is align on what are the messages that were? Well, now we’re serving customers, what do you know? Really, what is the brand’s story that we’re telling in these different places? And, you know, what are the touch points that we want to make sure that these personalization strategies have infused in them? So I just wanted to mention that, because I think sometimes we have clients come to us.

48:55

We’re like, extremely overwhelmed how they’re going to decide what the information, what content should be received when.

49:02

And it’s actually, that is not what you have to worry about. It’s kind of where in the journey are you interested in having these technologies and tools make those decisions for you?

49:15

Great point, great point. All right.

49:17

I’m going to ask a question that could potentially put you on the spot, but we’re coming close to the end of our time.

49:25

So, if anybody in the audience has a question, feel free to populate in the questions. Q Thanks to those of you who’ve already done that, and, and there’s some fun, There’s some fun comments in there as well. So I really appreciate that. If you got one, throw out the questions.

49:38

Q, but what I want to ask you is, just, one piece of advice for people in the audience about getting started with, with personalization, Like how should, when I, when I, when I leave the webinar, I sit back, and I think, OK, I’m gonna get started. What’s the one piece of advice you’ve got for, for people who want to get going?

50:03

Chris, you wanna go first thing? Yeah, sure, Sure, Sure. I mean, I’ll start with that very famous, amazing book, Start with why, Why are you looking to personalize. You know, the experience for your customers, again, are you, are you in it just so you think it’s going to up your odds for that next transaction? Or are you interested in that long term relationships?

50:25

So I think like what Caroline was saying, it could be very overwhelming. Like, where do you even begin?

50:31

Like, this all sounds very varied, Terrible and confusing. You are so many things to take into account, but if you really start with why you want to do it and potentially say, hey, you know, I know that my best customers, that profile of my best customers are the people who engage in this way. And then you can start there and crafting their, and crafting they experienced, that keeps rewarding that experience. And also, like, because, you know that, you know, you’ve identified that.

51:00

Yeah, I really want to make sure that I have, that my best customers, keep coming back for it to me in the long run, and create that experience for them.

51:08

Then, maybe you can, like, layer down into, like that other personas and, you know, with less and less, engagement with you, and try to understand, OK, why didn’t, like, why? What’s stopping them? Like, what am I not fulfilling here? Maybe I can invest in that experience.

51:24

You know, so, it’s, it’s not, I would say, don’t start with the individual.

51:28

Maybe this is like counter, Intuit ever something that, like, oh, personalization is about the individual, But I really feel like it’s about who you are as a brand, and what you’re trying to accomplish there.

51:39

And what is the value and service you want to provide to that customer so that you give them a reason to come back to you, and then, you know. And then you can kind of like start honing in on, OK. Now I have these individuals.

51:51

You know, how can I further make this a personal relationship for them, and inherently it will become personalized?

51:58

Great, thank you. Thank you. I think, yeah, I know that’s, that’s spot on.

52:03

But I think something else that I would definitely advise is spend a little time connecting with some of your customers. So, user testing, I think, is something, it doesn’t have to be testing, it can be surveys.

52:15

It can be, you know, find a subset of, of those customers that are really loyal, and, and talk to them, ask them questions. That can be done via, you know, customer service interactions.

52:26

That can be done via surveys that can be done, you know, via just reaching out, and, you know, you’ll have to give them some sort of value.

52:34

But, understanding directly from them, what it is they love about your brand, maybe what are some of the challenges and pain points.

52:42

I think we, as brands and, you know, merchants sometimes think, We know our customers best.

52:50

And there’s definitely, yes, you have information about them, and you do know, oftentimes, general trends.

52:57

But, sometimes, you’d be very surprised what you hear, know, from your customers, your loyal customers about what it is about the brand, And that can also help you shape your strategy.

53:07

So taking a little bit of a step back, asking the wider Christine this point, and then just connecting a little bit with, with some customers to, to help figure out where you should start.

53:19

Great, thank you, …, I mean, it’s always so empowering and energizing to have these conversations because then you like, OK. It’s about why it’s about what the point of your brand and the reason you exist To do this and then all the little technical stuff comes to income after that?

53:34

Such a great empowering message to have four for everybody to listen to and you know, by my day job that as a as a webinar host, But my day job marketing at search brain is like. I know, that’s just a great reminder of that to like, understand our clients, understand what they want, or what does our brand like it.

53:51

Just, it’s important for every, for every business.

53:54

Hey, we had a question come in that I do want to ask, and that is, This is all great information.

54:03

Who do I go to for this advice, and ask these questions? like, so? So the answer is, sure, you can come to searchspring in, somebody at searchspring that question, you could go to jacco, you could go to verbal plus visual to ask and answer those questions.

54:19

But I think that it’s that, start with why first, and then decide where you want to go. But I’m sure, Chris, you’re happy to take somebody’s call. Who says, where am I supposed to get started. Or, Carolyn, you’re happy to take somebody’s call it. Where am I supposed to get started? Is that right? Is that is that what we should be telling the listeners? right? now?

54:38

Of course, I wouldn’t even say, start with Carolyn.

54:40

I mean, she’ll have great advice, because it’s a bigger, you know, she’ll be able to provide a bigger picture kind of council there, And then, you know, we’re here to enable and amplify as much as we can.

54:52

Cool. Yeah, and Jason, to your point, though, I appreciate that.

54:56

Take it internal, right? Aligned with the key stakeholders on that, this is something that you is even valuable, or really important to the brand, I think it should be, but you need to make that decision.

55:07

And you need to make sure you’ve got some buy in across key stakeholders, then you come to me. I’m happy to chat as well. Thank you so much, Carolina. And Chris, too, for joining the webinar today. Thanks for sharing your your thoughts and your expertise on personalization.

55:26

I know more about personalization than I did 50 minutes ago. So hopefully other people out there out there, do as well, I really appreciate that.

55:34

And I just, you know, can’t thank you enough for, for being here, so, thanks so much.

55:40

Thank you. Thank you for having us.

55:42

And if you, if you are still listening in, we have another webinar coming up, next month in June, and that is June 15th, Same time in the day.

55:56

So, noon, Eastern, and we’ll be talking specifically about Product Recommendations, one of the that was, that was the number one thing, and how to get started with personalization we talked about today was, start with some product recommendations, so we’ll dive deeply into that, into that topic in June.

56:13

So, thank you very much.

56:15

Really appreciate the time that everybody has spent with us today, and enjoy.