Romi Mahajan, President Pepper
Ann Eberle Thomas, CRO Pepper
Dharmesh Godha, President Advaiya

In a recent discussion with an executive, CRM software came up as a hot topic. Her assertion was that too many customers see CRM as a “commodity” and thus balk at upgrades, new purchases, and list-prices. The comment was interesting for a variety of reasons of which the most important was the degree to which this flies in the face of the claims (obviously) that CRM providers make. After all, they argue, if your customers are your lifeblood (as you claim) then how can the system that enhances your ability to build long, loyal relationships be relegated to commodity status? Isn’t a CRM system your best front-end to the customer and as such a core tool to boost sales? If so, how can you think of it as being “just there?”

Commodity? Not a commodity? The grass is green on both sides of the fence, but that is because our imagination has failed when it comes to both CRM and software in general. We continue to make software fit our calcified methods and processes versus letting it liberate us from these very constraints.

Let’s focus on CRM as an illustrative case. From the beginning, organizations have had relationships with their customers- this is simply a truism. Before machines, before computers, before software, before it all, organizations connected with customers and prospects and conducted business. But when some decades ago, intrepid entrepreneurs like Tom Siebel and Marc Benioff realized that specialized software solutions could be used to enhance an already existing idea, the category “CRM” was born. Once the genie leaves the bottle, it cannot be put back in. Once a category is in the world and the lexicon is understood by all, it takes on a life of its own. As such, today CRM is a decabillion dollar business and there are over a thousand companies that build CRM solutions and platforms.

When faced with so many choices and so many seemingly mundane applications of the category, it is no wonder that many think of it as a commodity. This is an understandable if unfortunate fact. When we take an existing idea and an existing process and simply make it “a bit better” with software, the software itself is measured in increments of value. The game in this case is linear.

What if, however, the CRM system allows you to quickly revisit the taxonomies and hierarchies you’ve held as sacrosanct before? What if the CRM system allows you to do different and dynamic things at scale whereas the previous dispensation made those ambitions impossible? In these cases, CRM is not a commodity but is, to use an overused term, a game-changer. Here, the game is non-linear.

That indeed is the nature of innovation. Incremental change and enhancements are good but when an entire epistemology or process is changed, innovation occurs. Innovation is very much a product of the outcome. As such, customers are thus the judge of whether a software solution is innovative or not.

Coming back to CRM. Yes, organizations have from time immemorial “related” to their customers, but the ability to do it not only at scale but by bringing to bear a variety of otherwise disparate data points, is powerful and indeed innovative. The watchword here is “integration” and how it relates to customer engagement. Customers are not monoliths, given to a unidimensional description. They are active, dynamic, multi-faceted beings. When CRM can help you not only discover deep context but also capitalize on it to offer value to these customers, then it ceases to be a commodity.

It requires us to use our imagination.

The phenomenon of big data certainly comes with big promise. After all, having terabytes of data on customer history and behavior is certainly better than trying to extrapolate from just a few data points.

For sure, online marketers who make sense of big data are going to be better able to build customer experiences around hard data and evidence rather than on hunches and guesswork. Instead of working on intuition, or crude analytics, you could use definitive evidence to design product pages that lure your best customers directly toward the shopping cart. You’d know exactly when to introduce your promotions and offers, and you’d know which promotion would work best with each particular customer. You could optimize your online interface, so that everything from search to registration to “Place Order” was virtually friction-free.

Getting to that point, however, requires first harnessing the data. It is no small feat to integrate huge amounts of data from a variety of sources. It is even trickier to figure out exactly how to translate that information into more visits and fuller shopping carts—in real time, customer by customer.

The good news is, there are technologies and tools that make it much easier to find the gold hidden in the data—and use it to refine your online marketing with laser precision. But there’s a mind-set at work here, too—a way of thinking about data that may involve some shifts in culture, depending on where your organization is right now.

Having worked with a number of online marketers who needed to tame big data, here are six steps to help you get there:

1) Think continuous evolution and iteration, not instantaneous.

Yes, big data can fundamentally shift the way you do business. But don’t try to change everything at once. It’s far more productive to adopt a “test and learn” philosophy. Two dozen incremental improvements in site design or wording or personalization can get you much further than trying to “innovate” in one fell swoop. We see this every day.

The most successful marketers are optimizing and refining all the time. They steadily move ahead, with a thousand baby steps, finding something to improve almost every day.

Note: This tactic may call for some adjustments to Web development processes. The most agile marketers can typically go “live” with tweaks, adjustments or tests in a matter of hours. (Slow marketers wait for the next release. Don’t do that.)

2) Align big data goals with your individual business goals.

Create separate initiatives or projects for each of your business goals, such as acquiring new customers, boosting conversion rates, improving customer loyalty or increasing lifetime customer value. This approach makes it much easier to determine what type of data to reel in, and exactly how to use it. Focus a team or a project on one objective at a time.

3) Sell the concept internally.

In some organizations, moving toward data-driven, evidence-based marketing may call for some extra communication to get everyone on board:

• Encourage knowledge sharing, continual learning. Let everyone know what you found out.
• Simplify everything. Present data and outcomes in easy-to-understand terms that managers can use to make decisions. Use pictures and graphs.
• Communicate plans and achievements across the organization. Don’t hide results.

 4) Create one team for big data.

You will need to include marketing strategists, analytics gurus and Web developers. And especially creatives, who may sometimes feel threatened or hampered by having to work with hard evidence.

Then integrate with those responsible for e-commerce and site optimization. No silos allowed.

Find a committed, obsessed, dedicated executive to drive the process and act as a focus for future customer experience innovations.

5) Your own data is best. By far.

The real-time data that your website and CRM systems are gathering is far more valuable than anything you can obtain from an outside vendor. Because it’s about your own living, breathing customers, it is data that your competitors don’t have. Advantage, you.

Examples of the typical aggregate data you can capitalize on in a big data strategy:

For most marketers, the goal should be to make in-session decisions as to what customers should see, what offers you recommend and what you say to them.

Craft a custom experience for each visitor, and they’ll buy more.

Do all of this, and they’ll be back.

This article was originally published on iMedia Connection

If the $42.3 billion spent online this past holiday season has taught retailers anything, it’s that capturing customers—and their dollars—online is crucial.

But online is a big place. And mobile, which can seem like an entirely different universe, looms ever larger. So where to even start if you haven’t yet…started? And who should lead the charge?

The modern day merchant must have an intimate understanding of the importance of online and mobile commerce, access to a vast array of customer data, and a strategy for transforming this analytical data into winning online experiences.

In all cases, the goal is to attract and retain both new and returning customers. Whether online novices or experts, business leaders crave insight on how to accomplish this. The question is: who inside the company can embody these traits and help the CEO rule the roost? That responsibility should belong to the chief marketing officer.

A CMO should be somebody who uniquely understands marketing, merchandising, data, analytics and web design, and who can also maintain a creative, innovative organizational structure. IT tends to lean too heavily toward data for data’s sake, while Sales too often relies on revenue and relationships.

Placing the CMO in charge allows for the best of both worlds. Armed with the science of data analysis and the art of consumer engagement, the CMO is well positioned to emulate merchant princes of old and join the ranks of retail royalty. A good CMO can nurture a culture of testing, measuring and learning instead of depending on guesswork and subjectivity, as well as reach out to those on the front lines of customer interactions to figure out what those customers want. The ambitious CMO knows that their company site must be more engaging than the competitions’, as well as a place that customers trust, valuing the available products, services and information on offer. It also needs to be a reliable gateway to actions that grow sales beyond the initial purchase, such as cross-selling and upselling.

What’s the best way to make all this happen? One word: data.

Data is crucial to online retail. It comes in many different forms, the main type being the individual behaviors of current site visitors: which search term or webpage brought them over, what time of day and day of the week they’re most likely to stop by, what recent purchases they’ve already made onsite, what pages they visit and what product categories most interest them. All this pertinent info helps define what the “best content” is for each specific viewer. Other types include customer relationship management (CRM) data and social media data.

The aspiring CMO must then use this accumulated data to gain perspective on what customers want; analytical optimization and personalization tools will aid in this quest. Segmentation sifts through the data to find discrete groups of people with similar traits and/or interests, who can then be targeted and tested with relevant content based on site activity. Product recommendations and other offers are then provided based on what the various groups are most likely to purchase.

Product information tools give customers a deeper understanding of the product at hand—a 360-degree view of an article of clothing, or a close-up of various types of textured materials. User-generated content, like ratings, reviews or social media feedback, also aids and influences purchasing decisions. The savvy CMO uses all these methods to strike the delicate balance between intuition and analysis.

Most e-commerce sites still struggle to leverage the growing wealth of customer data to which they have access. This failure to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) activities with online visitor behavior is wasting a significant opportunity to transform CRM into Customer Relationship Marketing.

During the last economic downturn, the Web was the only sales channel that grew, while brick-and-mortar businesses contracted significantly. The Web is now such a powerful, commanding route to market that in some pre-Internet sectors, more than 90% of business is now done online. Moreover, this year Cyber Monday sales alone hit $1.98 billion.

One of the best examples of this growth in e-commerce is the airline industry, which was once dominated by call center activity. Today, JetBlue now handles more than 80 percent of its reservation transactions online. Yet, while Internet businesses have made great progress in catching up with more traditional sales outlets in terms of the breadth and sophistication of their product offerings and how they are presented online, they have failed to integrate their CRM activities, which limits their impact as they try to personalize promotional offers.

Following the Leaders

Amazon.com certainly set the gold standard for best practices in personalization—with its unparalleled ability to recognize and deftly exploit consumers’ online browsing and buying habits. But, it also has the advantage that its route to market was 100% Web-based. Certainly, many ecommerce shops attempt to mimic Amazon’s highly successful interactions with returning customers (“You were interested in XYZ, so you may enjoy ABC,” etc.) — but most companies are not going far enough, allowing customers to slip through the cracks. For instance, an insurance business may not realize that the person making a call center inquiry about auto insurance was just browsing life insurance offers on the Web the day before calling.

Going for Cross Channel Optimization

However, the website is just one of several channels—and consumers don’t think in channels, they think in brands. So, as hard as some have worked to blend their operations and business data across their brick-and-mortar, call center and Web operations, many gaps still exist.

Disjointed marketing and sales practices are leading to frustrated and disgruntled customers when they are forced to rehash the same details whenever they switch between channels. This scenario is one that causes many customers to abandon their inquiries and take their business elsewhere.

Consider financial services as an example. A bank, which might use its CRM system and propensity modeling to address gaps in a customer’s portfolio of products, may suggest a new account upgrade, an improved insurance policy, or a more favorable home equity line through the customer’s local branch or a direct mail offer. But what if that same bank knew that a customer had visited its mortgage calculator facility when last visiting its website? This would present an ideal opportunity to make a timely, customized offer. Even more compelling would be to have the offer serve as the primary landing page content presented the next time the customer goes online to transfer money or pay a bill.

The ability to adapt online content for customers and prospects based on their known preferences is a powerful way to build and strengthen relationships, particularly if dovetailed with offline activities.

The Path to CRM Nirvana

he potential impact of personalized marketing over the Web is undisputedly enormous. E-business owners have about seven seconds to capture the attention of an online visitor and engage their interest. If this opportunity is lost, the customer will move to a competitor. And if that competitive experience provides more relevant, personalized content and a pertinent offer, the customer may never come back — despite previous loyalty to the brand.

Imagine if it were possible provide real-time targeting your visitors while they were still browsing your site, therefore able to influence their final purchase— no hoping for the next visit, no lost opportunities. Instead, you seize the moment, right when it matters. Imagine the possibilities and the revenue potential it could bring.

It is imperative that companies integrate customer data across all channels. Understanding what customers have been doing across channels can make every interaction an extension of what they may have begun elsewhere — creating a more personal, relevant and rewarding experience for both the customer and the business.

While the majority of organizations appreciate the value of personalization (Forrester Research notes that organizations have wanted to personalize their Web marketing for the past 15 years), only a small minority have actually followed through.

The building blocks exist to get e-businesses started — organizations can model what customers do as they navigate a site’s Web pages, and they can segment this data so it can be used for tailored promotions both on the Web, during a current or future session, or across other channels. Nirvana is a fully integrated CRM solution that feeds into specific online offers.

By waiting to see what the competition does first, companies risk losing the advantage — and customers. Use the personalization capabilities available today to move swiftly, offer a killer deal, and potentially gain a lifelong customer.

While focus groups attempt to simulate and gain insights on what the customer potentially thinks, nothing can substitute truly anonymous, honest and unbiased feedback. Websites, however, can now provide this level of data in real time. Using a combination of online testing, web analytics and CRM data, today’s marketers know what actual people, doing actual searches, on their actual sites are actually thinking—and responding to—when in the browse and buy mode. It’s this level of insight that can spur improvements to product offerings, social media, in-store efforts, other offline experiences and overall marketing efforts.

No, testing and analytics won’t eliminate old-school focus groups altogether, but now that marketers have access to a lot of rich real-time data and insight into their products and marketing efforts already available to them, it’s much easier, scalable and more cost-effective. So how are websites replicating—and advancing—the traditional focus group? We look at four ways that your website can replace focus groups:

1. They’re producing data that can inform overall branding and in-store shopping experiences

We’re all aware that an online store experience has to mimic some of the same elements consumers expect in a physical store: easy-to-find products, items positioned strategically on the “shelf,” helpful customer service and so on. But where we may fall short is the reverse: using online data to improve brick-and-mortar efforts.

For example, testing and personalization insights can reveal that a particular product recommendation is effective at converting more visitors into buyers. From this, a company could reproduce this experience in its stores—whether through its associates or with product displays placed near checkout. Or if a brand notices online visitors are consistently gravitating toward a certain editorial tone or responding positively to distinct button colors, these things could also be integrated into in-store signage, advertising, direct mail and beyond.

2. They integrate in-store purchase data to customize online experiences

Just as your site is continuously collecting customer data, so are your physical stores. And the two worlds must collide in order to mutually benefit from one another. For instance, if a customer buys a TV without a warranty, the purchase may trigger an email or site promotion that highlights coverage for the TV. Ever bought something from the Apple store, like an iPhone? If so, a few days later you inevitably receive an email about your new iPhone.

In the end, it’s about making smart recommendations based on the user’s known activity, no matter where that activity originated. And unlike a focus group, this activity is really happening, in real time.

3. They’re leveraging social media and loyalty data

Social media and loyalty programs are gold mines for customers’ activity in the real world: What do they do? What do they like? What are their preferences while engaging with a brand they return to again and again? Now this data is being used to create unique individual profiles, and tailor their online experiences accordingly.

Take a hotel website: some are using social and loyalty data to enhance the customer experience from booking through checkout. Information such as program status, recent travel activity, “likes,” travel frequency, prior or frequent destinations can be fed directly into an automated targeting model and greatly improve the precision and appeal of any offers displayed to this valuable customer—such as a free room upgrade, tickets to a nearby event or a car rental. By already knowing the customer’s background, the website can take care of the rest.

4. They’re using online reviews and site engagement wisely

Shoppers don’t only share their preferences by purchasing products, they do it through their product reviews and other activity on the site. Over time and across customers, this activity can tip marketers off to items customers are likely to purchase in the future, specific problems they’re trying to solve, and even nuanced life situations—all of which can trigger different direct marketing efforts.

A good recent example of this was Target’s teen pregnancy discovery. While this particular situation led to debate, the customer’s patterns were so consistent that the store was able to flag her for a triggered direct mail campaign personalized for pregnant women. Focus groups just can’t compete with situations like this.