The New Technology Trinity for Real-Time Consumer Engagement

Distributed Marketing Leadership Series

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1. Why Big Data is a Big Deal for Personalized Local Marketing . . . . . 4

2. Marketing Relevance Happens in Real Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

3. Turning Insight into Action at Each Moment of Truth . . . . . . . . . . 11

4. Taking the First Small Steps for Your Big Idea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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The combination of Big Data, real-time decision engines and dynamic, multi-channel content creation and delivery technology is dramatically expanding opportunities for today’s marketers, especially with the always-connected consumers.

The impact of Big Data comes from two factors. First, data storage, analytics and raw computing power has reached transformational levels. Second, consumer data is being collected at a mind-boggling pace.

Real-time Decision Engines (RDE) extend the impact of Big Data by using the insights gleaned from it to identify consumers in real time and then quickly determine the appropriate marketing message, and the channel through which to deliver that message. This can include milieu data and actions data. With this data on board, these engines can quickly determine what marketing message, if any, and what offer, if any, to present to the consumer at a given point in time.

Dynamic, Multi-Channel Content Creation and Delivery Technology completes the loop, receiving instructions from the RDE and making the data actionable by instantaneously assembling and serving the proper content in the proper channel/s.

Independent, these technologies are intriguing. Together, they are industry changing.

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Introduction

This Distributed Marketing Leadership Series guidebook explores each part of the technology trinity and suggests steps organizations should take today to capitalize on the opportunity. It also explores unique ways distributed marketing organizations can utilize these trinity technologies to capitalize on the local marketing advantage while meeting the demands of the always-connected consumer.

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As data storage becomes a commodity and raw computing power reaches transformational levels, Big Data has become a hot topic. Marketers can now collect massive amounts of data about their consumers through loyalty programs, CRM systems, social media, and mobile applications. When coupled with analytics, Big Data transforms into detailed, ever-evolving profiles of consumer behavior and can model future actions.

Ironically, however, the biggest benefits of Big Data are often found in its small nuanced discoveries.

Marketers have always had data at their disposal and customer profiling and segmentation is far from new. However, as each progressively improved segmentation and profiling technology was released, marketers discovered how flawed the previous ones were. “Like individuals” worked as a definition for a cluster or segment, but not as a reality. “Like” and “individual” are simply conflicting terms. In many ways, Big Data doesn’t really change that challenge. But it is BIG and therefore much more refined. The amount of data available for analysis and the speed at which analytical queries can be run is astounding. In addition, when one

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Why Big Data is a Big Deal for Personalized Local Marketing

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considers that Singularity, that moment when the laptop on your desk equals the computing power of the human mind, is a mere seven years away, Big Data clearly becomes a Big Deal.

Big Data Personalizes Insights Big Data enables the shedding of the “like” and facilitates a focus on the “individual.” With so much personal data now being captured from social channels, web engagements, commerce transactions, and mobile apps, the depth of data available for creating a detailed profile of every individual is substantial. Further, analytics software packages and web service calls that connect this data enable individualized profile creation at amazing speed.

The result is personalized insight both for the marketer and for the consumer. In theory, this should set the stage for highly efficient marketing for the advertiser and highly personalized encounters for the consumer.

Big Data May Know Us Better Than We Know OurselvesBig Data has a scary side too. Most everyone has experienced completing a personality profile tool and being surprised and how accurate the results were. With Big Data and marketing analytics, those results can be an even more accurate representation of an individual. However, this may even happen without the person ever filling out a profile survey tool as the individual’s every action, every habit and every engagement is minutely examined and compared and contrasted with the action of others.

With so much data and such powerful analytics tools available, nuanced insight into personality habits and preferences emerges and a model for optimized marketing engagement is built. Often, this knowledge is so hidden

within the data and so nuanced that the individual may not even possess it within their own self-awareness.

That’s powerful. And when handled properly, this insight can be of great value for both the corporate marketer and the consumer.

Individualized Insight Sets the Stage for RelevanceWhen data – whether from a CRM system, a data mining exercise or an analytics application – brings insight to consumer engagement, everyone wins. Businesses spend less to deliver the correct messaging and achieve better results. Consumers receive relevant messages, not misguided junk, and appreciate the simplification this brings to their lives. Local marketing becomes about local relationships and locally relevant calls to action.

Insight gleaned from Big Data repositories and analytics processing, however, only sets the stage for this level of relevance. Alone, Big Data insight is interesting but irrelevant. To be impactful and actionable, it must interact with the other two trinity technologies for customer-centric marketing.

The next chapter examines the second of these, real time consumer-led marketing engagement through real time decision engine technology.

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To understand the advantage of real-time insight, think back for a moment to the failed experiences Goldilocks had within the Three Bears’ home. Goldilocks tries two porridges before finding the one that is just right, tries two chairs before finding the right, albeit fragile, fit and two beds before the one that is just right for an ill-timed nap. While the story makes for a great children’s tale, corporate marketers today would fail if Goldilocks were a shopper and the bears’ home a store. Always connected, Goldilocks expects local and personal relevance and has little, if any, tolerance for the missed matches of food, chair or bed. When you miss, like Goldilocks, potential customers move on to other products, stores, and selections.

To be instantly relevant is no small task. To make sure the right product, right pricing and right call to action is delivered upon demand requires more than just assembling and analyzing Big Data as outlined in chapter one. Performing at this level of consumer engagement requires a Real Time Decision Engine (RDE), the second of technology trinity for personal and local marketing.

These powerful software technologies serve as instantaneous campaign management engines, capturing consumer actions

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Marketing Relevance Happens in Real Time

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and formulating optimized reactions. In addition to the consumer’s live actions, an RDE will often take into account location data, environment data, inventory data and, of course, individualized profile data from Big Data processes. Drawing on this assembled insight, the RDE can apply business logic to quickly determine and instruct what content and what call to action in which channel should be served to the consumer.

The Searcher vs. the Searched The explosion of search and search marketing creates the foundation for a real time consumer interaction. This is not, however, traditional SEO and PPC marketing. With the always connected consumer, search may mean a traditional keyword encounter, but it is more likely to involve interaction with point-of-sale marketing materials or packaging, a map or other location-based inquiry, or an exchange via a loyalty program or information or entertainment app.

In this environment, the corporate or local marketer is still “searching” for prospective consumers by encouraging engagement. However, the ability to respond quickly to those who are searching for or about the product or service is of far greater importance.

When this consumer engagement occurs, only a powerful technology such as an RDE can marry this search interaction with information previously known about the individual and provide a relevant, sub-second response. Being Relevant When and Where it Matters MostAt its core, an RDE is about being relevant when and where it matters most.

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Big Data, CRM systems and customer segmentation can all lead to relevant omni-direction outbound marketing. Only RDE, however, can provide a truly relevant message strategy in real time.

The beauty of RDE is that it is always on. Thus, the moment a consumer touch occurs, the RDE can prepare an instantaneous response. For the always-connected consumer, the “touch” moment is often squarely tied to “a moment of truth” when a purchase decision or purchase research is about to occur. An RDE, armed with information about the location, situation and the individual, can insightfully provide highly relevant and timely information it knows the consumer will find valuable. Further, when the consumer responds, the RDE responds in kind, providing a logical information exchange.

It’s Logical, Conditionally Speaking Although an RDE can increasingly improve outcomes through more data and broader insight, an RDE is only as powerful as the business logic it contains.

Clearly, an organization implementing a sophisticated technology such as RDE will have the capacity to implement the business logic needed for the system to operate effectively. However, the design of an RDE is really never done. Results feed insight. Insight leads to tweaks to the business logic model. Newly designed logic is tested and provides results back for gaining new insights and continuing the never ending improvement loop.

When engaging in such a dialogue, an RDE can produce two sets of instructions for engagement with the consumer. First, the RDE can dictate specific fixed content to assemble and

serve to the consumer. It may, to draw on the Goldilocks analogy, instruct delivery of a picture of a “just right” bowl of porridge along with a map and instructions of where to find it. Alternatively, an RDE can be structured to serve data which in turn triggers a conditional logic content creation selection processes.

However, impressive as RDE technology is in determining current, relevant, personalized and localized content that is optimized for an individual at just the right moment in time, it is completely dependent on the other two trinity technologies to be actionable and impactful. Of itself, an RDE does not contain the data or insight needed to determine an action. Of itself it has no ability to create and deliver engaging content and initiate consumer dialogue. As with Big Data, alone it is interesting, but irrelevant. But when connected with the other trinity technologies for real-time, consumer-engaging marketing, the potential for RDE to change the way marketers market and consumers consume is mind numbing, powerful and exciting.

The next chapter examines the final technology in the triad – dynamic cross media content creation and multi-channel delivery. This technology turns the insight of Big Data and decisioning of RDE into meaningful, mobilizing, engaging marketing content.

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Both Big Data and RDEs provide powerful insight and precise targeting capabilities for corporate and local marketers. However, both are completely dependent on the third piece of the technology trinity, multi-channel dynamic content creation for real-time customer engagement, to make them actionable. When this critical component is missing, consumers must be lumped into generic segments and receive generic communication for that segment. But no two consumers, as Big Data shows, are alike, and effectiveness is dramatically compromised.

When a dynamic content creation engine is connected, however, truly personalized engagement, across channels and in real time is both possible and powerful.

The Mathematics of Personalization The premise of Big Data and RDE technology is that every insight deserves its own unique, personalized response. The mechanics of this, however, can be challenging. Consider this potential scenario:

•Onebrand •Threecampaignsperyear •Fivechannelspercampaign

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Turning Insight into Action at Each Moment of Truth

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•Threeformatsperchannel •Sixlanguages •900Locations 10,000consumers/customersperlocation = 1,340,000,000uniquemessagesneeded.

Clearly, a conventional approach to content creation cannot meet this big content demand.

This challenge becomes even larger when real-time dialogue is added to mix. Responding to a consumer action with a time, place, medium and individually relevant message simply doesn’t happen through conventional content creation and staging processes.

To address this big content need, corporate marketers must rethink how content is assembled and delivered. Instead of considering how to create the amount of content needed, they must instead look to a new dynamic approach to content creation that focuses on the components of content instead of completed content. Rethinking Content Creation A dynamic approach to real time content creation is built on several key principles:

•Externalinstructions(comingfromBigData,RDE, loyalty programs and POS engagement). •Aframeworkforcontentassembly(templates, design definitions and rule sets). •Acollectionofbrandmarketingobjects(images/ graphics, copy, headlines, etc.).

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•Amethodforrelationalconnectingofmarketing objects (an image selection automatically triggering placement of a correct headline and copy). •Aprocessforresizing,automatedimagecropping, graphic re-rendering and responsive design. •Aprocessforfileoptimizationformedium/ channel of delivery. •Anautomatedsystemfordeliveringthe dynamically created content to the customer/ consumer at the time and in the medium of choice.

While initial creation of a dynamic content structure is obviously more complex than the simple creation of a single piece of marketing content, a dynamic content approach quickly becomes more efficient than conventional processes when multiple versions of content are needed. Further, once the system is in place, updating or maintaining content within the system is relatively easy compared to traditional content management processes.

Not all dynamic content creation systems, however, can support the demands of big content. Key consideration must be given to multi-channel capability, nested templating, robust resizing, global language support, real-time content fulfillment, ease of content management, and strong compliance management.

Creating Local Dialogue and Calls to Action A powerful benefit of dynamic content creation is the ability to localize both content and calls to action and to engage the local marketer in the content creation process. Many corporate marketers have found that the blending of the corporate insight that is gleaned through Big Data with the intuition of local marketers can be a powerful combination.

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As insightful as Big Data can be, it won’t, for example, know that the local marketer has a temporary “storefront” set up at a community celebration.

Dynamic content technology providers that also provide distributed marketing management technology can enable this powerful, federated local involvement in content creation. In such a model, a local marketer could be given control of a portion of a marketing message to a customer or consumer while the majority of the content is controlled by corporate or driven by instructions by the RDE or segmentation from Big Data or CRM systems.

Again, this blend of corporate insight and local intuition can lead to highly relevant engagement with consumers.

Preparing an organization for real-time, engaging communications with an always connected consumer is best approached as a series of small steps rather than a single large initiative. Trying to do too much at this point may simply prove too challenging.

By this point in time, most companies are likely well down the path to organizing data structures to consolidate customer records. If this isn’t the case with your organization, it should be. Similarly, your organization should be at least in the early stages of transforming its marketing content creation and management strategies to support the need of big content serving. Exploration of real time decision engines should also begin soon.

With these early stage frameworks in place, begin to experiment. While it’s unlikely what you do today will match your ultimate destination, now is the time to learn and create a long-term competitive advantage.

Build Content Engines for Immediate Impact Rethinking how marketing content is created and delivered is an excellent starting point. Traditional processes clearly will not meet future demands. Additionally, a new, dynamic

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Taking the First Small Steps for Your Big Idea

approach to content creation and serving is as much a mindset change as it a technology change. Starting now creates three compelling advantages:

•Itstreamlinesexistingprocessesandlowerscontent creation costs. •Itmigratesyourorganizationtoanagilecontent philosophy and addresses change barriers early. •Itbuildstherightteamwiththerightskillsetsand mindset for delivering real time content. As you make the transition, create simple, real-time customer engagement projects that will help you learn and help your customers acclimate to initiating and guiding marketing dialogue.

Learn to Ask the Right Questions of Your Data Starting early and in small steps will help you on the Big Data and analytics front as well. While you will have an ever-increasing volume of data to draw on, your success or failure won’t be based on the amount of data but on the questions you ask of it. Starting early will help you identify these right questions quickly.

Create a Real-Time Customer Engagement Platform While an investment in a real-time decision engine technology may seem like an item to defer, starting now creates many of the same compelling benefits that come from early adoption of the other two parts of the customer engagement technology trinity. RDE adoption is also about changing corporate mindset and the earlier you start, the better prepared you will be to capitalize on the rapidly emerging opportunities it provides.

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The Challenge of Early Innovation While early adoption and early innovation can create a compelling advantage for an organization, they also require change and a change mindset within an organization. Shepherding this through an organization can be tough. Engaging the right individuals, teams and resources in the right sequence is key to a successful outcome.

Saepio offers multiple resources designed to help corporate marketer move marketing technology initiatives through an organization. These are available at no charge through Saepio.com or by contacting a Saepio account executive at 877-468-7613.

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Summary

Applied intelligently, the Technology Trinity for Real-time Consumer Engagement is poised to transform marketing.Big Data, CRM and analytics systems provide insight never available before.

Real-time decision engines provide real-time, consumer specific campaign strategy and management. Multi-channel, dynamic content creation engines receive the insight from Big Data and instructions from real time decision engines and convert it into engaging, unique big content.

Apart these technologies are interesting. Together, they offer profound possibilities.

Corporate marketers should begin to build out and connect each of the trinity technologies and to explore and test the consumer engaging possibilities they provide.

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About Saepio

Saepio makes it easy for corporate and local marketers to build and run effective and engaging all-channel marketing campaigns. Saepio’s powerful MarketPort marketing platform starts with easy …

• Easy to Build and Run a Cross-Channel Campaign because everything – email, landing pages, social, mobile, digital banner ads, signage, print ads, direct mail, and much more – is all managed in a single, integrated digital marketing platform.

• Easy to Maximize Brand Value at the Local Level because local and corporate marketers share a single platform but experience the same platform differently based on their roles. Brand control, speed to market, and content localization is all easily accomplished whether messages are for local, national or global audiences and corporate marketers can easily assign campaign tasks to local marketers.

• Easy to Engage Customers with personalized, relevant messages because corporate intelligence gleaned from CRM data, customer analytics, consumer actions and more can determine what content is served when, where and how.

• Easy to Automate Marketing Fulfillment because robust workflow enables every cross channel customer touch point to happen automatically whether launched by corporate marketing, initiated by a local marketer or triggered by a customer’s action.

This robust yet simplified approach to today’s complex marketing challenges is in use at hundreds of leading companies and organizations, including many of the world’s most powerful brands. It is transforming the way corporations focus and manage their marketing efforts in a world that introduces new channels, new competitors, new regulations and new opportunities at every turn.

Visit Saepio.com, email sales@saepio.com or call 877-468-7613 to learn more.

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