Recommendations in Context Marketing

The first half of 2018 has come to an end. But we still have 6 new exciting digital marketing months ahead of us! I look forward to creating and executing new and exciting ideas with you. Developing the next level of Context Marketing will provide your customers with even more context for your brand. 

Recently, I was asked for my thoughts about content marketing in 2018. My expectations are that a lot of brands have new propositions and ideas on how to engage with their customers, so they are going to expand their customer journey with more and new content based on their 2018 message. But just creating more content is not the answer. What should be the answer is to create content that gives your customer context around your storytelling. Simply, you need to show ‘what’s in it for them’. Why should they spend time on your branded content? What does it bring to their lives? My recommendations are:

Start making full use of your platform

Without a solid home for your content with easy access to all available articles, tools and services, it is not easy to distribute the right content, to the right person, at the right time, at the right place and right channel. To achieve this, start testing which content is relevant to your customers and why. In addition, if your customers come to your platform from another channel, make their visit personal. Max joins the conversation and says, ‘as an international business partner, I hear this pain point a lot. Clients tell us that they don't make full use of their platform.’ So, together with all the stakeholders, we:

Take the guesswork out of Context Marketing

Create a data plan and start testing the data you have. Listen and learn from this data, because this is the true story of your customers. And if your digital team or IT department doesn't have the skills, invest in or hire a Business Intelligence specialist. Alex agrees. He saw companies spending costly marketing resources on building Excel sheets to get the data right. ‘But this way, they don't have the time to really focus on what they are good at. Namely, storytelling.’ Read also his blog, Solving pain points through analytics.

Think differently about your content

Think differently in the broadest sense of the term, from creation, use, channels and formats. Every piece of content needs to feel unique to your customers. It must trigger them to read or use more and repeatedly convince them that your brand is one they need in their lives because you understand them. Lars adds that it is important that you really think in advance about how you could solve a pain point. ‘The "design thinking" method is great to achieve this,’ he says. This approach, with every stakeholder around the table, gives you insights into both business needs and customer needs. And that can bring new ways to optimise content journeys. Also, an optimised UX design will create an easy path from context to purchase.

Here at OnModus, we call these three recommendations enablement, and this is what we believe in. We support and coach brands in their digital marketing efforts. We give them the right tools and teach them the right skills, which we learned ‘by doing’ our roles with different brands in different branches. We focus on a fully optimised customer journey and platform from start to finish. Want to learn more about us or talk to us? Don't hesitate to contact us at flow@onmodus.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you and learn your thoughts on these points.

Getting personal with Sitecore

So, here you are. You’re ready to start experimenting with personalisation. Your organisation has invested in top-of-the-line marketing automation technology and is focusing all its efforts on becoming customer-centric and data-driven. Part of this (business) transformation involves delivering personalised, relevant experiences – whether on your website, in an email, or with (social) media campaigns.

Personalisation is a marketing tactic that delivers relevant and in-context experiences that increase engagement, build loyalty, and drive business goals on each of your customer-facing channels. Personalisation’s positive impact and Return on Investment (ROI) has been proven in many cases. Businesses that personalise web experiences see an average 19% increase in sales(1), and overall marketing spend is reduced by 30% using personalisation and testing(2).

Looking at these figures, it is surprising to see how many businesses are still not using personalisation and A/B testing. In fact, some studies show that 62% of marketers are not incorporating personalisation into their e-commerce sales cycle(3). This continues to surprise us, as does the fact that the biggest hurdle to kicking off personalisation is often due to doubts about ROI. 

OnModus can offer hands-on, easy-to-implement personalisation strategies, derived from our various (proven) Accelerate programs(4). These programs are focussed on quick wins that help marketers build motivation and momentum for change. We then iterate on small successes and implement using the various in-house agile test teams we have trained and coached throughout the years.

Defining a hypothesis, such as ‘treating second-time visitors on our homepage differently will increase engagement value’, is a good way to create quick wins. It is important to set the goal and conversion metrics before each test, to be able to identify changes in the test data. After each test cycle, we present findings to upper management in sprint cycles. 

Quick Win 1: Personalise your landing pages to match your Adwords Ads

If you are running Adwords campaigns, this quick win could be very beneficial. The idea is to add parts of the search query to your landing pages, and by doing so make the page more relevant. The search query your customers use reveals a lot of information about their intent and can be added to the landing page, for example in the title head. With Sitecore and personalisation, when a visitor comes from a specific SEA campaign, you have the ability to target the visitor with this specific context.

For example, let’s say Strava sets up an Adwords campaign that targets two sets of keywords: ‘Cycling Training App’ and ‘Cycling Practice App’. Using the Sitecore Campaign Manager, we are able to adjust the title on the landing page to “Challenge yourself and download our Cycling Training App”. This resonates well with visitors from the ‘Cycling Training’ ads, but less with the visitors from the ‘Cycling Practice’ ads. From our hands-on experience, this can reduce the bounce rate for ad campaigns by more than 30%, and have a significant impact on your ad spend.

Quick Win 2: Treat first-time visitors differently than second-time visitors

New visitors are a great opportunity for your brand, and by treating them with extra care, you can get ahead of your competition. The same principles apply online as those you would use to introduce yourself to someone for the first time offline. By using personalisation to give first-time visitors a warm welcome, you show your appreciation. And also the level of detail you operate on as a brand. 

Welcoming messages can vary from calls-to-action to chat functionality that invites new customers to contact you. The content could present the depth and breadth of different services / products you offer. Within Sitecore, personalisation rules can be used to set up different messaging for different visitor levels on a component level.

Be aware that not all first-time visitors are new to your brand and domain. It’s possible that the visitor is using his or her desktop after first having browsed via his or her mobile. Or browsing from home instead of from work. Therefore, make the welcome message subtle, and not too obvious.

Quick Win 3: Base personalisation efforts on incoming traffic source

The referral source your visitor is coming from could be a potential foundation for personalisation opportunities. The difference between someone who visits from your company page on LinkedIn and someone who comes in via an organic search query from Google tells a lot about their intention and interest. 

Maybe you are dealing with different client relationships, such as customers and suppliers. A supplier almost always uses certain referrals, for example LinkedIn traffic. When personalising specific content based on the referral source, the context of the visit is improved, and engagement is likely to increase.

By setting up personalisation test around incoming traffic, you are able to test different hypotheses and will get a better understanding of what type of content your visitors are interested in.

What to do next

According to Customer Experience Expert Paul Fennemore, applying personalisation over your different channels, consistently, is what to strive next for. “An omnichannel consistent experience, which include your platform, mobile app, email and social channels will be the next step for context marketers to dig into”

Paul continues “For this to operate well and effective, one integrated view of your customer is necessary, with data insights from existing systems such as CRM, ERP and logistics systems. Sitecore 9 and xConnect are great examples to start this conversation off”.

Accelerate

These examples are part of our Sitecore Accelerate program – a service specifically designed to make full use of the SXP capabilities. Our MVPs will train your marketers to become personalisation experts, fully capable of running an in-house agile test team.

Interested in accelerating your Sitecore platform?  Don’t hesitate to contact us. 

1. https://econsultancy.com/reports/the-realities-of-online-personalisation-report
2. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/marketings-holy-grail-digital-personalization-at-scale
3. https://www.episerver.com/globalassets/assets-website-structure/New-Folder9/research--reports/episerver---7-digital-commerce-trends-in-retail-2017.pdf
4. onmodus.com/accelerate

Introducing Our First Intern

OnModus is pleased to announce the addition of some fresh creative input to our team: Yannick Hoogervorst! In his final year as an Interaction Design student, Yannick will join us to do a very specific task. But before we get into that, please allow Yannick to introduce himself:

‘So, my name is Yannick Hoogervorst and I am 22 years old. I’ve been studying the ins and outs of UX design at the HAN University of Applied Sciences for four years now. I also picked up an interest in graphic design, and I travelled to the United States to do my graphic design minor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. During my studies in Mankato, I also worked as a designer at an on-campus organisation called B507. This is where I gained a lot of design experience working on promotional materials and internal projects. Working abroad really broadened my view of the digital industry and got me excited for the possibilities in my future.’

For OnModus, it’s a big plus if you have international experience. It’s one of the reasons we chose Yannick.  But why did Yannick choose OnModus from among all the internship opportunities?

‘OnModus felt like the kind of company that could balance me and keep me motivated. During my first interview, I had the chance to meet the entire team. That quickly gave me a good overview of how the company connected and communicated with each other. I thought to myself: What a creative and motivated bunch of individuals! It’s the kind of company in which my thoughts and opinions would matter most in terms of improving professionally and constantly growing.’

As a last-year student, Yannick will have to perform a final graduation assignment with OnModus. This assignment will act as a validation of Yannick’s skills in the professional world. So we asked him how he could most effectively use those skills at a company like OnModus. Here’s what he said:

‘First of all, I would like to support OnModus in any way I can. That includes offering my UX knowledge to further deepen the customer experience the company offers and help OnModus with any design work that is needed. The primary focus of my internship will be a combination of these two, as I will be focusing on OnModus’ digital platforms and exploring how I could improve these to create more value for our clients. This involves setting up the customer journey of the current OnModus website, sketching and designing alternative options, eventually prototyping and testing these to get to the perfect solution. All in all, a lot of possibilities and excitement in my future.’ 

Please join us in welcoming Yannick to the team. And be sure to stop by and say hello the next time you’re in the OnModus office!            

Solving painpoints through analytics

The interaction between business departments and IT has often been a source of tension within company ranks. Lack of transparency, a different view of the customer and a general cultural conflict are just a few symptoms of the clash between these organisational silos. That is why, here at OnModus, addressing this tension has become our priority as we guide our customers along the path of digital transformation.

In a recent project with one of our clients in the clothing & fashion industry, discovering the pain points between the business department and IT was critical to aligning the organisation and making it a digital enterprise. Alexandru Sabau, Digital Project Manager at OnModus, joins us in the conversation.

‘In the fashion industry, product information and product data are still very inconsistent among clothing suppliers. Formats and level of detail can vary greatly. Suppliers send product data files not only in different formats, such as EDI or Excel, but also with a lot of missing information like group codes, season codes and colour codes. The business department spends valuable resources to streamline this various data from hundreds of suppliers and prepare it for their internal or external product information systems. To ensure brand consistency and relevant product data communication for customers and end users, it's important to have the right product data coming in. Thus, the focus on this process already makes resources scarce’.

And when the majority of resources are being spent on aligning supplier data, the product data enrichment process is slowed even more when marketing and IT are highly interdependent, since communication between the two departments is often slow and difficult. ‘Whenever a supplier updates their product data taxonomy, the business department communicates the changes to IT, which in turn has to optimise the product information systems for a perfect import. This ultimately leads to a longer time to market, lower product availability and frustration on both sides’, Alexandru adds.

Since data analytics and business intelligence are two of our core competencies, OnModus offered to enable our customer's business department through technology. The goal was to prototype a solution that empowers marketers to gain full control of their processes. 'We aimed to create a solution that eliminates time lost communicating product data changes between departments. Through Alteryx, a workflow-based, self-service analytics tool, we showcased a prototype for the business department that automatically processed product data into the right format for import into the product information system, eliminating the need to coordinate changes with IT', explains Alexandru. The prototype solution can result in reduced time to market for products, increased product availability, increased brand consistency and, ultimately, improved customer experience.

Transferring such a capability in-house can have a crucial empowering effect within individual departments. ‘We realised that we are offering an opportunity for our clients to focus on activities that add value for the end customer, and to learn new and relevant skills. Both business and IT departments have the chance to reduce countless hours of manual data input and inefficient communication due to out-dated processes'. Furthermore, enabling our clients through a software solution might have additional hidden benefits. ‘The solution turned out to be a breath of fresh air for employees. They can now minimise their relationship with spreadsheets and start focusing on team efforts that drive positive customer experience. Software can play a part in forming a customer-centric culture', Alexandru concludes.

As an Alteryx partner, OnModus offers the opportunity for clients to become self-empowered in their analytical and data processes. Want to find out more how OnModus can help your organisation's departments to become data independent?Contact us at flow@onmodus.com.

How Content Marketers can become Context Marketers

By Renate van der Vaart, Customer Experience Specialist & Sitecore MVP

The marketing world is rapidly changing, and so is the behaviour of your customers. In the last couple of years, we have all been told that if we want to build relationships with our customers, then content marketing is the way to go. But if EVERYBODY has great content on their platforms, is content still enough to build a relationship? How can you be sure you are distinctive enough?

Our partner, Sitecore, asked these questions when we started working together. Sitecore’s philosophy is based on Context Marketing: giving your content the right context. And I could not help wondering, is Context Marketing the next big thing in digital marketing? In my opinion, it is.

What is Context Marketing? It’s bringing together three digital pillars to successfully integrate content with your data. Let me walk you through it.

Pillar 1: Content Management

Content management is all about bringing the relevant message to your customer. That is easier said than done, because how do you know what the right message is? My answer: look at your data and step into the shoes of your customer. Once you know what he is looking for, you can combine this with one of your brand’s stories. For example, if you are a content marketer working with consumer brands, then you need to:

1. Define a content strategy - what do you want to achieve with your content?

2. Create the content and give it context by linking it to customer needs, and your data and brand story.

3. Manage and publish – check and adjust the content, and get it approved and published.

4. Evaluate - check that the content meets your goals and aligns with your business KPIs.

Pillar 2: Omni-channel Automation

This pillar is all about connecting more deeply with your customers. Start again by analysing your data and looking at your customers’ behaviour. Which channels are they visiting, what are they doing there, and what content are they consuming? Whatever channel they visit, it is important to provide your customers with consistent, relevant messaging and look and feel, so they do not feel disconnected from their journey. Use data to infer visitor intent and use personalisation rules to provide relevant content and calls-to-action.

For example, on your platform, you recruit customers to subscribe to your newsletter. But customers who already have a subscription to your newsletter also visit your platform. So if a customer comes to your platform from a ‘read more’ button in the newsletter, it seems strange to show them a call-to-action that asks them to sign up for a newsletter subscription. So instead, you should show them you know them, based on the data in their profile. Serve them calls-to-action that highlight their previous behaviour and the channel they are coming from. This will give your customer a more personalised and relevant experience. Think here of a call-to-action that invites them to read a similar article, or invites them to provide feedback as a ‘loyal subscriber’.

Pillar 3: Contextual Intelligence

The third pillar in Context Marketing is Contextual Intelligence. This is about making your customer feel that he is an individual person and that you as a brand listen to his needs in real time. So he is not just one of many customers on your platform: you are there just for him. On this basis, Contextual Intelligence can only work when you use the data you have collected from his past behaviour and his current needs.

Here’s an example: a customer lands on an article page on your platform and reads the article. The article page also contains a default call-to-action, for example a link to your contact service centre, with a message that ‘they are always there for you’. The page also offers links to relevant pages, so he clicks to the next page within the same theme. On this page, the contact centre call-to-action can be already a little bit more specific, based on his current behaviour. The further he clicks within the same themes, age bracket or relevant products, the better you can adjust the contact centre calls-to-action. This gives the customer the feeling that you are listening to him, and have relevant information to share. The call-to-action can change from ‘they are always there for you’, to ‘our service centre can answer your questions about healthy eating’, to ‘Did you know we’ve got an upcoming event about how to cook healthier meals? Reach out to our service centre to find out more’.

I believe that combining these three pillars together will give you the best of all possibilities in digital marketing. The glue between these three pillars is data. So the first step to Context Marketing should be to make your marketing data-driven. I totally believe in this philosophy. Whilst content is still king, it’s just not that powerful without context!

Best,

Renate

How to make personalisation work for you

By Renate van der Vaart, Customer Experience Specialist & Sitecore MVP

As a customer experience specialist I am always looking to find better ways to communicate with consumers and understand them better. But how do you grab the attention of a customer when everybody else is competing for seconds of their time? And even more importantly when you have their attention, how do you keep them and ensure they come back for more?

If you read the marketing press, you'll see everybody is talking about how getting the attention of your audience is about making your stories personal and relevant. But how do you actually make your communication more personal? We can all give examples of when we've visited a website to buy shoes, clothing or holidays and couldn't find anything to buy, and for the next couple of days, you see adverts and promotions for these products all the time. Unless you clear your cookies regularly, these brands will follow you everywhere - it's personal, but also very irritating.

So how can you make your communication personal and relevant, without being intrusive? That’s the question we asked ourselves. Together with our partner Sitecore, the leader in web centric customer experience management, we explored this question and set up a testing program of personalisation and A/B tests to see what was working and what not.

What did we learn in this period?

1. Choose your testpage carefully

The page you use for personalisation testing needs to have enough visitors to give a clear indication of each variant. So do some data analysis on how many customers come to the page and try to find out what they are doing next. We call this defining the content-path. To find out high entry pages you can use your Google Analytics account. After finding a high entry page I used the path analyser.

2. Make the test-variations not too small or to big

You need to find a balance between the variations. If they are too big you can’t compare them in your results because it's hard to define which elements the customers are attracted to. But on the other hand, if you make the variations too small, you can’t conclude why the customer prefers the default or variation version. So it’s very important to find a balance.

3. Define a clear goal

This sounds logical, but with only defining what you want to achieve is not enough. It's insufficient to describe “what you want to achieve”. Ask yourself what the “background” of the test is and if it is in line with the goal. Then you can test the outcome against the hypothesis. In this way you defined the full context of your personalisation test.

4. Big brother

Watch out you don’t become big brother, as it is a very thin line in being personal and intrusive, especially with all you know about your customer. For example welcoming your customer with “How nice that you visit our webpage” if you know your customer is coming from Facebook. It is better to adjust your text in line with the copy of the Facebook post and make it feel personal in a subtle way. If you scare your customer with a too personal message you will lose them and they will never come back. So use personalisation wisely.

As we learn more, we see that we improve the quality of the customer experiences using personalisation and A/B testing to drive engagement with our brand. Along the way we develop an understanding about the different personalisation tactics and using them to optimise the contact we have with our target group.

The results we are seeing are showing an increase in conversion uplift across different goals like membership sign-ups, engagements and sales. Also we delivered a positive ROI of costs to set-up and execute a single test. We will continue with testing, to go on improving the quality of our personalised (in the right way) and relevant (the correct format) communication experiences.

“We're not making full use of our Sitecore Experience Platform”

"A well-known and common pain point for many Sitecore clients is the struggle to make full use of the SXP capabilities. That's why we provide a practical implementation strategy, and lead by example. We know the advantages and also how to overcome the common pitfalls and hurdles" says Lars Wisselink, Manager Operations OnModus London and Sitecore MVP.

In any implementation project the project team has a clear focus to bring the new initiative live as soon as possible. Business is asking for it and deadlines have been set.  "We cannot wait any longer" is a phrase often heard, resulting in core functionalities not being implemented correctly or not even at all.

In order to have full success, the organisation needs to think differently. Different in terms of seeing the new initiative as another important touchpoint in the customer journey and experience. As Omnichannel affects the organisation integrally, it is not only the marketing department that drives the project. Moreover it is a real challenge to analyse the customer journey, improving the customer experience and predict the next action. Whether this is a purchase or a call for information - IT and Marketing need to work together and learn from each other.

"Technology is an enabler, not a solution" Max Goijarts, CEO OnModus adds. "In the many projects we have played an active role, it was our job to simply bring the communication between different departments alive". "You might recognise this in your own organisation that the priorities of projects which increase the experience of your customers in your Omnichannel strategy conflict or are misunderstood. The software platform is a tool which should be understood properly in order to support the ultimate customer journey. But the platform needs well researched analytics data and thorough analysed customer paths to use the capabilities of the platform in the right way".

The proof is in the eating

OnModus is best known for our winning Danone - Nutrcia case. The platform was named Sitecore Site of the Year 2015, and earned the Customer Data Award in 2014. Via SXP 8 we used our personalisation model to proof the power of context marketing and the value of Sitecore towards the business of Danone - Nutricia. We have learned a lot from this case and help our clients to become more mature in personalisation. "What we don't do is producing documentation and implementation plans and piles of documents. We are in it for the results while keeping it real and practical" says Jeroen van Mierle, Omnichannel Partner at OnModus.

Best practice resource

OnModus is a best practice resource focused upon the Sitecore Experience Platform (SXP) that helps transforming the digital maturity of your organisation. We use a proven and winning personalisation model (Personalisation tactics, Customer interaction data & SXP) to empower your organisation to activate and optimise Sitecore marketing automation. Powered and energised by Sitecore Strategy MVP's.

Let our experienced team help you with the following:

• Sitecore Context marketing workshops, specifically tailored towards SXP 8, to increase the knowledge and hands on experience of current marketing teams  
• Analysing and operating daily engagement strategy, coaching and support marketing operations within Sitecore
• Monitoring cross-channel attribution and optimising digital marketing. Enabling data to tell and support the Customer Journey
• Setup Agile development process, supporting the practical and daily operations within Sitecore. Guiding product ownership and leveraging Agile development methods for execution
• Implementation guidance for UX design, coaching UX Designers how to implement the (SBOS) engagement strategy, also using Sitecore Experience Accelerator
• Aligning customer and partner teams with existing experience and capabilities

 

Our proven cases

The power of context marketing and the value of Sitecore towards the business of Danone - Nutricia