One area of confusion is the difference between ‘cross-channel‘, ‘omnichannel’, and ‘multichannel’ marketing strategies. By exploring these terms and their benefits, we can clear up any confusion and help you make the best decision for your business. So let’s investigate what these terms mean and how they can benefit you.

What is cross-channel marketing?

Cross-channel marketing is all about connecting with your customers across multiple channels. We’re not just talking about sending out a bunch of emails or posting on social media. It’s about creating a seamless experience for your customers, no matter where they are. 

Think about it, your customers are constantly switching between different devices and platforms throughout their day. They might be reading their inbox on their phone, browsing search engines on their laptop, or scrolling through social media on their tablet. By utilizing cross-channel marketing, you can reach them at each of these touchpoints and make sure they get a consistent message from your brand. 

Figuring out which channels your audience prefers and personalizing each channel is an important aspect of cross-channel marketing. Are your customers more active on social media? Do they prefer email? Once you have that figured out, it’s all about creating a consistent and tailored message that works across those channels.

Some key aspects of cross-channel marketing are:

Coordinated cross-channel strategy

Cross-channel marketing amps up your reach by strategically coordinating your campaigns across multiple channels. This creates a seamless, consistent message for your audience no matter which platform they use. 

Increase cross-channel reach

By using cross-channel marketing, you have the power to reach a larger audience thanks to the variety of platforms available. Each channel offers the opportunity to connect with different segments of your target market, amplifying your brand’s visibility and presence.

Personalized touchpoints across channels

Cross-channel marketing enables businesses to create personalized touchpoints with customers based on their behavior and preferences. By tailoring your message and content to suit the individual, you can effectively address their needs, desires, and pain points at various stages in the customer journey.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is similar to cross-channel as it allows you to deliver a seamless and integrated customer journey across marketplaces, devices, channels, and platforms. 

When comparing omnichannel and cross-channel marketing, the main difference is that omnichannel integrates marketing efforts, data, and strategy under one umbrella while cross-channel does not.

With omnichannel, data is organized centrally and becomes more reliable. This creates more chances for personalization as customer data is synchronized, making it easier to deliver personalized content and messages. This approach enables retailers to offer shoppers the products they need, when and where they need them.

So how does it work? Let’s say someone finds your company through a Facebook ad and decides to view your website. With omnichannel marketing, you want to make sure that the messaging and branding on your website match what they saw in the ad. And if they decide to make a purchase, you want to make sure that their shopping cart is saved across devices, so they can seamlessly continue the checkout process on their phone or tablet.

Some key aspects of omnichannel marketing are:

Customer-centric focus

The primary goal of omnichannel marketing is to ensure customers have a convenient and engaging experience, regardless of the channel they use. By prioritizing the needs and preferences of your customers, you can create a unified experience that encourages brand loyalty and satisfaction.

Connected interactions

In an omnichannel strategy, all customer interactions are interconnected, allowing for a smooth transition between various touchpoints. For example, a customer browsing your website on their phone can continue shopping on your desktop site or in-store, experiencing the same level of personalization and tailored recommendations.

Data integration

Omnichannel marketing relies on integrated customer data that provides a holistic view of each individual’s preferences and behaviors. This information enables businesses to offer relevant content, promotions, and offers across all channels, enhancing the overall customer experience.

What is multichannel marketing?

Multichannel marketing is using different marketing channels to reach your audience. Instead of just relying on one method, like email or social media, you’re spreading your message across various platforms to maximize your chances of connecting with potential customers.

Think about it like fishing. If you only cast your line in one spot, you might catch a few fish, but you’re limiting your chances of reeling in a big one. But if you cast your line in several different spots, you’re increasing your odds of catching something awesome, right?

So, multichannel marketing works the same way. You’re casting your marketing net wider, reaching people through different channels. This approach amplifies your brand visibility, as you’re able to reach a larger and more diverse audience who might have different preferences when it comes to how they like to receive information.

Some key aspects of multichannel marketing are: 

Diverse channel selection

Multichannel marketing involves implementing a mix of channels, such as email, social media, content marketing, paid advertising, and traditional avenues like print or TV ads, to reach your audience. By leveraging each channel’s strengths, you can optimize your overall marketing strategy and reach a wider range of customers.

Channel-specific strategies

With multichannel marketing, each channel has its unique strategy, catering to the specific characteristics of that platform. For example, social media campaigns might focus on building brand personality and driving customer engagement, while email marketing is more targeted towards nurturing leads and driving conversions.

Measurement and optimization

If you use multichannel marketing, analyze the performance of each channel to determine which are most effective in achieving your business goals. Through data analysis and performance metrics, you can optimize your marketing strategy by allocating resources to the most successful channels and maximizing the return on investment (ROI).

What approach is best for me?

Choosing the right strategy depends on your business goals, resources, and the preferences of your target audience. To determine the best fit, consider these key factors:

Customer experience

If delivering a completely unified and immersive customer experience (CX) is your priority, cross-channel or omni-channel marketing may be best suited for your business. 

Personalization

For businesses looking to personalize messaging and engagement at specific milestones in the customer journey, cross-channel marketing offers the flexibility and customization needed to create targeted touchpoints.

Channel diversity

If your focus is on actively engaging with customers via multiple channels, without necessarily linking the messages or strategy between them, multi-channel marketing is the ideal approach.

How Dotdigital helps your cross-channel marketing strategy

Here at Dotdigital, know the importance of implementing comprehensive marketing tools tailored to your business goals and target audience. That’s why we’ve developed an innovative cross-channel platform as an all-in-one solution to help manage your channels.

With the Dotdigital platform, you can:

Connect with your customers on all their favorite channels

In today’s world, reaching savvy customers through multiple marketing channels is essential to stay ahead of the game. With Dotdigital, you can effortlessly connect with your audience across various touchpoints, leading to a more effective and rewarding marketing strategy.

Create seamless customer journeys

Dotdigital’s marketing tools help you send personalized messages to customers through email, text messages, and social media. By enhancing their experience at every stage of their journey, you’ll be able to build stronger relationships and drive engagement.

Supercharge your email marketing

Email is a powerful way to stay in touch with customers who want to hear from your business. Dotdigital’s email builder makes designing eye-catching emails a breeze so that you can grab your customers’ attention and inspire them to take action.

Turn texts into sales

Have you considered using SMS marketing to reach your customers? It’s a quick and effective way to connect with them in real time. With Dotdigital, you can integrate your text messages with other channels like email and social media to increase your chances of making a sale.

Grow, convert, and retain with social media retargeting

Looking to expand your customer base? Dotdigital has got you covered. With Facebook Lead Ads, you can easily acquire new leads and grow your marketing lists. Plus, keep your current customers engaged by showing them targeted ads after they visit your website.

Reduce barriers to purchase with live chat

Forrester says using live chat on your website can increase conversion rates by up to 40%. With Dotdigital’s live chat feature, you can make it easy for customers to get the help they need while also increasing their happiness and likelihood of buying from you. 

Reach customers anywhere with push notifications

Dotdigital helps you stay connected with customers by sending them timely push notifications on their smartphones. These messages remind customers of your business and encourage them to take action, like making a purchase.

Summary

So there you have it – the key differences between cross-channel, omnichannel, and multichannel marketing. Now that you’re in the know, it’s the perfect time to reevaluate your marketing strategy. The good news? Dotdigital’s cross-channel platform can make the journey smoother and more effective than ever before.

Embracing AI (Artificial Intelligence)

One of the standout talks for me was Richard Potter’s exploration of digital experiences in the new era of AI with Microsoft. As an SEO Content Specialist, I use AI daily to brainstorm, create outlines, and find new ideas when facing writer’s block. But did you know Microsoft’s Generative AI technology goes even further? It can tackle everything from content generation to summarizing text and, believe it or not, even creating poetry. I mean, who would’ve thought AI could be this creative? 

Richard emphasized that AI is here to empower and enhance our marketing abilities. It’s like having a super-smart sidekick helping us test new concepts, experiment without limits, and scale our efforts like marketing pros. And no worries, our jobs are safe.

Mastering cross-channel marketing

Following a delightful lunch break and some networking, I discovered the power of Parkdean Resorts’ cross-channel strategy in an intimate breakout session. Parkdean Resorts’ presentation highlighted the importance of reaching customers across multiple platforms, especially since an impressive 6.92 billion people now have access to a smartphone. By studying their customers and engaging with them through various channels, their team increased their reach by 20% and achieved an 88% uplift in conversions. Talk about marketing magic.

One of the standout elements of their approach was the use of personalization, tailoring messages to individual customers based on their preferred channel. This strategy led to more relevant communication, which is the essence of marketing, right? They even utilized our newly-acquired company, Fresh Relevance, to enhance its personalization, showcasing the potential benefits for other businesses. Parkdean Resorts is a great example of what’s possible when we think outside the box and are open to new approaches to our digital marketing efforts.

Customer-centric personalization

During the next presentation, I was absolutely captivated by the creative ways that Travel Chapter utilized personalization to build genuine, lasting connections with its customers across its 50 brands.

Travel Chapter knows that its customers want unique experiences. By simplifying newsletter sign-ups, they’ve lowered barriers to customer engagement and fostered better connections. Additionally, by utilizing zero-party data, they’ve gone the extra mile to gain insight into customers’ traveling habits and preferences, enabling them to deliver even more customized content. 

Travel Chapter’s efforts are certainly paying off – with a 4% increase in click-through rates, it’s clear that customers are responding positively to their efforts. By keeping the customer at the center of everything they do, Travel Chapter is setting a new standard for personalized travel experiences.  

Keynote speaker: Tim Peake

As the Dotdigital Summit neared its conclusion, I was captivated by a truly special and unforgettable final talk delivered by astronaut and pilot, Tim Peake. He shared his amazing space adventures, and everyone was fascinated by his stories from outer space.

While Tim Peake’s presentation centered around his breathtaking space missions, he also emphasized the significance of maintaining a resilient mindset and unyielding determination when pursuing our aspirations. Drawing from his personal encounters as an astronaut who had to overcome immense challenges against all odds, he provided the audience with a fresh perspective on perseverance.

He also highlighted the value of teamwork, resourcefulness, and effective problem-solving as key components to achieving success in our respective fields. These inspiring insights resonated with everyone, sparking the drive to make even the wildest dreams a reality.

With Tim Peake’s uplifting message still echoing in our minds, attendees, including me, walked away from the Dotdigital Summit feeling invigorated and ready to chase our dreams, no matter how big they may be.

Summary of Dotdigital Summit 2023

In a nutshell, the Dotdigital Summit 2023 was the perfect fusion of visionary ideas, cutting-edge tools, and inspiring stories. The impacts of AI, cross-channel marketing strategies, customer-centric personalization, and the importance of mindset and perseverance were all on display, offering invaluable education and motivation for digital marketing enthusiasts.

It’s worth remembering that all these phenomenal insights, success stories, and examples of innovation are within your grasp – it’s up to you to take the lessons learned and apply them to your digital marketing journey. 

Do you feel like you’ve missed out on all the action? Don’t worry as you can always get virtual Dotdigital Summit tickets and have access to the same level of inspiration and insights at your fingertips. So mark your calendars for an opportunity to grow, learn, and aim higher in the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. 

1. Tap into eRFM

eRFM customer modeling is a good way to determine whether your customers are genuinely engaged. This tool empowers you to categorize customers based on their past behaviors and actions. eRFM looks at data from four metrics: engagement, recency, frequency, and monetary value.

With eRFM modeling you can develop comprehensive customer segments. Each RFM persona receives an engagement score, so you can identify customers who are primed for conversion, and those who need to be re-engaged. With detailed segments, you can use eRFM to adapt your email marketing strategy to send the right message to your audience at the best time.

2. Predictive AI (Artificial intelligence)

By utilizing predictive analytics powered by Dotdigital’s WinstonAI, you can turn insights into action. Using AI, you can segment your customers based on predicted actions such as a customer’s anticipated next purchase date. This enables you to create timely and relevant marketing campaigns that reach your audience at the perfect moment. Not only does this help you keep your customers, but it also ensures that your messages remain relevant and the conversation continues.

You can use predictive analytics to forecast what products your customers may be interested in next. WinstonAI will analyze browsing history, past purchases, and spending patterns to understand your customer’s unique tastes and interests. This allows you to offer tailored product recommendations before they even know what they want themselves.

3. Behavioral segmentation

Unlocking the full potential of email marketing begins with understanding your subscribers through behavioral segmentation. Start by closely monitoring their email interactions; keep a keen eye on email metrics like opens, clicks on links or attachments, and conversions. This data lays the foundation to help you create highly effective messaging and content.

For ecommerce business owners, understanding your customers’ buying patterns is important. Take a closer look at your customers’ purchase histories, average order value (AOV), and category preferences. This information can assist you in not only refining your segmentation strategy, but also creating personalized campaigns that cater to each customer’s interests and needs.

4. Lookalike segmentation

If you’re looking to reach potential customers who share similarities with your ideal buyers, why not try Dotdigital’s lookalike segmentation tool. To start, you’ll need to use the single customer view (SCV) feature.

Dotdigital’s SCV gives you a holistic view of every one of your customers. You can see all your customer’s interactions, preferences, and behaviors from different touchpoints like email, SMS, and website activity. This helps you better understand your target audience and you can recognize their behavior patterns and trends. With this knowledge, you can optimize and tailor your email marketing campaigns.

Once you have insights from your SCV, you can then identify ideal customer profiles to represent your best buyers and create lookalike segments based on that information. With just one click, you can use these segments to effectively target the right prospects with the right message.

5. Self-segmentation

You can get customers to self-segment using preference centers. Encouraging your customers to select their preferences at an early stage in their journey allows you to use zero-party data to create customer segments.

In the preference center, your subscribers can set and modify their content, frequency, and communication channel preferences. Then you can create segments using selected preferences to easily send messages to your contacts based on their expressed interests in your brand and products.

Alternatively, you may want to send out a survey or questionnaire to learn more about your audience and hyper-personalize your messages. Let’s say your customer service survey asks someone their job title and you find that your audience base has many teachers. Try sending out messages that align with their interests and career seasonality to strategically deliver the right message at the right time to the right people.

6. Preferred channel segmentation

When it comes to cross-channel marketing, recognizing your customer’s preferred channels is your secret weapon for maximizing audience engagement. It helps you discover the communication methods your audience prefers most. 

Start by segmenting your audience based on their preferred channel. By doing so, you will not only increase the efficiency of your segmentation strategy but also ensure a seamless cross-channel customer experience for your customers.

It’s also a good idea to maintain an up-to-date contact list of your customers’ preferred channels. This way, you can easily pinpoint where they’re most active and tailor your cross-channel marketing approach to resonate with their preferences.

By reaching out to your contacts through the channels they’re most likely to engage with, you’ll be well on your way to forging meaningful connections and nurturing long-lasting relationships with your customer base. 

7. Event-triggered segmentation

Segment customers based on key milestones in the journey with your brand. You can do this by sending them a special discount on their birthday or celebrating their brand anniversary. 

Sending personalized messages to your customers is an excellent way to demonstrate appreciation and foster brand loyalty. For instance, if you have customers who were born in a specific month and haven’t engaged with your brand in a while, you can segment this group and provide them with a customized birthday discount. This not only encourages them to come back, but also demonstrates your consideration for their special occasion.

Summary

By using these seven innovative segmentation techniques, you can deliver personalized and relevant content to engage your customers. When you make your messages more in tune with individual preferences and interests, you’re much more likely to boost engagement, form deeper connections, and ultimately make your customers happier.

Personalization and the human touch

Even in our technology-driven age, people appreciate a personal touch in interactions – that’s why personalization remains a vital marketing tool. Human-to-human (H2H) marketing strategies focus on creating individual experiences, like personalized videos or understanding prospects’ interests through social media. These tailored approaches attract quality leads and boost conversion rates.

Why not level up your workflow by blending personalization with marketing automation? Trust us, it’s a game changer, making your marketing feel even more genuine and engaging to your audience.

How to personalize with marketing automation

When done right, marketing automation adds a human touch by catering to each contact’s unique needs and preferences. It teams up with personalization effortlessly, helping you deliver tailor-made experiences at scale. Here are four ways to achieve that:

1. Segment your audience

When it comes to reaching your audience effectively, segmentation is key. Dotdigital offers powerful tools that allow you to create segments based on various criteria, such as age, location, and RFM score. This means you can tailor your marketing efforts to specific groups within your audience.

By utilizing automation programs, Dotdigital makes it easy for you to create segments and deliver targeted messages. This not only saves you time but also ensures that your audience receives personalized content that resonates with them.

2. Use dynamic content

Dynamic content is a game-changer when it comes to email marketing. It enables you to provide personalized and targeted content to your recipients in one email. Achieving this is possible by tapping into your customer analytics and creating engaging content, which can be delivered at scale using dynamic content blocks and smart program logic.

Imagine being able to display images of local stores to recipients based on their location, making them feel like you’re right there with them. Or recommending products based on their recently viewed or purchased items, giving them that extra nudge toward making a purchase.

With dynamic content, you can create highly relevant and engaging emails that cater to each recipient’s unique preferences and behaviors. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows exactly what your customers want, delivering the right message at the right time.

3. Customer-driven journeys

Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all approach to automation programs. In today’s customer-centric world, it’s all about giving your contacts control over their journey. Instead of bombarding your customers with generic content, why not offer multiple paths based on their actions and preferences?

But it doesn’t stop there. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different approaches like remails to find what truly resonates with your audience. Keep testing and refining your strategies until you discover what works best for each segment of your contacts.

4. Leverage behavior data

Tapping into behavioral data is the key to understanding your audience by tracking their actions and responding in a way that resonates with them. With Dotdigital, crafting automation programs that respond to your contacts’ behavior as it happens becomes a piece of cake, paving the way for timely and relevant communication.

Imagine noticing a shopper leaving items in their cart, and effortlessly sending them a gentle trigger to encourage the completion of their purchase. Or, picture welcoming a new subscriber to your newsletter by guiding them through your brand’s journey, all the while showcasing meaningful offers, using marketing automation.

By harnessing the potential of behavioral data, you’ll never miss an opportunity to connect with your audience when it matters most, leading to stronger relationships and increased satisfaction.

Combine marketing automation and personalization for maximized results

Both personalization and marketing automation have their merits, but combining the two can help you unlock your full marketing potential. With tools like Dotdigital, you can provide personalized experiences at scale, catering to each contact’s unique interests and preferences, without sacrificing the efficiency and reach of automation.

1. Make your content mobile and desktop friendly

In today’s digital age, it’s important to ensure that your content is not only visually appealing but also optimized for both mobile and desktop devices. With more and more people shopping and browsing through their phones and laptops, it’s important to review how your website performs across different devices and make any necessary optimizations.

By making your content mobile and desktop friendly, you can provide a pleasant browsing experience for your users. Nobody wants to zoom in or scroll endlessly just to read the content or view product details. So make sure that your website and email design is responsive, with easy navigation, readable text, and properly sized images.

Optimizing your website for mobile devices can also help reduce abandoned carts and increase conversions. If users find it difficult to navigate or complete a purchase on their phones or tablets, they are more likely to abandon their carts. On the other hand, if the checkout process is smooth and user-friendly on all devices, it can lead to higher conversion rates.

2. Turn abandoned carts into revenue with crafty email follow-ups

The holiday season is here, and with more shoppers turning to online shopping, it’s the perfect time to focus on fine-tuning your abandoned cart recovery strategy. Don’t let those potential customers slip away – give them a chance to save their carts for later.

One effective way to reconnect with shoppers who’ve shown interest in your products is through personalized emails or messages. By sending follow-up messages tailored specifically to their abandoned carts, you can remind them of the items they left behind and entice them to complete their purchase.

Whether it’s a friendly email highlighting the benefits of the products or a text message offering a limited-time discount, these personalized approaches can make a significant difference in recovering lost sales during this busy holiday season.

3. Add a personal touch to your messaging

When it comes to holiday messaging, personalization is key. Gone are the days of generic mass emails and cookie-cutter marketing campaigns. Today, it’s all about creating a personal connection with your audience.

By utilizing the data you’ve gathered from preference centers and first-party data sources, you can tailor your messages to cater to each individual’s preferences and behaviors. This level of personalization not only shows that you value their unique needs but also increases the chances of engagement and conversion.

Imagine receiving an email that speaks directly to your interests or a targeted holiday ad that showcases products you’ve been eyeing. It instantly creates a sense of connection and makes you feel understood as a consumer.

4. Sprinkle some holiday magic into your SEO

The holiday season is the perfect time to sprinkle some festive magic into your website’s SEO. By incorporating festive keywords throughout your SEO copywriting and product descriptions, you can capture the attention of shoppers who are in the holiday spirit.

One way to add a touch of holiday flair to your SEO is by updating your meta tags and headings to showcase that seasonal spirit. By including keywords like “holiday deals,” “gift ideas,” or those related to your product, you can align your website to what customers are searching for at this time of year. By with your customers’ seasonal searches, you can increase the chances of attracting more traffic to your website. 

You can make the most out of your website traffic by incorporating a clear call-to-action (CTA) section. Not only does it help enhance your click-through rate, but it also allows you to drive revenue. By organizing your CTAs with various links, you can cater to the different interests and preferences of your visitors.

To make your CTAs engaging, use simple language that is easy for users to understand. A user-friendly layout will also encourage them to take action. Remember, the goal is to create a seamless experience that entices users to click and explore further.

5. Be social media savvy

The holiday season is the perfect time to have some extra fun on social media. With so many people spending time online during this festive period, using paid and organic social methods is an effective way to reach both new and loyal customers.

On Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you can use targeted ads to connect with your desired audience uniquely. These platforms offer a range of gamification options to incorporate into your ad campaigns. You can create engaging content that resonates with your demographic using interactive quizzes, polls, and immersive storytelling experiences.

By adding gamification elements to your social media ads, you can transform the user experience from passive viewing to active participation. This approach not only increases brand awareness but also encourages interaction and engagement with your target audience.

But why stop there? For an added layer of flair and authenticity, team up with influencers who resonate with your target audience. Collaborating with influencers can help you tap into their engaged followers and create a buzz around your brand during the holiday season.

Time to wrap up

These five simple and engaging tips will help make your holiday marketing campaign a smashing success. By keeping your messaging personalized, your SEO festive, and your content as device-friendly and heartwarming as possible, you’re setting yourself up for a profitable holiday season. So why wait? Jump into the holiday marketing fun and spread good cheer all around.

Partnering for sustainable marketing

Provenance is on a mission to give consumers the info they need to make buying decisions that benefit both people and the planet. Their innovative platform helps retailers share credible, trustworthy social and environmental impact details where it matters most – at the point of sale.

As the first (and only) carbon-neutral cross-channel marketing automation platform out there, we’re a perfect fit for Provenance’s values. We’re also ISO-14001 accredited – which means we meet the International Standard Organisation’s requirements for environmental management systems. This makes Dotdigital the go-to choice for sustainability-minded brands looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

Tink Taylor, Founder & of Dotdigital, said it best, “I’m always supremely impressed by the Dotdigital committees such as DotGreen, DotDEI and DotWellbeing. It’s our employees’ voices who push initiatives like becoming carbon-neutral and ISO-14001 certified forward. And it keeps Dotdigital striving for a more positive impact socially and environmentally. We’re very proud to be the first and only carbon-neutral marketing automation platform.”

Jessi Baker, Founder & CEO of Provenance, added: “Together, we’ll help companies on their path to sustainability, aiming for a future where every purchase helps people and our planet.”

Working together for a greener future

Our partnership with Provenance is all about helping consumers make greener, more sustainable choices. We’re joining forces to support retailers that are serious about their sustainability claims and environmental responsibilities. This means helping companies use marketing technology that matches their mission and nudges customers toward more ethical purchasing decisions. Together, we’re paving the way for informed, earth-friendly shopping choices. Keep your eyes peeled for more news, tips, and insights about this exciting partnership. As a team, we’ll make a real difference for people, the planet, and the world of digital marketing.

Are you curious to learn more about Sarah’s data-driven approach and vision for customer loyalty’s future? Read on and explore her expertise in this compelling conversation that you won’t want to miss.

Q: Can you give us an overview of Spektrix and your role there?

At Spektrix, we’re a team of just over 200 people, providing cloud-based technology for ticketing, marketing, and fundraising to the arts & cultural sector. We partnered with Dotdigital to provide a comprehensive integration that enables our clients to deliver digital communications via Dotdigital. To ensure our users get the most out of our platform we also offer comprehensive and all-inclusive support, training, and consultancy services.

I originally have a background in arts marketing, and I brought that experience and my love of using data to Spektrix eight years ago. In my time at Spektrix, I have worked with numerous arts and entertainment organizations, consulting on loyalty strategy and best practices amongst other things. I co-authored the Spektrix Insights Report in 2019, leading the analysis of sector benchmarks across multiple areas such as loyalty, fundraising, and online purchasing trends. And I continue to lead initiatives to share data learnings, such as the Spektrix Ticket Sales Dashboard, with the sector.

Q: Have you attended the Dotdigital Summit before, what are you particularly looking forward to this year?

I’ve not attended before, so I’m really looking forward to experiencing it for the first time. The breadth of organizations attending and the variety of content being presented looks super interesting. 

At Spektrix we’re always interested in exploring digital communications best practices from other sectors, so we can share that learning with our users. Also, discovering how other experts are using tools like AI, automation, and incentives will be a great opportunity for me, and for our community.

Q: Your talk is focusing on loyalty in 2023, do you think loyalty is harder for brands to come by these days?

I think certain types of loyalty are harder for brands these days – people are much more likely to question their loyalty and look for alternatives rather than just remaining loyal to a brand as default. You can really see that shift in particular with things like switching banks or mobile phone networks. Or the ability to swap and change streaming services on the regular. 

The research also indicates that younger consumers are much more likely to be in tune with the values of a brand and really assess their credentials in terms of value for money, customer service, and bigger mission-driven values such as environmental impact or the way their staff is treated. As a certified B Corp, it’s certainly something that comes up increasingly often from organizations interested in working or partnering with Spektrix.

All this information is much easier to come by these days, rather than relying on the ‘polished’ brand that gets portrayed, you really have to ‘live’ your brand, or you’ll get called out. But I think this also opens up a world of possibilities in terms of loyalty, where you can build genuine loyalty to your brand, rather than repeatedly selling an individual product or service. This is arguably more complex, as you need to understand that your customers’ motivations are variable and ‘messy’.

Q: What will people learn from your talk at the Dotdigital Summit?

Hopefully, people will take away some learnings from specific examples from the Spektrix user community, and how this translates into a process for assessing the variable motivations of your customers. And therefore how you can communicate with them in a much more tailored way, and incentivize them to engage with you, using a more complex, less hierarchical model to the traditional customer loyalty ladder. I’ll be talking about examples from theatre and the performing arts, but the stories will apply to everyone – after all, theatre audiences are the same people who book holidays, buy clothes, or support charities.

Q: What are your top tips for brands who struggle with customer retention?

Try not to do everything. Delve into your data, measure some baselines, experiment, try to get under the skin of your customers and potential customers’ motivations, align your messaging to appeal to them, try things out, and refine it. Ditch anything that’s not working.

Q: What’s your favorite loyalty scheme you’re personally part of as a customer and why?

I’ve become much more aware over the last few years about where I spend my money/who I spend my money with. Often the loyalty scheme itself is not the deciding factor, but if a brand I engage with happens to have one then that is obviously a bonus and encourages me to continue shopping with them.

I’ve hit that time of my life where I have signed up to be a member of the RHS. They have just opened a new public garden on the outskirts of Manchester and I’ve deliberately bought a membership to incentivize me to attend more regularly. There are then the added perks of an excellent app where I can track the plants in my garden, and get regular personalized updates via email.

Q: How do you foresee the loyalty landscape changing in the future?

AI is going to be an interesting one to watch – those one-to-many communications are likely to be able to become hyper-tailored. And profiling to find similar, or lookalike, audiences is becoming much more sophisticated.

Q: You say you’re a self-confessed data nerd, what are your tips for getting the most out of your data?

Make sure you’re measuring what you’re doing – then you can use this to set baselines, compare with industry benchmarks, and test anything new you try. Also, come at your data with an actual question you want to answer. Time and again I see organizations measuring KPIs, but then they aren’t sure what to do with them. If you approach the data with an inquisitive mind and a question you want to find the answer to, you’re much more likely to find something useful.

If you’ve not got your tickets for this year’s Summit yet, grab them here.

Read on to get a sneak peek into their Summit talk, where they’ll discuss the Stroke Association’s innovative creative messaging techniques and the art of developing impeccably crafted welcome journeys.

Q: Lily and Emma, could you introduce yourself and your roles at the Stroke Association?

Lily: Hello. I’m Lily, one of the Digital Marketing Managers at the Stroke Association. I work as the email and SMS lead for the charity to develop and deliver campaigns and online journeys. I’m responsible for delivering digital marketing activity to drive digital income and ensure the retention of our database.

Emma: And I’m Emma, I’m the Supporter Experience Manager at the Stroke Association. My role is responsible for making sure our donors receive a great experience after their first donation. I work really closely with Lily and her team to make sure all our activity is engaging and is working across multiple channels.

Q: We’re excited for your talk at this year’s Dotdigital Summit. What are you looking forward to sharing most in this session?

Lily: I’m most looking forward to sharing our testing over the years and how far we’ve come as an organization. There’s loads to share, from copy to creative and audience segmentation to journey optimizations.

Emma: I joined Stroke Association four years ago and we’ve all worked so hard to completely transform the program. Before we used to celebrate if we got a handful of gifts – now we feel disappointed if we don’t go over our targets. There’s been a lot of learning in that time, and it’s been great to work alongside Lily, means a lot of our recommendations from activity to activity get implemented.

Q: How significant do you think customer journeys are for successful donor engagement?

Lily: Incredibly significant. It’s so important to thank donors, tell them about the huge impact they’re making, and bring them on your journey to further deepen their connection to the charity. Beyond welcome journeys, it’s vital to keep donors engaged through evergreen activity, for example, appeals, newsletters, and asking for feedback, so you can continually improve their experience.

Emma: Making sure you have the right journeys is crucial. People don’t fit in the nice little boxes you might want them to – they take up multiple actions, have lots of different interests, and give to us for all sorts of reasons. Many people give because they themselves have needed our support in the past. That’s why we’re also measuring donor engagement further down the line with our beneficiary audience after offering stroke support. We want to see if people engage further, for example, fundraising, volunteering, or helping us to campaign for change.

Q: Can you give us a sneak peek into the innovative messaging tactics that Stroke Association uses for deepening donor connections?

Lily: We started pretty much at the beginning with developing our email channel. Over the years we’ve focused on specific audiences, for example, cash donors, regular givers, supporters gifting in memory of someone, Legacy pledgers, and people receiving our stroke support services, and then tailored messaging to those individuals.

This has been done using personalization, segmentation, investigating previous donor history and behavior to tailor our copy accordingly, scheduling messages to send at the right time, and acknowledging the wider environment we find ourselves living in today.

Emma: I completely agree with Lily, we’ve been learning and building on what we had over the years. We’ve tried to make sure the program focuses on how amazing the donors are (not how great we are), make sure we’re always signposting to support they can access, and being as human as possible in the way we write to them. I do really long for the day when we can stop writing ‘It’s been another difficult year’ – I think we’re all just quite tired of things feeling really heavy. I am confident that our Christmas communications this year will have more hope than ever and be something uplifting this Christmas.

Q: A key topic of your discussion is strategic testing. How important is strategic testing in refining donor engagement tactics?

Lily: Strategic testing is crucial. I’m really lucky to work with our Supporter Experience Team who’re always supportive of trying something new. If you don’t test, you’ll never know what works, what could be developed, and equally important, what should be left in the past.

We’ve A/B tested everything from copy style, copy length, CTA’s, contributor stories, donation button placement, scheduling, donation web pages, donation block, and onward journey. From FY 21-22 to FY 22-23 testing has helped increase our email appeal income by +32%.

Emma: Testing is hugely important across all our channels. Often if the team is undecided about something or there’s a split in the vote, we try to test it. We’ve tested our outer creative, ask matrix, different pack inclusions, and even tested an aphasia-friendly summary in packs. I love this sort of stuff though, It’s so fun learning the results, and seeing which way it went – and you don’t always get it right either (hence why it’s so important to test and challenge your thinking).

Q: Could you walk us through the elements that made the Christmas campaign your best-performing campaign and its impact?

Lily: Over the past three years we’ve been continually developing and optimizing each appeal in the lead-up to our big Christmas appeal. We’ve implemented personalized messaging for our different audience segments, interrogated our data to deliver tailored gift asks dependant on previous donor history, tested copywriting styles, ensured our emails are visually engaging and aligned with our postal mailing creative, optimized journeys, and reviewed scheduling so all these elements work together to achieve desired results. Comparing Christmas 202 to Christmas 2021 main targets increased in terms of donations (+13%), revenue (+19%), and average gift (+5%).

Emma: Another key thing for us has been securing compelling stories to tell. We’re fortunate that the Stroke Association has invested in this area, and we now have a wonderful Storytelling Manager. They’ve found us a great story this Christmas, a young family whose father had a stroke last year. They overcame a lot of obstacles during recovery, not least being abroad when it happened, but they are so passionate about sharing their story and the help they received.

Q: Crafting welcome journeys is an art. Could you highlight a few enhancements you’ve made to these journeys that have significantly improved their effectiveness?

Lily: Our Cash Welcome journey was implemented back in January 2021 to thank supporters, introduce them to the charity’s work and its impact, secure a second cash gift, and convert to regular giving.

A split was added to this journey design, which tailored the email content and CTA depending on whether the recipient had already given an extra cash gift before the second gift CTA within the email welcome journey. Delivering personalized messaging for those who already gifted (additional thanks and impact) versus those who we hoped would gift again (donation ask and impact) improved the effectiveness of this email journey, as we delivered tailored messaging based on donor behavior.

Emma: It sounds simple but when we overhauled the program back in 2021, we very much thought about the basics; what were we trying to achieve? For our cash program, we wanted to thank and get people to give again. For our regular giving program, we wanted to keep people engaged and giving. For in memory, we wanted people to feel connected with us in the hope they might fundraise on our behalf. Keeping these goals in mind meant that all our postal and email communications had these ideas at the core. We weren’t just sending out communications for the sake of doing it or ‘because we should’.

Q: Could you discuss the Stroke Association’s approach to cross channel touchpoints for driving donor engagement?

Lily: The postal mailing and emails work in tandem to drive effective donor engagement. The mailing not only includes postal donations but also signposts recipients to our online donation pages and the ability to donate via QR codes. The emails utilize the mailing content and explore additional contributor (e.g. stroke survivor, researcher) stories further, compelling audiences to support the charity.

Emma: The postal mailing, donation web pages, emails, donation funnel, and transactional emails work in unison to provide a smooth and integrated experience. Its vital supporters have a seamless journey, with our content being relevant and inspiring them to take action and donate, thus building a deeper relationship with the charity and cementing donor retention.

Q: What valuable insights do you hope to gain from other attendees at the Dotdigital Summit this year?

Lily: I’m really looking forward to discussions around data and automation to drive engagement and successful cross-channel marketing. This is something we’re beginning to explore further as an organization, so these talks will be beneficial. I’m also looking forward to Tim Peake’s keynote session, as this should be pretty inspirational.

Emma: I’m really interested in discussions around reactive and triggered journeys – we’re still very much at the beginning of our organizational journeys. With some of our journeys further along than others, I’m keen to hear how other organizations make sense of the spider’s web and make it feel seamless to the customer. I’m excited full stop at being able to go to a conference in person, as I’ve not been to one since early 2020.

If you’ve not got your tickets for this year’s Summit yet, grab them here.

What is personalization?

Personalization goes beyond simply addressing your customers by their names. It’s about crafting tailored experiences and delivering content that resonates with your audience based on their individual preferences, actions, and unique characteristics. To excel in personalization, it’s essential to make well-informed decisions at each step of the customer journey. This means delivering the right content at the right time to the right audience. 

Personalization is achieved by leveraging customer data and insights to provide an experience that is both relevant and engaging. This approach makes your marketing messages not only authentic but also meaningful to each individual customer.

In marketing today, personalization goes far beyond just using the customer’s name in an email or celebrating their birthday. According to Salesforce, 62% of customers expect companies to deliver personalized offers and discounts based on their previous purchases. While incorporating basic information such as a customer’s name, birthday, or gender is important, modern consumers expect more.

Top personalization tips

We’ve curated a selection of top personalization tips to help you make stronger connections with your audience. From leveraging dynamic content to tapping into customer insights, these effective strategies will ensure your marketing messages are tailored, relevant, and engaging for each individual.

1. Elevate your campaigns with dynamic content

Dynamic content is a powerful tool to supercharge your marketing campaigns by delivering laser-targeted messaging in a single send. Thanks to dynamic content blocks, you can easily display a variety of content, including text, images, and CTAs. These content blocks cater to each recipient’s data, preferences, and previous interactions.

By tailoring your content to specific factors like a customer’s location, subscription level, or any custom data field of your choice, you ensure that your messaging remains highly relevant and engaging for each individual. At Dotdigital, we love seeing how brands can capitalize on customer location data to craft unique offers that resonate with recipients and forge stronger connections.

Incorporate dynamic content into your campaigns to unlock higher engagement rates and deliver remarkable end-user experiences that set your brand apart and keep customers coming back for more.

2. Tap into targeted product recommendations

For ecommerce businesses and brick-and-mortar retailers with delivery or click-and-collect options, targeted product recommendations are an invaluable tool to add a personal touch to your email campaigns. To capture customers’ interest and encourage them to explore further, you can create product recommendation blocks that cater to their previous buying and browsing patterns or preferences. This can be based on a specific stage in the customer journey.

For example, if you’re a shoe retailer, you could showcase running shoes tailored to a customer’s specific needs. This could include their preferred terrain, distance, gender, or even color preferences. You could also feature items they’ve previously expressed interest in by browsing online or adding them to their shopping cart. These curated recommendations create a sense of familiarity and personalization that resonates with your customers.

Dotdigital takes it a step further by enabling you to harness machine learning to suggest the next-best products and more. By utilizing these advanced techniques, you can create unforgettable customer interactions that drive engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, increase conversions for your business.

3. Harness segmentation for ultimate personalization

There are times when dynamic content blocks are not enough, and you want to make the whole message personal. That’s when segmentation comes in handy. It helps you split your audience into groups based on things like age, customer type, or even personal tastes like favorite colors.

But that’s not all – with eRFM segmentation, you can group your audience based on their engagement and purchasing behaviors. eRFM stands for “engagement, recency, frequency, and monetary,” which means you’re looking at how engaged your customers are when they last made a purchase, how often they buy, and how much they spend. With Dotdigital, creating groups for different customers, like loyal fans or people who need some extra nurturing, is simple. Plus, you can make new groups when customers change how they act, so your messaging is always spot-on.

By rewarding your brand champions with special offers and winning back inactive customers, you’ll create a better experience for everyone. Personalization is all about choosing to do or not do something based on the customer. If this group isn’t engaging with your campaigns, it’s a good idea to exclude them from your newsletters and instead reserve sends for them for big events (like Black Friday). This way, your campaigns will be more engaging, and your customers will be happier.

4. Create personalized journeys with custom automation paths

Designing and building customized customer journeys is a breeze with Dotdigital. By using automation programs, you can create personalized journeys that cater to each customer’s unique engagement with your brand. With the drag and drop functionality of our automation builder, you can easily design tailored paths, utilizing actions, decisions, and delays to create the ideal experience for every individual customer.

These customized journeys empower your customers to choose their own path through the automation program, with each action they take (or don’t take) determining the subsequent messages they receive. This way, you can ensure that every journey is one-of-a-kind, offering highly engaging and relevant content that speaks directly to your audience on a personal level. By tapping into our platform, you’ll bring these personalized journeys to life, improve customer experience, and boost conversion rates. 

Summary

In today’s digital world, personalization is no longer optional – it’s essential. So, why not revamp your personalization approach? By implementing these strategies, you’ll give your audience the personalized experiences they want and set your marketing campaigns up for incredible success.

It’s important to prioritize customer data privacy and make it a central part of your marketing strategy. At Dotdigital, we know that understanding data privacy can be complex and you may have concerns and questions. That’s why we created this blog to explain the key considerations and best practices you should use. By embracing these practices you’ll build trust with your customers and comply with regulations.

What is data privacy?

In a nutshell, data privacy is the protection, and the fair and transparent use of an individual’s personal information, preferences, and activities. With the rise of online customer data, new measures have been developed to protect personally identifiable information (PII) such as full names, dates of birth, email addresses, financial details, and browsing history. 

How governments and organizations are safeguarding customer data privacy

To tackle the pressing concerns surrounding data collection, governments and organizations across the world are taking action to protect personal information. As a marketer, it’s important to be compliant when collecting data. Consider keeping an eye on these regulations:

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Data privacy regulations like GDPR have made a big impact on marketing. These regulations aim to give people more control over their personal data and make sure businesses ask for clear permission before getting and using their data. Due to this, digital marketers have had to change how they collect data and update their privacy policies to follow the new regulations.

One big challenge for marketers with GDPR is having to be extra clear about how they collect and use data. Companies have to let people know what they’re doing with their data and give them a choice to say yes or no to having their information collected. This makes it more complicated for marketers to target customers and personalize content, as they need to be sure they have the right permission from people before using their data.

Another key part of GDPR is handling requests for people to see or delete their data. Customers can ask companies to show them the data they have on them and request for it to be deleted if they don’t want it stored anymore. Marketers need to be ready to deal with these requests quickly and properly to follow GDPR regulations.

Emerging privacy legalization in the US

As data privacy evolves globally, the United States has started enacting its own privacy laws. Although the country has yet to implement a comprehensive, nationwide data privacy regulation similar to the European Union’s GDPR, individual states have begun stepping up their efforts to protect their citizens’ privacy.

One of the most prominent examples is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which came into effect in January 2020. The law grants Californians more control over their personal information by giving them the right to know what data businesses collect, who they share it with, and if desired, they can delete it. Additionally, the CCPA allows consumers to opt out of selling personal information to third parties.

Several states have looked to California’s lead and are creating privacy legislation. Virginia, for instance, passed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) in March 2021, adding yet another layer of privacy protection for its citizens. Similar to the CCPA, the VCDPA gives Virginians more control over their data, offering transparency, access, deletion, and opt-out rights.

Apple’s privacy-focused updates

Marketers continue to face new challenges with Apple’s privacy-focused updates. The MPP (Mail Privacy Protection) feature, introduced in 2021, serves as one example. MPP uses a bot to open incoming emails as soon as they arrive in the recipient’s inbox. This method saves user privacy by hiding IP addresses and preventing open rates from exposing the recipient’s location or tracking their online activity.

In addition to MPP, Apple’s recent iOS 17 privacy updates add another layer of protection for users. These updates have been implemented to safeguard user data and privacy, making it increasingly difficult for marketers to track and measure engagement through traditional methods. For instance, iOS 17 features Link Tracking Protection, which automatically removes tracking parameters from messages, mail, and links, complicating the process of linking an interaction to a specific user.

Despite these challenges, you don’t need to panic. Link tracking remains a useful tool and metric, with only specific link types for certain user cases being affected. For example, Dotdigital customers are expected to see less than a 1% impact on the data they gather from link tracking. By staying informed and adapting to these changes, you can be an ethical marketer and protect your audience’s privacy.

Best practices for responsible data collection

Customers can feel limited when collecting data. If they don’t consent to data collection, their overall experience will be lessened. However, if you’re open and transparent about what data you want and why you want it, you’ll build a relationship based on honesty and integrity. Here are some ways to be ethical when collecting or using personal data: 

1. Use consent management tools: Don’t leave your customers guessing about the data you’re collecting. Use our consent insight feature at the point of sign-up. With this, you can be transparent about the data you collect, and how it will be used, and offer a fair and easy way for customers to provide (or withhold) their consent.
2. Build a preference center: Show your customers you respect their choices by providing an easily accessible preference center. Let them easily add or remove information, and include it in every email you send. 
3. Include a double opt-in: Double opt-in ensures that marketing lists are accurate and high-quality. Make it a standard for any channel you use and your customer engagement will improve.
4. Offer alternative channels: Different customers have different communication preferences. While some prefer emails, others prefer SMS or WhatsApp. Stick to their preferences by giving them the option to choose their favorite channel to ensure an optimal customer experience. 
5. Communicate the benefits: Help your customers understand how sharing their data can improve their experience with your brand. Are you offering exclusive deals? Tailoring content to their interests? Let them know what’s in it for them, and they’ll share willingly. Transparency is key. 

How to build trust and transparency

Trust is an important part of being a responsible marketer. Trust is no longer just a nice to have, it’s a necessity. Customers are more aware than ever of the potential risks associated with sharing personal information online. By establishing trust with your customers, you can reassure them that their data will be handled responsibly. This not only helps to build a positive reputation for your company but also ensures that customers feel safe and secure when interacting with you. 

Here are ways to build trust and transparency:

1. Collect zero and first-party data: To create trust and show respect for privacy, focus on collecting zero-party data by asking customers to share information via a survey or sign-up form. Also, gather first-party data from your customers’ direct actions, like website visits or social media engagements. 
2. Use data protection tools: Keep customer information safe by using encryption, secure storage systems, two-factor authentication, and safe data transfer methods. This will protect data from breaches. 
3. Educate your team: Get your team involved in a workshop or training so they can understand data privacy rules and best practices for protecting customer information.
4. Appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO): Have a dedicated person, a DPO, in charge of ensuring your company follows data privacy rules. They will also be the main contact between your company and the official authorities.
5. Regularly check your practices: Review how your company handles data privacy. Look for any weak spots and fix them to keep your practices up-to-date and effective.

Key considerations for marketers

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your data is being collected almost constantly. Regulatory breaches, brands, and buying and selling customers’ data have led to an ethical conundrum for marketers.

To tackle these ethical challenges head-on, consider the following concerns when collecting and using customer data. This will make your decisions more responsible and help maintain the trust of your customers:

1. Privacy invasion: It’s not right to take personal or sensitive information without your customers’ permission.  This could make them uneasy about their privacy and potentially put your brand at risk of legal consequences.
2. Data security: You have a responsibility to protect your customer’s data. Data breaches can lead to financial losses and damage the reputation of both your customers and your business.
3. Informed consent: Your customers should be clearly informed about the information being collected, its intended use, and the reasons for it. Transparency goes a long way in building trust.
4. Data minimization: Keep it simple, focus on collecting only what’s necessary, rather than keeping extra data. This approach reduces risks and shows respect for your customers’ privacy.
5. Unwanted communications: It’s not okay to use customer data to send emails, text messages, or make calls without their permission. Doing this can invade their privacy and might even break privacy laws.
6. Unfair targeting practices: Avoid using personal information like gender, race, or disability to unfairly exclude groups. This can lead to discrimination and unequal treatment.
7. Misuse of data: Hold off on using customer data without permission. These actions are not only unethical but can also break down customer trust. Marketers have a responsibility to make sure any third parties they work with handle data properly.
8. Accuracy of data: Double-check and keep customer data accurate, current, and up-to-date. When you use incorrect information it can lead to a negative customer experience.

By sticking to these guidelines, not only will you reduce risk when collecting data, but you’ll also create an environment where your customers feel valued and respected. When your audience knows their privacy is a top priority, you’ll establish a strong foundation of trust that paves the way for more meaningful and long-lasting relationships. In turn, your marketing efforts will flourish as your customers reward you with their loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and a genuine appreciation for your brand’s commitment to ethical practices.

Future-proof your marketing with Dotdigital

As a marketer, you should use a marketing platform that values data protection and customer trust is essential. Dotdigital, an ISO 27701-certified customer experience and data platform (CXDP), equips you with the tools to stay ahead of the curve and deliver personalized customer experiences. By using these best practices, you’ll stay compliant with data privacy regulations and grow stronger relationships with your audience.