Macy’s Rewards Customers for Providing Tracking Permission

Challenge: New technology allows companies to track consumer’s every move. However, caution must be taken to ensure that permission is gained before tracking commences.

In a new IBM study of more than 30,000 consumers it was found that consumers are willing to share their personal information if they feel they receive value in exchange;

» The percentage of consumers willing to share their current location via GPS with retailers nearly doubled year-over-year to 36 percent.

» 38 percent of consumers would provide their mobile number for the purpose of receiving text messages and 32 percent would share their social handles with retailers.

This same sentiment has been confirmed in our Voice of Customer (VoC) research for Fortune brands regarding willingness to opt-in based on Reciprocity of Value expectations.

Macy’s opt-in based multichannel customer engagement

Today’s customers are multichannel. Therefore marketers have to follow their lead.

Macy’s PromoAlert program allows customers to opt-in to receive push marketing via email or text as well as through an Android or iPhone mobile app. Additionally the company allows customers to opt-in to receive information on specific events, bridal registries, and more.

Macy’s has also begun testing Shopkick, an iBeacon/BLE-based Bluetooth signal at its Herald Square, New York and Union Square, San Francisco stores. The app automatically welcomes shoppers as they enter a store and shows location-specific deals, discounts, recommendations and rewards. The app can also tie in at-home browsing to an in-store benefit—if a shopper “likes” a specific product in the app. The Shopkick technology ties into the retailer’s own app.

The company has established complete transparency in their opt-in mobile tracking technology. Macy’s offers details on their PromoAlert program on their web that allows customers to both sign-up or opt-out.

4 Takeaways:

1. It cannot be emphasized enough that transparency is essential in order to get active opt-in from customers.

2. Retailers need to develop all tracking technologies in a way that preserves trust and delivers personalized benefits in exchange for their willingness to provide increasingly deeper levels of personal information.

3. Improve customer loyalty through personalized brand experiences. Customers who opt in expect that the information they receive will dramatically enhance and improve their overall experience.

4. Integrate digital and physical stores to enable a seamless shopping experience for customers. Every aspect of your marketing needs to reinforce your overall brand and customer experience.

Spike in Email Undeliverables: 5 Tips for Increasing Delivery

The Challenge: Major email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL have implemented new algorithms for email deliverability based on “engagement”. If your emails are not triggering sufficient interaction, they are likely not to be delivered.

Recently, most email service providers have converted to a new customized algorithm that calculates deliverability using a combination of the original email delivery rules plus new “engagement” factors: open rates, clicks, unsubscribes, and complaints. With these new human behaviors factored into the equation of deliverability, future emails that you send may be considered SPAM or not delivered at all, even to subscribers who signed-up to receive your emails. Email marketing service MailChimp explains an even more damaging point “if enough recipients click the ‘spam’ button on your email, the providers assume that no one else would want that email either.” Read Google’s white paper on deliverability and the Priority Inbox.

What can you do to improve engagement? Here are 5 tactics:

1. At a minimum, follow basic list management best practices, such as keeping your list opt-in only, honor unsubscribe requests and remove undelivered emails from your list. MailChimp suggests using a double opt-in method to further improve engagement metrics.

2. Motivate new customers to engage with you. Silverpop recommends a quality welcome series.

3. The strategists at Econsultancy suggest “Combining behavioral data and RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value) creates Engagement-RFM (eRFM). Using this methodology can improve the accuracy of segmentation, strengthen influence and engagement, and lead to an increased ROI.”

4. Use personalization and dynamic content. Leverage this information to deploy personalized communications for significant events such as customer appreciation messages, unexpected “surprise and delight” communications, birthdays, post purchase “thank-you’s”, and dropped cart messages.

5. Reward email actions like opens, clicks, and shares. Marketing Profs highlights how companies like GameStop and Southwest Airlines are experiencing success with engagement by tracking subscriber’s interactions and awarding loyalty program points.

Key Takeaways:

1. Sending “spray and pray” emails will damage your brand, hurt your reputation, and compromise future deliverability of legitimate emails.

2. Provide value-added information. Per recent findings from recent Voice of Customer research conducted by our firm, customers are willing to provide in-depth information in exchange for receiving value-added information. For consumers, the rationale for providing preference information is to receive increasingly relevant offers, communications, and experiences.

3. Segmentation is more essential than ever. Develop increasingly specific customer and prospect segments so you can send highly targeted emails that are of interest to each recipient in your sub-segmented groups.

New Value Exchange: Preference Info to Drive Personalization

THE CHALLENGE: Consumer frustration with Opt-Out marketing policies is growing; marketers need to convince them to share information regarding their preferences in exchange for a valuable, personalized relationship.

Unfortunately, Opt-Out Is the New Norm

There are now over 200 million numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. Moreover, a number of states have introduced “Do-Not-Mail” bills and the topic of “Do Not Track” legislation is red hot. Overseas, governments are taking even more drastic actions. For example, the Italian government banned all unsolicited mail, phone, email, fax and mobile communications.

As consumers find more ways to avoid unsolicited marketing communications, panicked businesses are responding by creating opt-out relationships wherever they can. This is the wrong approach.

Customer Frustration is Growing

Today’s empowered consumers are questioning why the burden should be on them to Opt-Out. In fact, prominent Opt-In campaigns have resulted in enthusiastic customer response. Consider the case of comedian Louis C.K.

In recent years, Louis C.K. has risen to prominence as a stand-up comic, an actor, and, with his show Louie, a writer, director and editor. And with his self-produced and distributed “Live at the Beacon Theater” video, he’s setting an important example for online marketers. Rather than forcing his consumers to Opt-Out, he asked them to Opt-In—in a prominent, tongue-in-cheek way:

“I’m going to be offering other things through this site. Would you like to hear about them?

- Yes, I’d like to receive further emails about Louis C.K. things.
- No, leave me alone forever, you fat idiot.”

The latter was selected by default. The customer response was unequivocal: “‘Opt in’ as the default is such a minor thing, but it makes people feel good.”

Create a Reciprocity of Value

Rather than making “Opt-Out” the default, marketers should compete to engage consumers with compelling value propositions that motivate them to Opt-In.

The most compelling value you can offer is relevance. Consumers are eager for meaningful personalization. The challenge for marketers is to make them aware that, in order to receive or access increasingly relevant information, consumers must share increasing amounts of information regarding their preferences.

Microsoft used Voice of the Customer (VoC) research to create a highly personalized experience in their Business Resource Center, which asked over 14 detailed business questions in order to deliver targeted and relevant information. As a result, they have achieved opt-in rates as high as 95 percent.

3 Takeaways for Marketers

> Create a Reciprocity of Value
Consumers opt-in to share increasingly detailed personal preference information in exchange for marketer’s promises to deliver relevant information and offers.

> Opt-In Is Not About Passively Agreeing to Receive Email
It’s about actively opting-in to a relationship and self-profiling your preferences and aversions.

> Consumers Are Eager to Tell You How They Want to be Treated
The key is to ask.