Tamar Weinberg says, “Giving your site visitors the option to chat with a sales representative is a key driver in increasing revenues. If you don’t yet have live chat set up on your business website, then you’re missing out on major impact potential, both in terms of conversion optimization and loyalty marketing. Research indicates that 85 percent of US online consumers like to give repeat business to e-commerce companies that resolve their issues quickly with live chat. If that’s not enough to convince you, another study from Forrester shows that 44 percent of online consumers say... [...]

ML team says, “Regardless of channel, consumers and prospects have more refined appetites for marketing and higher expectations. They expect and desire more than a generic product experience — they want to feel an affinity for their investment and attraction to a brand. There’s an opportunity for marketers to build better, lasting relationships with consumers and prospects by consistently delivering content that inspires engagement rather than just begging for conversion. This guide from Oracle outlines how to start creating the most cohesive, valuable and frictionless customer experience... [...]

David Gamber says, “5 key questions from the 2016 Digital Marketer Webinar In our recent webinar, Shift happens: How marketers are navigating their biggest challenges of 2016, Spencer Kollas, VP of Global Deliverability at Experian Marketing Services, and Sal Tripi, AVP Digital Operations & Compliance at Publishers Clearing House spoke about the biggest marketing challenges of 2016, including the organizational steps required to center cross-channel marketing programs around the customer. Check out their answers to our viewers’ most pressing marketing questions: Q: How can I convert... [...]

Matthew Kelleher says, “Buried deep in newspaper reports and press releases about 2015 figures and a pessimistic outlook for retail chain Next this Easter weekend was some fundamental news. “Next is planning to save £8m by not sending out glossy catalogues to shoppers who don’t want them” said The Telegraph on Good Friday. The money freed up would be directed into digital, it stated. Catalogues on the wane? It’s not the shift from offline to digital that is the stand out issue here, which remains a constant now as it has done for many years (although the shift in buying patterns... [...]

Veronica Jarski says, “The whirlwind of basketball games that is March Madness presents a huge opportunity for marketers to expand their cross-channel customer engagement. Check out these stats from last March Madness for tips on scoring big this this year. Last year, a whopping 11.3M average total people viewed the games; it was the highest average viewership in 22 years, according to the following Koeppel Direct infographic. Moreover, there were 17.8M hours of live video streams, and 3509M total social impressions across Facebook and Twitter. Digital ad spending by device last year was... [...]

Yvette Mitchell says, “Consumers have come to expect real-time relevant interactions with brands. The response on the supply side: The convergence of ad tech and marketing tech. The response on the demand side: Brand marketers eagerly working with business partners to create integrated cross-channel marketing experiences. This means that customer data and actions across channels and devices should affect the email, mobile, display, TV, web or social message received or viewed by the customer. To effectively execute on this real-time experience requires marketers, much like basketball players... [...]

Jeff Rajeck says, “Digital Cream Singapore was held in late November this year and dozens of brand marketers met to discuss the issues of the day. One of the roundtables focused on cross-channel marketing, and our thanks go to Oracle Marketing Cloud for providing sponsorship. As with every Digital Cream event, the Chatham House Rule applied, so what was said cannot be attributed to any individual marketer. But at the end of the event, the hosts of each table helpfully provided a summary of the day’s discussions. The cross-channel marketing table was hosted by Bilal Serlaman, Marketing... [...]

Entrepreneur team says, “Working with big retail distributors has helped my company take its product growth to the next level, but forging these types of relationships doesn’t come without risk. I’ve heard numerous horror stories about how large retailers end up putting startups out of business when entrepreneurs fail to conduct in-depth analyses of costs and sales before forming such relationships. Done right, however, one successful partnership with a chain store will inevitably lead to more down the road. There’s no question working with a big chain will help grow your business.... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Marketers say the lack of a single customer view is their biggest barrier to successful cross-channel marketing, according to a recent report from Experian Marketing Services. The report was based on data from an online survey of 1,012 marketers conducted between November 10 and December 7, 2014. Responses were collected from marketers from around the world. Some 32% of respondents say the lack of a single customer view is a top challenge to their cross-channel marketing efforts. Other top challenges include technology limitations (31% of respondents cite) and organizational... [...]

Bill Tancer says, “In last week’s webinar I went over some of the results of the Digital Marketer survey to discuss what marketers could learn from the findings. Most importantly we found that the biggest challenges to cross-channel marketing are also the biggest opportunities for unlocking cross-channel marketing potential. The data shows that data linkage, organizational silos and the inability to link different technologies are major issues to successful cross-channel marketing and creating a single customer view. Both of these are necessary for a customer-centric approach to marketing... [...]