Performance Series, Season 2, Episode 2 (AMER): Using Your Website as a Strategic Transactional & Opt-in Touchpoint

Hello, and, thanks for joining us again here, for another webinar, hosted here at Amarsys. This is part of our performance series, and this, webinar is focused on using your website as a, transactional and opt in channel. We on the last, episode, we kind of for more, general, like, information about omnichannel marketing, but now we're kinda focused on it as a website. As you can see, we had a bit of a scheduling change. We've got, Nick Odom, back here with us. Yeah. They're stuck with me today, I guess. How you doing? Doing well. Doing well. Thanks for putting us together, Josh. Absolutely. Just the world wasn't ready for two Josh's in the same room. It's not ready yet. We'll we'll get there one day, though. Yeah. And so, I'm Josh Brown. I'm a Taz, firmarsis that you haven't seen a previous webinar that I've been on and, so a technical adoption specialist helping clients, you know, utilize the platform as much as possible. And, Nick is the head of that that team. So I think, we'll have an interesting conversation here about how and when and kinda what strategy you should be be kind of using when you're thinking about, an opt in channel on the web. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for teeing that up. It's you know, it it seems like it could be boring on the outside to talk about this kind of stuff, but I think we've all, you know, gone through and had, you know, a poor website experience, especially with all the different aspects of, you know, the cookie opt in and the different channels. There's just so many different channels these days that that, you know, the brands are applying with. So, really taking, you know, kind of know of what's what that customer experience is when they get on the website, I think, is really critical. Yeah. I think that there's a an outlook, and it's not necessarily a a wrong one, but it's that, you are wanting to really make a good impression on the web, in those those opening seconds because you don't know how long someone is going to stay on your website before deciding to bounce and, go somewhere else. But like you were saying, there's almost always going to be a cookies permissioning, dialogue box. If there's a general email opt in, that is, a lot of times coming up upfront. If there's a sale that you're really wanting someone to know about, that's coming upfront. It creates this immediately crowded, space where the the first impression of what your actual website looks like underneath all of that doesn't even really get a chance to come through, And it might kind of create this muscle memory where the customer's just immediately going to x out of everything and everything. Become like a chore. And I think just as marketers, we we know that the cookie permission's there, but I don't know that we recognize how that overlays and impacts that experience always. Because it's not something that we're necessarily controlling. It's kinda something that's just, like, happening and, keeps the website in compliance and all that that good jazz. But I think there's an opportunity for a lot of brands to to go through and look at the different personas that are hitting their site from, like, an unknown unknown traffic, returning traffic, you know, returning purchasers and customers. And, like, what does that look like as they they use different devices, as they, as they hit the site from different sources and, like, you know, really taking, you know, stock of what that experience is. And I think it will just going through that exercise will bring a lot of clarity to, like, what the overlap is, what the gaps are, and, like, where the opportunities are to really optimize that experience. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good point that if you're on the email marketing side, you may not even be fully aware of when this, you know, cookie allowance or if there's something else on the site that's gonna come up. This marketing on the the website is gonna take some more communication between, email marketing team and maybe other teams, in the company. Yeah. So if we are wanting to offer them a lot of of opt ins to different channels? Like, say, you have, you know, loyalty, you have email, SMS or a mobile app, web push, anything like that, how can we offer them those opportunities to, opt in to those forms of communication without it seeming, you know, really overwhelming or kind of all at once. Yeah. I mean, if you look at this purchase journey map here, you know, it's, you know, really mapping it out from the finish. So, you know, and and sometimes it's it's just an exercise of actually, like, getting in the room with all the different teams that are, contributing to this experience. You know, whether that's, you know, the different channel teams that you have, whether that's the web team, whether that's, just the marketing team or if you've got a customer experience or a CRM manager, on the team. Getting everyone kinda in the same room and just, like, looking at looking at it and just mapping it out. And, like, sometimes that is where you'll you'll start to see a lot of that. But if you look at this this particular map, you've got, you know, the cookie opt in. You've got the email sign up. You know? Potentially, you're on a mobile phone and you're pushing for an app download, you know, or you've moved into loyalty and, like, you know, it it doesn't have to be all at once. Right? Like, we really wanna try to find spots on the website in the customer experience that make these things, you know, convenient to them. Right? And it could be, you know, saving the email sign up to be a little bit further in session when they're, like, kinda scrolling through the category page, and they've actually shown some interest and, like, told us a bit about what they are interested in based on where they've gone to the site. Right? We already know upfront we've gotta ask for the cookies. Like, just let that run on the the homepage, get that out of the way, Let them get into the site. And because that's the to me, that's when I start to, like, bounce off of websites. You know, we're all consumers. We're all new things. I think news sites do this really bad. You know? Here's an article that I'm really interested in reading. I jump on it, and then I start getting a pop up and the the permissioning, and then let me sign up for this thing. And now I can't even really do the thing that I came to your site for. Whereas if we kinda hold back a bit and just wait for those kind of key moments that that make it more convenient Or or the mobile mobile app sort of thing, like, presenting this on a mobile phone and then maybe maybe not even asking for the email sign up, you know, because it's almost more valuable from that moment to to get an app download. And I know that it'll be more convenient for the the visitor to to access that data on my app. It's gonna be more optimized for their device, and they're gonna have a better experience. So it's kind of this give and take of, like, when it's convenient for them and when we can we can also add value to, to the to the and potentially, you know, break down some of that friction to to get to that purchase. Yeah. I think it it's a good point to bring up that it's there's natural, parts of the journey where different opt ins will be, you know, just more convenient. Like, you're saying mobile app or browser push. I I get, personally, I'm I'm always always more willing to opt into those if it's something where maybe I just made an order and it's saying, you know, you want real time updates, you know, download the app or get a a browser push. Because then right in the moment, there's something tactile tactile where I know the convenient information. Exactly how that channel is gonna be used at the time of sign up. I'm glad I'm glad you brought up the web push. Let's seeing it kinda here. Because the other one you got in here that that isn't even on here is, like, the geolocation Mhmm. You know, permission. So there's a lot of times on the site that it'll it'll be like, here's cookies. They wanna know your geolocation, and then they're asking you for your browser notification. It's like, I don't know how they're gonna use any of this Mhmm. At that time. Right? But even, like, SMS and the web push, those are ones that I really like saving for particular use cases. And it could be, you know, that you've you've just made a purchase and you wanna sign up for shipping updates or or or just any sort of, updates around the product or or service that you just purchased. But it could also be, like, a back in stock or, like, price drop or or, like, you're running, like, regular sales and you wanna keep people informed. But, like, at the time of sign up, you kinda already know what to expect out of that channel from the brand. Yeah. Yeah. And then the the the more information you have of them before you get that opt in, then those opening messages can be even more tailored to what you already know about them. Like you said, they were viewing a category page, and then there's an email opt in. Well, now your welcome series, if it's made to recommend specific products based off behavior, now has a category to look at and promote top products from instead of just doing whatever is your just overall general most popular that might not apply to them. Exactly. And I wanna I wanna take a look at one of our brands, more beauty. So I think this was a a really interesting one. You know, they were they're moving into a loyalty program. They had some some goals in mind for that. But to really get into into a loyalty program without it being overwhelmed for the customers, they really had to take stock of what their customer experience was. And so if we're looking at this website here, it's like, you know, there's there's a spot to join a loyalty program. There's a spot for them to to to, you know, give us additional information, spot to download that. Like, all these things are happening on the site, but it's not like it it's kinda more tastefully done. Right? It's it's plugged into key spots on the on the page. So, like, if you keep scrolling down, you know, we've got the push for for joining loyalty. We We scroll down. Maybe they don't wanna join loyalty. They just wanna get into an email list, but we're we're kind of placing them throughout that experience so that it's not all at once. And, like, I've gotta make a quick decision on, like, what I'm interested in, which oftentimes leads to just, I'm not interested wanna I wanna to kinda marinate a bit more and, like, I wanna get into this website a bit more to find out what I'm actually interested in. And so I really like the way that they've kind of outlined their stuff because it is a little bit more spread out, and they're still offering a really personalized experience to the customers. Yeah. It's it's striking that really nice balance between being accessible and being easily that channel being easily found and opted into without, like, you're saying, it just being a direct ask for all of it all at the same time or within a a short period of time. Yeah. So, I mean, just going back to some of the stuff that you've been doing with your clients, like, what kind of things do you see them maybe doing, you know, in our in our region? Just some some trends that you're seeing right now. I mean, there's, I think just the spacing about out of channel opt ins and in terms of is there any that we're kind of striving for? And if so, then we'll maybe put that, a little bit, you know, further up the queue. Or, there's always the the option site. So then you're Like an exit intent. Yeah. It's an, yeah, it's an exit intent. So it's it's gonna be kind of at the back end of the session. And so then you know it's not gonna be sharing space with that location sharing or No. I think it's a great point. Just the the prioritization and all the stuff. I'm like, what's what's kinda critical in that moment and, like, what's gonna add the most value and, like, what what can we kinda save towards the end and and try to, you know, make it more of a almost a Hail Mary to, like, kinda save save that customer, or that visitor. You know, I I think that's, you know, kinda interesting that you mentioned, like, the web channel piece and, like, just how we can, kind of present these different things and give the marketers some control on you know, from within our UI just to kind of, you know, play traffic cop, if you will, on the front end of the site. Yeah. I I think that's you know, there there's also, like, a data hygiene aspect of this. Right? Like, we wanna make sure that there's you know, if we're asking for email and SMS in a different spot that we're merging those back to a single record or if we're, you know, having them join loyalty, like, there's a bit of a a strategy just to the the data management of all this, you know, just to make sure that we're not creating duplicates or gun and ghost records or whatever those might be. And we've got a bit of a strategy on, like, just merging them back into the into the data platform to make sure that they're, you know you know, a unified profile. Right? Yeah. That's kinda like what makes omnichannel what it is is that it's not, you know, talking to someone the exact same way of if they're only using SMS or someone who's using SMS and email, but you have that unified profile so you can do certain things. Well, whether it's, you know, if you have frequency cap or you're gonna send a, text message about a sale on an email about the same sale that you send only one to the person based on what they're using more so that, yeah, it's actually giving them a cohesive experience. And It's kinda hard to do if they've got multiple records in your system. Just talking to them like they're four separate people, and there's kind of a disconnect have you already told me about this? Or, you know, do you kind of realize that I'm kind of just a natural barrier to entry to that omnichannel stuff. It's just, like, actually having a strategy around, around the the permissioning, but also just, like, how the data is flowing into your system and how it's it's mapping back to a single Yeah. Single person. But I think the the next side of this with the Door PD is just kind of the the personalized web experiences that they've been able to deliver. You know? When when we we do have a really nice kind of data structure and strategy on on building that unified profile than being able to kinda play concierge, you know, on the front of their site and, like, you know, deliver personalized recommendations, and offers based on, you know, what that person's being able to do with their loyalty program, different channels that they've engaged with, and really just collecting some really rich data that allows them to to empower an experience like this. Yeah. It's interesting that the website is usually robust enough that it's going to be promoting all these other channels, but it's you have to remember that it it's a marketing channel in itself and that it's, the that that it can be tailored to giving these personalized offers. And, like you said, as long as there's a unified profile getting all of this, data together, then you can give them, you know, the most actual reliable that, you know, makes sense for that customer. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, as you're doing all this, right, you're unlocking some of this potential, you know, question we get a bunch is like, what's this really do for me? Right? Like, I'm focused on customer experience. I do these different things. Like, what does that, like, really do for me as a brand? You know? I I get it. I'm not necessarily, you know, pestering everyone as much. But what if I what if my sign ups decrease? What if what if my channel revenue decreases? Like, there's always this kind of fear to, like, step in and make changes. And I think when we look at some of the results that Adore has been able to accomplish, it's it's really, it's really quite interesting some of the impact that they've been able to see in, like, six months. But, like, you know, you you go, you know, forty seven percent, you know, revenue increase over the year. You know? Them driving all the all these uptick in in loyalty customers. And then all of that forty seven percent has come from their loyalty program. Right? So they've they've really gone, and they knew that they had, you know, a challenge with maintaining their CX. Right? They they knew that there was this, you know, they needed to be fostering more loyalty. It was something that was gonna be impactful. They knew they had a lot of repeat customers that they wanted to incentivize on on continuing to buy from them. And and so they just leaned in and they said, okay. Let's look at this. You know, let's look at this as a whole and say, we know we plan these channels. We know our website is cluttered. We know that there's these different things going on. Let's let's bring out and roll out loyalty and launch it in a way that, like, fits seamlessly into this. And we and we just offer this experience across the the the whole brand experience. And then the impact of that, you know, is is is pretty amazing. You're certainly in the uplift. Yeah. I mean, think about it's incredibly vital in a loyalty program to have all of these channels talking to each other because someone who is involved in that loyalty program is gonna wanna make sure that they're getting, you know, the points or the benefits or whatever it is attributed to, you know, every visit, every engagement, that it's that they're kind of getting the most out of that program. So all these things talking to each other is a is a necessity, and then it kinda seamlessly then offers you even more, life cycle strategies to use that it's not only active and inactive and defecting, but also, you know, are there memberships, about about to expire or points needing to be used or things like that that, we can see here that they rolled out over twenty life cycle automations just in a few months. And and when all of those are then other, then that means that the automated contact they're getting is speaking to them at the right time about the right situation that they're in instead of just maybe being like a scattershot of Well, I'm choosing the right channel. Right? Like, I've I've talked to so many, like, friends or even family members, you know, find out what we do for a living. Alright. Well, what's why did I do why did this happen or why did this happen? And, you know, you take, like, even, like, a back in stock use case. Right? And it's like that become it's become so prevalent, but there's there's still a lot of brands that are just sending that across email. Mhmm. And with with way stock levels work sometimes, you know, that at times, not the most timely channel to do this sort of stuff. And so, you know, running a unified profile, like, having use cases in mind, understanding where we can, you know, leverage, push or SMS or these more timely things to get more time sensitive material out, really enhancing that experience. Right? Because if if you'd send me a back in stock, an email, I didn't check my personal mail for a couple days. I go check it. Now it's us. That's a it's a clunky experience. Right? Yeah. Whereas, like, a couple days ago, I could've gotten an SMS. Mhmm. You know, gotten that more time and said, oh, yeah. But still waiting for this. Let me click through, you know, purchase that right now because I know that stock is always light. You know, it can really enhance my experience, but done improperly could be like a detriment. Right? Yeah. So running this, you know, sort of gut check on, like, what our what our CX really is and, like, how easy the website really is to use and opt in and, like, how intentional things are, it can really be a make or break on whether or not we're we're moving into true omnichannel or just kind of playing in different channels Yeah. In multichannel. And, I mean, that's a great use case right there. Say you don't say you only have email opt in for somebody, so you have to give them the back in stock, just in a in an email, and then they click on and go to the product page and it's out of stock, that's your perfect opportunity to say, I know who this person is because they've clicked in from an email, and we know that they're not, opted into SMS yet. We could say, hey. Missed out on this product again. Never, you know, never lose out. You know, always, be the be the first to know now with SMS opt in or Yep. Mobile app or or something like that. So, yeah, it all kinda ties back into itself. Absolutely. I I think that that's such a you know, there's just all these little nuances. Right? Like that customer experience and, like, really being empathetic to the customer and putting yourself in their shoes and trying to see where those pain points are can really really enhance that. And that's where, you know, see you see a brand like a door rolling out twenty net new programs just to kinda fit into that experience. So I think we're we're kinda close to wrapping here. I wanna I wanna leave everyone with a few key takeaway takeaways. Right? Yeah. Everyone loves a good takeaway. So let's let's see what what we've gone through here. One, we've we've reviewed our customer and the purchase journey. Right? Right. You know, permissioning can be a process, you know, not and it doesn't have to be all at once. Right? Yeah. If you've got a good strategy to your point, like, we've got an SMS strategy and we're like, hey. There's some people clicking through email. We can, you know, who this person is in this moment. We can merge that back. You know, like, find those opportunities where it makes sense for the tech, but also makes sense for the person. And and, you know, it's just kind of a mutually exclusive, you know Yeah. Opt in. I think that makes a ton of sense. Given the space it needs to actually make an impact. Absolutely. Right? Like, just, you know, be very and then that kinda leads to this last one. Just being thoughtful and intentional. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Just, you know, do don't do something just because it's, you feel like you just need to put everything all upfront. You know? Yeah. Actually, say, what is my goal with this, you know, opt in, you know, permissioning or this channel as a whole? And then, yeah, the the the strategy will come from that. Cool. This has this has been great. And, now I I wanna, you know, hear what what people watching are are thinking and and have questions on. So we're gonna start that q and a here soon. I do want to, remind everyone that there's gonna be a a web push training session, on Tuesday, June fourteenth, at, four o'clock, BST. And so please try and make that, if you can. You can learn all about that. Really just digging into the channel and understand how it can be used. I know that's a that's a fairly new channel used in, you know, retail and ecom. Really, really interested to see kinda how they break it down and and get a little bit more in the weeds on that. I'm yeah. I'm really, really excited about that. And then we'll have episode three of this series where we're gonna be talking, even more specifically about mobile marketing strategies. So that's push, SMS, and app. That's, you know, where everyone is kind of doing a lot of their, browsing right now. So, definitely make sure you don't miss that. I know there's, like, well, like, a forty some percent increase in mobile purchases and traffic. That we're running that, what, June? I think June seventh is is that one. So so, yeah, we'll we'll be sending out, more information on that, but, mark your calendars. Cool. I see you got an ebook here as well. You know, everyone wants a good QR code. Yeah. QR code, they're are back better than ever. So, yeah, you will be able to kinda have this, to look back on, and then you'll be able to access that, cross channel personalization information, right from your phone. Awesome. Well, I guess we'll jump into q and a here. Yeah. Let's open that up, see if we have anything. And, yeah, it looks like, nothing yet, but definitely think about anything you'd like to have a little more information on or something that maybe we've seen, with clients that we've worked with in the past, and and send that over if you have anything. Yeah. I mean, even reaching out to your your customer success manager, you know, there's things that we can dig into for your brand specifically. I think it's something we're always interested in in helping facilitate, you know, just the different, you know, things that we can consider in that. You know, just the processes to actually take inventory of that, you know, helping out testing. So, I would also encourage just about any any client to to have that kinda regular conversation with with the CSM. Obviously, we're resources they can pull in. Yeah. Really trying to get the most out of out of the website and, like, you know, it's it's the heart of all, you know, the the messaging that we're doing. Right? Yeah. You're you're always gonna be, you know, have a unique, like, in progress situation that you're dealing with. So, it's good to be able to say, you know, we had have maybe couple channels that we've been focusing on. How are those doing? Are those is there one that we need to prove? Are we in a good place to introduce a third one, and, you know, and where should we be doing that? So, yeah, there's that's always always a good idea to kind of see where you're at, so that you can then develop the best strategy for yourselves. Cool. Well, I think that's probably all we've got today. So, Josh, thanks for putting us together. And Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks for joining me. It's always good to chat about this. And and then, yeah, I'll I'll be looking forward to to see this wrap up, next, next webinar. Very good. Alright. Well, thanks everybody, and, we'll talk to you next time.