3 Data Promo Tips You Can Count On

It almost seems cliché to say that data and insights are the lifeblood that fuels promotions success. This philosophy has been driven into the minds of marketers for years, and with good reason – data, used properly within the decision-making process, really does help promotions and programs thrive.

However, the increased sophistication and complexity that has bequeathed the industry can make it difficult for brands to tap into the right set of analytics strategies that best suits their business. With this guide, we’ll aim to take the guesswork away from the world of data, and divulge three promotions data trends that you can implement into your own programs. 

#1 CIRCLE BACK TO CRM AND LOYALTY

Promotions begin, and promotions end – this is the circle of life for shopper marketers. However, the dream scenario is to evoke ongoing loyalty amongst participants in your programs; to keep them thinking about your brand, engaged and ultimately, continuously buying. 

Luckily, today’s promotional mechanics provide a great deal of leverage for collecting consumer info to supplement ongoing CRM initiatives. It comes down to meeting consumers in ways that are organic for them, and collecting data that actually stands to benefit your brand:

• 88% of US consumers say they have used social logins to connect with brand sites and apps.
• Across all age groups, half of consumers on average have no problem providing their real email address when they come across a brand site that requests it.
• 66% of online consumers made a purchase as a result of an email marketing message.

Platforms like branded microsites and social logins are key in growing CRM databases for post-promotion communications and continuing to provide consumers with value. While these technologies alone may be effective, there are methods your brand can adopt to reduce the friction between you and your consumer when collecting potentially sensitive information:

• 52% of consumers agree that they would be willing to share the information (via social logins) with the company …
  • …if it has made clear how it will use the information.
  • …if they receive something in return like exclusive content, personalized product offers, or more relevant content recommendations.
• The top 2 reasons for preferring social logins is dissuasion from time consuming registration forms and the hassle of remembering yet another login and password.

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RELAX: the user experience as much as possible, that is. Consumers gravitate to one-click logins, such as through social media.

DON’T EXPECT THE WORLD: be realistic with the amount of personal data you can pull from consumers, and focus your energy on maximizing quality over quantity.

BE TRANSPARENT: consumers’ information is sensitive and personal to them, so let them know why you need it. When done right, you won’t scare them off.

GIVE BACK: providing them further offers and incentives to motivate them to partake in programs where personal info will be collected is a great way to get them on-board with sharing, and more importantly, excited about your brand.

#2 BETTER YOUR COMPETITOR AWARENESS

Understanding your competitors cannot be overstated, especially in the crowded CPG industry. So many new brands are blossoming into existence so quickly, that it can be hard to keep track of even their most superficial aspects, let alone to dive deep into consumers’ preferences for them. Exactly how much is this competitive landscape developing right now?

• The success of small brands (less than $1 billion annual revenue) is making larger CPG companies rethink their market strategies.
• 33% of North American consumers believe that in terms of quality and value, private label products are equally as good as the name brands they used to purchase.

One of the reasons is that this data is downright difficult to obtain, especially for a multi-channel brand with limited access to POS systems. However, the advent of innovative technologies behind promotions mechanics is creating a new horizon on which valuable competitor data is finally within reach. Promotions that run on receipt processing for purchase validation means that information on a consumers’ entire shopping basket – including competitor products and segment information is available to brands. However, just collecting this data isn’t enough. A good solution will provide an organizational tool that collates the data into useful visualizations or other such descriptions for efficient interpretation.

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LOOK FORWARD: when setting up a promotion, look all the way to the end of its lifespan, and find a solution that will cater to every need along every step of the way. Data collection usually occurs in the endgame, and as such, it can be overlooked.

MODERNIZE YOUR ANALYSIS: with today’s visualizations, complicated data can be made straightforward to analyze and understand. It no longer takes a data scientist to comb through numbers and come to valuable conclusions. Opt for a solution that takes advantage of these principles, and makes analysis and visualization of data easy for any brand marketer.

#3 WHERE TIME & SPACE COLLIDE – GEOGRAPHIC & TEMPORAL TARGETING

A store receipt offers a wealth of data far beyond informing on the mere products a consumer purchases. And with today’s hyper-focus on personalized, tailored offers, being able to get creative with the data that actually matters is a crucial step in proving ROI. It’s hard to overstate the importance of consumers’ perceptions of relevancy: 63% of consumers said they’d think more positively of a brand if it gave them content that was more valuable, interesting or relevant. One trend we see making a lasting stir in the marketing mix: being able to use geographic and time-of-day data to create impact in your offers to consumers.

Take a look how data from receipts is able to inform on some of these critical shopping behaviors – the following data comes from receipts we’ve aggregated from actual submissions to SnippCheck, our receipt processing solution:

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TAILOR WITH REWARDS: one great way to tie into geography is the actual rewards you plan on incentivizing consumers with. Certain rewards are more popular in certain locations, and your consumers will appreciate you speaking their language and giving them the value they yearn.

BE FLEXIBLE ON THE FLY: an invaluable advantage of receipt data is that it can be accessed near real-time. If you set up your marketing approach to respond rapidly to this influx of information, you can identify threats and take advantage of opportunities quicker than your competitors.

REFERENCES

http://marketingland.com/gigya-survey-88-of-u-s-consumers-say-they-have-used-social-logins-134933 http://www.adestra.com/email-rules-brand-communications-consumers-demand-value-return/ https://www.impressivesol.com/blogs/benefits-of-email-marketing/
http://marketingland.com/gigya-survey-88-of-u-s-consumers-say-they-have-used-social-logins-134933 http://marketingland.com/gigya-survey-88-of-u-s-consumers-say-they-have-used-social-logins-134933 https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/trend/2017-Consumer-Packaged-Goods-Trends