Eliminating Cross-Channel Noise

by Phil Leggiere, Sep 17, 2008, 2:45 PM

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For digital age marketers, the more data the better, is a deeply ingrained core principle. What is often overlooked, is that without control of that data, especially integrated control across multiple communications channels, targeted messaging can become redundant at best, cacophonous at worst, Rick Enrico, CEO of Juice Media explains below.

Behavioral Insider: Juice isn't easily pigeonholed by the conventional categories of an analytics firm, a behavioral targeting platform or a CRM firm. How would you define your niche?

Rick Enrico: What motivated us was that as we were building out our platform, we perceived big gaps in the marketplace. We found there were best-of-breed solutions in specific areas. There were some very high-end analytics solutions, specialized behavioral targeting technologies and customer relationship management platforms. But the space was very fragmented and largely inaccessible for medium-size enterprises. We saw the future, in providing an easy way to use software as a service model that collected all the data distributed across data silos -- and made it practical, and really usable, for marketers minimizing their reliance on IT.

What we found is that with the growth of ecommerce, many enterprises, including mid-size ones, had evolved in a piecemeal fashion multiple databases and multiple touch points -- but really had no one to meaningfully leverage all that information. 'Best of breed' tools generated unprecedented quantities of data, but it was stuck in one dimension. For that reason, despite all the information they accumulated, their marketing campaigns were deployed in isolation. The result of that is a cacophony of potentially conflicting messages -- which at best are redundant, at worst cancel one another out.

BI: Can you give an example of how that 'siloization' works -- and how it can be transcended?

Enrico: We had one case with a client with over 100 retail stores. They didn't do online sales, so it was difficult to track whether and to what extent email was having an impact on sales. So what we were able to do was take all their customer data, including offline sales transactions, and run it against email behavior. Though the CEO had gone into the process convinced email did not work, we were able to show enormous gains in email ROI borne out by store sales.

What we effectively did was take segmented information from customers who had purchased products in the past and opted-in for emails. We then integrated those customers' offline point of sale data with their email response data to target offers in a more pinpoint[ed] manner. [T]he goal is to combine in a single central repository data about not only what a customer has browsed online but what they've bought in offline stores and what emails they've opened, what SMS messages they've responded to.

BI: How do you address the challenge of cross-channel integration?

Enrico: We've developed partnerships with best-of-breed companies in four channels- voice broadcast, email, mobile SMS and direct mail. The goal is to leverage all the data being collected on customers in every channel to optimize message delivery in each individual channel.

A good example is current work we're doing with a large call center. The goal is to leverage email response behavior to optimize voice broadcast messaging. So the goal is, when someone opens an email offer, to have it trigger a voice broadcast within an hour. A customer who had opened up an email with a certain offer would have that followed up with a call. All they'd need to do is press #1, for example, and the call would be served to the call center.

BI: What is your primary client base right now, and how do you see it evolving?

Enrico: We are not vertical-specific, certainly. The growth of e-commerce has been an important catalyst, but basically any business that has collected a lot of customer data which is currently over-siloed and under-leveraged could find use for this kind of integrated platform. We see a wide applicability across sectors -- but I'd describe medium-size enterprises, roughly in the $ 50 million to a few hundred million dollar range, as the core group who can benefit.

BI: What kinds of refinements or developments do you anticipate in your platform going forward?

Enrico: Looking ahead, education with clients and other marketers about just how much ROI enhancement they can achieve by more seamlessly integrating it. Beyond that, we're looking to continue to learn new ways to tap data from emerging channels such as digital billboards and other newer channels. As the amount of customer data and touch points continues to multiply, the need to unify it is going to continue to become more pressing.

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