Every year, I look forward to the Retail Dive Awards. This year, Corinne Ruff put together some great categories that sparked a lot of water cooler talk among the Pluris team. While all the categories are discussion-worthy (you can see them here), a few really stood out.

High conversion rates are the Holy Grail when it comes to measuring the success of digital marketing. The more visitors you convert into customers, the more profitable your business. 

The analytics you use to gain profitable insights into your customers and marketing efforts are fueled by the data that enters your organization. However, unless your business can guarantee the integrity of its information, you can’t be sure you’re making the right decisions based on it. In fact, it might steer you in the wrong direction entirely.

Recently, we spoke about the importance of Increasing Customer Lifetime Value. By optimizing offers for each targeted customer segment, you can improve the conversion rates for your best customers and increase their engagement and purchases.

A war is being waged against pop-up ads. According to Tech Crunch, a single type of ad blocking software, AdBlock Plus, has already been downloaded almost a billion times.

We talk about proactive and reactive behavior in many areas of life – driving, parenting, relationships (guys, buy the flowers before she asks). And as marketers, we see – and dish out – a lot of both. And to some degree, that will always be the case. But there are some areas for improvement in how we handle the balance.

On the way to a conversion or purchase, customers typically interact with multiple touchpoints that are pieces of the marketing puzzle. Customers may encounter a display ad, receive a mobile push notification for a sale at a local store, or research products on your website. All of these interactions play a different role in the customer’s decision-making process.

You’re taking a road trip and spot a fruit and vegetable stand by the side of the road. Excited by the array of silver corn and bushels of ripe peaches, you fill your basket. Unfortunately, the stand only takes cash and all you have is a credit card, so you reluctantly leave your produce behind. 

The customer journey is made up of the stages of interactions between your brand and the customer. Increasingly, the customer journey has become omnichannel, with customers moving between devices as they research products and services.

We know a lot more about our customers than we did ten or twenty years ago. Where marketers once ran campaigns rooted in broad-sweeping assumptions and “one size fits all” messaging, today’s consumer requires a lot more nuance. Luckily, we have the data to inform our decisions. But the discussion always comes back to whether we’re using the right data – and what are we doing with it?