3 Ways to Create an Effective Omni-channel Marketing Strategy by Rachel Serpa

With the rise of social, mobile, and digital technologies, gone are the days when brands could get away with speaking to customers through a single, one-directional medium. Consumers today demand a connected, multi-channel relationship with their favorite brands – so much so that 45% of in-store consumers turn to social platforms on their mobile devices to influence their buying decisions (Social Media Today). Clearly, brands that ignore the need to establish an omni-channel strategy are going to get left in the dust.

However, as the physical and digital worlds become increasingly intertwined, many marketers are struggling to successfully connect with consumers across all available outlets while still providing an aligned customer experience. Our new white paper will teach you how to create a successful omni-channel experience while establishing cohesive brand and consumer identities through the following techniques:

• Developing a mobile strategy
• Streamlining digital and physical interactions
• Socializing the customer experience

Download the white paper to start taking steps toward creating a successful omni-channel strategy today.

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/3-ways-to-create-an-effective-omni-channel-marketing-strategy-3/

How to Create Meaningful Omni-channel Experiences: 5 Examples of Brands Getting It Right by Rachel Serpa

Worldwide smartphone users are expected to total 1.75 billion this year (eMarketer), with 56% of US adults boasting smartphone ownership (Pew). At this point, mobile-friendly sites are hardly just a perk or pleasant surprise – they’re a status quo expectation – yet many brands’ concept of “omni-channel” is still restricted to “responsive design.”

The ever expanding list of social platforms, communication mediums and connected devices presents a huge opportunity for businesses not to just replicate user experiences across channels, but to reach consumers in a variety of new and engaging ways. Today’s leading brands are taking this a step further by connecting these cross-channel experiences in a way that builds customer relationships and lifetime value.

Here are 5 examples of brands creating omni-channel experiences with purpose and effective outcome.

24 Hour Fitness

24 Hour Fitness created an online and in-club customer referral program that enables existing members to share a free 3-day gym pass directly with their social networks. Referees receive guest passes and additional information and promotions via email, while 24 Hour Fitness rewards top referrers by sending them personalized gift packages, effectively uniting social, email and real-world mediums.

The Effect: A significant increase in consumer trust and acquisition via member referrals, as well as a bump in customer loyalty and lifetime value.

Capcom

Video game giant Capcom promoted the relaunch of its Devil May Cry (DmC) franchise with an exclusive mobile app featuring gamification challenges that spanned both virtual and real-world channels. After logging in socially to the DmC app, users could participate in missions to scan various real-world objects, posted on the DmC website each week. Participants that completed the assigned missions scored virtual points, which could be redeemed inside the video game.

The Effect: A 500% increase in unique visits to the Devil May Cry mobile app by highly engaged users that logged in an average of over 6 times. These loyal users translated into over $1 million in game sales in the month following the app’s launch.

White Castle

Users can login to White Castle’s Craver Nation network using their social identities to start posting their best White Castle related photos and videos via desktop, mobile, or directly from Facebook. Cravers can earn badges and points for participating in and winning various real-world challenges, like cook offs and costume contests. Challenge submission photos are voted on by other Cravers, and can be seamlessly shared across Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.

The Effect: An interactive community that keeps Cravers coming back for more by putting the White Castle brand at the center of real-life activities and building personal relationships on-the-go, in real-time.

Victoria’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret Angel Card rewards program enables shoppers to share and earn points by shopping both in-store and online. Members receive personalized email alerts regarding special offers and promotions, get free gifts and birthday presents, and gain access to special events and exclusive discounts. Card holders also receive extra rewards for connecting their social profiles to their accounts.

The Effect: A personalized customer experience that recognizes and fosters brand advocacy while driving repeat purchases.

KLM

By connecting mobile, social and in-air – that’s right, in-air – experiences, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has built a totally unique omni-channel journey for flyers. When users login to the Meet and Seat mobile app using their existing social network identities, they are able to see the social details and seating assignments of other participating passengers on their flight. From there, they are able to select a seat next to the passenger with the most intriguing social profile.

The Effect: A totally social, memorable flying experience that not only makes KLM stand out, but fosters a connected community of flyers that choose to get on board time and again.

Each of these examples showcases the power of omni-channel experiences to create an end-to-end customer journey that drives customer acquisition, engagement and retention across touchpoints. Are you ready to go beyond responsive design? For more information on how to create meaningful omni-channel user experiences, download our free white paper, 3 Ways to Create an Effective Omni-channel Strategy.

Source: http://blog.gigya.com/how-to-create-meaningful-omni-channel-experiences-5-examples-of-brands-getting-it-right/

5 Open Source Programs That Help Your Business Succeed by Kevin Purdy

5 Open Source Programs That Help Your Business Succeed

TRENDSKevin Purdy

DEC20

If you're reading this, you're using and experiencing open source software.

The server this page is hosted on, the content management system, the JavaScript doing all the fancy stuff on the page, the design framework—you can check for yourself. And that goes double if you’re reading this on a Mac, an iPhone or iPad, or an Android device, all of which have open source software at their core.

The question then is not whether free and open source software can work, or has worked, at any scale. It’s what particular open source programs can work for what you do every day. If you’re wondering whether there are apps you can try to explore, or software that’s free, functional, and minded by a big community of watchful eyes, we have a small starter pack to share with you.

First, a word of advice: Start small. Don’t try to replace Microsoft Office or your entire payroll scheme all at once. Start by installing these apps on your own system, and then maybe recommending them to a few coworkers. If they work for you and your team, then see about bringing  up open source to the IT team for consideration.

SugarCRM: Customer and marketing management software, but not from big firms with restrictive licenses. There are multiple pricing tiers, but scroll to the bottom to find the free trial and entirely free community edition.

WordPress: WordPress powers nearly one-fifth of the web, and is the backbone for some massive and complex sites – WorkIntelligent.ly being just one example. But WordPress can also power even a single section of your site with its own blog, or be used as an internal progress and issue-tracking blog, as they do at WordPress itself to maintain their 100 percent mobile workforce. (Free, server-based, with apps for many devices)

VLC media player: This one is a no-brainer. It’s a media-playing app that can play almost any file out there, no matter what weird format your client sent over or country that DVD is from. Ever have a media file with an extension you don’t recognize? Chances are VLC can play it. Keep it handy, and it will save the day. (Free download forWindows/Mac/mobile/other)

7-Zip: Like VLC, 7-Zip can save you in a pinch, while making you wonder why the professional and expensive versions of this utility aren’t nearly as good. ZIP files, RAR files, and other weird compression schemes are all easily handled by 7-Zip. Oh, and it archives pretty well, too. (Free download for Windows/Mac/mobile/other)

Thunderbird: Having worked at many offices, I know the many ways that different email clients can excel at making email difficult to manage. Thunderbird has a familiar and adjustable three-pane look, is easy to set up, and does a lot of smart things to make email less painful, such as offering to send large attachments to online storage services. (Free download for Windows/Mac/mobile/other)

Are you using open source software in your day-to-day work? Anything that’s helped you be more productive? Let us know about it in the comments below.

Source: http://www.workintelligent.ly/technology/trends/5-open-source-programs-help-you-succeed/?utm_campaign=ContentSyndication&utm_medium=NativeAd&utm_source=OutBrain&utm_content=&utm_term=5+open+source+programs