How do you take personalization beyond just using someone's name in an email and make it a real strategy? Join us with special guest Eric Melchor, talented marketer and podcast host, Personalization Ambassador at OptiMonk, and, Partner Marketing Consultant at Liftoff SRL We’ll be discussing how personalization is an excellent opportunity to provide customer-centric experiences that are better for your customers and your business.
Too many marketers are giving the same user experience to each person that interacts with their brand. The problem with that is that it’s not a sustainable marketing strategy, especially for ecommerce brands.
Digital marketers who are able to increase sales and generate more revenue through their website are doing so by personalizing the customer experience. In some cases, companies grew from a 5% conversion rate to 20-35% with personalization alone.
What would it look like if you could maximize your conversion rates and reach new revenue goals?
Creating a personalization strategy is simpler than you think, so let’s discuss a few simple tactics you can use to personalize your marketing strategy.
In this episode of Markigy Podcast, your host Leanne Dow-Weimer welcomes Eric Melchor, Personalization Ambassador at OptiMonk, to talk about how to deliver a more personalized customer experience through digital marketing.
In this episode, we discuss:
The key to converting leads and keeping customers engaged is making sure you’re serving the person you’re trying to attract what they’re looking for. It’s all about personalization, folks!
Meet the Host:
Leanne Dow-Weimer, Founder & Host of Markigy Podcast https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannedow
Meet the Guest:
Eric Melchor, Personalization Ambassador at OptiMonk and Partner Marketing Consultant at Liftoff SRL
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmelchor
Links to content here:
OptiMonk: https://www.optimonk.com
Innovators Can Laugh Podcast: https://www.innovatorscanlaugh.com
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Markigy: The Science of Marketing Strategy in your favorite podcast player.
This episode was produced and brought to you by Reignite Media.
Markigy - Eric Melchor
[00:00:00] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Welcome to Mark G. I have with me Eric Melcher, and he is going to tell us a bit about himself. Let's kick this off
[00:00:10] Eric Melchor: fast. Yeah, well, my background is basically in customer experience, uh, working with video, email, and web, web personation, uh, personalization platforms like Optum. Uh, and so I work with companies in either a marketing or CX capacity.
[00:00:25] I've also done a lot of works with, uh, startups, uh, as a consultant. [00:00:30] So, uh, also because I'm an expat living in. Uh, I host a podcast called Innovators Co Laugh, where I interview fast growing European startups here in Europe, uh, as they share their, um, their growth strategies and tips.
[00:00:45] Leanne Dow-Weimer: That's awesome. Uh, quick question.
[00:00:47] So since you're from the US in your, in Europe, what are some, some things that you've noticed business wise that are.
[00:00:56] Eric Melchor: Uh, business wise, I've noticed that, um, when [00:01:00] people here go on vacation, they actually go on vacation, meaning that they don't check email, they don't really do any work. And a vacation minimum here is like usually 10 days where I've never taken a 10 day vacation.
[00:01:13] I think that most I've ever is like maybe six or seven days, and I worked during that time. So here it's definitely more of a. You know, work life balance, vacation is taken very seriously. Uh, so that's, that's probably the biggest thing I've. Awesome.
[00:01:28] Leanne Dow-Weimer: I, I think we're all a little [00:01:30] jealous sometimes. . So you mentioned that you, um, work with Optum.
[00:01:36] What is Optum? Um, how are you, what is your role there? Tell me all
[00:01:40] Eric Melchor: about it. Yeah. Well, Optimum is a web personalization platform that helps small and mid-size businesses generate more revenue through their website. Uh, we do. By giving brands the power and the tools to build their email list, uh, to reduce cart abandonment, to increase [00:02:00] the average, uh, order value.
[00:02:01] But most importantly, uh, we help brands deliver an exceptional customer experience online.
[00:02:08] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Awesome. And so one thing. I think you had mentioned was that the, the platform had grown very quickly in just a few years. What was that like?
[00:02:22] Eric Melchor: Well, I mean, it was, it was extraordinary. I mean, it was fantastic. We've got a great product, you know, we have more than 505 star reviews [00:02:30] on, on Shopify, but I think a lot of, uh, the success.
[00:02:34] Comes from the owners and they themselves were in the e-commerce space. They had stores, but they also had developed a product that assisted a lot of other e-commerce stores. And on the Hungarian market, uh, they became very well known. They had a great stellar reputation, but they also became well known as consultants who could really help brands, uh, with their, you know, [00:03:00] online customer experience and identifying ways on how to sell more online and, uh, how to grow, you know, the brand's email lists, how to reduce card abandonment.
[00:03:09] And so that's where it all started. And then it developed into what, where, where we are right now with this. It's a personalization platform, So, and morphed into, you know, going from a product to now into a platform phase and, uh, it's been fantastic.
[00:03:25] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Great. When we chatted before, you mentioned some amazing results from a [00:03:30] simple strategy of like adding personalization.
[00:03:33] So when you say personalization, tell us what that looks like on, you know, On your daily basis or on a website and, and with the, the product?
[00:03:43] Eric Melchor: Yeah, uh, absolutely. You know why I have a story here that I kind of relates to this, that I'll share real quick. Um, before moving to Bucharest, my in-laws came to visit us in Houston, where I'm from, and it was the first time to the States and I was excited cuz I wanted them to have a great time.[00:04:00]
[00:04:00] And so I asked my wife, you know, what do they wanna see? Do they wanna go to New York? Do they wanna go to the Green Canyon? And. Leanne, do you know what their response was? You wanna take a guess here?
[00:04:11] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Oh, man. Do they wanna, I don't know. I, I, I feel like American malls are somewhat of a thing. .
[00:04:22] Eric Melchor: It wasn't .
[00:04:24] Leanne Dow-Weimer: I don't, because Texas does everything better, so in my mind, Texas malls must be huge not having been there.
[00:04:29] Um, [00:04:30]
[00:04:30] Eric Melchor: well, the malls are okay in Texas, but what they wanted to. Was the Dallas Ranch. Now I think maybe you're too young and so you don't know what I'm talking about here, but back in the eighties there was this popular show. It was like combining Seinfeld Friends and Sex in the City, and it was a show called Dallas.
[00:04:49] Have you ever heard of it? I've
[00:04:50] Leanne Dow-Weimer: heard of it, but it was a little bit before when I was or, Or my parents just didn't show it to me.
[00:04:56] Eric Melchor: Yeah, it was before my time too, but apparently this [00:05:00] was their favorite show. And so they wanted to see the Dallas Ranch and so they called a direct flight into Dallas and we picked them up and we're driving to the Dallas Ranch, and I can't believe this.
[00:05:10] I'm like, I can't believe this is the thing that they wanna see coming to America. And this is the first thing on their list. Right, Right. So we're driving up to the Dallas Ranch and. There's like 30 different flags representing, you know, 30 different countries, and they're looking at the flags and they point out there's the Romanian flag.
[00:05:28] And I'm just, I'm just [00:05:30] like, bewilder, Like, why are all these flags up? Right? And so I'm looking at them and they're excited and we, we, you know, we get out the car, we go inside, we pay our tickets, and we're waiting for the tour to start. There's probably about 12 people there. And the tour guide starts, starts asking everybody, Where are you?
[00:05:46] And so there's people, we're from Germany and uh, you know, there's other people who were from South Africa, and my in-laws are, you know, we're from Romania. And so the tour guide reaches into this box, pulls out [00:06:00] these audio players for each group or each person, and she goes, Great. Here's the audio tour guide in German.
[00:06:08] Fantastic. Here's the audio tour guide in Ghana. You know, here is the tour guide in Romania. Right. And I was just so dumbfounded because I did not expect that, and neither did they, I mean that in itself brought a smile to their face. And now they [00:06:30] realize that they were going to hear this tour in their own language.
[00:06:33] Didn't have to like, wait for, for my wife to translate anything. Didn't just, you know, have to experience this tour in English, which they don't speak. Right. And so this tour. Could have turned out to just be an ordinary tour if it was in English. Right? But that would've meant, it would've been a very, very underwhelming and poor experience.
[00:06:56] And so instead, by seeing the Romanian [00:07:00] flag, hearing the tour in Romanian, you know, they're now like, This made the trip. This made the trip. And when you go into their living room, what's hanging on the wall is a picture of all of us with a picture at the Dallas Ranch. We all got cowboy hats on, you know, we're smiling and there's a picture of the JR Cutout cardboard cutout next to them with their arms wrapped around it.
[00:07:21] And they're just so proud and like being in there because this show was like the only American show that was playing during that time in Romania and [00:07:30] many other countries. So that's why it was so popular. What does this world, you know, what does this mean to e-commerce or for businesses? Well, if you think about e-commerce, unfortunately, almost 99% of brands.
[00:07:45] Think this way. They think that, let me just give the standard experience to everybody that comes here. And unfortunately that's not what people want, right? They think that, Hey, let me, if I wanna increase my revenue, let me come up with [00:08:00] some kind of promotion that I can share with everybody and that'll, that will lead to more sales.
[00:08:05] Or if I wanna generate more revenue, I could increase my advertising span on Facebook ads or Google ads. But the problem is that these strategies just aren't sustainable. You know, they eat into your profit margins. They sacrifice long term relationships with your customers, and they're really just short term thinking.
[00:08:23] So instead of thinking short term, just ask yourself, how can I provide value [00:08:30] and help the. So one example that a lot of our customers, a lot of our brands that use Opti Munk do really, really well. They take that long term approach, and so instead of immediately trying to get somebody to purchase something or give up their email address, here's an example.
[00:08:50] Imagine you're in the health and wellness space and uh, you have a visitor who comes to your website organically, you don't know anything about them, right? They [00:09:00] came organic. Right. And so you could welcome that person by showing a popup saying, Welcome here. And because you're in the health and wellness space and maybe you specialize in three or four different things, or three or four different products, you can ask them a question simply like, What is it that you're trying to to solve here?
[00:09:19] Are you trying to lose more weight? Are you trying to sleep better? And based on that question, many people, more than 25% on [00:09:30] average, We'll answer that question if you ask that question and incentivize it by saying, If you answer this question, we'll give you a 10% discount. Right? And so now you've created this micro engagement.
[00:09:41] You're not trying to push anything on them, you just wanna know more about them. And you're gonna start personalizing that experience in real time. And so a lot of our. Do that very, very well. If they don't know anything about the customer, they immediately wanna do a micro engagement and so they can learn something about the customer.[00:10:00]
[00:10:00] And then after they learn something about the customer, they start personalizing the rest of the experience in real time on the website. How does that sound?
[00:10:08] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Yeah, that sounds pretty amazing. So one of the last things you said was a micro engagement. Now, for somebody listening who wouldn't really know how to do a micro engagement, what's, what's an example or how would you define that?
[00:10:25] Eric Melchor: Yeah, a micro engagement can be, uh, usually in the form of a. Right? Mm-hmm. . [00:10:30] And so maybe just putting a little sidebar or a little popup message on your website that gets the person to respond usually in the form of a click. And so that's one example. And, uh, another example, it's, let's suppose. Because you can look at the location where somebody's coming to your website from.
[00:10:49] Let's say you have a visitor from Germany in your stores in the US and you've noticed that a lot of people who are coming from Germany tend to not really purchase until [00:11:00] they send an inquiry. And that inquiry is, Hey, do you shift to Germany? Right? Right. So what you can do is, is. Once you recognize where the person's coming from, you could show a little side message that says, Hey, welcome from Germany.
[00:11:13] Yes, we ship there, right? And so now you've just established a little bit of reassurance and trust in your brand and it leaves a little favorable impression. And that's what you can call a micro engagement right there. That little. Love it.
[00:11:28] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Love it. Yes. [00:11:30] Absolutely. And I think it's just a sprinkling of those little touches where it's just Right type of, you know, like value is is hugely important.
[00:11:41] Eric Melchor: Yeah. Yeah. So let me go back to the first example real quick here. Yeah. You remember the example is a health and wellness space, right? You're asking somebody a question and you say, Hey, if you answer, we'll give you a 10% discount, right? We're not even asking for their email address, just saying, Just answer this question.
[00:11:57] You get a 10% coupon code, [00:12:00] about 25% of people on average. We'll answer that. We'll click through that, and then great. The second, the second screen they could see is fantastic. Here is your discount code by the. Because you wanna learn trips, you know strategies on how to sleep better. Would you like to give us your email address so we can send you offers and content on how to sleep better?
[00:12:24] That one question. That one question. Now they've already submitted, you know, they've already answered the question. They've [00:12:30] already got the coupon code. What we're seeing from our clients is that because of that first micro engagement, they're more likely to do a second micro engagement and say, Sure, why not?
[00:12:41] Now, you personalize. Experience. The experience. They know that they're not gonna get content that is, is something related to something else that they're not interested in. You know, they're interested in trying to learn how to sleep better. And so we're seeing about 35% on average. People willingly give their email address and [00:13:00] signing up, subscribing to your newsletter because they know that the information that they're gonna receive is personalized.
[00:13:06] Right.
[00:13:08] Leanne Dow-Weimer: And it's also like a somewhat of a prequel, right? Because people that aren't interested in that content aren't being served that request.
[00:13:16] Eric Melchor: Absolutely. And it does it in there lean. Um, so after that second screen, what you can also do is now that you have this information that you collected about them, you know their interests, right?
[00:13:26] You can actually show a third screen and say, [00:13:30] Oh, since you are interested in learning how to sleep better, Or wanting to sleep better. Here's our top three products that can help you sleep better, right? And so what that does, It helps increase conversions because now the person doesn't have to go searching yours website, navigating and trying to find out, you know, what's the products that are right for them.
[00:13:50] You're presenting them your best products related to their specific interests, and to top it off is that you've more than double conversion rates, right? [00:14:00] Because the first popup is gonna give you a 25% on average, click through the second popup, about a 35% on average click through. And so now you've already more than double.
[00:14:11] Your list building activities, because the average popup gives you about a three to 4% conversion rate if you're trying to subscribe or get people to subscribe to your newsletters. But this method will more than double that. You're looking at nine, 9% or above list building conversion rate just by doing that simple.
[00:14:29] Those simple [00:14:30] micro engagements right there. Love it.
[00:14:32] Leanne Dow-Weimer: And I mean, we don't need a. Kind of, we don't need to talk too much about how great list building is, but it's definitely something I'm passionate about because one of the things is that you get these people and you, you spend so much time, money, and effort to get them just to that stage where they'll come to your website or they'll see what you're posting on social.
[00:14:54] And I love email because it has a clo warm place in my heart, if you will, [00:15:00] uh, because it does give you that. That more engaged, that that, um, easier, actionable, longer term relationship that is capturing them to, and being, becoming part of your people. Um,
[00:15:15] Eric Melchor: yeah, absolutely. And most brands wait to start personalization with, with the email, right?
[00:15:20] Right. But that's after the post-purchase experience here, you're starting that personalization experience in real time while they're on your website and now, [00:15:30] Because they've answered questions, you can segment them automatically into different funnels that you, that you're using for email. And so you don't have to wait to send out an email and, and wait, Okay, did this person click on this link here?
[00:15:43] And if they did, I put them in another automation. No, you've already segmented them and so you know what they're interested in. And now you can nurture that process. You can begin nurturing them, educating them, and so, You're actually gonna increase the revenue and the conversions that you [00:16:00] get from your email, uh, campaigns because you already have this better segmented.
[00:16:04] Absolutely.
[00:16:05] Leanne Dow-Weimer: And the other thing is that you didn't start off by annoying people off your website by blasting them with like all the like generic ones where it's just like 10% off. Like, no, I just got here. I don't know you yet. Um, and I think, you know, that's where. There's always the hard sales, the hard marketing and the brute force is a phrase another person used that, that just [00:16:30] alienates people.
[00:16:30] And so, you know, I love that this approach takes into consideration what the people want and allows them to self serve, but also be served the type of thing that they're looking.
[00:16:42] Eric Melchor: Yeah, that actually happened this morning. I went to a website, I was there a couple of seconds, and immediately I got this popup asking for my email address.
[00:16:49] It was like, Hey, do you wanna subscribe and get the latest, the latest news from, you know, uh, from us? And it's just a frustrating and annoying experience, right. If you [00:17:00] take the time out to think. Okay. How can I segment, like it'd be my top three, you know, different segments. Right? And how do you find those?
[00:17:08] We'll get into, into a second. How do you find them? But how do I deliver a better experience? You know? And if I don't know anything about them, I could begin by asking a question, using that example, what the health and wellness brand, right? But. But a lot of brands actually have a lot of data at their disposal.
[00:17:25] You have your IP address, so you could do a welcome to people that are coming to your website, [00:17:30] maybe from a different country or even a different channel. If you notice that, hey, if you're looking in Google Analytics and you're seeing, Oh wow, my visitors from Instagram, I'm getting a lot of them. But the bounce rate is significantly higher than my visitors from Facebook.
[00:17:45] Hmm. You know, let me do something different for my visitors from Instagram. And so maybe you could welcome them in giving them, you know, maybe a coupon code or simply ask them like, What is it that you're looking for? Welcome. You know, we love Instagram too, but help us out here. What are [00:18:00] you interested in?
[00:18:00] Right? And so if you look at the data and figure. Where the experiences where people are dropping off by high bounce rate or low conversion rate, that's where you can start and start doing these, these little, and again, you can call them tips, strategies, segmentation, whatever you want, but that's the, that's what we provide.
[00:18:18] We provide the tools on how to personalize that experience and just provide value, but also learn from the customer at the. Right, Because
[00:18:27] Leanne Dow-Weimer: at, at the end of the day, like we can talk about how cool this is, [00:18:30] but the actionable part is that there's a tool that exists that, that helps you with this. You know?
[00:18:36] And, and I think that that's where a lot of our, you know, marketing creative minds get stuck is, is finding the specific thing to do the specific thing. And you. Vague phrases aside. It, it can be, you know, we, we have brainstorming sessions. We spend all this mental effort and we think about how we could do things better, but then we need the actionable.
[00:18:59] [00:19:00] Tips that we need. The actionable use cases, because you know, it, even just looking at the data, it's, it's really easy for people. One common mistake, um, that is a little controversial, but sometimes people are like, Oh, this is too high for cost per click. But then, you know, is it because of a mismatch? Is it because of your creative?
[00:19:25] Is it because the type of. Click you need that [00:19:30] actually ends up converting is more expensive, right? You could have like a ton of low cost clicks that just go to like the vapor and, or you, you might have like five higher cost ones that actually convert. And so, you know, with things like this, um, and another tangent aside is that, in social specifically.
[00:19:51] Cause I spent a lot of time there in the past five years, was that I would have clients that would be like, Well, we're gonna measure you by [00:20:00] how many customers you bring in. I'm like, Well, I'm only the very top of your funnel. I'm only where people meet you. Like if they go to your website and they don't convert like.
[00:20:09] I don't have control over that. So I see so many uses for this. Um, but at the end of the day, it, it, it's really just making sure that you're serving the, the person that you're trying to attract, what they're looking for. Um, And then Go ahead.
[00:20:27] Eric Melchor: Yeah. So here's another, [00:20:30] um, my number one recommendation for anybody that's thinking about personalization, right?
[00:20:34] My number one advice is change the copy in the headline of the landing page based on the demographics or interests of your shopper. Now, most products out there, they have more, they have more than one value Pro. Right. We have a, a brand, for example, Blend Jet, one of our clients and they have this great blender, but the value propositions are, hey, it's portable, [00:21:00] uh, it's self-cleaning.
[00:21:02] Right. Uh, it's very powerful. Um, it's easily recharge, rechargeable through usb. So they have these different value propositions and they're running all these ads on Facebook, right, Based on the different demographics and value proposition. So instead of sending all of those different people to the same, Planning page, they're using those campaign parameters that they're creating for specific campaigns in Facebook and plugging those same campaign parameters [00:21:30] into our platform and just changing the headline.
[00:21:34] And the value proposition. So that way when somebody clicks on one of the ads that was really around the portability feature and highlighting that when they click on that, they're gonna go to the page. And the main headline is centered around how portable, uh, the blender is. And so that's the easiest thing that you can do is just, Hey, if you're spending money on advertising and whatever it is that, whatever your copy that you have on that [00:22:00] specific, Whatever that main value proposition is, make sure it's on the landing page too.
[00:22:05] Right? Right. Unfortunately, a lot of people use different tools out there and they'll create, you know, they'll go to unbalance or whatever and they'll create dozens and dozens of different landing pages. You could do that. It'll take a lot of time and effort. It does. Uh, but you can use like a platform like Optima and uh, you can have the same landing page, but easily be able to switch out the headline automatically based on the parameters of your advertising [00:22:30] campaigns.
[00:22:30] And.
[00:22:31] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Which, you know, is, is a huge time saver cuz Yes. Making individual landing pages are. An experience. Um, and it depends how much, you know, how many use cases you have. Um, one thing we haven't quite talked about yet is privacy and, and you're in Europe, so, so I'm really curious how, um, how this comes into play when you're talking about personalization and, and where, where do you think the balance [00:23:00] is?
[00:23:00] It sounds like you. Really, you know, using the micro engagements to get not just like a passive permission, but an active permission to be contacted. Um, but when someone first comes to interact, um, how, how does privacy play in there? Is there, where's the line? Where's the fine line?
[00:23:21] Eric Melchor: Well, it really depends on, If somebody wants to receive, you know, personalized content, uh, [00:23:30] based on their website behavior, now we use cookies, right?
[00:23:33] Mm-hmm. , and I love personalization. I rarely delete my cookies because I like seeing content that's really related to my interest. You know, and so that's what we base all of the activity from, all the content that we serve that's personalized. It's really based on a person's behavior, what they do on the website, uh, the time viewed on a page, you know, uh, where they scrolled, what they clicked on, right?
[00:23:58] But if a person is not a fan of this, [00:24:00] they could simply just disable third party cookies, uh, on their web browser, and they won't, they won't see any of their, this stuff being personalized for them.
[00:24:09] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Yeah, definitely. And then, Here in, in California, you know, you people are required to have the opt out cookies.
[00:24:18] Just for anyone that was considering skipping that step, um, please don't, because it'll don't, don't skip that step.
[00:24:28] Eric Melchor: Um, yeah, same, same thing here too in [00:24:30] Europe. Um, you've gotta be GDPR compliant, which we. And, uh, of course I think most brands in most places now have that same, just like you mentioned where you have to either accept, uh, the cookies or you don't accept them.
[00:24:43] And so I usually accept them all the time. Like I said, I would rather have a personalized experience than just a generic one.
[00:24:49] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Yeah, I mean, I. I really love seeing marketing in action, so I will sign up for like all the cookies and all [00:25:00] of the, you know, email list. Um,
[00:25:04] Eric Melchor: question.
[00:25:09] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Um, pardon me. Uh, no problem. Question that. That I guess people should ask is, you know, there's this running joke that marketers have so many tabs open, but the real, real people that are in marketing, I think the, the bigger question is how many notifications for your emails do you [00:25:30] have existing ? And I wanna see if I could get a top number.
[00:25:33] Like I, this is because I saw someone post about how they had like 70,000 unread emails.
[00:25:42] Eric Melchor: 70,000. Oh my God. Because
[00:25:45] Leanne Dow-Weimer: they just never, you know, they were signed up to list and it was probably across multiple inboxes, but it was just like, that's the thing is marketers, we wanna see what other people are marketing or, you know, and, and know what we wanna do and what not to do.[00:26:00]
[00:26:00] And, you know, and, and it comes back to also, uh, Being actively engaged and giving permission to be on those email lists.
[00:26:11] Eric Melchor: Um, yeah. Yeah. I posted a tweet not too long ago and I was, I said, I don't wanna brag, but I cleaned out my email inbox and people were like, What? How did you do it? And there were just all these questions like, you know, how did you do it?
[00:26:22] And I said, Okay, well let me just be transparent. It was just for one email address and not all my email address [00:26:30]
[00:26:30] Leanne Dow-Weimer: exactly. It's just one inbox. Just one. Yeah. Um. Hmm, definitely. Um, I, I love, I love it. Um, so we've talked about a lot about things that people could do today. Um, now where do you think the future of marketing is going, and what do you think it should be?
[00:26:53] Do you think they're the same? Do you think there's arg.
[00:26:57] Eric Melchor: Yeah. Well, I think when it comes to retail, I think [00:27:00] personalization is gonna be a huge factor. Um, that's where, that's where the expectations are. You know, Netflix is, Hey, you watch this, you may like this. Um, Amazon, you purchase this. Other people like you also purchase this.
[00:27:13] And they try bundling things together or recommending things that, based on your behavior that you may like. And I think the, uh, the retail. Who haven't started doing this? Now that tools are available like Optum month. You're gonna have to get on the BA bandwagon [00:27:30] because that's what people expect now.
[00:27:32] They expect that personalization, they expect that when you go back to a website and, um, you know, you had left the shopping cart with different items in the shopping cart. They expect that when you go back, that the website is gonna be able to say, Oh, you know, uh, welcome back. You know, here's the items that you had in your cart, or Here's, you know, the page that you were looking at, or whatever, right?
[00:27:52] And so they're gonna be looking for tools that can do. And so when it comes to retail personalization all the way, uh, and [00:28:00] to answer your other question, where's, where's the, the marketing going in the future? Um, I think it's a little bit scary for me. Um, I think the technology that you see brands like Amazon doing where they have the Amazon Echo in the house, I think they're using those different tools just to listen.
[00:28:17] And listen, and listen and collect data, because the more data that they collect, the more they can actually personalize and, and offer, uh, you know, visitors, shoppers, users, whatever you wanna call [00:28:30] them, things that those people really need. And all, all of a sudden it's like, I don't have to make any decisions here.
[00:28:35] Uh, Amazon already knows what I need and I, I just know if I press a button or if I set this thing on automatic every week, I'm gonna get like, you know, whatever it is I talked about. Or they overheard me saying, or whatever it is, you know, I was browsing on, on their website. So I think it's kind of scary, even though I'm a marketer, I'm fascinated by technology, but at the same time, a little bit, a little bit afraid of that.
[00:28:57] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Yeah, I, I heard [00:29:00] last, uh, spring about how Google has something like 500 different pieces of information about you, and you know, that's, Crazy. It should be crazy. It was crazy 15 years ago, but, you know, we're so entrenched and especially with the, you know, past three years of what's changed now, everything's come online.
[00:29:24] Uh, I think that beyond just the amount of data that that exists about us in the [00:29:30] digital space, that, um, it's also becoming more integrated with the, the physical space. And so things like the, the like public. Public cameras, um, and things like, you know, the devices like the Echo or Google Home or even the Facebook portal.
[00:29:50] There's so many opportunities where we are willingly giving more information that than some people might think we are. Um, and then [00:30:00] the, the other aspect though is, It does give us a tremendous value. And you know, I personally love going to some of the larger retailers and seeing the suggestions of how they would put like necessarily a shirt with a skirt or pants or what, how they bundle it.
[00:30:18] And I think that it's becoming it. in order for it to become a more level playing field that some of the smaller retailers are really gaining traction by being able to do the things that you're [00:30:30] talking about and having the tools to do that. And so I think that this could benefit society by, by creating more smaller businesses and supporting them, um, in addition to the larger retailers.
[00:30:46] Eric Melchor: Um, Absolutely. I mean, that's what we're all about. I mean, we're all, we're all about helping businesses target better. Uh, just being able to offer a great experience based on where the person came from, you know, what source, what channel, what location, [00:31:00] And then giving them the tools to create simple messages that are beautiful and elegantly designed.
[00:31:05] We offer more than 300 different templates, or you can create your, your own. And then also giving them the means to integrate their platform, whether it's Shopify. WooCommerce, moche, Active campaign, hundreds of others, different platforms, being able to integrate that with Optimum. So whatever occurs on Optimum can be be recorded in your CRM or email platform.
[00:31:27] So the tools are out there now, uh, Optimum [00:31:30] obviously, uh, is one that we love. Uh, there's been more than 505 star reviews on Shopify. You know, go to optim munk.com to see. But in the water, retail, uh, personalization is the future. And, uh, we're trying to give you the power, uh, just to make that a reality, uh, not just with your brand, but also with your customers.
[00:31:52] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Awesome. Um, so I'm gonna go get that Blend jet, but also . Um, if someone wanted to reach out to you or get in contact [00:32:00] with you, what's the best way for them to
[00:32:01] Eric Melchor: do that? Oh, LinkedIn. Just look up Eric Melcor, e r i c m e l c h o r. Also, go to opti mun.com. Uh, check out our website right there. But those are the best ways.
[00:32:12] Leanne Dow-Weimer: Awesome. Great. Well thank you so much for joining me, um, and I'm so glad we were able to connect across confidence. Yeah. I hope you have a great rest of your evening. Um, but you know, who knows what time people will be listening to our episode. Um, and thank you so much [00:32:30] again.
[00:32:31] Eric Melchor: Sounds fantastic. Thank you for having me on the show.
[00:32:33] Thanks.