Visual IQ's Manu Mathew to Offer Best Practices for Cross-Channel Integration

Visual IQ's Manu Mathew to participate in upcoming panel, “Integrating Cross Channel Customer Experiences,” hosted by the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange on April 28.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) April 26, 2010 -- Marketing intelligence leader Visual IQ today announced CEO Manu Mathew will address digital marketers at an upcoming event hosted by the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX). Mathew will offer insights into how marketers can integrate mobile, social media and online channels to create optimal customer experiences.

What: “Integrating Cross Channel Customer Experiences,” a MITX event that will include an in-depth panel discussion and audience Q&A. Panelists will deliver tips and proven best practices for how marketers can provide a positive customer experience, regardless of which medium they choose to interact with the company. Specific topics for discussion include the challenges and recommended solutions for cross-channel integration, effectively involving departments across the company, and ways to manage analytics and reporting

Where: UK Trade and Invest, 1 Broadway, Floor 7, Cambridge, MA

When: Thursday, April 29 at 8:00 AM ET

Who: The event is open to everyone. The cost to attend is $35 for MITX members and $70 for non-members. To sign up, visit MITX’s registration page, which can be foundhere. Panelists to-date include:

Mathew, CEO of Visual IQ and expert on marketing analytics, attribution, audience analysis, and media optimization. Prior, Mathew served as the Managing Director of Carat Fusion's Boston offices, where he helped triple the revenue and profitability of the office in 3 short years Cesar Brea, partner at marketing analytics agency Force Five Partners, LLC Rob Schults, CMO of Smart Destinations, the premier provider of unlimited admission sightseeing passes

About Visual IQ:
Visual IQ is a leading provider of enterprise software for next-generation marketing intelligence. The company’s software-as-a-service analytics solutions help companies improve return on marketing investments with performance insights across the complex and an ever-expanding media mix. Visual IQ quickly integrates high volumes of data from disparate sources to provide user-friendly, actionable insights for today’s metrics-driven marketers and their agency partners. Customers include industry leaders among the Fortune 500 that have deployed Visual IQ’s analytics to gain marketing efficiencies and an information advantage over their competitors. For more information visit www.visualiq.com.

Cross-channel audience analysis and re-marketing

Anto Chittilappilly, president/CTO of Visual IQ

April 27, 2010

Most e-mail and database marketers do some level of audience analysis on their e-mail lists to find patterns and propensity to convert. Some of them join these databases with the richer demographic datasets provided by companies like BlueKai or eXelate to further improve their models. But the majority still overlook some very important items to consider, including:

1. If the audience analysis model incorporates how the e-mail channel is helping other channels to improve their business KPIs, and conversely, if the other channels help the e-mail channel to improve its business metrics. Channels like online display, search and affiliates normally gets a lot of lift from e-mail channel and TV, print, radio advertising provide lift to the e-mail channel.

2. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: A carefully orchestrated TV, e-mail and search advertising can generate about than 43% more overall conversions than these channels executed in silos.

3. The e-mail channel can be used to re-market to the users based on the behavioral insights derived from other channels. For example, somebody who has searched the keyword “Aruba vacations” is more responsive to an e-mail offer of “20%-off” for their next Aruba trip rather than getting a generic e-mail, but you first need to know that this person searched for that keyword.

4. Marketers too often confuse media metrics like contacts mailed or open rate, with actual business metrics like conversions and ROI. To maximize business metrics, you need to integrate the customer data with your media data.

To address the points above, e-mail marketers need to think more seriously about deploying an attribution model. A good attribution model tells how the channels help each other and allow marketers to device holistic campaigns that work across the channels. An attribution system compiles all touchpoints of a single user from all channels with timestamps, so marketers can better attribute sales back to your e-mail campaign.

For example, John Smith has seen an online display ad offering a “5% off” deal on vacation travel at 10:23 pm on March 2nd, and then an e-mail with “$200-off” offer on March 27th. When he then searches for “Hawaii vacation deals” on March 28th and makes a purchase, we must give credit to the e-mail and display channels also because we know these touchpoints are of the same person.

E-mail works as the superglue between the other channels and delivers the richer demographic datasets. It adds quality to the input data sets for attribution models, which tends to predict better for higher ROI goals.

April 6, 2010
From: MarketingProfs.com, The Po!nt

Does your cross-channel marketing program give credit where credit is due? "According to Forrester Research," writes Anto Chittilappilly at MarketingProfs, "about 87% of marketers and 85% of agencies misattribute credit: They either attribute all credit to the last touch point or have no way of attributing the credit in a meaningful manner."

He blames the erroneous attributions on common errors such as these:

• Using non-standardized key performance indicators (KPIs). There's a good chance you track performance in silos—using different metrics to measure each channel. "Online search has KPIs such as clicks, conversions, and cost per action, whereas television has KPIs such as impressions and gross rating points," he notes. "Even smart marketers who employ best-of-breed agencies often track their agencies' performance in silos." The solution is an integrated, holistic approach to measurement that identifies what works and what doesn't.
• Neglecting the positive effects of synergy and timing. "[I]f one channel is good in giving a lift to another, another may be good at receiving the lift and producing conversions," Chittilappilly says. Your television commercial, for instance, may enhance the effectiveness of your Google AdWords campaign—but may not be recognized for its true contribution.

The Po!nt: In a cross-channel world, you need cross-channel analytics that enable you to identify the true source of ROI.