10 Excellent Content, Personalization, and Customer Experience Insights: E-commerce Link Digest

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Howdy, Big Thinkers! No big setup this week. Instead we’re going to get your right into this list of 10 excellent content, personalization, and customer experience insights from the past week. Enjoy:

1. Dan Farrell at CMO.com explains why “An Agile Attitude Is Key To Digital Innovation.” We completely agree, having said on a recent episode of Thinks Out Loud, our weekly e-commerce and digital strategy podcast, “The Simple Truth? Digital is a Mindset.”
2. Another CMO.com post outlines new research from Gartner that shows “Marketing Budgets On The Rise As CMO Mandate Grows” that you’ll want to note.
3. What’s included in that mandate? Well, personalization, for one. And Mike Bainbridge at Brand Quarterly looks into this in his post, “Moving From Experience To Data: Why Personalization Is The Key To Brand Success.”
4. While we’re on the topic of personalization, another recent podcast episode looked at “Why Digital Demands Personalization and Customer Focus” and another recent post on Thinks laid out “9 Must-Read Personalization Insights to Start Your Week Off Right.”
5. Shifting gears, Joe McCambley from iMediaConnection asks the critical question, “What Is Content Strategy Anyway?”
6. Why is that so critical? Well, as we noted recently, this represents one of the key “Trends for 2017: Content Takes Center Stage.”
7. User-generated content often plays a key role in your content strategy, which makes the fact that “70% Of Consumers Will Leave a Review for a Business when Asked”, according to Search Engine Land, important to note.
8. And why do reviews matter? Well, as we’ve noted before, they often work as “The Single Most Effective Way to Improve Your Brand’s Digital Marketing.”
9. Of course, getting the ratings and reviews that you’ll want to share with your customers depends heavily on providing a quality customer experience. Fortunately, Sheldon Monteiro wrote a fantastic piece on CMO.com called, “Debunked! 3 Myths About Customer Experience In The Digital Era” that I highly recommend.
10. Finally, let’s round out this list of 10 excellent content, personalization, and customer experience insights with Matt Weinberger at Business Insider’s report on “Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer’s interview about Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘crazy’ 10-year plan” that you’ll really want to check out when you have a moment.

If you want learn even more about how your customers’ changing behavior shapes e-commerce and marketing, be sure and register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You can also check out these slides and video from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions: Three Key Trends Driving Your Marketing Next Year”:

Finally, you might enjoy some of these past posts from Thinks to help you build your e-commerce strategy and your digital success:

• 6 Mobile Commerce and Strategy Insights: E-commerce Link Digest
• Content is Still the King
• The Digital Strategy Myth
• Why Mobile Payments Will Rule
• Driving Seamless Experiences in 2016 (Thinks Out Loud Episode 149)
• Mobile is So Much Bigger Than You Think (Thinks Out Loud Episode 140)
• It’s Not “Mobile First.” It’s “Customer First.”
• 8 Killer Entries About Improving E-commerce Experience: E-commerce Link Digest