Data-Driven Customer Experience Transformation with Mohamed Zaki
IN CLEAR FOCUS: Professor Mohamed Zaki of Cambridge University discusses his new book “Data-Driven Customer Experience Transformation.” Mohamed explores the shift from product-centric to customer-centric business models, distinguishing customer satisfaction from delight, and leveraging AI and data analytics to predict customer behavior. Mohamed also shares his insights on omnichannel experiences, personalization strategies, and real-world case studies, including Caterpillar’s CX transformation.
What’s Right with America With Honorable Paul Johnson and Larry Aldrich
IN CLEAR FOCUS: Honorable Paul Johnson and Larry Aldrich, authors of “What’s Right with America,” challenge fear-driven narratives dominating media. They discuss how optimism drives innovation, the power of individual agency over collective thinking, and the economic strengths of the United States. The conversation explores marketing lessons from their data-driven approach to countering pessimism, the importance of entrepreneurship, and how brands can tap into shared American values rather than divisions.
Bigeye’s 2023 US Pet Owners Study
Results from Bigeye’s new 2023 US Pet Owners Study reveal 97 percent consider their pets to be family members. What are the implications for pet care marketing?
Everything You Need to Know About Living in Austin, Texas
Learn everything you wanted to know about what makes Austin, Texas weird from the people that call it home. Download our Austin, TX research report to review all of the details. Introduction The capital city of Texas, Austin is the 11th-most populous city in the United States and the seat of Travis County. Located nearly in the center of the state, Austin is about three hours south of Dallas; three hours west of Houston; and about 90 minutes north of San Antonio. Experiencing a population growth of 34.1% between 2007 and 2017, the Austin region is one of the fastest-growing in the country Austin has been the fastest-growing major metro in the country for nine straight years, from 2010 to 2019. The metro population jumped to an estimated 2.2 million people as of July 1, 2019, according to the United States Census Bureau. That is an increase of 2.8% from the prior year, bigger than any other metro with at least 1 million residents. That’s 169 people added every day, on average. With a vibrant, well-educated, and youthful population of 2.2 million in the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the median age in Austin is 34.7 years. Of Austin’s population aged over 25, 44.8% have a Bachelor’s Degree. Leading the US in tech salary growth, it’s the number four city tech workers would consider moving to. Austin’s laid-back, take-it-or-leave-it kind of attitude matches well with its fun and “weird” culture, celebrated on bumper stickers and T-shirts with the slogan, “Keep Austin Weird.” “Everyone is welcome and has a place somewhere here. And it just makes it such a unique place because you just never know who you’re gonna meet or what experience you’re going to have just ‘cause there’s so many different things.” Jamie E, 38 Austin Neighborhoods Downtown Austin is popular with younger residents with middle to upper household incomes. These Austinites love the convenience of being just blocks from shopping on Congress Avenue, live music venues on 6th Street, and even some great parks, hiking, and biking along the Colorado River. Across the Colorado River from Downtown Austin sits South Austin, where young, artsy types congregate. Barton Heights offers great family areas, while Travis Heights and Bouldin Creek attract mainly hip, liberal Austinites. North and Northwest Austin include Round Rock, Cedar Park, and Leander, which attract a lot of families. The Leander is an award-winning school district, and Apple and Dell have large operations in the area. North Austin also has some great luxury apartments. These fast-growing Austin neighborhoods are popular with families. West Austin has some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, such as Westlake Hills and Steiner Ranch. The commute into town is a bit longer than in other areas of Austin, but residents are closer to Lake Travis and the great outdoors. Neighborhoods Oak Hill and Circle C Ranch are further south. Although East Austin used to be considered the poorest part of the city, the area is now mostly a hipster neighborhood with many sleek, modern developments. Southeast Austin is home to a lot of University of Texas students, likely because of the large numbers of apartments and other rental properties in the area. “I am in a tiny house in East Austin. With three dogs – I have two Huskies and a mix. You’d be surprised the people who to live in the tiny houses where I’m at.” Shelly S, 42 Doing Business in Austin The Austin region offers businesses deep talent, education, quality healthcare, telecommunications, and a modern, international airport. The major employers include: Amazon, AMD, Apple, Charles Schwab, Dell, General Motors, IBM, Intel, National Instruments, Samsung, Tesla, VISA, and Whole Foods. Key Industries include: Advanced Manufacturing Clean Technology Creative & Digital Media Technology Data Management Financial Services and Insurance Life Sciences Space Technology The growth isn’t slowing down any time soon. The new Tesla Gigafactory, set to be located in eastern Travis County, will be one of the world’s largest and most advanced automotive plants and will bring an estimated $1 billion in capital investment to the region. In addition to being home to tech giants, Austin has a thriving startup scene. Austin area startups attracted $2.2 billion across 263 venture deals in 2019. Startups account for a larger share of businesses in Austin than in nearly all major US metros and Austin ranks 6th for new businesses per 1,000 population. “A couple of my friends work at Google and Facebook and they’re always saying so many people are moving in. I would say those apartment complexes are definitely to cater to people like that. Cause it’s like the new hub.” Madison P, 28 The Cost of Living in Austin Texas consistently ranks as one of the nation’s most favorable business climates based on its low tax burden and competitive regulatory environment. Texas features no personal or corporate income tax, and overall the state has one of the lowest state and local tax burdens in the US. According to Austin’s Chamber of Commerce, the cost of living is 2% lower than the national average. Austin Apartment Costs Renters will generally find more expensive prices in Austin than most similar cities. The median two-bedroom rent of $1,450 is above the national average of $1,193. The city’s median one-bedroom rent is $1,175. While rents in Austin fell moderately over the past year (-0.6%), many cities nationwide saw slight increases (+0.2%). According to RENTCafé, these 5 Austin neighborhoods offer a good selection of rental apartments, unique dining, shopping, atmosphere, walkability, and a sense of community: Downtown Austin (average rent $2,200/mo) Central Austin ($2,100/mo) Clarksville, between downtown and the MoPac Expressway ($2,100/mo) Zilker, South Austin ($1,400/mo) Travis Heights, South Austin ($1,400/mo) What Austin Renters Want No two renters are the same but many Austin renters are consistently seeking features and amenities. Here are the top things tenants report looking for in a property: Convenient Location – People want to live, work, and play in a geographically convenient circle. If your multifamily property is located
Know The Top Tips for Financial Institution Marketing
With so many tools, webinars and publications available for marketers within the financial services industry, it’s often difficult to sift through the clutter to figure out the most “essential” strategies for bank marketing success. However, some strategies do stand above others, and these tried-and-tested outreach methodologies can create sizable success within your financial institution. That’s why BIGEYE’s Florida marketing agency is offering a few highly effective tips to help increase your bank or other financial service’s ROI. Develop a Strategy Prioritization Matrix The first step to success in the financial realm is prioritization. A Strategy Prioritization Matrix can help you to determine the most strategic projects to help your business get the most “bang for its buck.” Create the matrix by listing the impact on the X axis (high or low) and the ease of implementation on the Y axis (hard or easy). Then, within the matrix, classify potential projects in one of four buckets: Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort), Must Haves (High Impact, High Effort), Low-Hanging Fruit (Low Impact, Low Effort) and Money Pits (Low Impact, High Effort). Your matrix might look something like this: This will help clarify those areas requiring the greatest focus. For most banks and credit unions, the Quick Wins will be of highest priority, as the ROI impact is highest, and the strategy is easy to implement. Implement a “New Mover” Customer Acquisition Strategy Prospective clients that may be relocating to your area will likely be in search of a local bank. Depending on a potential customer’s degree of wealth, he or she may also need other financial planning services such as estate planning or wealth management. Creating a strategy to deliver your message into prospect’s inbox will assist in the growth of your audience. Of course a direct mail customer outreach campaign is only portion of the process. It’s important to have a strategy in place to ensure that yours is the first financial services company to reach these potential clients, including the development of efficient on-boarding processes. For many financial service providers, these outreach efforts can prove to be “Quick Win,” as outlined in the matrix above. Invest in Digital Retargeting According to Wagner dos Santos, BIGEYE’s senior director of marketing and strategic planning, retargeting is often the most effective and efficient acquisition strategy on a cost-per-account basis. It’s also a good way to capitalize on a person’s interest, as retargeting is only triggered after a person visits your site or clicks on your content. In many ways, digital retargeting can successfully work in tandem with direct mail efforts, as one banking business achieved a lift of 40% after pairing digital retargeting efforts with a direct mail campaign. Collect Insights for Iterative Improvement [quote]Email marketing is still one of the leading ways to reach people, even in spite of significant levels of email glut.[/quote] When your business can tailor communications to send the right message to the right individuals through segmentation, it significantly improves the chances that the prospect will convert (as compared to a general email blast). Be sure that in all financial services relationships, you’re not only collecting email addresses, but also analyzing customer profiles so that you can provide information that is relevant to their individual banking and financial needs. Through surveys and new account processing, you can grab significant information about your customers that you can then use for future marketing and outreach efforts. And, through iteration, you can continue evolving your campaigns and strategies for optimal growth. [featured] Need more ideas for effective ways to reach potential audiences with your bank or financial services marketing? Contact us at our Orlando ad agency, and we can help you tailor your customer acquisition strategies to help generate the most ROI for your business. [/featured]
Marketing Is Now Smarter with Business Intelligence
Business intelligence sounds like something out of a spy movie. Throw in a few fancy gadgets and an alpha male protagonist, and it could be the premise for the next James Bond flick. In actuality, the practices associated with business intelligence may not, at least on the surface level, be as glamorous as the plot of Skyfall. But, with effective business intelligence practices, companies can make strategic decisions that result in savings of thousands or even millions of dollars over time… and THAT sounds pretty glamorous, now doesn’t it? The folks at our Florida advertising agency think so! First of all, let’s talk about what business intelligence actually means. According to Wikipedia, business intelligence is “a set of theories, methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for business purposes.” Put in plain English, that means using data to make factually based business decisions. It often surprises me how many business owners neglect to put business intelligence at the core of otherwise sophisticated marketing strategies. They’ll hire marketers to spend thousands of dollars on campaigns, only to find themselves on the losing end of a major marketing push because the marketing team didn’t take the time to assess the ways in which people interact with their brands. Successful companies analyze business intelligence at both micro and macro levels. On a micro level, analysts can pinpoint exactly what steps an individual used to make a purchase, from that person’s first impression to what drove his or her impulse to make a purchase. On a larger level, business intelligence analysts can explain trends across time. Why do sales suddenly spike at a particular department store during the fall? What will the financial standing of the company be in a decade? This kind of information helps businesses executives make smart choices about where to allocate resources, and where to pull the plug. Of course, business intelligence practices almost always hinge on the quality of the data. How can business owners be sure they’re capturing the correct data about the correct consumers and practices? In some cases, this comprises an entire subfield of business intelligence. After all, it’s worthless for a company to have a lot of information about the wrong type of consumer. So how can a team of executives gain business intelligence insights? Typically, marketers collect and store this information through a mix of spreadsheets, reporting software, digital dashboards and other systems. These tools range from simple to complex, and offer insights into a range of information about user behavior. Sometimes this extends into internal practices as well. The business intelligence field is vast, and there’s always a new way to approach the data. But, a strong team of strategists on your side can help you sift through the junk, in order to find the information you need. Sophisticated business intelligence practices can help a marketing team design a digital strategy that helps the business reach out directly to a target group, in ways that emphasize the ways in which those individuals consume. However, it takes significant skill to be able to effectively gauge and predict the outcome of campaigns based on business intelligence data. If you’re struggling with how to help boost your bottom line using business intelligence insights, the team at our Florida advertising agency has a few ideas to help your organization thrive! We do this for companies and organizations all over the country, let us help yours.
The debate big debate: To Google+, or not to Google+
So you’ve heard the hype about Google+. You’ve caught snippets of its new features and heard word of its competition with Facebook, but you don’t quite get the benefits and aren’t completely decided if you are going to sign up for an account. New social media platforms can be overwhelming. Heck, a lot of people are still figuring out how to integrate Twitter into their social media routines. We’ll give you the rundown of Google+, and help you decide if this is one social media weapon you might consider adding to your arsenal. Circles In the real world, we have different circles of relationships. We have work friends, friends we like to have fun with on a Friday night, family and so on. So, sharing things on social networks should work in a similar fashion. With Google+, you can create different circles of people and share photos accordingly. This way you can share only your most flattering pictures with Grandma. Hangouts The next best thing to a real life conversation. Google Hangouts allows you to video chat with up to 10 people at a time, and even watch YouTube with them. You can let specific friends or entire circles know you’re hanging out, allowing other friends to join in the conversation at any given time, just like in real life. Instant Upload If you have a Facebook, you know how great it is sharing mobile photos of your latest adventures. If you have a Facebook, you also know how un-great it is uploading those photos from your phone onto your account. Enter Google Instant Upload. Your photos and videos will automatically upload to an album on Google+ that will be kept private until you choose whom you’d like to share them with. Sparks This feature is sort of like Google News, only you receive all of your updates in one place, and links, articles, videos, etc. are easily shared with friends. Let Sparks know some things you’re interested in and it’ll send you some things it thinks you’ll enjoy. Huddle Google Huddle simplifies the back-and-forth of making plans with multiple friends via text messages. Huddle creates one simple group chat where all your friends can text at once. Less time texting, more time doing. +1 Button This is a feature that, in many ways, resembles the Facebook Like button. Just hit the +1 button on a page to let everyone know they should check it out. If you’re a business, having the +1 button on your page will help you stand out and get better traffic. This is definitely a feature you don’t want to miss out on, even if you opt out of creating a Google+ account for yourself. So what does this mean for your business? Considering Google+ is still in what it calls a “field trial” and hasn’t yet rolled out its business account option, the truth is no one can be certain. The success of social networks is generated by people. And since Google+ is still in a trial mode, we can’t predict how it will be received by consumers. But what we are seeing is an undeniable buzz and excitement about this social media platform. There’s no doubt that Google+ makes connecting and sharing with friends an absolute breeze. It also looks like the social network will revolutionize the business world. Functions like Huddle and Hangouts may play a significant role in the way colleagues and clients communicate remotely, allowing up to 10 people to communicate at once via their personal computers by video or by text. And the +1 button is an obvious benefit for businesses receiving increased traffic thanks to the button’s ability to increase your website’s popularity and visibility. We’ve seen more and more employers ban Facebook from the workplace, and older generations deny its marketing benefits due to its college-centered demographic. The Google brand may bring about a more widely received approval from businesses and older demographics, based on its professional reputation. Unlike Facebook, Google+ wasn’t first released with a college-only clientele. The future looks promising for Google+, and while we don’t suggest creating an account for your business just yet (Google promised to unveil an account for businesses soon), we encourage you to set up a personal account and become familiar with the platform. While Google+ is still in trial mode, and the popularity of its future is still not certain, now is a great time to become acquainted with the functionality. To create a personal account and start exploring the platform, you currently have to be “invited.” If you don’t have a friend who’s got an account, we’d love to invite you! Just email us at info@bigeyecreative.com and you can join the party, too. So there you have it. The wonders of Google+. It’s hard to say how this social media platform will fare against the social media giant that is Facebook, but there’s no denying Google+ has some truly innovative features that improve connecting and sharing with friends, family and even coworkers. And that’s a real plus.
