In this episode of "Do This, Not That," host Jay Schwedelson welcomes Michelle Fitzpatrick, VP of Enterprise Strategy and Services at Marigold, to discuss their new research report on relationship marketing. They dive into the interconnection of trust, loyalty, personalization, and omnichannel experiences in driving brand success.

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Best Moments:

(00:53) Introduction to Marigold's new research report on relationship marketing

(03:42) How trust, loyalty, personalization, and omnichannel experiences drive brand success

(05:09) Lessons brands can learn from top performers in customer retention and engagement

(09:02) Examples of companies excelling in personalization and omnichannel experiences

(13:59) Financial services leading in relationship marketing

(18:36) Why email remains the top-performing marketing channel

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Guest Bio:

Michelle Fitzpatrick is the Vice President of Enterprise Strategy and Services at Marigold, a relationship marketing company serving over 40,000 customers worldwide. With extensive experience in data-driven marketing, Michelle provides valuable insights on consumer behavior, brand loyalty, and personalization strategies.

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MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Marigold!!

Marigold is a relationship marketing platform designed to help you acquire new customers and turn them into superfans with their best-in-class loyalty solutions. Don’t take my word for it though, American Airlines, Honeybaked Ham, Title Boxing, and Notre Dame University are also customers!

Regardless of your size, check out Marigold today to get the solution you need to grow your business!

Check out this free content from marigold that Jay has loved digesting, 5 Steps For Selecting The Right Email Marketing Platform.

Foreign. Welcome to do this, not that, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately.

You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins and pitfalls to avoid. Also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that. We are back for do this, not that.

And I am excited.

Not only do we have an amazing guest, but we are talking about a new piece of research, a new piece of content that has just become available that I think is a game changer for marketers to hear about. So let me tell you who's here. We have Michelle Fitzpatrick. Michelle is, is the vice president of enterprise strategy and services at Marigold.

And you probably know Marigold, right, because they have over 40,000 customers worldwide. And when you think of, you know, the one size fits all relationship marketing company, I think of Marigold.

Whether it's your emails, your SMS, or this360 view the customer or loyalty programs, they're incredible.

And speaking of incredible, they just put together this research report all about relationship marketing and they're actually ranking 200 brands on how good they're doing or maybe in the middle they're doing or whatever, but actually by name and what they're doing. Great. And breaking it all down. And we're going to talk about that now. We're going to get into it. Michelle, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me, Jay. It's a pleasure to join you once again.

Yes, I know Michelle's like a fan favorite. You know, she does a webinar. She does all this stuff with us. She's amazing. But you always have the best information.

So I don't want to waste any time. I want to get into this report. Okay, can you first tell us before we get into the details of the report, you surveyed, like a zillion people.

You did stuff. Can you just tell us a little bit about the report?

Yeah, absolutely. So we do an annual study and this is the fifth year of our study. But this year we did something a little different.

We surveyed 22,000 consumers in the U.S. the UK and France just to see what's on their mind.

We know so much has been changing in the marketplace and brands are frankly having a challenging time trying to keep up with changes in consumer behaviors and expectations.

And what we did with these 22,000 consumers is we asked them some questions around trends and things they care about, and then we ranked them in Terms of companies they do business with that they love and companies they have some challenges with. And we asked them to score these brands in four categories. Personalization, omnichannel experiences, trust and loyalty.

And super excited about the research. What we're going to talk about today is the first batch of data that's coming out of this report and it's a real doozy.

The thing that I love about this, and then we're going to get into the details, is usually hear about reports or surveys. Like we surveyed 400 people. I'm like, they surveyed like 21,000 people.

I'm like, this is like real, like this is how people actually feel, which is what got me so excited to dig into it. So let's get into that first point that you bring up.

How do trust and loyalty and personalization and omnichannel experiences, how do they, how do they really interconnect to drive, you know, brand success today in this crazy competitive market?

Well, Jay, as you know, these things are really all linked and the research clearly shows that consumers really want personalization and they crave being treated like individuals. They're frustrated, frankly, with a lot of one size fits all marketing. And you know, you and I've talked about this before.

After 35 or 40 years of data driven marketing, how come brands aren't kind of leaning in on personalization? In this study, consumers told us loud and clear.

40% of people cited frustrations with receiving irrelevant content or offers from brands in just the last six months. 33%. One in three said they take issue with brand messages that fail to address their wants and needs.

Now, on the other hand, 62% say their favorite brands treat them like an individual. 79% say they're likely to engage with personalized messages that are tailored to their needs.

And almost 7 in 10 people responding to this survey said they're willing to actually pay more to shop and buy the brands that truly get them.

I got to tell you, if that last stat doesn't resonate with every single person out there, whether you're a small marketer, a big marketer, a consumer marketer, a business marketer, that 70% of these 20,000 some odd people said, yeah, I'll pay more, you know, if I'm loyal to that brand, if that brand really cares about me, that is game changer data. It really is. So let me ask something else.

So what, speaking of all brands of all size, shapes, whatever, what lessons can all brands, regardless of industry, learn from the top performers on this thing? The companies that really crushed it as it relates to being able to improve their customer retention and their engagement.

Well, we know that in times of economic uncertainty and changing consumer expectations, building deeper customer relationships is more important than ever.

And while many of the economic indicators like inflation and job creation, they're all moving in the right direction, we know that consumer confidence is lagging. Convenience and cost savings are really high priorities for most people.

That said, loyalty remains a significant opportunity as well as a challenge for most brands. And in the study, the brand loyalty scores in the study tended to be disproportionately lower than the scores on the other fronts.

Now, to me, this means that this kind of drop in loyalty scores is really a rally cry for brands to invest more in personalized engagement and innovative loyalty tactics.

Brands who can carry a more robust personalization strategy with convenient and accessible and seamless experiences can actually gain traction in the marketplace and build brand love while also gaining market share.

So as there's this relationship between treating the consumer like an individual and using that as a lever in all the right ways to build brand loyalty, I.

Got a random question for you because I didn't see it in the survey exactly, but I feel like, you know, Covid in the pandemic really shifted consumer behavior in all sorts of weird ways.

I'm just curious, with all your research and everything you see out there, is there anything now that has changed because of COVID that we should know about?

Well, I'll tell you something. It's kind of like a fun fact. We experienced all kinds of shortages of products and lack of access because of health concerns.

But one thing that really got me curious and I did a little research to try to understand it, is what happened with the toilet paper and why was there a shortage? It made no sense. And I'll just. Apropos of nothing, I'll just share with you what I found.

So it turns out that the toilet paper that we buy for home use is a completely different product than the toilet paper that is bought and sold to businesses or institutions. It's manufactured completely differently. It's sold in different units.

So large boxes of individually wrapped rolls versus an eight pack or six pack or whatever you buy from your household. And the reality was they couldn't actually just shift the inventory from the institutional side of the business to the consumer side. Now.

Yeah, it's like, well, there weren't more people added at this time. Like, what happened?

Well, it's because our utilization or consumption of that product increased at home and it went down exponentially at institutions. So school and Work and restaurants and all these places. So it took a little while for all that to get sorted out in supply chain.

Eventually it got sorted out, but I was, I was happy to understand the reason why. And it has to do with manufacturing.

So like when you were like, I need to research this, I can only imagine you start googling the most weirdest stuff. I want to know what the retargeting ads that were like a week later, what is Michelle seeing on her like phone? Everything is like, what is going on?

I mean, that had to be wild.

Yeah, it was, it was, it was a fun time, let me tell you.

Wow. Your research. See, there's no boundary for your research. There's nothing that you won't really dig into. That is amazing.

All right, let's get on to some other questions. You know, when I was reading through report, I actually felt what would the companies are rising to the top?

Like it would talk about McDonald's, right? And McDonald's. You had all these ratings on McDonald's and how people felt a certain way.

They felt connected because of the personalization, this omnichannel feeling that you get. And I'm like, wow, you know, I feel that from McDonald's.

I don't go there all the time, but it's odd for me to feel that way about a fast food place that sells hamburgers.

Like, I actually do feel connected to the brand and I think it, it's spot on for what you're saying, that if I'm between your two drive thrus, I'm going there because I feel that connection.

So speaking, speaking of that, I saw other companies like, like Walmart and Adidas kind of floating up to the top as it relates to personalization and this omnichannel thing. So what are Walmart and Adidas doing? Right?

Well. Well, clearly the pandemic kicked into gear. A lot of change and increased and accelerated investment in digital.

And what we're seeing is those investments in digital channels and sophisticated engagement strategies really paying off for retailers. And we're also seeing in this study that savvy retail brands have made a whole lot of progress in engaging consumers across multiple touch points.

And I'm talking about in store online mobile apps, e comm integration via social loyalty programs and beyond. And all of this is allowing consumers great flexibility to interact with brands in ways that work for them.

Now in the study, several brands popped to the top in the research and Walmart and Adidas were two of them. And consumers think they're doing a better than average job in balancing Personalization in an omnichannel way.

Now for Walmart, we have the Walmart plus paid membership program and it provides convenience in the way of free shipping value in fuel perks at 13,000 plus locations and a complimentary Paramount plus streaming subscription. Additionally, it offers exclusivity via early access to special product releases and Black Friday deals.

So basically they're using the program to give people what they want and really prioritizing components. Now for Adidas, the adiclub loyalty program excels with its multifaceted approach to engagement and rewards.

Members earn points not only through purchases, but also by interacting rather with Adidas through their app, reviewing products and staying active.

And this tiered system offers increasing benefits across multiple levels, unlocking exclusive rewards like early product access, special event invitations and personalized offers.

So in both of these are really good examples of kind of balancing personalization across multiple channels and prioritizing the things consumers care most about.

Yeah, I love that. Is prioritizing the consumer. And by the way, I know everyone's listening is like, well, how do I even get this thing?

And I was going to wait till the end to tell you where to get it, but let me tell you now and I'll tell you at the end because it's free, it's easy to get, and I'm telling you it's worth a read because I learned so much. If you go to jschweddelson.com Marigold you could download it right there for free right now and you'll see the breakdown on all 200 brands by name.

It is kind of bananas. And you know, you may be sitting there listening like, well, I'm not Walmart, I can't do free shipping and blah blah, blah, blah, blah.

And but that doesn't mean that you can't do small business plus whatever your company is, okay? And then provide some sort of value beyond what everybody else gets because you're rewarding people for their loyalty.

If you're not rewarding people for that loyalty, they're not going to reward you back with their next purchase. So this is not just a big brand thing. This is an every brand.

I mean, Michelle, would you agree that this is the way that you need to be communicating with your customers regardless of what company you are?

Absolutely, absolutely.

So any company, large or small, no matter how mature or not you are in terms of loyalty and data driven personalization, it's really the right time for any brand, no matter where you are and what size you are, to really lean in on becoming more personally relevant to Your customers, the time is now. There's never been a better opportunity.

And the really good news is technology has advanced to the point that you know that whether you're a large or small organization, there's like a democratization. Everybody should have access to the tools they need to get that done.

I think you were spot on saying that.

That it is now is that time used to be being able to be sophisticated with the 360 view of the customer was for people with huge budgets, incredible martech, stacks, all this stuff. But everything is, you know, kind of got commoditized so that you can have access to the most amazing technology. It's there.

So if you haven't really thought about it or thought it's for other people, other companies, no, it's for you. Now it is for everybody. And you know, one of the categories that I think has really led the charge is financial services.

If you think about the types of companies that you've been connected to because of their kind of 360 view of you and how they communicate, you know, in the mail, in sms, in email, online, whatever, financial services is that category kind of they're like the OG of a relationship marketing. And I saw in there that brands like bank of America seem to be doing a really good job of building that kind of customer trust.

What are they doing right?

Well, as you know in the financial services sector, whether you're talking about banking or insurance or any anything in that category, trust is paramount, especially because these organizations are handling large amounts of personal data.

And building trust through secure data practices and fraud prevention is just part of the product, is part of the value proposition for a financial services organization and essential to maintaining customer loyalty. So as you noted in the report, bank of America popped to the top of the list in terms of the way consumers perceive their handling of trust.

And they get very high marks from consumers in terms of a robust security center which is available both on the website via mobile app. They make it incredibly easy for members to get visibility into their security.

So transparency is a really important tenant in terms of trust and user friendly options such as the two factor authentication and enable alerts and push notifications, all these things that help us as consumers really understand how safe our data is being handled by that institution. Another one that popped to the top on this body of research is Wells Fargo.

And Wells Fargo stands out for providing a variety of resources designed to help optimize customer security and protect themselves against fraud via a content hub. And Wells Fargo also delves into the world of interactive experiences Which I find really exciting.

This includes fun challenges like a cybersecurity quiz. And all of these things are designed to educate consumers on best practices.

So whether brands are looking to incentivize new memberships or strengthen the data profiles of existing members via surveys, it's super important to have a robust data and privacy policy that measures and gives consumer confidence. And bank of America and Wells Fargo are doing a good job, according to the consumer report.

You know, it's funny when you're wearing your regular person hat, right? And we get these emails and SMS and whatever from our banks and the financial services companies were like, there's another communication.

And that's really the opposite of the way we should all be looking at this stuff. I mean, every time a Wells Fargo or Bank of America hits send on an email or an SMS or targets you with an ad, it's like a gift to you as a marketer.

Because this is the latest effort of a best in class organization showing you how to do relationship marketing. And instead of being annoyed that you got another communication, you want to break it down the way that Michelle just described.

Like, look at their, you know, their gamification, look at their security and how they're elevating in their copy. This is what we need to all be studying. That's why this report is so valuable. It's studying these pieces.

And I just think that marketers always have it backwards, like, oh, I'm opting out, there's just too much. No, it is a gift. It's a marketing gift. Send me more. Right? Michelle, should we just inundate your inbox? Should we just send you a lot of stuff?

No, of course not. I mean, you know, Jay, we've talked about this. The name of the game is contextual relevance.

And you know, it's, there was a, there was a study put out not too long ago by Forrester and they looked at something called the email inbox intimacy conundrum and this dichotomy between the fact that consumers overwhelmingly look to their email inbox for offers, but the same time it's their digital personal self. And they get really emotionally upset when, when marketers in particular misuse that private space. So there's a, there's a healthy balance there.

I think, you know, that that was a good setup.

Well, the thing about email, the reason people like, well, people send mean unsubscribes, I'm like, because it's easy. I go, if you got a piece of mail in the mail and you were really angry, are you really Calling up that company and yelling at them.

No, you're throwing it out. But when you get an email that you don't like, what do you do? You hit reply and you go, I don't like you. You're a terrible company.

It's just too complain. I think that's the issue. But you brought up email. So I have a question.

With all this stuff going on, we got social media, WhatsApp and this and everybody, all this stuff, why is email still considered the top performing marketing channel despite the rise of social media and everything else?

Yeah, well, you'll see this in the study when you take a look at it. And this is not the first time this has popped up to the top of the list.

But consumers overwhelmingly look to email for deals and offers out of habit. It's the most desired channel or channel of choice for people looking for offers.

And what's interesting about that is we also know that email is a great tool for connecting the dots in an omnichannel experience, especially when you start looking at the rise of social media and social commerce.

So what I think is super cool about email is it's a dot connector in those in between moments, between when somebody views social media, when they're in an in store experience, when they're doing an online browser shop, and all these things work together. And the key again with email is to be contextually relevant, to try to read the signals and to be as in the moment with the consumer as you can.

And I know that's a difficult thing to do, but I think all brands have a significant opportunity to up their game. Even though this study will show this, that, that although many brands are doing a good job, there's still room to grow.

That brands really have an opportunity to leverage email to not only promote those offers, but to also create a connection with the consumer that's deeply emotional, that lasts over time and goes way beyond browses and purchases.

Well, I didn't see a perfect score by any company in the study. So to your point, everybody could always be doing better. So let me tell everybody again where they can get this thing. It is free.

Okay, you go to jschwettelson.com marigold and you can get this study that Marigold just put out and it literally breaks down the 200 companies surveying over 20,000 people. Michelle, this is incredible stuff. Anything else you want to share with the audience before we wrap up?

You know, I just want to say, you know, go out there and really think about the customer when you're doing what you're doing. And I advise anybody trying to think this stuff through, put an empty chair next to your desk and pretend that the customer is sitting there.

And as you're making your plans and thinking about your copy and thinking about your call to action, and you're thinking about, in some cases, the intrusion that your email or your SMS message might have on somebody's day, really think about the person sitting in that chair and make sure the experience you're designing is just for them. That's it.

That's great. I'm now going to look at my chairs totally differently. That's amazing. And we're going to put this all in the show notes.

And you could also check out Marigold in general@meet marigold.com and we're going to put Michelle Fitzpatrick's LinkedIn in the show notes. Go follow her. She's a great follow. She really knows what's going on in all of this. Michelle, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Jay. It's my pleasure.

All right. Super fun. All right, we'll see you soon.

Alrighty. Bye. Bye.

You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over.

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