Shaping Content Strategies with User Analytics and Identities: How User Analytics is Shaping Editorial Strategy, Driving Marketing, and Generating New Revenue

Introduction

Recently, the author was shopping online for family in preparation for summer. She needed children’s bathing suits, new beach towels and some rack equipment for an automobile. She went to at least ten consumer sites, including Lands End, L.L. Bean, Amazon, Thule.com, REI.com and Zappos, comparing styles, prices and item availability. While shopping, she added items to her online cart, either purchasing them or abandoning them, and in some cases abandoning the site entirely. Customer service as well as exit intent automation interrupted the shopping process to ask if any help was needed or to attempt to stop her from exiting the site(s). She did not interact with any online support and in the end did purchase merchandise from three sites.

As an expert in user marketing, the author is intrigued by the approaches companies use to process customer activity for upsell or follow up engagement opportunities. It is impressive when the process is well executed and, more specifically, when there is contextual relevancy and strong timing with the follow up. In this recent shopping expedition, Zappos was the clear winner of the day on both fronts. When checking Facebook while shopping, the author noticed almost within seconds that items left in the Zappos shopping cart or items viewed, or items like them were suddenly appearing in the margins and body of the Facebook feed. The same dynamics are shaping content delivery as well.