Home Food/Wine Corp. Content Music/TV Travel Blog Contact

Ghostwriting. Content Marketing. Blogs.

Entrepreneur •

5 Tips for Building a Successful Customer Loyalty Program | Entrepreneur

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Creating loyal customers is an essential part of relationship marketing. Among their many benefits, loyal customers are repeat customers, a pipeline for recommendations and more likely to spend more. In fact, according to a new consumer study from Marigold, 68% of consumers worldwide will pay more to shop with the brands they're loyal to.However, maintaining loyalty in an increasingly competitive market has proven tricky, with 37% o...
The Drum •

5 ways QSR brands can incorporate gamification into rewards and loyalty campaigns

This content is produced by a publishing partner of Open Mic.Open Mic is the self-publishing platform for the marketing industry, allowing members to publish news, opinion and insights on thedrum.com.Making loyalty programs fun and engaging benefits diners and restaurants alike.

The business of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) is an increasingly competitive one, marked by thin margins, higher costs, and rapidly changing customer preferences. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.Because of...
The Drum •

This is the best time for brands to re-think their loyalty programs - here's why

This content is produced by a publishing partner of Open Mic.Open Mic is the self-publishing platform for the marketing industry, allowing members to publish news, opinion and insights on thedrum.com.Customer expectations have evolved. Has your loyalty program evolved with them?

By Michele Fitzpatrick, VP of global strategic services at MarigoldToday, consumers have asserted more control over their relationships with brands than perhaps at any other point in history based on their increase...
The Drum •

How retail marketers can plan and execute a successful back to school campaign in 2024

This content is produced by a publishing partner of Open Mic.Open Mic is the self-publishing platform for the marketing industry, allowing members to publish news, opinion and insights on thedrum.com.Tips, tricks, and timelines for back to school retail results.

While parents and students are deep into the dog days of summer break, retail marketers should already be planning out their marketing calendars for the inevitable back to school campaigns that are just around the corner.Yet, few re...
The Drum •

How to turn Google and Yahoo’s email deliverability requirements to your advantage

This content is produced by a publishing partner of Open Mic.Open Mic is the self-publishing platform for the marketing industry, allowing members to publish news, opinion and insights on thedrum.com.Treat email as a vehicle for trust, and your customers will do the same, says John Peters (deliverability manager, Marigold).

Relationship marketing is a delicate process of learning more about your customers in order to send them personalized messages and content in return. It requires asking...
Entrepreneur •

Build Long-Term Customer Loyalty With These 3 Strategies

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The key to building a successful brand is to resonate with customers. That's a challenge for any brand at any time. But in 2024, it will be even more difficult than usual.

For starters, the days of buying third-party customer data based on tracking cookies to retarget customers across social media and the internet are ending. Complicating matters is a 2024 political campaign season expected to crowd out most of the available retarg
The Drum •

Customer loyalty crucial for brand success in 2024, new research suggests

This content is produced by a publishing partner of Open Mic.Open Mic is the self-publishing platform for the marketing industry, allowing members to publish news, opinion and insights on thedrum.com.Analyzing data from Marigold's 2024 Consumer Trends Index Report, Trent Lanning (senior researcher at Marigold) has spotted a clear theme: customer loyalty will be crucial for marketers to nail this year. Here's how to get it right.

The formula for good relationship marketing is pretty simple....
Marigold •

3 reasons why 2024 is the year to put more 'relationship' in your marketing

By Michele Fitzpatrick, VP of strategic services at Marigold

The concept of marketing is evolving. Marketers today can no longer afford to view their efforts as a series of campaigns and tactics designed to generate a short-term transaction. Better to view it as a process of establishing a relationship with customers — relationship marketing.

The concept of relationship marketing is not a new one. But a “perfect storm” of developments has converged that make relationship marketing even more at
Entrepreneur •

7 Steps to Writing and Designing Emails That Convert

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A blank email canvas can be an exciting project, but also potentially an intimidating place to start. Your resources to conceptualize, strategize, write, design and deliver your campaigns can greatly impact your ability to succeed efficiently and understand the effectiveness of your program.

But email messaging is an important tactic to get right, given the impact it has on building customer relationships. According to our 2023 Con
The Drum •

‘If it’s not relevant, it won’t resonate’ – 5 steps for relationship martech success for media and publishers

From news outlets to newsletters, a new guide from Marigold offers insights for publishers to get everyone on the same page, by finding the right technology to scale relationship marketing efforts.

In a world where millions of publishers are vying for readers’ attention, those that consistently stand out in in boxes are those that communicate with – rather than at – their readers.

With research showing that email is the most effective channel for driving sales and the added benefit of being a
Marigold •

Here's the top reason loyalty programs fail for brands - and 3 ways to fix it

By Roger Williams, head of Loyalty Center of Excellence at Marigold

The world of loyalty programs is complex. That’s true for both brand and consumer perspectives.

On the brand side, loyalty programs are booming. According to our report State of Brand Loyalty in the US in 2023, 52% of consumers are engaging in loyalty programs. Yet, 77% of loyalty programs fail within their first two years, due to loss of engagement after the initial acquisition.

On the consumer side, according to our same re
Entrepreneur •

How to Create a Successful Holiday Email Marketing Campaign

While shopping activity certainly ramps up during the "official" Black Friday/Cyber Monday kickoff, the companies that stand to benefit are those that prepare today.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Executing a successful holiday campaign requires close attention to detail, including strategizing your marketing approach to executing it across platforms. Whether you've already gotten started or are just thinking about it now, here are a few steps to consider as you
Marigold •

Prepare your holiday marketing playbook today with these 5 insights-driven tips

It seems that every year, the holiday promotions season starts earlier and earlier. But it’s never too early to start developing the marketing strategies and techniques that will drive revenue and engagement for the busiest shopping period of the year.

Last year’s holiday marketing efforts surfaced a number of valuable insights that can help marketers create campaigns that convert in the months ahead. These insights and suggestions can be found in Marigold’s recently released 2023 Effective Hol
The Drum •

Why collecting zero-party data via loyalty programs is more important than a one-off sale

Do you have transactional friends? Friends who only do something for you if you do something for them.

That’s not really a friend thing to do, is it? Unfortunately, that’s how many companies act with their customers, particularly their best customers enrolled in loyalty programs.

Customer loyalty programs offer brands the opportunity to create a deeper relationship with their customers by making an emotional connection. So don’t just treat it like a sales channel. Use your loyalty program comm
Entrepreneur •

This Is the Top Budget Priority for Marketers Today

Here's why reporting and analytics are at the top of marketers' wish lists today.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Recession or no recession, marketing budgets are getting smaller. Marketers are being asked to do more with less.

The upside of this is that it provides clarity to the priorities marketers need to make with the budget they have. Time and money work the same way in that regard. Given an unlimited number of hours in a day, you'd accomplish everything.
The Drum •

Why, when and how to use data storytelling in relationship marketing

Good relationship marketing is all about communication, and the best way to communicate is to tell a good story. For instance, a famous experiment by Significant Objects found that good storytelling can increase the value of a product by 2706%.

While there are many ways to tell a good story, one particularly effective method is through data storytelling.

Data storytelling is the art of combining data analysis with compelling narratives to convey insights that drive action.

Data storytelling c
The Drum •

Back-to-school 2023: 5 relationship marketing strategies for a successful campaign

By Kristen Ettinger, VP of customer success at Marigold


While parents of school-aged children are spending the summer months gearing up for vacations, camps, and teens’ first-time jobs, savvy marketers are already focusing on crafting their back-to-school campaigns for 2023. Back to school shopping is traditionally the second-largest spending event after the winter holidays. And with the remote learning/shopping baseline of the pandemic lockdown era now long past, this year in particular is a
Entrepreneur •

How to Balance Ecommerce and Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Expectations

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When ecommerce activity skyrocketed during the pandemic, many were quick to call it the death of brick-and-mortar retail. But now that the 20%+ growth rates in ecommerce have fallen into single digits, many others are saying it was all just a fad.

The problem with both accounts is that they pit the ecommerce vs. brick-and-mortar as competing formats rather than recognizing their co-existence as concurrent, even complementary, chann
The Drum •

How to use generative AI in relationship marketing

By Michele Fitzpatrick (VP of enterprise strategy at Marigold)

Over the course of the last six-to-eight months, generative AI has evolved from a plot line in a sci-fi movie to a technology that is disrupting entire industries, for better or worse.

In the last two months of 2022 alone, the monthly page views for one of the biggest AI text generator services — OpenAI — increased from 18.3 million to 304 million - a gain of over 1,500%. As of March, it was getting over 1.6 billion visitors a mont
The Drum •

Hear me out: the death of the cookie is a good thing for marketers - here’s why

Google's decision to sunset cookies by the end of 2024 has led some marketers to despair, others to ignore it completely. But there is another approach, says Nick Watson (VP client success EMEA, Marigold): instead of viewing this as a challenge, marketers should see it as an opportunity for digital disruption. Here’s why.

Please, not another article about the demise of third-party tracking cookies. Apologies in advance, but with so much fatalism on the challenges marketers are going to face as
The Drum •

The power of SMS: How brands can build strong customer relationships in the digital age

In today's increasingly digital world, businesses are recognizing the immense power of SMS (short message service) for engaging with customers. One of the initial hurdles faced by many is building an audience to communicate with. So, how can businesses overcome this challenge and unlock the full potential of SMS?

Mobile devices tick off almost all the boxes needed to develop a personal relationship with customers and collect useful zero-party data. They’re incredibly personal, with the ability
Load More