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250% in revenue growth with personalized cross-channel messaging; interview with CEO of Cordial, Jeremy Swift

Cordial is a cross-channel marketing tool that sends personalized messages to customers across many channels. In addition, when they say “personal,” they don’t merely mean “individual.” With the help of the company, brands can leverage consumer data to offer real-time, relevant, and emotionally intelligent messages to their customers, allowing them to build long-term relationships with each of them. Exclusive interview with TechBullion: Cordial CEO and Founder, Jeremy Swift discusses what it means to be personalized in this interview with TechBullion

Tell us about Cordial. What is it and who uses it?

Cordial was launched in 2014 to provide marketers with a next-generation email marketing platform that is powered by real-time data. Since then, the number of avenues of communication has increased across the entire digital environment. Clients like to communicate with companies in more direct methods, such as through texting or chatting, as well as through the company’s mobile application.

Consequently, Cordial has grown into a sophisticated cross-channel marketing platform that firms can utilize to communicate with customers on a hyper-personalized level. This is accomplished by gathering all of the unstructured data a client may have on their customers and using it to produce emotionally intelligent communications.

Cordial is primarily intended for brands that are obsessed with their customers, or for those that are ready to go on that road. Our clientele range from fashion and apparel brands such as Revolve to home and lifestyle brands such as Purple, health and wellness brands such as Ancient Nutrition, media and publishing brands such as Forbes, and a wide range of other businesses and organizations.

Can you expand on what you mean by unstructured data and how Cordial uses that data compared to other platforms?

As eCommerce firms grow and establish connections with thousands of end-users, they frequently find themselves employing an increasing number of tools for collecting and analyzing consumer data for specific marketing goals. The problem is that as a result, these companies wind up with a wildly disorganized and compartmentalized view of their marketing, company, and customer information. As a result, many customers have disconnected and uneven customer experiences.

For example, one of the clients with whom we worked was communicating with their customers across three separate platforms at the same time. One solution was used to send batch emails, another was used to send automated messages, and a third was used to send transactional communications. Each platform is not in communication with the other platforms. All of the information was kept in a separate location. It not only confused the marketing staff, but it also resulted in disparities in the overall customer experience.

Cordial was able to remedy the situation. Clients may organize—or structure—and use their data wherever it is inside their technology stack since we not only have the potential to collect data, but we also allow them to do so themselves.

With Cordial, the client was able to consolidate all of their marketing communications onto a single platform, resulting in a far more unified and engaging experience for their customers.

In other words, Cordial makes it exceedingly simple for businesses to gather data in a centralized location and utilize it to create more effective marketing campaigns. There is no need for anyone to import any Excel spreadsheets or to use multiple platforms. Clients can concentrate on producing cross-channel messages that are more personal and intimate to the end-user because it is all incorporated within the data platform.

What kinds of data does Cordial collect and how do you use it?

There is essentially no limit to the number of data sources that can be used. We can collect information from a variety of sources, including point of sale systems, Internet of Things goods, mobile apps, beacons, websites, product inventories, CRMs, customer data platforms, and the list goes on. When the real-time inputs from these systems are received by the Cordial platform, the platform transforms the data, as we call it, into insights that marketing teams can use.

As an illustration, consider the following circumstance.

Consider the following scenario: you are an online store that is striving to raise sales conversion rates. Visitors are browsing your website, adding goods to their wishlists, and placing one or two items in their shopping carts, but sales are still down.

With Cordial’s data platform, you can begin to observe when and where cart abandonment is occurring, as well as on which platforms it is occurring. You may also keep track of how well your triggered abandonment emails are working for you. Then you have the option of going even farther into detail.

Now you can better segment your audience, which Cordial can do automatically based on the tags and labels you use, and organize a communications campaign to reach them more effectively.

Do you see a significant number of people from northern, mountainous states? In October, send automated email and SMS messages to customers, reminding them to bundle up for the winter with the coat from their wishlist and to purchase it. Additionally, when a customer visits your mobile app, give them an in-app message informing them that your new winter collection is now available for purchase. Customers are more likely to engage with, convert to, and remain loyal to your business if you provide them with relevant messaging that is timely and relevant.

Please elaborate on how cross-channel messaging allows for a more personal buying experience for the end consumer. Thank you.
When you use cross-channel messaging, you may communicate with clients across several channels and at various stages of their journey. Personalization is becoming increasingly crucial across all of these platforms. That isn’t a secret. However, the phrase is typically used to refer to groups of clients that are in the same stage of the purchasing experience or who share a qualifying demographic. It is more about segments than it is about the actual customer. It’s not a wise decision.

Personalization with a smile
Cordial enables businesses to send personalized, one-of-a-kind messages to their customers by utilizing real-time data from their systems. Our customer, a significant publishing network of entertainment websites that publishes horoscopes, is an excellent example of this. Cordial enabled them to take all of the subscriber data they had on hand, mix it with astrological events, and use the results to generate highly tailored daily horoscopes for their subscribers.

Can you expand a little more on how cross-channel messaging creates a more intimate shopping experience for the end consumer? 

Within 30 days, we’ve assisted clients in achieving triple-digit revenue growth—up to 250 percent—with their businesses. This is because Cordial is more than just an email marketing tool. We are cross-channel and rely on a solid data platform that enables businesses to make full use of all of their data and communication channels.

As a result, businesses can respond to client behaviors rapidly and engage with them through their preferred channels. The majority of the time, if you want a user to finish an order, sending them one email will not suffice. Through cross-channel messaging, you can provide your customers with many opportunities to re-engage with your business.

Cordial is also concerned with fostering a sense of brand community among its customers. Whenever a company can use detailed information about its customers to engage with them on a more personal level, customers are more likely to feel like they’re part of an exclusive club.

Why use Cordial over other email-marketing platforms? How does it create a better customer experience?

When Revolve first collaborated with us in 2017, they witnessed a significant rise in engagement rates as well as in money generated by their platform. The company launched 19 new automated ads using the new unified data during the first six months of its implementation. These messages were completely automated and customized depending on customer actions such as cart abandonment, birthdays, and other profile data. Even though these types of emails were a small proportion of all emails sent, they accounted for 20% of Revolve’s overall email income. The company maintains an average order value of $279, which is approximately three times the norm for the industry.

Revolve
Another client, a sports equipment business by the name of SKLZ, required assistance in shifting to a more digital-first approach. They collaborated with us to get more detailed customer data, and within 30 days, they were able to develop new triggered lifecycle messages that resulted in a 760 percent gain in email revenue and a 59 percent increase in average order value for the company.

What other kinds of results do brands see when they use Cordial?

We are seeing a rising digital transformation in the healthcare, telehealth, and HealthTech industries outside of the eCommerce space, where providers and device manufacturers will need to employ more sympathetic marketing methods and combine them with sophisticated data analytics and automation. Personalized messaging is becoming increasingly important in the travel, hospitality, and quick-service restaurant industries, which we believe will be propelled by real-time changes in customer behavior and company information.

For cross-channel marketing to go into the next generation, it is not enough to have a platform that automates this and machine-learns that. It all comes down to human connection. We want Cordial to be a leader in intelligent messaging that leverages data and authenticity to build stronger, longer-lasting relationships between brands and their consumers and prospects.