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Riffing on Retail: An Interview With LinkedIn's Jason Miller

Riffing on Retail: An Interview with LinkedIn’s Jason Miller

Whether he realizes it or not, Jason Miller has a bigger audience each day than any rock star. As senior content marketing manager for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, he has a front-row seat to Big Data — creating content for 300 million professionals on the world’s largest professional network. Miller sees the retail industry through the lens of a marketer, and says there are lessons every retailer can learn from the seismic shifts in the music industry.

LinkedIn’s Jason Miller shares 5 things retailers have learned from the Big Data revolution:

  1. BIG DATA KNOWS WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS (OR YOUR PARENTS) MIGHT WANT NEXT. Nobody understands their buyers better than Amazon. I had a conversation with (marketing thought-leader) Bryan Eisenberg recently and we were talking about how Amazon does this. Retailers use Big Data to learn as much about their customers as they can. But how do you harness Big Data? It’s moving from information (0s and 1s) and taking that info and pull it into insights. Amazon’s predictive analytics are amazing: I bought a Bette Midler CD for my parents and now I’m getting Susan Boyle ads. (Laughs.)
  2. KNOW WHAT ELSE YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE. I recently had a conversation with the folks on the marketing team at Sony where I worked years ago. They are always looking for new ways to connect directly with the consumer and I suggested that they try using Sponsored Updates on LinkedIn to promote exclusive and deluxe box set music content from Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and Miles Davis. I think these types of artists would resonate well if the content is targeted properly.
  3. THE FUTURE IS AUTOMATED, WITHOUT LOOKING AUTOMATED. Everyone, retailers included, will be using the immense amount of data in order to deliver a much more personalized, more relevant content experience. Sometimes there’s a backlash against automation, but many times it’s just because someone doesn’t understand the technology, and you cannot scale your efforts without technology. We’ll see tech that allows 10 marketers to market like 10,000. Customers are going to go on this journey with or without you, so it’s up to us to delight them and answer their questions along the way.
  4. HAVE AN OPEN (API) MIND. Remember, you’re not just selling one product, you’re building a relationship with customers through beautiful and inspiring campaigns, and multiple touchpoints: Email, social, custom APIs, interactive content, referrals and P2P sharing. This is where content marketing plays a major role by allowing companies to humanize their brand and inject a bit of personality through the customer experience.
  5. ASK CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT — AND DON’T BE SURPRISED WHEN THEY BUY IT. The bottom line is you need to figure out how to take all this information — all this Big Data — and turn it into insights. The most unique case study I’ve heard is what Netflix did with House of Cards. They had the option to buy the U.K. version of House of Cards. In order to make sure this was going to be a hit, they pulled info from their database, mined it, and they found viewers loved Kevin Spacey and this director (David Fincher).They manufactured a hit based on insights from their own database. Incredible.
About the Author

Veera Budhi is an analytical and highly adaptable management professional with 22+ years of extensive experience enhancing business outcomes across enterprise. Skilled in aligning end-user needs with long-term resolutions to complex business challenges. Track record of success in strategizing the plan, architecting the solutions, leading development and implementation teams aimed at improving quality and efficiency at organizations. Advanced expertise in occupying leadership roles in all facets of Sales, Software development, project and product life-cycle management. Accomplished communicator skilled in building and strengthening relationships across functions to drive cohesive, strategic operations.

Saggezza is a proven technology and consulting partner that delivers personalized, high-value solutions to accelerate business growth.

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