Merkle Aquila is a data analytics company focused on extracting the maximum value from data, translating it into decisions which empower our clients to take better actions.

Millennials now hold more purchasing power than any other segment. But, when you consider the fact that women control or influence as much as 85 percent of overall US spending power, the female segment has certainly earned some extra attention. Here are three tips that will help you better understand and engage this highly valuable cohort.

Due to the complex nature of how customers purchase products in today’s digital world (in-store, real-time price comparisons, buying online), customer journey analyses are more complex than traditional marketing analyses. To evaluate a customer journey, it’s important to choose visualization techniques that can showcase customer behavior and track movement over time.

As technology evolves, so do consumers’ expectations — and their demands. While this may seem like common sense, or at least an inevitability of the information age, what it means for brands and retailers is that forward-leaning technology needs to be a centerpiece of your loyalty strategy.

Most companies need significant improvements to their traditional persona-based approach, beginning with leveraging what matters in the digital world; measured behaviors, correlation and causation, and decision motivators.

I can't stress enough how important it is to always be testing in your marketing campaigns. Whether it be creative, audience, format, or offer, developing a test and learn plan with your client is a necessity if you want to keep growing and evolving. Here are some tips on how to get started, along with key milestones for planning.

Targeting and personalization are key components of online marketing. By tailoring your marketing messages for the individual visitors to your website, instead of making them overly-generalized for a broad audience, you can increase the chances that they will become a customer and a repeat customer.

If you envision two major reasons for change (rate vs. mix) in the digital world, you can use data to inform where you should start by limiting your options as opposed to looking at everything simultaneously.