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Originally published in MarTech Advisor. As technology increases, today’s consumer continues to demand and expect better service. According to recent Experian data, the biggest challenge for businesses over the next 24 months is increasing customer expectation. It has become more important than ever for marketers to be smarter, more personable, and more relevant than ever before. In order to not get beat by competition, brands need to deliver a personalized and seamless Omnichannel experience. Data will play a critical role in informing decisions and ensuring the customer experience is maximized. This requires you to move from push marketing to insight-driven response and prediction. Insight like time of day, past purchases, weather, location, devices and more make it possible to provide exceptional value through every interaction. But before we can begin focusing on activation, we need to make sure to step back to basic fundamental thinking and think about our customer journey. Identifying Your Customers We have always put customers front and center. The old way to identify customers used to involve past-looking exercises meant to inform future large-scale marketing decisions. We would focus on our best customers and pinpoint key moments in their brand experiences that may need improvement or redesign. In today’s world of customer-centricity, we have to move past the idea of a random sample customer journey. Instead, be ready to react to each unique touch point in a way that adds value and encourages further brand interactions. Today’s version of the customer journey map should cover each individual’s path of touch points, make contextual decisions at each subsequent interaction, and develop and automate the process at scale. With this approach, the unique path each customer has taken up until this moment can inform the next message or offer we deliver at a 1:1 level.  This is where predictive analytics come into play. According to TDWI Research, the top five reasons why companies want to use predictive analytics are to predict trends, understand customers, improve business performance, drive strategic decision-making, and predict behavior. In order to truly identify each individual customer, a mix of transactional and behavioral data need to be incorporated into the predictive modeling. Linking Your Profiles Ninety-nine percent of companies believe achieving a single customer view is important to their business, but only 24 percent believe they have achieved it today. According to Experian Marketing Services’ 2015 Digital Marketer Report, the biggest barrier for marketers to achieve cross-channel success is data linkage. For instance, say you have a customer who does all their research online during the week and then over the weekend shops in a brick and motor store to actually make purchases. If brands aren’t identifying the customer as one profile, they are most likely spending too much energy and time on trying to get the digital profile to transact online. There are two ways to establish user identity across devices. The deterministic method relies on personally identifiable information (PII) to make devise matches when a person uses the same email address to log into an app and a website, thereby creating cross-device linkage. Probabilistic cross-device matching is achieved by algorithmically analyzing thousands of different anonymous data points including device type, operating system, location data associated with bid requests, time of day and a host of others to create statistical matches between devices. For example, if a phone, a tablet and a laptop connect to the same networks or Wi-Fi hotspots in the same places every weekday, it’s safe to surmise that all three devices belong to a specific commuter. And while deterministic matching seems like the better more exact solution, users don’t always stay logged in or use the same email address everywhere. That is why it is important to use a combination of these techniques and other supplemental data to ensure you have an accurate single-customer profile. Automating The Process Once we have achieved a clear vision of each customer, we can automate the whole process. The ability to deliver the right message to the right person at the right stage in his or her buying process has increased the speed to conversion. However, it is not as simple as set it and forget it. You need to constantly be adding great content and paying really close attention to what people are responding to. In addition, there is no substitution for a human component. Automation works most effectively when the right team is involved in processing and make sure that customers’ needs are actually being met. The customer journey is and has always been at the backbone of business success. Being able to identify what motivates a customer gives us the insight needed to make smart marketing and business decisions. Today’s technology gives us an easier and quicker means to that data, but it is how we use and manage that data to provide a memorable customer experience that really sets us apart. Marketers need to make sure that every touch is smarter, more personable, and relevant in order to excel and advance. Emad Georgy is the Senior VP of product development and product management at Experian Marketing Services.  Follow Emad at @EmadGeorgy, and Experian Marketing Services at @ExperianMkt, on Twitter.

National Small Business Week is finally upon us, and we are proud to recognize the businesses that have had such a profound impact on the country, as well as our local communities. They truly are the heartbeat of the U.S. economy. Experian will be celebrating this week by hosting several activities to help small businesses manage their financial well-being and make decisions that enable success moving forward. Below are some of this week’s activities, as well as some resources that are available to small businesses: OFFERS: During National Small Business Week, small business owners will be able to access a free copy of their business credit report. By monitoring their business credit, small business owners can avoid unpleasant surprises when applying for funding, protect their business from potential identity theft, correct inaccuracies and build their business credit score. EVENTS: Tuesday, May 3 1 p.m. eastern – Experian has teamed with BBVA Compass to present a free webinar that explores the power of building and maintaining business credit, as well as examines how to obtain the capital needed to start a business. Thursday, May 5 1 p.m. eastern – A video chat with Experian and several other small business experts will air to discuss how small business owners can better manage their financial well-being. Learn how small businesses can access financial capital. RESOURCES: We will also post a week-long blog series dedicated to helping small businesses manage and understand their financial situation. Visit http://info.inbound-bis.com/blog to see all the great tips. To get a copy of your business credit report and assistance in understanding the impact maintaining a positive credit profile can have on a small business. To understand how financial plans and changes to commercial credit information can impact a business credit score, visit http://sbcr.experian.com/scoreplanner. To better understand and learn the benefits managing your business credit, visit businesscreditfacts.com At Experian, we understand how vitally important small businesses are to our local communities. After all, they are a critical component of job growth and success to the economy. But we also understand there are a number of challenges small businesses experience along the way. This is why Experian is committed to ensuring entrepreneurs and small business owners have access to the right tools, resources and expert advice to help manage and grow their businesses.

By Lisa Hertzberg, LifeSmarts Program Director Headlines bemoan the lack of personal finance being taught in our schools. Most students will graduate with little to no education on personal finance basics. But, with Experian’s help, LifeSmarts is making a difference for students across the country. Together, we are helping students get on the right path to a lifetime of success by equipping them with the financial knowledge and consumer skills they need to make informed, responsible choices. LifeSmarts, an educational program and scholarship opportunity, offers teens the opportunity to learn about the “real world” while in high school. LifeSmarts prepares students to be knowledgeable consumers and workers, and more engaged citizens. A student from Florida put it this way at the recently-held 2016 National LifeSmarts Championship: “Ignorance is the disease. LifeSmarts is the cure.” As the nation’s premier consumer education program and competition for high school students, the goal of the LifeSmarts program is to create smart, confident citizens prepared for today’s fast-paced, global marketplace. LifeSmarts does this by focusing on five core content areas: personal finance, consumer rights and responsibilities, technology, the environment, and health and safety. LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League, the nation’s longest-serving consumer advocacy organization, and extends NCL’s mission to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers. LifeSmarts begins in the classroom. Using the treasure trove of lessons and learning activities found at www.LifeSmarts.org, educators provide classroom instruction on money management, budgeting, banking, credit, and much more. Content vocabulary helps educators focus instruction and provides students with a scaffold to use to synthesize new terms and concepts. The fun hook: Competition! What sets LifeSmarts apart and makes it fun for educators and students alike is competition.  Students proceed through several levels – often beginning with local competitions in the classroom. When they are ready, students also compete online, at the state level, and state champion teams meet every April, during National Financial Literacy Month, to compete head to head for the National LifeSmarts Championship. This year’s 22nd anniversary event was in Denver, and four days of action-packed competition and fun culminated in the team from Pennsylvania being crowned this year’s national champs. Teams from Florida, Tennessee, and Hawaii also placed. During competition, students correctly answered such challenging questions as these: Name two things you can do to prevent excessive impulse purchases: Your mom co-signed for your credit card. If you don’t pay your credit card bills, whose credit records will be affected? Name the federal agency that enforces credit laws that protect your right to get, use, and maintain credit? Credit can be a valuable tool if you use it wisely. Name one thing you can do to use credit wisely? Name one advantage of the higher education savings account known as a “529”? Signed in 2003, the federal FACT Act allows consumers to request what consumer report for free once every twelve months? Teens gain knowledge through LifeSmarts that they are able to begin using right away in their daily lives—unlike some other traditional high school subjects. They also actively pass this knowledge and their new consumer skills on to peers and family members. Participants recognize an increase in self-efficacy due to participation in LifeSmarts, and, in the words of several recent LifeSmarts alumni, here is how LifeSmarts has helped them: LifeSmarts has helped me gain an interest in the stock market and our economy. In the time since I began in LifeSmarts I have opened an IRA and a money market account. When purchasing a car, I knew it was best to shop around and look for the best deal. And also, since I was buying used, I knew I needed to get the VIN and do a background check on the car and see if it had ever been in any accidents. I looked at several different stores and Web sites before I bought my camera, exercising my right to choose and also finding the best camera for my money. I just moved into my own apartment and have my own bank account and bills to pay. LifeSmarts gave me the know-how to handle my business on my own – from auto, rent and health insurance, to managing my money. I learned that you could actually call a credit card company and ask to have your interest rate lowered, and I did it. It is gratifying to work with long-term partners such as Experian. Over the past 20 years Experian has provided in-kind donations of time and expertise, such as writing competition questions, reviewing content, serving as officials at state and national LifeSmarts competitions, and serving on the LifeSmarts Advisory Board. Our partnership with Experian has provided LifeSmarts participants with a deeper understanding of credit issues, especially credit reports, and credit scoring. Experian has also generously supported LifeSmarts financially throughout that time, providing funding to help LifeSmarts extend its reach to other Student Leadership Organizations such as Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), 4-H, and local JumpStart Coalitions. Funding from Experian has also allowed LifeSmarts to explore opportunities for growth in large, urban school districts. By partnering with LifeSmarts Experian has shown a commitment to educating the next generation and investing in today’s youth. When I think of what I didn’t know about consumer issues when I was a 16-year-old high school student, I’m even more impressed by the young people who participate in the LifeSmarts consumer education program and competition. Our goal is that everyone will learn something when they participate in LifeSmarts. So after reading this blog, did you learn something new? Were you able to answer those challenging questions that our champions conquered? For more, follow us on Facebook and check out the 5-question Daily Quiz! Answers: Set a time limit; consider changing how and where you shop; avoid shopping with impulsive buyers; give yourself a set “splurge” budget; keep a list of things you really want/need; keep your credit cards at home; limit the amount of money you carry Both yours and your mom's FTC; Federal Trade Commission Know the real cost of debt; don’t use credit to live beyond your means; read the fine print when comparing credit options; pay your bills in full each month; keep your total credit payments to less than 10% of your monthly income Deposits grow on a tax-deferred basis; when money is withdrawn to pay for higher education, it is taxed at the student’s rate; some states provide tax breaks in addition to the federal tax breaks; the money can be used for colleges in any state Credit report; personal credit report Photos Courtesy of: Jonathan Phillips Photography