To build life-long customer relationships, Mud Pie aims to offer captivating, relevant content on the digital channel. How could it deliver a consistent experience across every touchpoint?

Mud Pie worked with Whereoware to bring the personalized experience of its IBM Watson Campaign Automation email and mobile campaigns to customers visiting its e-commerce site.

For manufacturers, embracing a direct-to-consumer model can be a powerful way to capture incremental sales and drive profitability. But as thousands of new customers flood in, effectively engaging with them on a one-to-one level can be a tough challenge.

This was the situation facing Mud Pie, a leading lifestyle brand headquartered in Stone Mountain, Georgia. After many years of going to market via its network of retail partners across the USA, the company decided to extend its reach with a B2C e-commerce store.

Andrea Ouargli, E-commerce Manager at Mud Pie LLC, explains: “We create all our designs in house, and we knew that the digital channel would help us engage with customers who might not otherwise have the opportunity to explore our product range. Every customer is unique, and to inspire their long-term loyalty we aim to reach out to them with content that’s relevant to their individual preferences.”

For many years, Mud Pie has utilized IBM Watson Campaign Automation to define fine-grained segments and reach out to B2B and B2C audience segments with targeted messages. A cloud-based digital marketing platform, IBM Watson Campaign Automation provides email marketing, lead management and mobile engagement functionalities that help drive personalized interactions in real time.

“Our goal is to deliver a seamless, personalized experience to each of our customers on every touchpoint,” continues Ouargli. “We were confident that if we could replicate the level of personalization we were offering in our digital campaigns on our e-commerce site, we could provide an even more compelling and consistent customer journey. To achieve that goal, we looked for a way to use insights from IBM Watson Campaign Automation to deliver dynamic content on our e-commerce site.”

With IBM Watson Campaign Automation at the heart of its customer engagement strategy, Mud Pie is driving conversion on its B2C site.

Ouargli comments: “Being able to harness data from our website is an invaluable resource to tailor our outreach to customers effectively. When someone visits us online for the first time and signs up for our newsletter, we send them a digital coupon. If the prospect follows the link and starts to browse baby bibs, we automatically tag them with the baby persona—and tailor the content they see on our site and our emails based on those interests.”

By combining relevant communications with responsive marketing, Mud Pie is turning casual visitors into repeat customers.

“We see that the success of our marketing campaigns increasingly depends on our ability to adapt quickly to emerging trends—and IBM Watson Campaign Automation equips us to do exactly that,” says Ouargli. “We are delighted with the impact of our personalized campaigns—and the results we’re now seeing on our bottom line show us that our customers are delighted, too. In the last two years, we’ve driven a 146 percent increase in conversion rates on our digital channel, which has translated to a 325 percent increase in revenue.

Ouargli concludes: “If you engage with a customer in a way that resonates with them on a personal level, you can start to nurture their life-long loyalty. By deepening our understanding of each customer’s needs, we’re shaping compelling, personalized campaigns that inspire more of them to purchase.”

Founded in 1988, Mud Pie (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a lifestyle brand that creates delightful gifts to inspire all of life’s sparkling moments. Mud Pie aims to add laughter, inspiration and joy to everyday celebrations. Mud Pie products are created for the fashion forward gals, the entertainers, the home decorators, the mommas and their little ones, and most importantly, for the ladies that enjoy the finer moments in life.