Patent Application
20140122246
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
1. The Field of the Present Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to communication networks and e-commerce, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to systems, programs, and methods of managing online advertising campaigns for e-commerce enterprises.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic commerce, commonly known as “e-commerce,” involves the buying and selling of products or services using electronic systems, such as the Internet and other computer networks. E-commerce has grown to include electronic transactions conducted over smart phones and other emerging technologies. In a typical transaction, a consumer, sometimes referred to herein as a “user,” accesses an e-commerce website of an e-commerce enterprise from a user access device. The user may search the e-commerce website for desired products or services using a local search engine. In addition, the user may search the e-commerce website for desired products through a product hierarchy. Using an established checkout procedure, the user is able to purchase the desired product or service from the e-commerce website as is known to those having skill in the art.
Operators of e-commerce enterprises track data regarding their users. In some instances, an e-commerce enterprise may gather demographic data about its users as well as purchasing habits and other information. Operators of e-commerce enterprises often engage in active marketing campaigns to drive traffic to their e-commerce websites. These marketing campaigns may involve targeting previous users based on the data collected for the users. One type of marketing campaign involves sending targeted electronic communications, such as emails or text messages, to users. The communications typically include advertisements, such as product promotions and other advertisements, within the body of the message. The body of the message typically includes a link to an e-commerce webpage such that users can quickly review further information about the products or make product purchases.
As mentioned, marketing campaigns may be specifically targeted to users. To implement a targeted marketing campaign, e-commerce enterprises may track and store user information in a data warehouse. For example, the user information may include demographic information about the users visiting an e-commerce website, such as e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, gender, age, education, interests, hobbies, etc. In addition, the user information may include user history information regarding a user's interaction with an e-commerce website, such as information regarding prior purchases, items viewed, items placed into a virtual shopping cart but removed prior to purchase, etc.
The user information tracked and stored by an e-commerce website is commonly utilized to generate targeted online advertising campaigns. That is, an e-commerce enterprise may generate an online advertising campaign that targets users who may be interested in a specific product or service as determined from their stored user information.
As will be understood by those having ordinary skill in the relevant art, generating an online electronic advertising campaign is a time-intensive process for large e-commerce enterprises. For example, the marketing department of the e-commerce enterprise selects the product or service to be advertised and creates an electronic template of the promotion. Next, the marketing department identifies the profile of the targeted users, i.e., a target profile. Once the target profile is identified, a query of a data warehouse is performed to identify users matching the target profile and generate a list of targeted users. Next, a customized electronic communication for each user is generated from the template using a computer. If the number of targeted users is large, this step may take several hours or even days. Lastly, the electronic communication is sent to each of the targeted users. Again, the above process can take several hours or days depending on the size of the campaign.
One drawback to the widespread use of electronic marketing campaigns is that of user fatigue. User fatigue occurs when users receive multiple electronic communications from an e-commerce enterprise within a short time frame. When user fatigue occurs, campaigns become less effective and may even cause users to opt out of future campaigns. In particular, users' in-boxes are often bombarded with advertisements from e-commerce enterprises. For example, in some instances, users may receive several emails a day from the same e-commerce enterprise. This typically occurs when a user's profile matches the target profile of several concurrent running marketing campaigns implemented by an e-commerce enterprise. In the past, there have been ineffective tools for coordinating between two or more concurrent marketing campaigns to prevent users from receiving multiple communications within a given time period.
The prior art is thus characterized by several disadvantages that are addressed by the present disclosure. The present disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the present disclosure will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the present disclosure without undue experimentation. The features and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
The features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent from a consideration of the subsequent detailed description presented in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles in accordance with the disclosure, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe them. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended. Any alterations and further modifications of the inventive features illustrated herein, and any additional applications of the principles of the disclosure as illustrated herein, which would normally occur to one skilled in the relevant art and having possession of this disclosure, are to be considered within the scope of the disclosure claimed.
It must be noted that, as used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In describing and claiming the present disclosure, the following terminology will be used in accordance with the definitions set out below. As used herein, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “containing,” “having,” “characterized by,” and grammatical equivalents thereof are inclusive or open-ended terms that do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.
Various embodiments of the present invention advantageously provide systems, devices, programs, non-transitory computer readable mediums, and methods for managing multiple e-marketing campaigns to reduce user fatigue and to increase user responses.
Referring now to
In an illustrative embodiment, the e-commerce server 104, the data warehouse server 106, and the e-campaign management server 108 may each comprise multi-processor computers, server farms, multiple computer systems, multiple databases and storage devices (including hierarchies of storage and access), and other implementations that will be recognized by those having skill in the art as encompassed within the embodiments of the present invention. For example, a single computer, a plurality of computers, a server, or server cluster or server farm may be employed to implement each of the e-commerce server 104, the data warehouse server 106, and the e-campaign management server 108, and this disclosure does not limit any configuration of computers and servers for each.
Moreover, each of the e-commerce server 104, the data warehouse server 106, and the e-campaign management server 108 may each be deployed as a server farm, data center or server cluster managed by a server host, and the number of servers and their architecture and configuration may be increased based on usage, demand, and capacity requirements for the system. Moreover, illustrative embodiments of the e-commerce server 104, the data warehouse server 106, and the e-campaign management server 108 may each include clusters of computers, servers, storage devices, display devices, input devices and other components interacting together, as understood by those skilled in the art.
As illustrated in
In particular, each remote computing device 150 may include a processor 152 coupled to a memory 154. Each remote computing device 150 may further include one or more user input devices (not shown) such as computer mouses, keyboards, and touch screens. In an illustrative embodiment, stored in the memory 154 may be a web browser program 156. As is known to one having ordinary skill in the art, the web browser program 156 is a program used for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web over the network 120. To engage in e-commerce with the e-commerce server 104, users navigate to a website hosted by the e-commerce server 104 using the web browser program 156. The users may then buy goods or services electronically from the e-commerce server 104 using the web browser program 156.
To facilitate e-commerce, the e-retailer program 114 may provide a search feature whereby users can search for desired products listed for sale on the website hosted by the e-commerce server. For example, the e-retailer program 114 may provide product webpages featuring products for sale. The e-retailer program 114 may provide a checkout procedure such that users can provide payment, shipping, and contact information for purchased products.
In an illustrative embodiment, users may be prompted by the e-retailer program 114 to register with the e-commerce enterprise 102. To register, users may be required to provide electronic contact information, such as an e-mail address or a cell phone number capable of receiving texts. In addition, the e-retailer program 114 may prompt users to provide demographic information, including age, income, gender, hobbies, and general interests. Additional demographic information about users may be obtained from third-party sources.
The remote computing devices 150 may each include a communication program 158. The communication program 158 may enable the remote computing devices 150 to send and receive electronic messages. In an illustrative embodiment, the communication program 158 is an email program. In another illustrative embodiment, the communication program 158 is a texting program. In still another illustrative embodiment, the remote computing devices 150 may include a storage medium 160 for storing operational data. In yet another illustrative embodiment, the communication program 158 may be a web browser that allows users to access online communication websites, such as Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, or any other websites that provide email services of the web.
In an illustrative embodiment, the remote computing devices 150 are computers, such as desktop or laptop computers. In another illustrative embodiment, the remote computing devices 150 are smart phones. In still another illustrative embodiment, the remote computing devices 150 are tablet computers, smart music players or wireless web-enabled electronic devices. Thus, it will be appreciated that the remote computing devices 150 can take a wide variety of forms, all of which fall within the scope of the present disclosure.
In an illustrative embodiment, the e-retailer program 114 includes a tracking feature on webpages that tracks information about users as the users interact with the e-commerce server 104 from the remote computing devices 150. In an illustrative embodiment, the tracking feature is operated by a third party. In an illustrative embodiment, the tracked information can include a wide range of information, including, but not limited to, products viewed, search terms used in product searches, purchases made, products placed in a virtual shopping cart but not purchased (sometimes referred to as “abandoned carts”), and other information that may indicate a user's interest in a product. In an illustrative embodiment, a third-party entity may track the users' interaction with the e-commerce server 104 as is known to one having ordinary skill in the art. As used herein, the term “product” may refer to a product or a service.
The user information, described above, is organized and stored by the data warehouse server 106. The data warehouse server 106 includes a processor 130 coupled to a memory 132. Stored in the memory 132 is a database management program 134 that contains instructions that are executable by the processor 130. The data warehouse server 106 may also include a storage medium 136 for storing the warehoused data in a database format as is known to those skilled in the art. As used herein, the term “storage medium” may refer to a hard disk array that links multiple physical hard drives into one large “drive” for advanced data control.
The database management program 134 is software that controls the creation, maintenance, and use of the database of user information on the storage medium 136. The database management program 134 may perform operations on the database, such as a query of the database for requested information. The data warehouse server 106 may also include product information. In an illustrative embodiment, the product information may include images and product descriptions. In another illustrative embodiment, the product information may further include pricing information.
The e-campaign management server 108 includes a processor 140 coupled to a memory 142. Stored in the memory 142 is an e-campaign management program 144 and an e-campaign delivery program 146, each of which contains instructions that are executable by the processor 140. The e-campaign management server 108 may also include a storage medium 148 for storing data, as is known to one having ordinary skill in the art.
In an illustrative embodiment, the e-campaign management program 144 allows the operator of the e-commerce enterprise 102 to define e-marketing campaigns. In particular, the e-campaign management program 144 allows the operator to define the recipients for an e-marketing campaign. As used herein, an e-marketing campaign can be an advertising campaign performed using a communications network.
In addition, the e-campaign management program 144 allows the operator to define the e-marketing contents of the electronic messages of e-marketing campaigns. In an illustrative embodiment, the e-campaign management program 144 allows the operator to define a template with variables. The variables are populated with data. The e-marketing contents may include customized text and graphics. The e-marketing contents may include links to product webpages hosted by the e-commerce server 104 on the network 120. The delivery channels for an e-marketing campaign include, but are not limited to, email, text messages, banner ads, websites, etc. It will be appreciated that e-marketing content can be provided through any electronic communication channel. The network 120 may include wired and wireless networks.
The e-campaign management program 144 allows multiple e-marketing campaigns to be ongoing simultaneously. E-marketing campaigns may be run automatically on a recurring basis. For example, e-marketing campaigns may be defined to run hourly, daily, weekly or monthly. Additionally, e-marketing campaigns may be run on a one-time basis, such as in the case of a special promotion on a product.
To initiate an e-marketing campaign, the e-campaign management program 144 allows an operator to define a target profile for the recipients. For example, the target profile may include all users who abandoned a product in a virtual shopping cart within a preset time period, such as within the last 24 hours. In another example, the target profile may include all users who may be potentially interested in a particular product. In another example, the target profile may include all users who have selected to receive advertisements.
Once the operator has defined the target profile, the e-campaign management program 144 allows the operator to define the e-marketing content for the campaign. To facilitate customized content, the e-campaign management program 144 allows an operator to create a template for the e-marketing content. In an illustrative embodiment, the e-marketing content is customized for each recipient using the template. For example, for an abandoned cart campaign, the e-marketing content may include an image of the product that was abandoned by the user as well as a link to a specific product webpage hosted by the e-commerce server 104. Other campaigns, such as for a special promotion for a product, may send the same e-marketing content. But, even for these type of campaigns, some of the e-marketing content may be customized, such as the name of the user.
The e-campaign management program 144 allows an operator to assign a priority level or ranking to each e-campaign. In particular, e-campaigns that have historically higher response rates are given a higher priority level than e-campaigns with lower response rates. For example, an e-campaign that targets users who have recently abandoned an item in a virtual shopping cart may be given a higher priority level than an e-campaign that features a product. This is because abandoned cart e-campaigns typically have a relatively high response rate as compared to e-campaigns that just feature a product.
The e-campaign management program 144 may allow an operator to assign a run time. In an embodiment, an e-campaign may run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. For example, the e-campaign management program 144 may run an abandoned cart campaign daily. The e-campaign management server 108 may generate multiple e-campaigns concurrently.
To form an e-campaign, the e-campaign management program 144, performs a query of the user information maintained by the data warehouse server 106. In particular, the e-campaign management program 144 requests that the data warehouse server 106 identify those users whose profile matches the target profile defined by the operator. In addition, the e-campaign management program 144 requests that the data warehouse server 106 return the necessary e-marketing content for each user. Again, the e-marketing content includes information necessary to complete the template for the e-marketing campaign, including, but not limited to, user name, user contact information, link information to product webpages, product images, product price, and any other information necessary to populate the template. In an illustrative embodiment, the e-commerce server 104, the data warehouse server 106, and the e-campaign management server 108 are connected over a local area network or a wide area network.
The e-campaign management program 144 stores the returned information from the data warehouse server 106 using data tables in the storage medium 148. For example, the data, or data location, to be utilized for each targeted user are stored in a row of a data table 170 as shown in
In an illustrative embodiment, the e-campaign management program 144 allows the operator to define a maximum number of electronic communications received by a user within a given time frame. For example, the operator may specify that a user may not receive more than one electronic communication from the e-commerce enterprise 102 per day.
Once the data table 170 is complete, there is typically a brief period of time between the completion of the data table 170 and the actual implementation of the e-marketing campaign, i.e., the transmission of the electronic messages to the targeted users. During this time period, the e-campaign management program 144 may suppress a user from an e-marketing campaign if the number of electronic communications sent to that user within a predetermined time frame exceeds the threshold established by the operator of the e-commerce enterprise 102.
In addition, during the time period between the identification of the targeted users and the actual implementation of an e-marketing campaign, i.e., the transmission of the electronic messages to the targeted users, the e-campaign management program 144 compares the priority level of all co-pending e-marketing campaigns. In an illustrative embodiment, targeted users in low priority e-marketing campaigns are suppressed in favor of high priority e-marketing campaigns. As will be explained below, this is accomplished by comparing the data tables 170 of different e-marketing campaigns and determining users who are targeted in both campaigns. Targeted users appearing in multiple e-marketing campaigns are suppressed from the lower priority campaigns.
Referring now to
As can be observed, each of the data tables 200 and 202 comprises a list of targeted users for each of their respective e-marketing campaigns. As can be further observed, the list of targeted users in each of the data tables 200 and 202 comprises some of the same targeted users. For example, User 7 appears in both data tables 200 and 202. In this example, the second campaign, represented by data table 202, has a higher priority than the first campaign, represented by data table 200.
Referring now to
Once the e-campaign management program 144 has suppressed targeted users from low-level priority campaigns, the e-campaign delivery program 146 on the campaign management server 108 forms and delivers the electronic messages to the targeted users as is known to those skilled in the art. Again, this may include emailing or texting the targeted users with a customized electronic communication.
Referring now to
In an illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer readable medium comprises a set of computer readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform one or more of the following operations: (i) define a first e-marketing campaign, the first e-marketing campaign comprising a first target user profile, (ii) generate a first data table of targeted users of the e-commerce website based on the first target user profile, (iii) define a second e-marketing campaign, the second e-marketing campaign comprising a second target user profile, (iv) generate a second data table of targeted users of the e-commerce website based on the second target user profile, (v) suppress from the first e-marketing campaign those targeted users in the first data table who also appear in the second data table of the second e-marketing campaign, (vi) define a first message template for the first e-marketing campaign and a second message template for the second e-marketing campaign, (vii) generate and transmit electronic messages to the non-suppressed targeted users in the first e-marketing campaign based on the first message template, (viii) generate and transmit electronic messages to the targeted users in the second e-marketing campaign based on the second message template, and (ix) define a third e-marketing campaign, the third e-marketing campaign comprising a third target user profile and generate a third data table of targeted users of the e-commerce website based on the third target user profile and suppress from the third e-marketing campaign those targeted users in the third data table who also appear in the second data table of the second e-marketing campaign.
In the foregoing Detailed Description, various features of the present disclosure are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed disclosure requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into this Detailed Description of the Disclosure by this reference, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of the present disclosure.
It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are only illustrative of the application of the principles of the present disclosure. Numerous modifications and alternative arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure and the appended claims are intended to cover such modifications and arrangements. Thus, while the present disclosure has been shown in the drawings and described above with particularity and detail, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous modifications, including, but not limited to, variations in size, materials, shape, form, function, and manner of operation, assembly, and use may be made without departing from the principles and concepts set forth herein.
