Brand Marketers Insider Summit - Day 1 - Kathryn Davidson - Ancestry: The Third Generation

1. Rooting Strategies in
Customer Obsession
Using Data to Create a Customer Journey that Tells
a Cohesive Story Across Your Channels
Kathryn Davidson – Director of Marketing & CRM Operations

2. 2
Director of Marketing and CRM Operations
11 years with Ancestry!
Team handles 100% of Ancestry’s
communications to our customers,
executing and deploying more than 1
billion emails annually.
Passionate about working for a company
that makes a difference in people’s lives
Kathryn
Davidson

3. 3
3
Million Paying
Subscribers
Ancestry
10+
Million People DNA-
tested
$1
Billion Revenue
20
Billion Records
100
Million Family Trees
1+
Billion Searches
Monthly
1600
Employees
11
Billion Connections

4. 4
Lifecycle Marketing:
Fueling customer curiosity through a guided and
consistent experience of personal discovery.
Ancestry Mission
We empower journeys of personal discovery
to enrich lives.

5. 5

6. Letting our Org
Structure Dictate
Customer
ExperienceFraming the Challenge We Faced at
Ancestry
6

7. Two Ways to Perceive the Customer Experience
• Organically Silo-ed data
infrastructure
• Journey Anchor: Stages of
Financial Progression
• Linear
• Insights-Based; Coordinated
Audience Segments
• Journey Anchor: Needs and
Moments
• Next-Best Step
Challenge: Changing the Customer Experience Paradigm
From: To:Channel & Funnel View Customer Destination View

8. 8
Awareness &
Consideration OnboardingConversion Engagement Retention
Performance
& Digital
Advertising
Email and
Nurture
Brand Media
SEO
On-Site Lead
Capture
Welcome and
Account Set Up
Lifecycle
Engagement
Customer Marketing
Product Experience
Member Services
Product
Engagement
Member Services
Engagement
Education
Support
Build Family
Tree
Upsell Offers
Hints and
Record Matches
Billing and
Transactions
Renewal
Renewal
Renewal
CurtainofExperienceIgnorance
Channel and Funnel View: Internally Focused
Philosophy

9. 9
BI Tools
1st & 3rd party tracking and attribution data
Data flowing
for Real-time
availability
- Customer ID
- Customer scores
- History of customer activity
Latest customer
information for
personalization and
targeting purposes
Customer
Data
Forensic, business event, tracking data (1st party data)
Data
Management
Platform
(DMP)
Data Mart/
Warehouse
Data Science
Models
Social Media
Platform
Facebook, Twitter,
etc.
Campaign
Management
System
Customer
Data Platform
(Personalization
Services)
Client .com, App
Tech Stacks
(Web/Mobile)
Email, SMS,
mobile,
microsites
Demand Side
Platform &
Ad Tech for Paid
Channels
CMS
Data Foundation Activation
Web Analytics
Mobile
Analytics
Tag Mgmt.
Customer
Action!!!
Performance
Monitoring
and Alerting
Reporting &
Analytics
Siloed Data: Representation of Ancestry’s Org Chart

10. Delayed Data Flow – Not Real Time, Not Customer Focused
Timeline
Hour 1 Hour 24 Hour 48
Messages based on data
up to 48 hrs. delayed
CRM Data
ExtensionsSFTPData Silo 2Data Silo 1

11. A lot can change in the
customer journey in 48 hours!
Timeline
Hour 1 Hour 24 Hour 48
Messages based on data
up to 48 hrs. delayed
CRM Data
ExtensionsSFTPData Silo 2Data Silo 1
Product Usage Trends and Customer
Status Data Needed in Real-Time
Delayed Data Flow – Not Real Time, Not Customer Focused

12. Delayed Data Flow: Customers Experiencing a Confusing Journey
12
Customer
State
Hour 1 Hour 24 Hour 48
Hour 24 Hour 48Hour 1
Registration
Purchase
DNA
Start
Tree
Perform
Search
Add
Nodes
Receive
Hints
Start Free
Trial
12% of all registrants
purchase DNA within
24 hours
13.1% of all registrants
start Free Trial within
48 hours
Timeline
CRM Data
ExtensionsSFTPData Silo 2Data Silo 1

13. Breaking Down
Silos and Putting
the Customer First
What We Did to Solve our Problems
at Ancestry
13

14. Customer
Data Platform
(Personalization
Services)
14
BI Tools
1st & 3rd party tracking and attribution data
Data flowing
for Real-time
availability
- Customer ID
- Customer scores
- History of customer activity
Latest customer
information for
personalization and
targeting purposes
Customer
Data
Forensic, business event, tracking data (1st party data)
Data
Management
Platform
(DMP)
Data Mart/
Warehouse
Data Science
Models
Social Media
Platform
Facebook, Twitter,
etc.
Campaign
Management
System
Client .com, App
Tech Stacks
(Web/Mobile)
Email, SMS,
mobile,
microsites
Demand Side
Platform &
Ad Tech for Paid
Channels
CMS
Data Foundation Activation
Web Analytics
Mobile
Analytics
Tag Mgmt.
Customer
Action!!!
Performance
Monitoring
and Alerting
Reporting &
Analytics
Customer
Data Platform
(Personalization
Services)
Campaign
Management
System
Web Analytics
Mobile
Analytics
Customer
Data Platform
(Personalization
Services)
Customer 360
Unifying Data to Enable Customer Obsession

15. Transformation to a Real-Time Data Flow
15
After: Receive Customer Data in Minutes
Before: Receive Customer Data Hours/Days Later
CDP SFMC
CRM Data
ExtensionsSFTPData Silo 2Data Silo 1

16. 16
Unified Customer Journey Map Across Ancestry

17. Fueling Curiosity with Education
Fueling Engagement to Drive Personalized Discoveries
Timely Offers
Connecting the Journey to Customer Centric Key
Objectives
17
KPI: Product Engagement
KPI: Revenue, Units, and
Conversion Rate
KPI: Unique Open and Clicks

18. 18
Real-Time Data Foundation Drives Seamless Experience
Intelligent Segmentation
Powers Right Recipe for the
Customer
Performance
& Digital Ads
On-Site Lead
Capture
Nurture: Push,
Email, Etc.
SEO
Brand
Media
Free Trial
Get Started
Account Setup
Welcome
Messaging
Fueling Customer Curiosity Driving
Discovery
Awareness & Curiosity
Education
Support
Build Family
Tree Upsell Offers
Hints and
Record
Matches
Renewal
Education Support
Build Family
Tree
Upsell Offers
Hints and
Record
Matches
Renewal
Build Family
Tree
Education
Hints and
Record
Matches
Support
Next Best Step for the Customer
NurtureNurture
Personalizing the Message Based on “Next Best Step”

19. How Customers
Are Responding
to Our New
Approach
19

20. Fueling Curiosity
• Smarter and deeper
segmentation with
differentiated education
by segment
• +9% in unique opens
• +50% in unique clicks to
product experiences
Driving Discovery
• Focusing on engagement
in key product drivers:
viewing content,
searching, hints, building
trees, matches, peer-to-
peer messaging
• +22% YoY in product
engagement
• Growing QoQ for 4
straight Quarters
Timely Offers
• Earning the right to offer
customers at the right
time – driving cross-sell
and upgrades
• +53% YoY in new
subscriptions
• +16% YoY in subscription
upgrades
Customer Centric Key Objectives So Far…
20

21. Examples
• From TV to Onboarding
• Personalized Multi-Channel Messaging
• Earning the Right to Make an Offer

22. 22

23. Consistent, comprehensive steps that lead
to discovery – as seen in TV
Key help resources correlated to member services
data (why customers reach out to us in first 60 days)
Clear education on how to make discoveries – like
our customers featured in our paid media
From TV to Customer Onboarding: Consistent
Segmentation
Example: Fueling Curiosity
Tying third party data with our owned data to create clear target
audiences across acquisition channels allowing us to create an an
onboarding program that moves with the customer based on what
we know about them.

24. New Experience:
Tying customer engagement data with data science score to
deliver 5 most relevant hints for each customer and
delivering that in the right channel based on channel
engagement
24
Focusing on product drivers leading to discovery – Evolving “Hints”
Experience
Example: Driving Discovery
Old “Hint” Experience:
Sending ALL new hints in no
particular order in email only (up to
25 hints in one message)

25. 25
Focusing on product drivers leading to discovery – Evolving “Hints”
Experience
Example: Driving Discovery
Results:
Tying data from multiple sources to
serve personalized discoveries in the
right channel leads to increased
discoveries and engagement
• +37% hint views
• +19% content views
• +8.3% searches performed
New Experience:
Tying customer engagement data with data science score to
deliver 5 most relevant hints for each customer and
delivering that in the right channel based on channel
engagement

26. 26
Family History Engagement Followed By Personalized Offer After DNA
Results
2 days after customer receive their DNA
results:
Timely Offers: Earning the Right to Make an Offer
Day 4 Post Results: Delivered
Personalized Offer via Email
Day 2 Post Results: Site Experience
Engage with Family History
Activities
Pushing customers (via email and organic
site traffic) to onsite experience focusing
on engaging customers in key activities
that lead to personal discoveries
2 days later deliver a
personalized offer

27. 27
Family History Engagement Followed By Personalized Offer After DNA
Results
Timely Offers: Earning the Right to Make an Offer
Day 4 Post Results: Delivered
Personalized Offer via Email
Day 2 Post Results: Site Experience
Engage with Family History
Activities
Results:
Free trial after education leads to
key wins with key segments
• +121% Free Trial signups
• +65% Subscriptions

28. Key Principles
To Remember
28

29. 29
Never force monetization in the journey; earn the privilege to upsell.
The end goal of an experience isn’t about renewal and upsell; it is to meet the “next
best step” for the customer. Financial benefits follow organically.
Anchor the experience on insights-based moments: invest in a flexible platform to connect
the right data to power and understand interaction thresholds and behavior.
1
2
3
Summary Principles
Be relentless in establishing internal partnerships across functions; you are ONE
entity from the customer standpoint.
Define the customer journey based on experience chapters rather than funnel
stages.
4
5

30. 30
Thank you!kdavidson@ancestry.com