2020 Retail Change Agent Spotlight: Q&A with Natalia Rivera, Anthropologie
The 2020 Retail Change Agent Award honors 10 retail marketers who have successfully advocated for change within their organizations and tied those efforts to positive business results.
Today, we’re excited to spotlight one of the winners: Natalia Rivera, Email + Personalization Specialist at Anthropologie.
Natalia was selected as a 2020 Retail Change Agent for her leadership role in maturing Anthropologie’s email personalization strategy. Part of what makes Natalia such an effective change agent is her test-first approach, which arms her with firm data to prove the value of recommended changes.
Miranda Loshin: Tell us about your role at Anthropologie.
Natalia Rivera: I am an Automation & Personalization Specialist for the Digital Marketing team at Anthropologie. My role is very exciting and always evolving!
I manage the brand’s Email + App Triggered program while driving an overall personalization strategy across our different marketing channels. I am always looking for ways to optimize and test different initiatives in order to stay ahead of the curve
ML: What are you most proud of in your work with Anthropologie?
NR: What brings me most joy in my role is seeing my ideas come to fruition and be successful for the Anthropologie brand. I don’t always win, but even those times prove to be a great learning experience that I can build on for the future.
Also, having such a supportive leadership team definitely doesn’t hurt. To be able to bring ideas to the table and have them welcomed and celebrated builds so much confidence and allows me to continue to strive for more!
ML: How do you think marketing tech and email are evolving, and how do you expect those changes to affect your role?
NR: I believe consumers are now utilizing marketing tactics as a way to make their retail experiences easier. For example, they are depending on brands to let them know when a sale is starting and ending, when something in their cart is running low in stock or to alert them on upcoming trends. So now, our jobs as marketers have been ushered into providing an ever-evolving personalized shopping experience based on shoppers’ needs and wants. I believe that whichever brand continues to perfect their craft in making conversion an easier transaction will be the most successful.
ML: How do you get buy-in from leadership and your peers to make changes? For example, your recent work on Anthropologie’s email personalization strategy.
NR: Testing, testing and did I mention testing? There are so many great ideas in the digital marketing world, but in order to really gain confidence from your team, you must first prove that it has the ability to work. Complimentary data is usually a fool-proof way to shine light on your proposed changes and the need to then execute on them! As always, there will be pitfalls and challenges, but if you really believe in the success of your concepts you can accomplish anything.
ML: What is your top priority for the coming year?
NR: My top priority is to continue bringing cutting-edge personalization tactics to our marketing program. I am most excited about updating our Bluecore trigger program with progressive journey building, introducing innovative batch sends and connecting our different marketing channels to create a seamless experience for our customers!
ML: What is your advice to other marketers looking to enact change in their organizations?
NR: Simple: Listen to your customers, take note of your competitors, be proactive and stay creative!
More Lessons From the 2020 Retail Change Agents
Ready to take a deeper dive into what the 2020 Retail Change Agent Award winners accomplished and how you can enact similar change in your organization?
Download our eBook highlighting the award winners to learn more and get actionable tips for leading your own change effort.
