What are the top challenges of digital marketing transformation?
Retailers and brands have been talking about digital transformation for some time as they look to build their businesses as digital-first entities in order to deliver for the new customer demand.
As the world shifted online during the pandemic, those that weren’t already digitally-enabled had to quickly transform themselves to be so. But for some that meant hurried, sticking plasters. It wasn’t transformation – it was a quick, easy fix. And so for those, the true investment in the right systems, people and tools to enable digital transformation may only just be beginning.
Digital transformation is a huge challenge for brands and retailers since it involves change in so many elements of their operations and complete shifts in thinking. It requires the investment of both time and money – as well as getting staff engaged in the transformation too. If they are resistant – such as store staff not promoting online ordering instore – it simply won’t work.
Digital transformation requires technology change, which can be scary – especially for retailers still struggling with legacy systems that aren’t as streamlined.
Why are brands struggling with digital marketing transformation?
Getting the digital marketing transformation right can be one of the biggest challenges since brands and retailers are also at the mercy of the mindset of their consumers.
The struggle is real. Customers are busier than ever, bombarded by marketing messages and growing weary of them. Many are similar. Some are useful, others not.
The sheer scale of the challenge is illustrated by the fact that, led by the expansion in digital advertising, traditional, digital ad and total ad spending have all posted their highest rates of spending ever.
Coupled with the changes of the last two years, marketers also need to factor in changes in expectations when it comes to customer experience. Consumers are used to the quick ‘get’ of apps. According to a recent Accenture podcast, ‘Evolving the Customer Experience,’ Generation Z isn’t accustomed to waiting; in fact, they won’t even wait on hold for two minutes when calling into a call center.
Brands, meanwhile, are often stuck in a hamster wheel of content – they spam because high reach and high penetration is what they need to do to overcome the challenges of lower loyalty levels. But it often only turns off consumers more.
Consumers are investing less time in engaging with brands, but they are also investing less quality time. Attention spans are waning, leaving brands with the challenge of how to ensure they grab customer attention, deliver standout experiences and leave the shopper with an interaction worth remembering.
And yet against all this backdrop digital sales are growing and so digital marketing becomes the tool necessary to increase those sales further and continue building successful customer relationships. Brands need to stand out.
The bedrock of customer data
But delivering a great customer experience also relies on knowing what the customer wants, which in turn relies on customer data. Brands and retailers need to increase the scale and accuracy of their customer data.
A platform designed to allow suppliers and agencies to better understand changing consumer needs and serve those needs.
So we have retail having to continue their digital marketing transformation by delivering something new, yet also needing to get closer to their customers than ever, to understand exactly what they want, yet a marketing-weary customer who craves experience not spam.
Marketing ramification can help on both these points. As an experience for the customer it delivers surprise, intrigue, pleasure and stands out from other marketing methods. It can amuse, inform or simply entertain. And it rewards customers for the engagement they invest as a result.
The power of knowledge for brands
But it’s the data that it can be used to collate that is the most powerful tool for digital marketing transformation. It can increase marketing permissions by incentivising sign-ups with game rewards – such as discounts or prizes.
But it can delve much deeper too, surveying customers about their likes and dislikes, or views on products in a way that makes it exciting for the customer and useful for the brand or retailer.
In a time of fragmentation across media touch points marketing ramification brings the experience together again. It allows brands and retailers to stand out. And in the world of transformation standing out is what matters most.
While digital marketing transformation is an ongoing process for many brands and retailers, it should be always be a high priority. By adopting a digital-first strategy that is flexible and reactive to audience needs, brands and retailers can meet their audience when and where they want to be met. Let’s strive to offer experiences at just the right moment, which will lead to being memorable, meaningful, and importantly, good for business
Content marketing: What are the top misconceptions?
So, content marketing, huh? Despite this, a large number of brands are still working under some common misconceptions about this incredibly effective form of marketing, largely due to the assumption that content marketing is ‘easy’ and can be done without the help of a professional content marketing agency.
In this article, I’ll walk you through just some of these content catastrophes and how to fix them.
Selective gearing
There are those who believe that content marketing is only useful for the so-called ‘creative’ industries, and that it has no place in more formal sectors. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as content marketing is, essentially, about the sharing of information and the solving of problems.
This means that every industry and sector can – and should – be tapping into content marketing as a way of reaching and engaging with their target audiences and setting themselves up as a thought leader within that industry.
For example, marketers within the finance sector can use a content marketing strategy to advise and inform their audience of the benefits of certain kinds of savings and investments.
Quantity over quality
Too many marketers firmly believe that the key to a successful content marketing strategy is to pump out as much content as possible, as often as possible. I get the thinking behind this, as the assumption is that the more content you put out there, the more people you are likely to reach.
However, let me stop you there.
First of all, this kind of strategy will almost certainly compromise the quality of the content – which will impact the interest and trust received from your readers and followers.
Secondly, never ever forget that the gods of Google are watching. Google uses a method known as E.A.T to measure each piece of content that you publish online. This stands for:
Expertise: The work demonstrates expertise on the subject, backed up by proper facts and figures.
Authoritativeness: The work is supported by accreditations of authority such as customer reviews, backlinks, awards and affiliations.
Trustworthiness: The work is supported by positive reviews, good website security and other factors which engender trust.
This means that, if you’re just churning out content without quality control, this will actually cause your brand harm both in terms of customer trust and Google ranking. When producing content, quality will always trump quantity.
Keeping them posted
Here’s one that you may already be guilty of. You’ve written some cracking content and you’ve published it – then you assume it’s ‘job done’. Any reputable content marketing agency will tell you that this is, quite literally, only half the job done.
Assuming that people are just going to find, read and react to your content is one of the biggest cardinal sins of content marketing in 2021. The key here is that it’s ‘content marketing’, not just ‘content’.
This means that, if you want your content to be successful, you need to follow up with proper engagement with your followers on social media and other platforms.
You also need to be consistently checking your analytics and performing A/B testing to see what works and what doesn’t in terms of your published content, as well as gathering feedback from your readers and followers.
This allows you to make amendments and updates to your work and to produce follow-on pieces for your winning articles.
Keeping it reel
This one is a particular bugbear for me – marketers who insist that video content doesn’t really offer any value to a brand. I’ll let you into a secret: it absolutely does.
In 2021, a huge number of social media and internet users are consuming content while commuting, sitting in a waiting room, and even when queuing for coffee. For this reason, bite-sized content is still incredibly valuable, and video lends itself perfectly to this.
Video allows you to get your message across in a way that is fast, visually engaging and human-centric. Your audience can snap up this kind of content quickly and easily, and figures show that around 55% of internet users access and watch a video every day.
Topping up the bottom line
Yep, we’ve all heard this one – content marketing doesn’t have any impact on revenue or the bottom line.
The truth here is that all of your marketing efforts come together to impact your revenue and, while you may not be able to attribute an actual cash value to each piece of your content, the impact is there.
When you release great value content, the knock-on effect is that it drives people to your website as well as inspires them to share the content with others. As a result, increased website traffic leads to increased sales which leads to increased revenue.
Game but no game plan
There are plenty of marketers out there who tick all the right boxes but still fail for one reason: – they don’t put together a proper content strategy. It’s not enough to just put out great content; you need to plan ahead as well as react to current events.
A good content marketing agency will create a schedule for your content that is designed to keep your readers engaged every step of the way through high value, thought leadership, topical content.
Conclusion
Content marketing should be thought of as a long term strategy, rather than something which is used to gain results fast.
In reality, most brands simply don’t have the time or expertise to really make this work for them, in which case, the hiring of a great content marketing agency is probably one of the most important investments that they can make as we approach the finishing line of 2021 and power into 2022.
How to ensure your influencer marketing campaign goes to plan
When done correctly, influencer marketing is an amazing tool that can help you to maximise your digital marketing spend, raise brand awareness, and increase your sales. However, when campaigns are set up incorrectly or are missing the fundamentals, they don’t always go to plan.
Ensuring that your influencer marketing campaign works for your brand requires groundwork and planning. Here, we’ve put together a number of steps to ensure that you succeed.
Why Do Influencer Marketing Campaigns Fail?
There are a few reasons that influencer marketing campaigns can fail. These include:
Working with the wrong creators
When choosing which content creators to include in their influencer marketing campaigns, brands can sometimes be distracted by vanity metrics such as follower count or the number of likes a creator receives. In reality, what is really important are the deep engagement metrics, such as shares and saves, and the target audience. If you work with creators whose audience doesn’t reflect your target audience, or an audience that you’re at least interested in exploring, then your hard work will be wasted. Finding the right creators for your influencer marketing campaign is essential.
Lack of authentic content
When brands work with creators, sometimes it can be easy to forget that authenticity is still one of the most important aspects of content creation. No matter how much you want to push a product or promote your CTA, you have to ensure that the creator genuinely believes in what they’re saying. Influencer marketing campaigns can fail if the content or messaging seems inauthentic or forced, so making sure your content is authentic is key.
Lack of data
Combing data and human creativity is key to building the best influencer marketing campaign possible, and without the data to back up the strategy, campaigns can fail. Data provides crucial insights into audience behaviour, the effectiveness of certain content, and how a creator performs historically to give you a good idea of how the campaign will perform.
Lack of long term strategy
While one-off partnerships between brands and creators can sometimes work, most successful influencer marketing campaigns include long-term partnerships between brands and creators, run over a longer period of time. Long-term partnerships build campaign authenticity and trust between brands and the creator’s audience.
They have no defined objectives
Defining the objectives of a campaign is very important in the planning stages. Without a clear direction, creators and brands alike can end up creating content that doesn’t have a goal. Having clear objectives and a CTA in mind can help to create content that really converts, and also helps with measuring the campaign’s success further down the line.
Creators are too controlled
The final (and perhaps saddest!) reason why influencer marketing campaigns fail is that brands try to control the creator too much, to the point where the content that is produced doesn’t speak to the creator’s audience, the brand’s target audience. Ultimately, the creator knows their audience the best. Brands should write a clear brief, outlining their aims for the campaign and work in collaboration with the creator to guarantee a killer influencer campaign.
How Can You Ensure Your Influencer Marketing Campaign Doesn’t Fail?
The best way to ensure that your influencer marketing campaign doesn’t fail is by creating a genuine relationship with the creators you work with and using data to generate a strategic campaign with authentic content.
Measuring the impact of your influencer marketing is also essential as you navigate through the campaign, and having the technology on hand to do that can be essential. If something doesn’t look right, or one creator doesn’t seem to be resonating with your audience, you should remain agile and be open to changing your approach
Affiliate marketing: What is it and what are the benefits?
Affiliate marketing is a low-risk form of advertisement that companies and businesses use to promote their products or services. It is a completely performance-based process that all comes down to the affiliate’s promotion efforts.
Affiliate product or service promotions may include mentions on social media, reviews, blogs, vlogs, and podcasts, but the affiliate only makes a commission when a purchase is made through their personal link or recommendation.
With such a drastic increase in just one year, it’s no surprise that more companies are taking an interest in affiliate marketing and its benefits. To see how affiliate marketing could benefit your business, read on.
High ROI
When running a campaign, selecting the right target audience is vital. This is because there are so many things that your business needs to consider about the person who will be interested in your products or services. Do you know the average age of your audience? Do you know their interests and income?
One of the main reasons affiliate marketing is so simple is because the affiliate you’re likely to choose already has the most perfectly tailored audience, ready to influence. By funneling your marketing through an affiliate who has direct connections with your ideal audience, you’re able to reach a highly cultivated group of people who are likely to provide conversions.
Flexible strategy
You can give affiliate marketing a go even if you don’t want to splash the cash. You can start with very little and scale your budget as the strategy proves its worth.
Affiliate marketing offers great flexibility in terms of price and affiliate selection. There are countless affiliates in all industry sectors which means that you won’t be disappointed. Plus, depending on your affiliation, creativity has no bounds, especially if you find someone with a passion and a great following for what you do.
Start up costs are low
With affiliate programs, you don’t have to have an advertising team or need to buy ad space. That’s because your professional affiliates will generate the marketing ideas, build content and do the advertising for you.
The only initial effort will be choosing the affiliates you want your brand to collaborate with. Once you have decided upon the right person or persons, your affiliates will deal with the ad visuals and decide on the most effective ways of getting your products or services under the nose of the business’ target audience.
Low-risk form of marketing
As affiliate marketing is a low-cost advertising method, it means it really is a low-risk way to promote your brand. Due to the way affiliate marketing works, it’s perfect for low or tight business budgets because the only payment that will be made is when your affiliate generates a conversion.
The average commission for an affiliate is between 5-30%. The amount of commission you’re happy to part with will be a deciding factor of the affiliate you choose at the selecting stage.
Gets your brand in front of your target audience
To ensure your affiliate is perfect for your business, do your research if you want it to be a success. Hand-selecting affiliates means you can use your best judgement on who has the most targeted audience that’s most likely to resonate with your brand.
By choosing the right affiliate, their promotions of your products and services will feel less like a hard-sell to their audience, which means they’re more likely to show interest.
Contact MediaCoup
At MediaCoup, we’re just as committed to reaching your company goals as you are. Every campaign we develop together is focused on transformational growth, and we’re continuously searching for innovative ways to out-perform your current campaigns. Want to get started? Contact our expert team today!
Why choose a career in digital marketing
Selecting one career out of the thousands available is a tough decision to make. That said, it’s important to consider what you’ll enjoy and can see yourself doing for years to come.
If you’re searching for a good salary, the ability to climb the corporate ladder and the opportunity to learn each day, a career in digital marketing might just be the one for you.
But what does a career in digital marketing look like?
Learning is continuous in digital marketing
The digital world is evolving every day due to changing algorithms, which can be both a marketer’s worst nightmare and an exciting challenge.
When algorithms change, strategic decisions change too, which means we’re always learning and thinking outside the box to keep up with Google. The reason Google changes its algorithms is to ensure that online users find the most useful and relevant information possible.
So if you’re wondering what an algorithm is, according to Oxford Language, it’s ‘a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.
When announcements like this are made, it’s important for digital marketers to take the changes on board and look to create a strategy that’s in-keeping with the new rules. It may seem tiresome but the rewards will be worth it, and there are some hints and tips about how you can go about meeting the new requirements, here are a few to give you a flavour:
Show how the product will be used
- Provide information about how it differs from competitor products
- Consider writing about comparable products to help advise the user what might be best for them.
Digital marketing in-house or agency
Most digital marketers are likely to try out in-house and agency life but we’ve put together insight into what you can expect from both to help you make your initial decision.
What to expect as an in-house digital marketer:
- Gain in-depth knowledge of one company
- Become specialised in one industry sector
- Slower-paced and no requirements for external sign-offs
- When working in-house, you’ll be devoted to the company itself and will only work in one sector but across a wide range of projects. In-house literally means that the marketing will be done by the brand’s direct employees and won’t be outsourced to a third party.
- When working in-house, it’s more likely that you will have to dabble in lots of different areas of digital marketing. From brand guidelines to shop marketing and media publishing – you’ll be a whizz at various areas of their digital marketing projects.
What to expect in a digital marketing agency:
- Work with people from a wide range of industries
- Become specialised in one digital marketing discipline
- Fast-paced and requirement for external client sign-offs
- Agency life is quite different, you’ll be working on multiple client projects from a wide range of industries. This tends to mean that no two days are the same and that you’ll have to be ready to dip in and out of different accounts during the day.
- You’ll work closely with a number of different clients that will want to share their input, so it’s likely that you’ll have to collaborate with them to ensure they’re happy with your campaign.
It’s likely that you will have a particular role – instead of doing a bit of everything – you’ll either focus on SEO, PPC, copywriting, social media, web design, PR, graphic design, or photography.
Digital marketing culture
The culture of a company can make or break your feelings towards a certain career, so it’s important to get a feel for what you can expect when it comes to digital marketing.
In most digital marketing companies, you can expect to enjoy:
- Casual dress
- Flexible hours
- Ability to work remotely
- Support of like-minded people
- Dynamic and creative atmosphere
- If you’re looking to wear suits and travel to meet clients every day, you might find that the digital marketing space isn’t quite right for you.
Digital marketing jobs are everywhere and evolving
The internet advertising spend worldwide has been steadily increasing for the past decade and a half, which means the demand for digital marketers has also risen. For online advertising to be worth it, customers paying for this service need people who can provide them with digital marketing strategies to help them gain a return on investment.
That said, it’s not nearly as black and white as that. There are direct and indirect factors that assist ROI, ones that make up an overall successful marketing strategy – this nearly always involves omni-channel marketing. This is where all digital marketing services come together to boost one another which leads to a watertight digital presence.
If your goal is to boost your website’s rankings, you’ll want SEO and PR but to keep those users on your website, you’ll want: blogs, infographics, resource centres, an easy-to-use shop, straightforward checkouts, contact forms… the list goes on!
Why digital marketing is important
Since there are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, it’s a good place for businesses to start when it comes to promoting their brands. Having immediate access to this huge audience gives businesses equal opportunities as there’s a marketing package to suit a variety of budgets, but that’s not all, here are some more digital marketing benefits:
- Influencers buyers
- Boosts brand reputation
- Responsive websites = mobile traffic
- Drives more conversions
- Cost-effective
- Target the right audience
- Achieve measurable results
The future of retail: How the industry is changing in 2021: part 2
Evolving technology and an omnichannel revolution
Blending in-store and online retail experiences is the holy grail for today’s retailers. Superb advocates for companies embracing an omnichannel approach – a trend rapidly accelerated by the pandemic. The return to bricks and mortar won’t be as we know it. If technology improves, traditional retail will become a lot more of a browsing experience – somewhere to see the products and maybe take back returns.
A connected online-offline experience will require the development of sophisticated mobile and app experiences. Mobile apps are such a big opportunity for retailers. If you can get customers to use them, you can use push notifications rather than emails, meaning you have a direct connection and can merchandise to them.
This will be driven by data and if retailers have access to everything you’ve browsed online and in store, everything you’ve purchased in either location as well as when, why and any defining habits, they can introduce you to new products and make ever more relevant recommendations. Automation will become increasingly relevant and will be able to make instant trending decisions based on algorithms.
The most exciting part is using technology to enable merchandising. This could take the form of apps utilising GPS corridors and Bluetooth beacon technology, first trialed nearly a decade ago, to trigger notifications based on proximity. Here, the opportunity to highlight offers based on browsing history, send voucher codes, alert consumers to product availability or even help them navigate department stores are endless.
A better connected online/offline retail experience might also shape retail spaces themselves. Our client Boxpark is an interesting example of a marketplace model. It’s really expensive to have a retail store but if you could centralise distribution and have a smaller offering retailers could afford to have a Boxpark storefront in far more locations around the country.
Customers could go to collect products or browse lots of retailers’ offerings in one place, so you could provide that retail experience without the need for much inventory to be held there. And if centralised distribution can get to the level everyone was predicting it would in the next 10 years, they would potentially offer same-day delivery as well so customers could go in store and the items would be waiting for them when they get home.
Social growth and brand loyalty
For a glimpse of the near future, look to China, which is about five years ahead of the UK e-commerce market, with about 80% of all retail sales via mobile. What’s exciting about China is that all retailers push consumers towards using their apps, while adoption of social media and user-generated content is huge. Social networks such as WeChat also double up as retailers. Over here brands have to hire influencers and get them to work for you; over there people do it because they want social standing.
The predictions seem to point to a major shake up in the app market with Tiktok in particular as a growth area. Everyone talks about TikTok but up until now the sales experience has been pretty poor. I think we’ll see that change. Are we going to see brands asking people to start dancing with their products on? I can imagine we might. It only needs one brand to start running with these trends for it to evolve and TikTok would welcome the commercial opportunity.
A brighter future
For now, though, it’s likely that most innovation will be based around recovery and attempting to catch up with the audience. All of the workflow blockers that challenge us right now will force the direction of tech change. Many retailers need to increase agility by centralising product data with improvements to their ERPs and Product Information Management systems. Besides, the industry needs to become more carbon aware and prioritise employee wellbeing following the detrimental effect of the past year on people’s mental health.
Ultimately, a lot will depend on how our economy recovers, but we have to go with the cards we’ve been dealt: keeping stock levels low and reconsidering pricing to ensure a decent margin. Luckily we’re good at making stuff in this country – we have incredible brands and stuff that’s wanted worldwide.
The future of retail: How the industry is changing in 2021: part 1.
With 2020 delivering a seismic shock to the world as we know it, retail was one of many sectors facing an existential challenge like never before. Some companies thrived, many struggled to survive.
Now, with a semblance of normality on the horizon, retailers of all stripes are witnessing a shifting global landscape characterised by altered customer behaviours as well as rapidly evolving technology, infrastructure and supply chain trends accelerated by the pandemic.
Among our clients, we spotted two distinct types of retailer: those that shut up shop and panicked, and others who adapted. The latter are up year-on-year by an incredible amount – they’ve probably moved forward two or three years in terms of revenue. For others, it’s nearly killed them. We know companies that have had to sack their entire teams and have moved back five years.
Fortune has played its part in this, with certain verticals. Yet the pandemic has also highlighted the failures of certain sales strategies. There are a lot of large companies who rely very heavily on traditional retail and a split of 90% offline sales to 10% online can be pretty standard. For these firms, that meant 90 percent of their business suddenly vanished and share price is falling through the roof. It’s made us all realise how much things need to change.
Adapting to new consumer behaviours
As well as providing a dramatic wake-up call to retailers, the inevitable surge in e-commerce during lockdown has had a major influence on consumer shopping habits. The biggest growth was among older users – there has always been a group of high-earning sceptical purchasers who would rather go out shopping but they’ve been forced to change their habits. This demographic has realised how easy it is to purchase online and they may never go back. Overall the audience now is much bigger and confidence is a lot higher.
E-commerce has moved forward 10 years in the course of 12 months. This increased volume has brought with it challenges, though, with many retailers’ customer services facing pressure to adapt. Elsewhere, increased online activity from an older demographic who value research prior to purchase may mean some retailers need to enrich the product information currently online.
Supply chains have also been tested to their limits. Behind the scenes, the big challenge has been implementing efficient and fair returns policies to match up to customer expectations. A lot of companies don’t offer free returns and that doesn’t go down very well. To replicate an in-store retail experience free returns need to be part of the model.
The rising power of subscription services
The subscription economy has boomed in tandem with a rise in e-commerce demand. From hygiene products to software to speciality foods, subscriptions are available for just about anything.
Subscription-based companies have grown more than 300% over the past seven years, and are outpacing traditional companies percentage revenue growth by 5X. With all of the changes occurring in commerce, the digital-first approach to commerce has been the catalyst for success of subscription-based models.
Subscription businesses have adapted to mobile and social commerce far faster than traditional retailers, which has resonated with their core demographic.
But standalone subscription-based companies aren’t the only ones contributing to this movement in retail; the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we shop, with customers flocking to the internet for everyday items they’d usually purchase in-store.
As consumer behaviour rapidly shifted, industries within fast-moving consumer goods saw spikes in traffic and orders, putting a strain on supply chains, logistics, and website performance across the globe. In many cases, subscription services entered households as an assured way to replenish commodity items with automated purchases, avoiding sold out signs and online queues.
Within the last year, manufacturers have increasingly launched direct-to-consumer (DTC) models, opening up new revenue streams in a challenging commercial environment. Adding a subscription service into a new DTC offering is a great strategy, although giving customers the ability to auto-replenish won’t just sell itself. Businesses need to understand their new B2C customers and develop a mutually value-driven relationship. Let’s take a look at the different ways of achieving this:
Create a highly personalised experience
Subscriptions shouldn’t just be used to fulfill supply and demand, in fact, that’s not even the top reason people sign up. Curation accounts for 55% of total subscriptions, indicating people like to be surprised and delighted by new items or highly personalised experiences. As customers experiment with product ranges, their preference profile is built digitally, giving retailers a valuable understanding of what products and promotions are most popular.
Sell via niche marketplaces Packages can be compiled from a mixture of brands, sold via niche digital marketplaces, or standalone curation companies. Niche brands in apparel, beauty, and food are also mushrooming into this category.
Offering access to lower prices or member-only perks via a monthly fee is another tactic to gain subscribers. The majority of subscribers sign up after getting referred by a friend, with the bonus of a clear financial incentive. The best brands have jumped on the back of societal trends and developed a cult following.
Stop the Churn!
Churn is the biggest challenge facing subscription e-commerce companies. Even a small percentage of shoppers cancelling their subscription each month can have a significant impact. Nearly 40% of subscribers of any service type cancel in less than three months, and over half cancel within six. These stats are consistent across replenishment, curation, and access subscription services.
So, retaining customers is paramount for any subscription business, and the good news is that consumers can be sticky once they find a service they like. How can newcomers to the subscription model retain customers? By underpinning the strategy with creativity, technology and data:
Take a digital-first approach
Investing in a top-notch digital platform that provides an exceptional customer experience. Simply put, if customers don’t enjoy logging on, they’ll move on. Ensure usability is of a consistently high standard across all devices.
A straightforward and helpful user-journey with a clear path to purchase is key. Strike the right balance with an insightful admin suite, offering updates, user guides and tailored product suggestions. The public-facing interface is just the beginning; the customer’s dashboard, mobile app and level of support are the real factors to keeping subscribers happy and onboard.
Personalisation is everything
One of the biggest benefits of selling DTC is having direct access to first-party data, so use it wisely and don’t miss an opportunity to wow. Because subscriptions are built on recurring relationships with customers, it’s important to gain a deep understanding of their needs, wants and motivations. Start with building a user-profile in an engaging way that doesn’t feel like a monotonous task. For example, use an image led-quiz instead of a written form to help them find their preferences. Be intuitive and interactive. Stitch Fix, for example, increases retention by creating a linked Pinterest board with a stylist and logs feedback to help them constantly evolve.
Build a community that people want to be part of.
When customers have signed up for repeat service, they don’t want to forget about it until it renews each month; value has to be delivered incrementally. Engage subscribers with impactful content in all formats. Take inspiration from trends within your industry; let your products take a back seat and don’t underestimate the power of social media influencers to spark buzz.
Key predictions on the challenges faced by businesses in 2022
As we begin 2022, drawing on the latest research findings here are some key predictions on the challenges to be faced by businesses in 2022, as well as how the eCommerce market will fare this year.
Importance of first-party data
One of the most important things for businesses this year will be first-party data due to the lack of cookies and third-party data available to them. This means that many businesses will need to go back to the basics of building a customer-first strategy, as well as adapting their practices around transparency and choice, as well as ensuring they are always adding value to their customers.
Personalization and audience building
Because of the lack of third-party data, personalized content and audience building will be a clear strategic focus for marketing in 2022. Content in the future is likely to have to work harder for businesses to gain access to customers’ zero and first-party data and creating a tailored and transparent value proposition is a good strategy for achieving this.
This will also cause a greater focus on campaign reporting so that businesses can truly understand their audiences and how their campaign is performing. In fact, according to our latest research, businesses that see themselves as very strong at campaign reporting, are on average three times as likely to be very strong at personalized content or audience building.
Manual data wrangling
Manual data wrangling will become a greater problem for businesses as the number of data rows increases. Our data shows this was a key challenge for marketers in 2021 and we expect this to become the number 1 priority for the majority of marketing departments to fix with automated data integration in 2022.
Predictive analytics
Throughout 2022, predictive analytics will come more to the fore than ever before. According to our latest research, marketing teams already see the value of predictive analytics with almost two-thirds planning to implement predictive modelling next year.
However, before marketers can do this, they need to ensure that their data is fully accurate and integrated. Neither of these things can be achieved in a meaningful way without having a certain level of analytical maturing. Unfortunately, very few marketers have truly achieved analytical maturity and far too often marketing teams are still relying on manual data processes to get insights from their data.
Fulfillment will depend on data tracking demand
Companies that fail to meet consumer expectations regarding fulfillment are likely finding it so difficult because they are not using data to properly track customer demand. Businesses may well struggle as more operationally sophisticated competitors continue to excel. Especially as customer expectation is so high, the rise of quick commerce strategies (whilst coming at a premium price point) has meant that customers can be more choosy about alternative businesses that will fulfill their orders.
Shifting demographics within e-Commerce
One of the things we are certainly seeing in the e-Commerce industry is that executives and key decision-makers are far more closely aligned to target consumers in terms of their age.
In turn, because they understand the constantly evolving digital landscape more natively, it means they’re more open to taking risks and experimenting with new platforms, channels and strategies to deliver growth.
The impact of this? The mindset has shifted from ‘let’s take our brand’s physical retail experience online’ to putting their e-Commerce strategy at the fore of their marketing and overall business rather than being purely supplemental to real life offerings. A prerequisite to that shift being possible is the successful marriage of data, experimentation, and real-time analytics.
