Going Digital: How Digital Marketing has Revolutionized Retail

By Blaire Townshend

DataMentor Marketing Director Larisa Bedgood recently published an article on CustomerThink that outlines the successful strategies that retailers are implementing to optimize their relationships with customers online. She cites four such strategies, and how specifically they cater to the desires of today's customers. I found her data to be both useful and clearly communicated.

The strategies she outlined were as follows:

1. Optimizing search results to bring customers into stores
2. Using digital to improve in-store customer experience   
3. Using email to optimize personalization 
4. Recognizing the pervasiveness of mobile 

1. Bedgood wrote about the importance of search results in luring customers to visit stores, citing a Google study that found "3 in 4 shoppers who find local information in search results are more likely to visit stores." The local information considered to be valuable included: the price of the item at a nearby store, items in stock at the nearby store, the location of the closest store where item is in stock, and store hours and locations. Access to this information helps to galvanize the customer into action and makes purchasing easier and more attractive.

2. This next strategy capitalizes on the fact that 42% of shoppers use their smart phones to find information while in-store, both on search engines and the relevant retailer's website or app. Bedgood writes that successful retailers recognize the importance of this data, and ensure that their websites and apps are mobile-friendly accordingly. This helps the customer to have a seamless shopping experience, where they are assisted in their inquires both in person and via digital technology.

3. Bedgood argues that email is still the best way for retailers to optimize personalized interactions with their customers. Retargeting is cited as being particularly important, specifically "retargeting with a personalized email once a shopper visits a website"—Bedgood sees this as "one of the most effective tactics in which retailers are seeing success." Savvy retailers are: retargeting existing clients who visit their websites using email, sending emails featuring products that visitors have already looked at, sending emails featuring targeted product recommendations, and sending retargeting emails to visitors soon after they visit their website. 

4. Finally, Bedgood recognizes that mobile is absolutely integral to the digital customer experience, warning that customers who come across a website that isn't optimized for use on their mobile device will quickly transfer to another channel to find what they need. She writes that being mindful of these short attention spans is vital to one's success in digital retail, and that targeting across devices is a major priority. Successful retailers are able to cater to their customers seamlessly, regardless of what device they sign in to. 

The primary takeaway from Bedgood's article is that ease of use and the availability of relevant, personalized information are the key ingredients of a successful digital marketing retail platform. Retailers who have taken this to heart are seeing that their digitized customers engage with their stores and products on a variety of platforms, and have the sophistication to know when they are not being sufficiently catered to. Today's digital customers may expect a lot, but Bedgood argues that retailers have the ability to deliver on those expectations.   

Bedgood, Larisa. "4 Ways Retailers Are Making Big Strides in Digital Marketing." CustomerThink. 13 Apr. 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.  

 

Google's New Product Allows Greater Advertisement Customization

               Google has recently unveiled a new product called Customer Match allowing advertisers to upload lists of emails that will be matched to signed-in Google users on Gmail, search, and Youtube. Companies will be able to upload names of people from their CRM system, and then send targeted advertisements to corresponding users. These tailored advertisements will also follow users on other Google platforms, such as Youtube and Gmail. In addition, the program allows advertisers to find similar audiences that have not yet been captured by the list, which could greatly help companies to expand their client base.

               This is not the first time Google dipped its toes into Facebook’s territory with app install ads and email-based advertising. Since earlier this year, Google has leveraged its larger networks in areas like search-to-promote apps as it felt the push from the wider market and the competition from Facebook. In May, Google rolled out new mobile ad products, namely the click-to-buy buttons in search and shoppable ads on YouTube videos.

               These two products share the same concept but differ slightly in that the click-to-buy directs shoppers to a Google checkout page, enabling one-click purchase; whereas the click-to-shop ads on Youtube convey users to retailers’ e-commerce sites. Small retailers, who would otherwise shun from e-commerce for lacking funds to build the website, could open their store on Google. Brands relying heavily on videos to provide users with reviews and tutorials could now take viewers directly to their product pages with one click. Companies such as Wayfair and Sephora have tested the ads in beta, and have successfully increased impressions for their demographic of 35-to-64-year-old women. Owing to the traffic boost, these brands intent to create more original video contents in the near future.

               As Google now aims at chaperoning users from the start of their search journey till the end of their transactions, competitors have been carrying out similar initiatives. In early 2014, Pinterest unveiled its “Promoted Pins” product that targets only specific customers and allows users to see product information and availability directly through their Pinterest feeds. Facebook have long since been cooperating with advertisers utilizing its “Custom Audience” platform which let businesses plug in CRM email addresses to target customers with relevant ads. Most recently, Facebook is trying out an artificial intelligence-powered Messenger assistant that can answer questions and direct users to relevant businesses.