By Chip Overstreet, SVP of Marketing, Business & Corporate Development at MyBuys
Spring cleaning trends are hardly exclusive to the home. Modern retailers would benefit from applying the seasonal cleaning mindset to determine which strategies are working and which are not to improve results across the board.
Keep
- Respecting Multi-Device Shopping: When it comes to researching products and making purchases, multi-device usage is common. The average consumer uses three or more devices throughout their shopping experience, and brands should work to further nuance the productivity and excitement they offer on all devices.
The mobile experience in particular can drive cross-channel engagement, serving as a productive link between a user’s regular activity and their interactions on other devices. If a consumer searches for high-end jewelry on their phone, advertisements for similar products should follow them to other devices, helping to peak purchasing interests.Advertisement
- Making Real-Time Recommendations: One of digital’s greatest strengths is its real-time applications. When users make purchases, brands can offer them similar or complementary options. For example, if a consumer buys a guitar online, a business can suggest relevant accessories or highlight local studios with affordable lessons.
With 48% of shoppers purchasing more from retailers that emphasize their personal buying behaviors, real-time recommendations can entice consumers to increase their spends. The immediacy of digital also becomes more influential as users continue to flock to devices. From 2013 to 2014, 110% more shoppers used smartphones to research products. Additionally, in the same year, mobile accounted for a larger share of all online traffic than before. - Re-Engaging Lost Shoppers: A unique feature of online shopping is the ability for users to leave and return to their digital carts. And, when these carts are abandoned, 58% of consumers are receptive to abandoned cart emails. One-in-three consumers is also open to any means of communication: email, display advertising, text messaging and even phone calls from an associate. Brands can send simple reminders to buoy lost web site activity and purchases.
Throw Away
- Relying On Blanket Outreach: With personalization becoming more pervasive and recognized, consumers have come to value, and often expect, a unique shopping experience. Despite common privacy concerns, 50% of shoppers are actually comfortable with the use of personal information, so long as such details coordinate a better overall shopping experience.
When sending out an e-blast, personalize messaging or offers to increase your brand’s relevancy. Similarly, display advertisements should incorporate a user’s purchasing history, harnessing previous spends to encourage new conversions. · - Over-Emphasizing Online Purchases: Although digital mediums drive user interactions with retailers, 90% of retail sales still come from in-store purchases. Rather than focusing exclusively on in-store or digital markets, retailers should adopt an omnichannel marketing strategy. Leverage in-store purchasing trends by echoing similar offers via email, creating a cohesive shopping experience that shifts fluidly from one platform — whether in-store or digital — to the next.
- Falling For Stereotypes: Too often, retailers allow outdated or poorly generated consumer assumptions to influence their marketing decisions. For example, it’s easy to believe that older consumers don’t shop on mobile devices. However, 74% of consumers ages 55 and older use their smartphones to research products before purchasing, and a third of those consumers move on to purchase via mobile. When retailers fail to exchange historical purchasing presumptions for more progressive influencers, they miss out on new, and sometimes better, business.
The impacts of a disorganized marketing strategy too often go unnoticed. They become lost in the chaos of a brand’s many objectives or ignored simply because there may be a “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality.
This spring, take the time to re-evaluate your marketing strategy and see how, and where, you could better serve your customers. Clear out old, outdated tactics and make room for new, more effective initiatives in 2015.
*All statistics taken from MyBuys 7th annual consumer personalization survey.
Chip Overstreet’s experience as an executive in marketing and business development for B2B software and services companies includes developing and delivering solutions for e-Commerce, Internet advertising, marketing automation and SaaS. He was previously the VP of Marketing & Business Development at Blue Martini Software (NASDAQ: BLUE), CEO of Encover, Inc. (acquired by Synnex), and CEO at RTIME (acquired by SONY). Chip has a BA in Economics from Stanford.
