Retail marketers have to solve a unique problem – generating foot traffic at offline locations while keeping the brand top of mind in an ever-changing digital landscape. How do you solve this challenge? Look below for some tips or download our ebook for an in depth exploration.
Winning Today
Using a data-first marketing approach to drive sales
This may sound cliche but we are amazed at how many marketers use their intuition and gut to make business decisions. This is not a practical approach to marketing with so much data at our fingertips. Here are a couple of ways to use data to make sound decisions:
- Custom dashboard with realtime sales data and key performance indicators
- Predictive modeling and analytics
- Competitive insights
- Customer journey mapping
Using strategy to determine tactics
The tactics and channels chosen should be dictated by your strategy. Think of it like a road trip: your objective is to get from point A to point B. Your strategy is mapping your route. Your tactics are which car and specific highways you will use to achieve your objective. You wouldn’t just start driving somewhere without knowing where you are going or how you will get there. The same concept applies to any marketing campaign.
Using a test and learn approach
The only way to understand if something works or not is to test it. Our advice is to always set aside a budget to test unproven tactics that may support your strategy. There are a myriad of tools available to perform these tests and many digital marketing platforms, like Google Ads, have experiment features built in to encourage this approach.
Cultivating The Future
Continuous brand advertising
Having an always on presence is essential to creating future returns for your brand. Geico employs this strategy to great effect. Running advertising helps to keep your brand front and center, even to an audience that might not be in the market for your product or services, but may be in the future.
Modernizing the brand experience
The first touchpoint with your brand is most likely to be digitally. It’s imperative to create a great experience for your audience and make it as easy as possible to transact with you online. You can also help your prospective customers along in their buying journey by supplying them with relevant content – blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, videos – to show that you are a trusted resource and turn the odds in your favor of gaining new customers.
Conclusion
Retail marketing continues to evolve as consumers change their shopping and media habits. With the proliferation of new digital channels, it’s critical to understand how to be agile and pivot quickly to meet these changing needs. We know that in order to be relevant, retail marketers need to win new customers today, while planning your own future.
For a more in depth look at digital marketing strategy for retail brands, download our free ebook that details this approach to retail marketing.