We are now in the e-commerce marketing optimization era. To maintain growth, businesses need to innovate their approach to e-commerce marketing. Stay up to date with the latest sector trends
It's not a surprise that this year's trending e-commerce strategies and tactics all center around making online shopping experiences and comms more persuasive. In 2021, e-commerce retailers need the tools and techniques to stay competitive and defend their market share. That's why we've put together our free retail e-commerce marketing 2021 trends guide for e-commerce marketers to optimize their marketing across the customer lifecycle. As always, we've integrated these trends across our popular RACE Framework of Reach, Act, Convert and Engage.
While online sales continue to grow in importance, the days of easy double-digit, year-on-year growth (as online shopping grew in popularity) are ending. In the era of e-commerce marketing optimization, retailers are rapidly scanning the marketplace to outpace their competitors.…
Streamline your digital marketing strategy through omnichannel marketing planning
Knowing where to start and how to structure a plan is often the most difficult part of planning, especially if you aren’t experienced in creating plans. You may already have one plan or several in place and will be thinking you don't need an omnichannel marketing plan on top of that.
Depending on the type and scale of business, you may have all kinds of different plans in place - both business-wide and for individual channels where different people are responsible for each. For example:
The business plan
Marketing plan
Digital Marketing plan (may or may not be integrated into the marketing plan)
Advertising plan
Customer acquisition plan
Email marketing plan
A retention plan
A social media marketing plan
Conversion optimization plan
That’s a lot of plans and a lot of complexity. All these plans can overlap and even pull in different directions. Omnichannel planning…
What's the meaning of omnichannel today? Definitions and examples of good and bad omnichannel strategy
The promise of omnichannel was to connect brands and customers digitally, meaning they could continue to build their relationship in each subsequent interaction. For the most part, omnichannel hasn’t delivered that.
To understand bad omnichannel marketing, picture yourself in a funhouse surrounded by mirrors. In every direction, you see your reflection in distorted shapes and sizes. The mirrors change appearances, not who you are and what you believe. But if you spend too much time in front of the mirrors – social networks, blogs, or which ever channels you use to present your brand – you can become disoriented and so can your customers.
In these cases, the results of omnichannel marketing feels disjointed to the customer and unmanageable to the marketer. The whole point of ominchannel was to be wherever your potential buyers "hang out." Instead, these…
Your customer's omnichannel digital experience is key to meeting your healthcare marketing goals. Your ability to prioritize determines how fast you'll get there
Naturally, user experience (UX or CX) applies to just about every marketing sector right now. But, where healthcare marketing comes into its own, is the sheer opportunity for data-driven personalization.
Customer-focused healthcare marketing taps into the benefits of digital transformation for manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, healthcare agents, and the patients as end-users.
Firstly, let's consider the digital disruption which puts consumers in a researcher's shoes, and making personal decisions about their healthcare, online:
47% research doctors online
38% research hospital and medical facilities online
77% book medical appointments online
But how can marketers and managers anticipate and satisfy the needs of healthcare consumers demanding products and services on-demand? In this article, we will look into some elements of digital experience, including recommended resources from our Digital Experience…
E-commerce inbound marketing means attracting customers to your online store with engaging and relevant content to increase sales and conversions
E-commerce has rocketed over the last 12 months - and with it, inbound marketing tactics by savvy e-commerce marketers have picked up the pace, competing to attract customers to their site and win that sale.
While a healthy e-commerce marketing strategy will always include a mixture of outbound and inbound marketing, with demand and competition peaking in 2021, there's little doubt that now is the time to focus on your e-commerce inbound marketing strategy to increase your return on investment.
The numbers speak for themselves with e-commerce purchases accounting for 16% of all sales in the US in Q2. In fact, 9 countries were predicted over 20% growth in e-commerce post-COVID, the Asian Pacific market alone forecast $2,448.33 billion of E-commerce sales.
With that in…
The latest user experience update for online chat increases engagement with your customers on their terms
Many marketers already use this free Facebook Chat Plugin for chatting to customers on their website. But with major updates to the Plugin this week (and increased convenience for customers) resulting in a 45% increase in enquiries, there are even more reasons to consider your chat interface.
What is the Facebook Chat Plugin?
The customer-facing Facebook Chat Plugin embeds Facebook’s Messenger app into the bottom right-hand corner of your website. Customers have the option to ‘chat’ to you just as they do with all their other Facebook connections. Until now though, logged-out customers were required to log-in before they can chat.
What does the Facebook plugin guest chat update mean?
With the option…
Omnichannel is the preferred marketing method, Facebook sees app usage decline, Instagram testing new Stories notification list, Pinterest launches Mobile Ad Tools and Facebook reaches $5 billion data privacy agreement
Facebook has had a bit of a busy week, with internal research looking at its app's decline going public and the $5 billion US Justice Department fine being confirmed. On top of this, the platform has also agreed to a raft of new data privacy measures with the FTC.
In other news, research has revealed that consumers from all generations prefer an omnichannel experience rather than just a traditional or purely digital approach.
Instagram is reportedly testing a new type of notification list for Stories, which could be a sign that new features are on the horizon.
Pinterest has also launched new features, with its latest ad tools allowing brands to create advertising campaigns on the go via mobile devices for the first time.
Read…
Chart of the Week: More than three in five consumers say that retail innovations or solutions have made shopping experiences easier, with online shoppers seeing the biggest benefits
More customers now expect a seamless, personalized shopping experience. Whether they are buying in person or online, people want a quick and easy experience, something that is being made more possible with retail technologies.
In fact, more than three out of five consumers say that technologies used in retail and retail innovations have led to an improved shopping experience, according to the latest research from the National Retail Federation (NRF). When it comes to shopping online, 80% of customers say the same compared to 66% shopping in-store.
Despite the fact that there is an increased focus on mobile shopping experiences, only 63% said that shopping technologies and innovations improved…
Is your business equipped to offer customers personalized experiences across multiple channels?
In the era of instant communications and instant gratification, relationships between businesses and customers are changing. Driven by customers’ need for personalized and seamless interactions, brands are constantly adopting new communication channels, which allow them to reach customers at any stage of their purchasing journey.
Making a purchase nowadays is easier than ever as customers can go from discovering a product on Instagram to an online checkout system in less than a minute. With 51% of UK’s consumers saying they prefer to shop online, the pressure is on for businesses to engage customers in high-touch point, more personalized interactions.
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Boost in-store sales with social media. Infographic illustrating the many ways in which retailers can integrate their social presence with the in-store experience.
The topic of omnichannel marketing seems to be on the lips of most retailers these days. In a time when customers have multiple points of contact with retailers, the expectation is that their experience is seamlessly integrated across any and all channels.
Whether a customer is shopping in-store or scrolling through Instagram, consumers now expect each touchpoint with a brand to be consistent.
The gradual move to omnichannel marketing represents a significant shift in the thinking of retailers. No longer seen as competing opposites, the online world and the brick-and-mortar shop are now seen as complementary pieces of the whole experience. When strategically integrated, all these elements can work together to help the business thrive.
Retailers stand to…
