Between the abundance of informational news, promotional ads, and pikachu memes, it can be difficult to break through the clutter of the digital and interactive landscape. However, much like evolving Meltan, it is a feat that can be accomplished.
Think back to the last time you were on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. You most likely came across an ad that made you question whether or not your favorite apparel shops have your home bugged and are reading every Google inquiry you’ve ever searched for. These highly relevant and personalized ads are not the work of some NSA-esque surveillance, but rather the result of some exceptional digital marketing strategies.
Brands that can truly tap into their consumers’ interests and address their pain points will be able to create a positive experience for their customer and, by default, place themselves ahead of the competition for years to come. These days, creating connections and intimate experiences with consumers is more important than ever.
Brands are placing a large emphasis on their digital presence due to the simple fact that everyone is online today. This means that companies who engage their customers online with high-quality, relevant content not only attract more consumers, but will secure them as repeat customers. This is instrumental in the success of a business. According to a Bain and Company study, increasing your customer retention by 5% can produce a 35% increase in profit.
Follow these 5 tips to enhance your digital experience and create those long-lasting connections with your consumers.
Digital marketing is a great avenue to incorporate transparency into your brand. A recent Forrester Report, as reported by Forbes, stated that consumer trust is at an all-time low in 2018. Consumers are very picky these days, and for good reason! They not only want high-quality goods and services, but they also insist on making sure their money goes to a company whose values align with their own. Use your digital platforms to highlight your business practices, your mission statement and values, and your operational process.
For example, companies like Patagonia and Whole Foods, use their website and social media platforms to highlight their supply chain process for their eco-friendly and sustainably-sourced products. Patagonia frequently uses Instagram posts to highlight where they are sourcing their raw materials from, as well as their operational practices. Whole Foods uses their website to illustrate how they avoid preservatives in their products and the ways they seek out organically grown foods to stock their shelves.
Being transparent also means owning up to mistakes and accepting responsibility. Responding to dissatisfied customers in a timely manner and working to remedy the situation will likely result in retaining that customer.
By implementing an effective strategy for addressing dissatisfied customers, you can empower your employees to react in a timely manner with an effective solution for the situation, which can help increase your customer retention. For example, if someone tweets at your company stating that they are unhappy with your product, have a prepared response that will work with that consumer to find a solution (ie. “Thank you Sarah for bringing this issue to our attention. If you could direct message us your address and purchase confirmation number, we’ll get right to work on sending you a new pair of headphones.”).
Your customers are likely to connect to your brand through multiple digital channels. If they follow you on Instagram, they are likely to follow you on Twitter. If they subscribe to your email newsletter, they are likely to have ‘liked’ you on Facebook. So, it stands to reason that the content across these platforms should be consistent, both in the messaging and the quality.
Red Bull is commonly used to illustrate a solid digital marketing campaign. In fact, through the use of their social platforms, website, and YouTube channel, Red Bull has effectively positioned themselves as not only a producer of energy drinks, but also a lifestyle brand that promotes taking the bull by the horns (get it?) and giving it everything you got. Whether you’re a college student who needs to cram for a test, or an adrenaline junkie preparing to jump from the earth’s stratosphere, Red Bull has created a consistent online message that is all about being a go-getter.
The success of Red Bull’s digital marketing strategies is in large part because they know what exactly their consumers want to see in the content they deliver. Which brings us to the next tip…
Make sure that your content strategy is carefully outlined and that all employees are on the same page in terms of who you are targeting and what the message is to them. It’s not enough to just make sure that your brand is active on a wide array of digital mediums. You also need to make sure that you’re active where your audience’s eyes are. Find out which digital platforms your audience uses the most and where they are more likely to consume the content you are creating.
Furthermore, you should conduct focus groups and surveys to see which content your consumers enjoy, what type of content they would like to see, and which content doesn’t resonate with them (any time you eliminate spending resources on content that isn’t valuable is great!). Pay attention to social media likes, shares and follows, email open rates, and other important social media and website metrics to see which content is resonating most with your audience.
In a perfect world, every one of your customers will create a profile on your site that will allow you to specifically target them through digital platforms, such as email them specific offerings that are tailored to past purchases. But a lot of your customers will never take the 3-5 minutes out of their lives to create a profile on your website, and that’s fine.
Some brands have started to force online visitors to create a profile before they can even view the products. While this is a great way to collect information on customers, the bounce rates are much higher than sites that don’t. Customers appreciate the ability to checkout as a guest and you should certainly make it an available option in addition to creating a profile. Providing a guest checkout option will help increase your conversion rates, especially on mobile.
Another way to assist in your e-commerce is using retargeting. Retargeting is a fantastic method for driving conversions for both guest consumers and those who do have online profiles on your site. You can track how users interact with your website, which products they looked at, and whether or not they made a purchase. You can then send them an ad for the products they looked at to try and prompt that sale or help keep your brand in mind for when they are ready to buy.
Why would you use resources to promote other brands with your digital marketing? Look at it this way, your customers will appreciate it and it will help position your brand as a helpful, trustworthy company that actually cares about their consumers.
Cross promotion and working collaboratively with complementary products or services to your own is a fantastic way to increase awareness in other markets that haven’t been exposed to your brand yet. So make sure you put your customers first. They’ll appreciate it, and you’ll help build those oh-so important long-lasting connections. When it comes to increasing your brand loyalty with consumers, focus on how to create the most value for them. Not just with your products or services, but with your digital content.
A great example of this is a hotel that writes blogs on their website to promote other activities and businesses that are nearby. This type of information adds value to the customer by providing information that can make their stay more enjoyable.
Email can still be an extremely powerful and effective way of reaching your customers…if you do it right.
Overly promotional emails where the sole purpose is to try and drive conversions will usually fall flat because your customers are smart. They can tell when you’re not actually trying to offer them value and are instead focused on your bottom line.
But, when you offer email content that does more than prompt them to check out one of your products, you can still improve your sales by offering them value in other ways.
For example, Buck Mason, a clothing brand, featured this link to a holiday playlist for their holiday email campaigns:
By incorporating content on your emails that are more than simply saying, “Hey! Buy this right now!” you can establish a better relationship with your consumers which can help lead to more sales down the road.
In 2013, mobile traffic made up a solid 16.2% of internet traffic. Not bad, but nothing too staggering.
Just five years later, however, that percentage spiked to 55.2%. Now that is something to take note of.
One can only imagine how much higher that percentage will be in 2025, 2030, etc. So, if you haven’t prioritized your website’s mobile presence yet, then you’re already falling behind the rest of the pack. But, that doesn’t mean it’s too late for you! You can still catch up to the competition if you prioritize.
So, what are some simple ways you can optimize your website for mobile devices? This article courtesy of DreamHost has a great breakdown, including these seven tips for improving your mobile presence:
Just about everyone owns a mobile device and no matter your industry — whether you’re in the consumer packaged goods market, pharmaceutical sector, or the food and beverage sphere — having a strong mobile presence will certainly bring you more traffic, conversions, and an improved brand experience.
Did you know that it takes about .05 seconds for a user to form an opinion on your website? So, even if your desktop site looks great, if your mobile site is lackluster, your users will simply hit the back button and search elsewhere for a different brand that can meet their needs.
How important is video for your brand experience? Well, 51% of marketing professionals around the world agree that between all the various forms of content, video has the best ROI.
Content with high ROI tells you two things. First, it shows that the type of content is highly engaging and effective. Next, it illustrates that in comparison to the cost it takes to produce video, the return you’re receiving in sales and brand equity is well worth the effort.
Whereas with written content, you simply need to write and publish it — whether in a blog, email, etc. With video you need to write a script, film it, edit, and publish it. You also need to make sure that the quality of the video accurately reflects the quality of your products or services. Otherwise, it may end up costing you engagement in the long run.
But, the same can be said for all types of content. A poorly written blog post or a feebly designed landing page will not be nearly as effective as a well-written article and a beautifully designed page. So, as with all the other forms of content you publish digitally, you need to put in the work and resources to make sure that your video content looks and sounds great.
One of the reasons why video brings in such a great return for businesses is because it can be used in multiple mediums, including on your website, on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, and more.
If you’re interested in introducing video but aren’t sure if you have the resources to do it internally, look around for some video production companies to outsource this task. They’ll ensure that the quality of the videos is high, and most will also help draft scripts that fit your brand image and meet your business goals.
Consumers are impatient, which can be at times frustrating — especially when you have the Amazon empire promising same-day delivery. While a week, even longer, used to be the standard.
But this need for speed expands to more facets of your business than just delivery or customer service. It also involves your website speed.
Just how much more effective can a fast website be compared to a slow one? Well, sites that load in four seconds (compared to those that load in 19 seconds) see 70% longer average sessions. Basically, when a site is slow, site users are more inclined to exit out of them and try something else to find what they are looking for faster.
Think about a time when you were in a location that had poor wifi. It’s pretty annoying, even if it’s just a little bit slower than you’re used to. This can be analogous to when your competitor’s website is fast vs. when yours is slightly slower. If a potential customer goes from their site to yours, they may attribute the extra speed of their website to the overall quality of their offerings.
When it comes to optimizing your website speed, every (milli) second matters. According to research conducted by Akami, a 100-millisecond delay can hurt conversion rates by 7 percent. Meanwhile, a two-second delay in a web page load time can increase bounce rates by over 100 percent.
While there are many great tactics for improving page speed, Moz has a helpful article that dives into some effective tips for helping your website load faster. This includes:
Your brand’s digital presence needs to be more than a Facebook page and a Google Business listing. You need content that can support digital marketing delivery consistently across multiple digital platforms. Digital Asset Management (DAM) supports this initiative by allowing your teams to store, manage, and distribute all of your digital assets from a single location.
At MediaBeacon, we have nearly 30 years of experience helping our customers implement a strong and impactful digital experience for their consumers with our DAM software. If you’re ready to take your digital marketing initiatives to the next level, contact us today to get started!
Written By: Maria Jollie
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