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Hello everyone, welcome to another Digitize Your Firm webinar – with me, Stephen, your host! Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into some industry-specific content by looking at strategies for retail establishments. Not only will this allow us to hone in on detailed strategies, but I personally have five years of frontlines retail experience that I’m more than happy to share.
For anyone joining us is a retail marketing ninja or for those who are just starting out, I welcome all comments and questions, simply click the green speech bubble at the top of the screen to open the chat and either type out your comment or ask to speak. If you haven’t already, be sure to click the ‘phone’ icon next to it the chat icon to ensure your audio is connected.
As with all Digitize Your Firm webinars, this will be recorded for later playback in case you wanted extra time with a certain section or for listening on the go. If you haven’t already, please visit the Weekly Webinar Schedule on our Digitize Your Firm page to check out our past webinars.
Now, let’s go over today’s agenda.
We’re going to start today by easing in to the conversation around existing retail strategies, and what sort of tools are at your disposal. From there, we’re going to talk about how you can benefit from web tracking and discuss how you can personalize your own communications to customers and some marketing ideas to get you going. As always, we’ll do our review before introducing the topic for next week.
This today we’re going to shift gears and take a look at retail marketing and how you can use digital solutions to improve communications, add to your marketing, and bolster your customers’ experiences.
Shoppers have more choices now than ever before. No matter what they are shopping for, there is competition. From clothing to electronics to groceries, if you want to stand out from the competition, you need to engage your customers in new and exciting ways.
With digital marketing, you can create and send personalized messages to all your customers easily and quickly through email, SMS, social media, and more.
There are lots of tools out there to help with your retail marketing and today you’ll learn all about them!
A critical part of any marketing strategy is web tracking software. This software allows you to see what your website visitors’ are viewing on your site on an individual level and as an overview.
An effective web tracking software provides you with the ability to see how your website is performing overall so you can maximize engagement as well as show you what each individual site visitor is interested in by creating a log.
These personalized profiles go a long way to ensuring that everything your customers view on your site is recorded. This information can be used to personalize your marketing and communications to each customer individually.
But, in order to do that they need to sign up and opt in first.
An integrated signup form allows your customers to opt in for communications right away from your website. Then, web tracking software will automatically match the signup for with the personalized profile associated with that IP address. You now have a full record of that customer’s interactions with your website.
On your signup form, the fewer questions you have the more people will fill it out. One study showed that a four-question version of an 11-question signup form increased signups by 160 percent. So, in order to maximize the number of contacts you receive from your signup form, make it as short as possible. If you need additional information after the fact you can always send a follow-up survey.
To gain more signups, you could also have your signup form as a landing page and promote it on social media and other places your customers frequent. Landing pages are ideal for gathering signups because they give your customers an immediate place to sign up for communications without having to navigate to different pages to find the form. Instead, the form is on the page as soon as they click the link.
As an added bonus, you can use social media automation to post your landing page automatically. With an all-in-one solution, you can create social media campaigns to ensure that your landing page is posting on your Facebook and Twitter accounts regularly and consistently. You can also use social media automation to post other content as well in order to engage your social media followers.
Now that you have a profile on each customer and a contact method, now you’re able to send them personalized communications. Digital marketing allows you to market to customers on an individual basis. This means in your communications you can automatically send customers certain offers and content based on their interactions and engagement with your retail operation.
Email is a staple in online marketing because it is a quick and effective way to get a lot of information to a lot of people quickly. This is especially true in the case of email newsletters. Businesses send these out in mass because they have information they want all customers to receive right away. However, generic mass newsletters like this are not engaging for your audience.
If you want to increase your open rate and engage your customers more you need to provide them with personalized content. In fact, 40 percent of consumers purchase more from businesses that personalize their “shopping experience” and 80 percent of consumers like when they receive emails containing recommendations based on previous purchases.
Personalized content is the key to success.
When you’re creating an email newsletter, information can be automatically taken from each individual’s profile in the CRM to make that newsletter more appealing to them. For example, if one user had looked at red couches extensively on your website and your newsletter contained information on an upcoming couch sale then that piece of information would be featured more heavily for that user. This is only one example. Digital marketing can also let you personalize emails based on location, interactions with your communications, and any other criteria you think would be valuable to include.
Personalized Email Newsletters
Emails are a great way to provide retail information, and they can be easily personalized. With an automated retail solution, emails and other communications are personalized based on stored data, specific dates, customer profiles and particular preferences. You don’t even have to segment the customers yourself, it’s all done automatically.
Emails can be used to send personalized retail promotions that cater to each customer’s unique preferences. Keep your content brief so you don’t lose your customers’ interest. Include your company branding and provide an engaging subject line. Coupons are often distributed by email with great success. Coupons increase business and draw customers into your store.
Hold Exclusive Contests
Contests are a great way to gain new customers and re-engage customers who may not have been into the store in a while. On social media, contest posts and tweets frequently go viral. Simplify the process of promoting your retail contest by automating your social media posting. Schedule contest messages and communication to be posted over the course of the contest, such as a week.
Contests are a great way to increase your followers. Hold contests that are only available to social media users. This is a great incentive for people to like your pages, follow you and retweet your content.
Text Message Coupons
People always carry their mobile phone around with them, and most text messages are opened within five minutes of being received. Text message coupons are, therefore, a great way to entice customers into your store. Customers don’t even have to print the coupon. Instead, they can just scan the coupon right from their phone.
Get people to sign up for retail text message updates by providing simple signup forms on your website, on your social media pages and at your point of sale in stores. Text message updates are easily personalized.
Run Surveys
Hold frequent online surveys to find out what your customers think about your customer service, which products they like, how they prefer to be contacted and so on.
Surveys are easily created through an automated retail solution using drag and drop elements and pre-made templates. Results are collected automatically and stored in each customer’s personal profile. You can then analyze the results. This feedback provides you with information so you can improve your products, services, communication and customer care.
Many customers don’t want to take the time to take surveys, however. To combat this, provide an incentive that customers will get at the end of the survey. This could be a coupon, a small discount or some other small reward. Don’t make it too enticing because then customers will just rush through the survey to get to the prize at the end. Also, keep the survey short and include only simple, essential questions.
1. When it comes to digital marketing for retailers, the task can be both exciting and daunting. Not only can you closely communication with your clientele, but you can send them tailored content that speaks to their needs. Whether you’re selling this seasons latest styles, the most recent food harvest, or electronics that are all the rage, you’ve got a plethora of options in front of you.
2. Web tracking can be one of your key tools to getting a strong handle on what your customers are looking for. Not only can you track both anonymous and known visitors, but you can see which pages are popular and where they may be dropping off. All of this information can be stored and used later for different campaigns and to find niche markets that you can send targeted messages to.
3. Remember that the key to expert retail marketing strategies is personalization and tailoring – sending emails en masse wouldn’t get the same results a targeted send will (not to mention an increase in engagement). If you sell clothing, consider having a separate newsletter for men, women, and children. If you sell electronics, considering send an email to different system users or even niches like gamers. All of this data can be stored in a CRM, giving you lasting knowledge of your client base and the ability to plan ahead.
4. Finally, there are countless ways you can start engaging with your client base digitially. We’ve talked about personalized emails, but trying a content on social for chance to win a great prize to gain followers and generate interest. If you’re having a slow day, try sending out an text coupon redeemable in store to pump up the foot traffic. You also don’t have to try to read your customers mind – run a survey to find out how they find your service, what styles they’d like to see, what they enjoy, and you can even ask them for an online review.
Next week, we’re going to keep the retail train going by talking about more digital strategies you can use, communicating with customers beyond email, and promotional ideas for all communication channels.
