Every marketing initiative in your organization should be centered around your consumers and ensuring they have a premium experience from end to end. If your brand isn’t able to serve up consistent experiences across channels—which is precisely what 75 percent of shoppers expect—consumers will look for solutions elsewhere.
Solving this problem starts with aligning your digital strategy to address the real-world needs of your consumers. Here’s how to do that.
Many brands during COVID-19 found themselves breaking down silos to increase the efficiency of production, respond quicker to market changes, and better align with shifting consumer needs. These silos had emerged because different expertises exist in one organization. However, the obstacles that come along with silos far outweigh the benefits in a world where flexibility and the ability to pivot rapidly are essential to winning. With silos in place, communication falters, and it’s that much harder to ensure your consumers have consistent experiences across digital touchpoints.
Many marketing leaders who shattered these silos internally during COVID-19 plan to continue these learned efficiencies. Now that cities across the country are reopening, brands can continue to shatter marketing silos while continuously optimizing the customer experience across channels. Maintain open lines of communication across your team, and give your employees the tools and data they need to understand where consumers want to shop and what kinds of campaigns are most persuasive.
Digital marketing has transformed the way consumers connect with brands. Social media, in particular, provides a unique opportunity for innovative engagement as it is a platform where users expect to experience authenticity and connection in the digital world.
During COVID-19, social media use increased as users connected online during social distancing, turning to these platforms for engagement, escape, and information. At MikMak, we saw a similar increase in eCommerce demand as these channels have also become the biggest discovery touchpoint for brands. Before COVID-19, one study predicted that the U.S. social commerce market will increase to $84.2 billion by 2024, up from the $29.3 billion that the market is expected to haul in this year. Due to Stay at Home, this growth has accelerated by 10 years overnight.
One example of successful leveraging of social media comes from L'Oréal, a brand that has recently leaned into influencer selling. With some of those influencers becoming super sellers, the company has been able to expand its commerce capabilities on social media.
What does your product do? How does it make people's lives better? How does it bring them joy? These are the questions you should be asking as a marketer. And the answers to these questions should be clear in your messaging.
Marketing has changed from traditional advertising to connecting brands (and their products) with consumers in a meaningful way. Messaging and creative that address pain points when they are most relevant to the consumer win in the digital era. In doing so, you ensure that your campaigns are effective and your marketing dollars are being well spent.
By taking a proactive approach toward identifying consumer pain points and how you can solve them, you position your product in a way that is relevant and helpful to your consumers. As a successful digital marketer, you must learn the emotional benefits of your product to your consumers as well as physical use cases. This translates to effective messaging and winning campaigns. Are you marketing a cleaning product to households that care about disinfecting surfaces during a pandemic? Provide education that expands on known use cases in your messaging. Different ways of staying up to speed on consumer sentiment include sending regular surveys, organizing and archiving feedback, and reviewing engagement data.
Now that you have the right message, it’s important to meet consumers where they are. Increased connections through digital engagement means more data, more optimization, and more knowledge of who your consumers are and what they need.
Quality engagement means better brand loyalty. It’s also an effective way to improve the overall shopping experience, which is a big deal because understanding consumer preferences is rapidly becoming the key differentiator in the digital age. Your brand and eCommerce teams should align on what quality engagement means for you.
The good news is modern marketers who are ahead of the curve have the tools they need to find where their consumers are engaging, deliver thumb-stopping shopping experiences, solve real-life problems, and simplify the path to purchase. With data on hand and a commitment to improving consumers’ lives guiding your digital strategy, you can boost brand awareness, engage more consumers, and, ultimately, get your organization to the next level.
Demo MikMak today to learn more about how you can give your marketing team the tools, insights, and integrations they need to figure out the best way to delight consumers every time.