Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!
This era of multi-channel marketing and customer engagement means many small and mid-size businesses feel pressured to establish a presence anywhere and everywhere. Is this a bad thing?
It seems luxury brands are now stitching together online and offline services to engage customers and give the best Fashion Week experience.
As the the fashion world opened its doors for the annual New York style parade on Thursday (September 8), a livestream of the catwalk was engaging consumers via multiple platforms. Fashion Week has made an online presence on social media with SnapChat having exclusive stories following the different catwalk displays. While Instagram provides polished and refined images, SnapChat offers a raw glimpse behind-the-scenes of shows, allowing users to get exclusive access to top brands.
Burberry is leading the way in this, with investment of more than 60 per cent of their marketing budget on digital. According to Contactlab’s ‘Digital and Physical Integration: Luxury Retail’s Holy Grail’ study, Burberry is also bringing together online and offline operations, with click & collect already representing 15 per cent of Burberry’s online sales. While Burberry paves the way for luxury brands, others are still struggling to grasp the significant impact engaging with customers online and offline will have on their brands.
Senior advisor of Contactlab, Marco Pozzi (pictured), said: “Brands should not consider each channel as separate, but simultaneously valuable to the overall omni-channel experience. Customers want ease and comfort and so, if they find a product on one channel, they should be able to seamlessly navigate through the purchasing process with convenience.
“This is why it is important that brands do not disconnect the different channels, but connect the dots as part of their customer engagement strategy.”
Contactlab found in the Digital Frontier 2016 study that customers with a digital presence who are digitally contactable are high spenders in-store and account for 27 per cent of in-store revenue and 73 per cent of e-commerce revenue. With the rise of e-commerce and digital engagement tools, luxury brands have access to customer data that will allow them to create a dynamic and personalised approach which integrates people preferences within the customer interactions. Through data-driven marketing, brands are able to create a richer understanding of the customers.
Pozzi continued: “We now live in a world where everything is captured digitally through various platforms and the fashion world is no exception.
“Fashion shows unfold live from SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. This narrows the gap between the consumer and brands, opening up a relationship which is more personalised.
“Shoppers now crave interaction with brands who understand their needs, preference and expectations, feeding in insights from customer data can help brands enhance their relationship with customers and make informed decisions for their marketing strategies.”
A study by Juniper Research has found that machine learning is likely to lead to an era of ‘fully personalised’ ad delivery.
Shoppers are getting used to automation in retail – such as self-checkouts and voice recognition – but hate repeating themselves when they have an issue with a brand which needs to be dealt with either in-store, online or over the phone.
Jed Mole examines data technology and says 21st century experts in data are colliding with top-level engineers to steam ahead as the very best marketers.
Simon Schnieders discusses the advantages of marketers adopting voice search SEO strategies sooner rather than later, as its increase in popularity poses a significant shift for SEO professionals. He highlights differences between written searches and voice searches and how data obtained from consumer habits can be utilised into digital marketing campaigns to increase conversions.
The majority of PR crises either start or become worse on Twitter and one in five break on Twitter. This makes the platform more influential than Facebook and YouTube, says international study.
You might still be lolling in your summer shorts, but one company is calling you to action stations, with Black Friday just three months away. What’s more, Salmon claims it will be not just Black Friday, but a Black Fiveday week, predicting that a record breaking £5 billion spent online from Thursday November 24 through to Cyber Monday.
It says retailers need to be in the midst of their preparations now for that shopping phenomenon – and in order to help them get ready, global digital commerce consultancy Salmon has devised a checklist to ensure they are thinking about their peak trading operations and making the vital requirements.
Black Friday hit the £1billion mark last year in online sales, as Salmon had predicted, and this year Salmon is anticipating that it will be even bigger.
Salmon’s head of managed services, John Beechen, has advice for businesses on what to achieve in order to be truly ready. Beechen said: “Retailers should think about peak trading as a crisis that they know will happen in advance. Preparation is vital and retailers need to consider their business and operational plans for the period.”
Beechen added: “Retailers must ensure that they have laid out clear contingency plans for their teams to respond to issues during the week. The Black Friday week is an excellent opportunity for retailers to win new customers and grow their customer following and ultimately increase sales.
“The retailers who were as prepared as possible, from front-end to back-end, have been the ones to see success.”
Salmon has created ‘The Black Friday and Peak Trading Ecommerce Operations Playbook’, a guide based on Salmon’s experience in supporting the peak operations of several leading UK retailers.
A new study by The Software Bureau reveals that 60 per cent of marketers do not practice reverse marketing; the management of returned direct mail, which costs firms £4.02 per piece of returned mail.
Approximately 90 million pieces of direct mail (2.5 per cent) are returned to sender each year. Forty per cent of these or 36 million are returned due to the recipient’s wish to be removed from the marketing database, equating to a loss of potential revenue of £116 million and £29 million in wasted production costs.
Reverse marketing enables organisations to compile in-house do not mail lists that can be screened against future campaigns reducing the volume of mistargeted mailings, saving money and improving the reputation of the organisation among customers.
The study revealed B2B organisations to be the worst culprits followed by retailers, credit card providers, retailers, pension providers and charities. Conversely, local government was found to be the most responsible.
Martin Rides, managing director of The Software Bureau, said: “The fact that every piece of returned mail costs businesses £4 is incredible – this soon adds up, amounting to thousands per year.
“Reverse marketing is a key component to reducing the volume of mistargeted direct mail. It is shocking that only four in ten organisations manage their returns and, more importantly, learn from them.
“Our new initiative, Lean DM, helps organisations to identify the areas which produce the most wastage in their direct mail activity and minimise it. With the advent of GDPR and increased scrutiny from the media and legislative bodies, it is crucial that organisations focus on data hygiene.”
The study was carried out by ‘mystery shopping’ last month.
£4.02 = 3.6 billion pieces of DM sent annually (OFCOM) x 2.5 per cent returned (Royal Mail) x 40 per cent of returns due to opt outs (DMA) = 90 million returns x lost ROI (£3.22 Royal Mail) and average cost of a mail pack (£0.80).
Big data, artificial intelligence analytics and connectivity are driving Fintech revenue, report reveals.