To be successful in digital marketing, retailers need to take both macro and micro approaches. Macro: Create a compelling brand story that is more than simply shopping and buying. It could be a cause or an experience (think REI). Micro: Use data to target specifically relevant messages to specific consumers. Generic ads won’t cut it with ad-weary consumers.

I don’t think a business should ever use “standard digital marketing” because I am not sure what the standard is. There is a better chance of getting hit by a truck than clicking on a banner ad. Pay per click has no efficiency and gets more costly at the holidays as competition heats up. Content is great, if it is done correctly. SEO is something you do every day. Video, social and TV are all great mediums — if you have something to say. All retail brands need to think differently to succeed. They need to think about one thing. Online and offline retailers need to think about their customers. They need to think about what that customer persona is and how to best engage with that customer. There is no one-size-fits-all model for marketing. If a brand truly understands their customer, then they have no problem building effective marketing and advertising programs. Ineffective marketing highlights the brands who do not understand their customers. And those are the brands using “standard digital marketing” that is… Read more »

I’m old-fashioned on this one, but to me it’s not as much of “where do I spend my ad money” but more of “what am I going to say with creativity.”

There are so many ads on TV and digital media and most of those ads are not effective. There’s too much of the same “me-me” approach with nothing unique about how to attract the customer to watch and hopefully pay attention. Great campaigns are the ones that stand out, get people talking about them and most importantly responding. Once you create the right campaign, then you can decide on how to deliver it through broadcast media — both TV and radio and absolutely digital. Also make sure that when the customer logs on to the company website there is representation there as well along with representation in-store. Campaigns need to be everywhere in every medium and every place a shopper will see them.

Do tell your story, sell your story and make customers part of that story. Do define “value” by presenting features and benefits. Do use one media device to drive engagement among others. Do acknowledge and empower associates as part of the marketing plan. Do target audiences and deploy messages to make your profile relevant to their lifestyle. Do focus on traffic and conversion.

Don’t think that your stale, static messaging is going to move any needle. Don’t underestimate the importance consumers place on in-store experience. Don’t waste your prospects’ or customers’ time on anything they deem to be of little benefit for the time and attention they gave you.

We shouldn’t paint digital marketing with too broad a brush, and we need to be careful that we don’t oversimplify our metrics. Digital marketing is about MUCH more than email and display ads — search results (on Google, but more importantly on Amazon) are far more important for brands than display ads, and tend to see strong returns. And click-through rate is a terrible measure of success for a display ad: Work that we did at Nielsen five-or-so years ago, where we looked at the impact of display advertising, revealed a negative correlation between campaign impact and click-through rate.

I was in Tokyo a month ago where I encountered an apparel retailer with columns of digital signage outside their store. The digital signage slideshow was actually Instagram photos with product name, price and a QR to scan at the lower-third whitespace to follow their Instagram.

While this sounds simplistic, this retailer was able to generate subscribers and obtain measurable two-way social media and leverage digital assets through one channel using a simple slideshow and flat panel screens. I do not know if there is a standard but this is just one example of how retailers can be creative with digital marketing to get the best bang for the buck this holiday season.

Part of the problem with digital marketing is the difficulty of hitting a moving target. Customer behaviors and preferences change so rapidly that it’s hard to keep up. That’s why personalized content, like live video, is becoming so important. Retailers should not rely on technologies that do not help create a differentiated shopping experience. And if the technologies do not provide useful, leading-edge metrics required for today’s marketplace, then a search should be done for enhanced campaign automation capabilities. For example, when you can actually recognize your customers by name, it’s much easier to keep them engaged and drive them to respond. But knowing their name is one thing. You also want to know who they are, what they like and what interests them. You need the data, insights and analytics that the latest technology can deliver. This is much easier said than done. I am seeing some innovative retailers leveraging some new tools that are dramatically changing their digital marketing strategies because of the findings these tools are providing. Old stuff just doesn’t do… Read more »

Retailers and brands have handcuffed themselves by either not having enough granular data about individual customers or are wallowing in so much Big Data that they cannot see their customers in the marketplace forest. Either or both of these conditions lead to poorly-conceived campaigns that are not personal or relevant. And then management wonders why the results are so poor. John Wannamaker is still correct in his assessment of not only advertising but, today, marketing as a whole. We have only ourselves in marketing to blame because we let the techies set our agendas.

Digital marketing has a wide spectrum. I use our Facebook page to advertise, and boost certain items for a few dollars, and it helps. The other advantage is I already have a captive audience, and those consumers will open up a Facebook post, as they love the in and out deals we bring in. Institutional copy digital advertising I do not open, but if I like a certain retailer, and receive an e-mail blast, or Facebook post, I will look at it, since I am a fan of their products. Does this sound too simple? Maybe, but it can be an elaborate video, or a single red hot sale item, that brings them in, and we always try to keep it fresh. I am done with print advertising at the end of the year, and am seeking out digital companies, who can put together our 8 page tab strictly online, which will save us a huge amount of money. So far some of the proposals are well less than 1/2 of what I am paying,… Read more »

The larger part of digital advertising failure is marketing’s learned need for forced consumer media participation. The radio, television and printed media advertising spots were easily flooded with information used to stimulate interest and drive sales. Consumers no longer have to put up with advertising and more often than not choose any means available to bypass the messages. Companies of all sizes have sunk billions of dollars a month this century to create and support social media advertising with dismal failure as the only global result. Email is not doing much better and it too is on a declining effectiveness pattern. Add to this the increased potency and use of software filters, pop up removers and call block and the task is more daunting. So where do the opportunities lie for retail sales using digital advertising on any size budget? The answer might lie in spending more time to discover, on a personal level, who you need to talk to and how to prospect for them in a digital world. Even the largest retailers prefer… Read more »

Customers in today’s market have high expectations in terms of delivery times. Marketing should express a quick, accurate delivery window, especially in the final weeks before the holidays. That being said, this tactic is only effective if retailers can put their money where their mouths are, and deliver these items on time. That means effect supply chain management. Customer experience is crucial to return customers, and the holiday season is a great time to absorb new business into your loop.