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Erik Newton
M Posted 8 years ago
t 5 min read

Retail Marketing Advantage

Online shopping has become an increasingly important factor in the retail industry. Online retail revenue had 11 percent growth, year-over-year, during the first quarter of 2014. Online shopping retail is projected to continue to grow from $231 billion in 2012 to $370 billion by 2017. It is also estimated that more than a third of every dollar spent in retail stores has been influenced by digital interactions with the brand. For businesses to thrive in the modern marketplace, they must be able to succeed online. At Share15 we want to help our retail attendees gain the insights they need to make their online goals a reality. That is why we have brought in speakers from some of the leading retail brands to discuss some of the most pressing issues impacting those in this vertical. 

Creating a remarkable experience

The core challenge for many retail brands is to find a way to get their voice heard above the crowd. The marketplace today has become incredibly saturated with products and brands that fill nearly every niche available and it is extremely difficult to develop a product that cannot also be purchased from a competitor. This means that retailers must focus instead on the buyer’s experience. They need to be enticing from the first interaction with the customer through the transaction and even after the customer has made their purchase. Creating this outstanding experience begins online. An estimated 81 percent of shoppers will conduct online research before they make a purchase. This includes 60 percent who will use a search engine to look for specific products. People are interested in learning more about their options and what is available to help them solve their problem.

Retailers must focus on answering this need to begin the creation of a fantastic experience. Knowing exactly who your customers are and what they want to learn about can be particularly helpful. This can be done by constructing customer personas that illustrate the central categories of customers that your business attracts and what drives those customers to make a purchase. This will guide your content development, your optimization efforts and your personalization initiatives.

At Share15 you will be able to dive deeply into the creation of  customer personas and how to leverage data to understand your audience. Gain insights about how to create content for multiple personas and how to use your content to build engagement. Jesse Farley of retail giant Cabela’s and Erin Everhart of The Home Depot will be two of the presenters. You can also listen to Adam Audette of RKG speak about going beyond the algorithm. Many retailers struggle with the ever-shifting requirements. The year 2014 alone saw multiple updates that targeted low-quality content.

The mobile update of April 2015 also left many brands struggling to ensure that their content was up to date.Keeping up with the Google algorithm and how customers search Audette and his co-presenters will help you understand how and why the algorithm keeps changing and how you can optimize strategies and data that will keep your site in front of your customers’ eyes. They will speak about focusing on the end user instead of focusing on the algorithm and how this can benefit your company as a whole.

Using data to drive decisions

Given the intense competition of the retail marketplace, you need to leverage data to ensure that you are reaching your marketing goals. Listen to Jay King of Ben & Jerry’s and Stefan Zechner of Western Union Company speak about leveraging data to ensure that campaigns are executed with maximum efficiency. In the heavily competitive retail marketspace, keeping costs down whenever possible is critical for success, so ensuring that your marketing campaigns are aimed precisely at your target audience and that no resources are spent unnecessarily will be valuable. Data can also help you better engage with your audience by helping you understand them and what they want to find. This can further help enhance the customer experience. The power of data can be incredible.

Mastering the multi-channel approach

As a digital savvy retailer, you know that meeting your customers’ needs requires having a strong presence on multiple platforms. You want customers to find you on search, engage with you social, and convert either on your website or be inspired to visit one of your stores. Managing an integrated campaign that allows you to take a holistic approach and look at your customer’s journey across the different spaces where they might interact with the brand. This will help you remain relevant in the minds of your customers and improve brand reach. You can explore the convergence between search, social and content by listening to a presentation by Jamie Peach of House of Fraser (UK) and consider how to build marketing campaigns holistically so that you can reach your customers across the digital ecosystem.

Search and social are heavily intertwined with content as all three must work together to create content that is truly optimized and ready to bring in the retail customers that online marketing is capable of producing. You can also listen to Allan Price of Monster Energy give a presentation on managing an integrated marketing campaign. He and his co-presenters will look at how to use multiple channels and build cross-functional teams that can work towards a common goal and deliver a common message.

Managing a successful retail brand requires mastering the arts of online marketing, e-commerce, social, and physical retail. Meeting the needs of these digital customers poses many challenges for retail brands. Come to Share15 to listen to industry leaders and gain the insights you need to succeed. If you have not registered yet for Share15, visit our event website and sign up today. We look forward to seeing everyone in just a few weeks.