Online activity is a two way street:  consumers are “showrooming”— browsing businesses and going online, and “webrooming”— researching online and purchasing in brick-and-mortar establishments.  Following are insights about success in the connected commerce space.

What Consumers are Doing Online (activities scoring high):

• Looking up product information.
• Checking/comparing prices.
• Searching for deals/promotions/coupons.

What Consumers are not Doing Online (activities scoring low):

• Clicking on email ads.
• Subscribing to product/store emails.
• Liking/tweeting/commenting on social media.

Consumers Pursue Information All the Time (see chart):

• 87% before visiting a business.
• 79% while visiting a business.
• 35% after visiting a business.

Strategies for Omni-Channel (Online/Offline) Success:

• Be customer-centric: Understand consumers’ demographics, purchase habits, path to purchase.
• Prioritize personalization: Provide clients with relevant, personalized information/offers.
• Think digital, but don’t neglect in-store: Physical establishments maintain many key advantages over online-only channels.  Customer service is a differentiator in every channel — providing exceptional service should be a primary focus for businesses.

Connected consumers = smart consumers, and they are using digital options to make informed purchase decisions, from reviewing products/services online to using in business establishments.

“Digital is viewed less as a threat to brick-and-mortar… and more as an opportunity.  Today’s winning brands use a combination of on and offline strategies to… help consumers make more informed decisions… [and] add value throughout the entire [purchase] experience.”

— Patrick Dodd, President, Nielsen Global Retailer Vertical

 

Source:  thinkwithgoogle.com

 

Awareness is the first stage in the customer purchase funnel — a buyer must be aware of your product/service before making a purchase. While ROI (Return on Investment) focuses on sales, ROO (Return on Objectives) focuses on defining metrics, such as increased awareness, brand impact, and purchase intent. Awareness is an important metric to be measured as it can be a major asset when trying to influence purchase decisions.

STRATEGIES

Strategies for how awareness contributes to driving objectives and sales defines the metrics used to measure effectiveness:

• For short-term gain, generate a spike in awareness just prior to an integrated campaign; also, condition the target audience with awareness of key attributes that educates potential buyers.
• For long-term strategy, re-position brand perceptions that builds awareness of advantages relative to a competitor, leading to higher preference, sales conversion, and loyalty.

METRICS
Awareness works well as a “diagnostic” tool to understand why other metrics, such as consideration, intention, purchase, etc., may be under-performing:

• Place increased weight on your primary target audience since they are a good fit with your brand and are more likely to move from awareness to consideration and purchase.
• Assess awareness among buyers currently in the purchase funnel, which is a better measure of effectiveness than from consumers not likely to buy for a long period of time.

MEASUREMENT
To measure ROO and ROI from awareness-building initiatives, design the measurement to understand customer behaviors:

• Assess the short-term lift in engagement and purchase actions associated with increases in brand awareness; allow for a slight lag time using modeling or market testing.
• Track perception metrics and your brand attribute ratings relative to competitors with ongoing or pre-post campaign surveys; closely monitor awareness changes relative to other metrics (consideration, intent, purchase, etc.).

Your business is mentioned all over the Internet.  It’s important to have your business listed in as many directories as possible, as it helps your ranking in Google Maps’ search results and with local SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  Following are steps for optimum results:

1. Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number)

• Google improves search results by aggregating information about your business from all over the web. Make sure your name, address and phone number are listed the same everywhere, especially if your business has moved, changed names or phone numbers.
• Check that your business information on third-party sites is accurate; contact the respective site directly with any corrections.

2. Google Yourself

• Google your business to see if it shows up in directories, such as Yellow Pages, Manta, Yelp, Foursquare, etc.
• Every directory gives the option to update information. Follow up in two weeks to verify any changes you made.

3. Take Ownership

• Many directories add businesses on their own, not based on submissions.
• It is important to see if there is an option to claim, manage or take ownership of your listing.

4. Document

• Taking ownership gives you full control over your listings and is essential in keeping your information correct.
• Document the sign-in user name/password for each listing, so if your information needs changes, you can easily do it yourself.

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Listings are the first “picture” consumers will see of your business, so ensure that each one is accurate, informative and up to date.  Claiming and maintaining listings is one of the most crucial elements of your presence on the Internet. 

Source:  Jordan J. Caron, Meaningful Marketing; Google My Business Support Area

 

 

In the past, companies typically used mass media (ex: TV, print, radio, etc.) to reach large audiences and there was limited data for digital advertising.

Today, we are in the “age of local,” where marketing wars are digital and local relevance is key for major brands and local businesses.

Follow the Money

• Multi-location brands are spending 25% of their budgets on location-based marketing.
• More than 50% of multi-location brands are using location data to target customers.¹

New Balance of Power

• Local businesses are investing in digital, going head-to-head with the national competition.
• Digital ad spend overall surpassed that spent on community-based print and broadcast for the first time in 2017, and this trend is forecast to continue through 2022² (see chart):

Getting to Digital Proficiency

PwC released its Entertainment & Media Outlook Report, a study that contains projections for online and offline media advertising expenditures through 2021. The following are highlights for major media markets in the U.S.

	Online Advertising Online is expected to have a 9.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR)¹ through 2021. Mobile online is projected to grow at a 18.7% CAGR, with wired online forecast to decline.
	Out-of-Home Advertising Out-of-home advertising has the strongest prognosis of traditional media, due to the healthy projected growth in digital out-of-home advertising. Digital out-of-home (ex. billboard, DMV, elevator, gas station) is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.1%.
	TV Advertising TV is projected to grow slowly at a 1.3% CAGR through 2021, in part due to declining TV viewing. Online TV is slowing, with a CAGR of 7.4% this year.
	Magazine Advertising Consumer magazines will remain flat through 2021; digital’s CAGR of 13.1% will offset print’s -9.7%. Trade magazines are also expected to remain flat.
	Radio Advertising Radio is expected to remain flat through 2021 with a CAGR of 1.2%, excluding satellite radio (which represents a fraction of total radio advertising). Online radio will be the fastest-growing segment, with a CAGR of 8.6%; broadcast radio continues to be the dominant form, but will remain flat in growth.
	Newspaper Advertising Newspapers are expected to see a decline in revenues between now and 2021. Digital advertising’s CAGR of 2.2% is not growing quickly enough to offset print’s -12.6%.
	Cinema Advertising Cinema is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 2.4%. Cinema advertising revenues will continue to be dwarfed by box office revenues.

1 The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is the proportional growth rate from year to year for a business, used to calculate growth over a time period.

Source: PwC’s Entertainment & Media Outlook, reported by Marketingcharts.com

Tracking and monitoring competitors’ operations can help businesses develop their own successful marketing efforts and strategies.  It’s important to look at their clients, new products/services being offered, and keep up with price fluctuations and demands within a specific market.

1. Review How Your Competitors are Reaching Consumers
“Review… the media your competition is using to reach consumers… where they are advertising and what offers are being leveraged… [for] insight on how to plan your own marketing efforts.”   — Mike Tinz, VP-Money Mailer

2. Review Competitors’ Websites
Look on competitors’ websites to see what products/services they offer, which might be different  from those your own business offers.

3. Compare Your SEO Efforts
To move your company higher in search rankings and generate more business, make sure your website keywords are current. Search Google using the keywords your customers are likely to use and note where you and your competitors are ranking.

4. Check Out Customer Review Sites and Speak to Your Own Customers
Check what others are saying by looking at review sites in your industry.  Ask your customers what they like and don’t like to learn how to improve your own business.

5. Understand Pricing and Special Offers
“Understanding the pricing and special offers that your competition is advertising will… create a compelling proposition to drive traffic [to] your business [and] help you better understand if you are under-priced or… overpriced.” — Mike Tinz, VP-Money Mailer

6. Use Google Alerts¹ to Your Advantage
Setting up Google Alerts to arrive in your inbox for a specific company/industry will ensure you remain up-to-date on any news stories related to your business.

7. Learn How Internet and Social Media are Being Used to Communicate
Use the Internet to learn how competitors are communicating with consumers.
Follow your competitors on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., to examine their strategies.

8. Buy From a Competitor
An old-fashioned way to track competition is to buy from them directly. Visit their store or website to learn about their products/services. Utilize this information to advance your business.

It’s important to stay abreast of changes in today’s competitive business landscape.Monitoring your competitors is an integral step to ensure your company progresses.

¹Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service, offered by Google. The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results—such as web pages, articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match the user’s search terms.

Source:  Small Business Trends, Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead; Mike Tinz, VP-Money Mailer