We’re definitely experiencing some extraordinary times, aren’t we?! Brexit, COVID and now a downturn. The only certainty is it won’t last because everything changes. Welcome to running a business. How do we get you through this? The answer will always be digital marketing for retailers – tightly focused, closely monitored.
The cycle of people spending less, businesses cutting costs, reducing prices, and stopping all investment goes round and round. Nothing improves, people spend even less, and businesses start to cut more costs – and so it goes.
When businesses start cutting, it’s often marketing and advertising budgets that take the first hit. But you need customers – now more than ever. It’s too dangerous to rely on your existing customers for repeat purchases and valuable referrals. For sure, look after these people but stability comes from a balance of the loyal and the new. So you still have to actively find and reach the latter. No downturn is going to change that.
But it does make sense to review your marketing and focus on what you need to achieve to get you through the next 6 months or so. Just don’t turn it off because it’s too dangerous to let short-term budget constraints harm long-term visibility. In this first of two blogs on retailing through a downturn, we look at why you literally cannot afford to ignore digital marketing.
Google Ads: to spend or not to spend
According to research by the Harvard Business Review, those consumer goods companies that maintain or increase their advertising during a downturn can capture market share from their weaker rivals.
Essentially, if your competitors are feeling the pressure and cutting back on their digital marketing, your space will become less competitive. Fewer businesses bidding on ads, brings the CPA down. Your target consumer has less of a choice and your acquisition cost will be cheaper.
We would say that, wouldn’t we?
OK, consider this: as recently as 2020 early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-per-click of Google Ads dropped dramatically because, not surprisingly, many retailers immediately cut their budgets. But not all. Some continued with their campaigns and increased their market share thanks to those retailers who paused their campaigns or reduced budgets. And those retailers found that market share isn’t so simply taken back.
Be Agile
As inflation bites, consumers will not only reduce their outgoings, they’ll also become less impulsive. They may still spend some of their disposable income, but only with brands they know well or trust to offer value for money.
So businesses need to be even better at targeting and delivering. That is, finding ‘your’ consumers, leading them to your site and making it easy to navigate to your checkout and complete their purchase.
The vital role Google search plays in the success of your online retail activity means PPC plays a vital role. But it’s not just about the ads; follow through once prospects click onto your site is equally important otherwise you really are wasting your budget.
We’ve written before about the need for your PPC being part of a bigger marketing campaign. Now really is the time to understand two things:
- How your customers’ behaviours have changed, and;
- How your business and marketing should be positioned.
Profile your customers
Time to take a quick, but thorough, review of who you are targeting. Google has lots of tips and helpful advice on reaching customers based on interest and finding demographic groups. But, before you reach that stage, you need to make sure you know exactly who you are targeting.
Build a list of characteristics to help you identify your prospects – age, gender, location etc. Then segment audience profiles into groups with similar behaviours, so you can tailor your ads to reach the audience likely to deliver the biggest return on investment (ROI).
It’s just as important to understand those who don’t matter to you. One of the biggest criticisms aimed at all digital marketing, but particularly PPC, is how untargeted it can be, wasting time and money on unprofitable prospects. That’s rarely the fault of the platform! You never want your marketing to be a stab in the dark so, the more accurate the targeting, the better the platform will perform. Identifying your audience means understanding their problems so you can tailor your messages accordingly. You build a relationship with your audience and develop brand loyalty, using their testimonials to make your ad content resonate even more.
A strong and well thought-out audience profile can help you build up a relationship between you and your prospects, gaining sales and customers’ loyalty.
Once you’ve defined your target audience successfully, you can monitor their buying behaviour. Then target each segment/audience differently with exactly the right content.
Marketing strategy
There are 5 key tasks to help you create a digital marketing strategy for now:
- Define your target audience
See above…
- Identify your goals
In line with your commercial objectives, what do you need to achieve in, let’s say, the next quarter? Are you continuing with plans you set earlier in the year or have you set a different course? Your digital marketing needs to 100% support your commercial aims – no point in it having a life of its own.
- Evaluate and establish your marketing tools and assets
Given what you need to achieve, and the opportunity you have to steal market share (see above), how should your marketing be working together to achieve your very precise needs? That is, targeted Google Ads / Shopping leading to on-point web landing pages and ultimately a smooth checkout process. (Then you need logistics to finish the work marketing started.)
- Plan your media campaigns
You have all you need to create targeted assets for your Google Ads – Search and Shopping. Scheduling and budget spend need to be decided, as per the goals you set yourself.
- Set up monitoring and analysis
…which leads us neatly onto measurement. Benchmark where you are now then monitor and measure according to your goals.
Take advantage of the downturn
There are four takeaways from this blog:
- Let your competitors cut back on their digital marketing, then your space will become less competitive.
- But, consumers are being more disciplined in their search, so you need to be equally precise with your targeting, putting yourself where your consumers are, searching and offering exactly what they want.
- Review your marketing strategy so it’s match-fit for these challenging months ahead. Your channel activity must work together to achieve common goals.
- Know your audience so you target just them.
Digital marketing is the only option for online retailers facing tough times. For sure, it’s getting more and more complex but you don’t need to be under-the-bonnet savvy. You drive the activity but get a specialist to do the technical work. In our next blog, we’ll share some of the methodology we’re using for our retail clients.
Image by ijeab on Freepik
Leave a Reply