PFS outlines why digital marketing tactics are crucial to building a brand.
DEVELOPING A STRONG brand name and image has always been significantly important to any business strategy. When consumers make a purchase, the experience and story around the product can be just as important as the product itself. Positive recognition allows a brand to grow and thrive in new environments, including digital commerce. Although some established retailers may be able to rely on an existing brand image to ensure a smooth transition online, it’s important that those who need to create their online reputation from the ground up build a strong digital strategy from the start in order to create lasting trust and loyalty with their customers.
There are several digital marketing tactics to choose from for retailers who want to improve their brand recognition, including search campaigns, social marketing initiatives, and deploying email campaigns to reach and expand their customer base.
To start, search campaigns should be considered from the beginning. Retailers should carefully choose each and every keyword or phrase used while creating a new product page or when starting a new discussion on a blog. This practice could eventually help increase domain authority for a product or page. Because organic search, as in the example above, can be time consuming and is not an exact science, retailers may also want to rely on paid search to obtain better rankings on search engines. This is true especially for terms or phrases retailers have not targeted before. For example, a shoe company looking to sell socks may want to launch paid search ads around sock terms to increase awareness for this offering.
Social marketing is another option retailers may want to choose to promote their brand. In addition to the visibility they can gain through posts on their company page, retailers can leverage social media advertising by running targeted campaigns on specific customer segments. For example, they can choose to display certain ads based on customer interactions with the network (such as Liking a page or post). Working directly with social influencers may also increase the reach of brand initiatives, especially for localised or language-specific campaigns.
Finally, when conveying new branding messages to existing audiences, emailing has proven to be particularly effective. PFS Email Marketing Manager, Céline Brandt, confirmed that email is often the first channel used by retailers to introduce new product segments to their fan base. Overall, implementing a regular email marketing programme has a positive impact on brand loyalty and engagement, especially because customers view emailing as a less intrusive medium than other communications, likely because they opted-in to receiving promotional content.
In the coming years, the ecommerce market will become increasingly mature and modern day multichannel retailers will have no choice but to readjust their brand strategies to remain competitive in the long run. Mastering digital marketing tactics such as search, social, and email marketing will therefore likely be crucial to maintaining a cohesive online and offline presence to maximise brand impact.
| About PFS |
| A leading global commerce service provider, PFS enables brand and specialty retailers to achieve their commerce goals. As an ecommerce solutions provider, PFS combines consulting, agency, technology and operations to deliver unique and branded customer experiences, creating Commerce Without Compromise. www.pfsweb.com |
