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Empower The Omnichannel Experience And Make Every Touchpoint Count With Data

Forbes Technology Council

Chief Analytics Officer at Quotient.

The evolution of e-commerce and mobile have dramatically improved shopping, but it has also gotten much easier for brands and retailers to connect with consumers across various channels. From digital promotions to digital out-of-home (DOOH) and social media, these innovations have carried the industry to where it is today. However, the next development — deploying a data-backed strategy to engage consumers in a personalized way — is already here.

Data is an essential part of any omnichannel approach, revealing invaluable insights that provide a clear picture of who your customers are, what they want and the specific products they care about. With that information in hand, brands and retailers can leverage omnichannel tactics to more deeply and accurately target shoppers — fulfilling their needs with an intelligent campaign that’s on-point and resonates every time.

Connect With Consumers On A One-To-One Level

Social media has grown tremendously over the past decade. By 2025, the number of people using it (4.41 billion) will surpass the number of people who watch TV (4.36 billion). This makes social media a significant platform; in 2020, brands spent $40 billion on ads in the United States alone.

A growing part of that budget is being dedicated to influencer marketing. Brands have the opportunity to become content experts in their own right on social, and influencers can act as a proxy for the authentic conversations that social media is known for. By partnering with influencers, brands can be the authors of their own stories — sharing the benefits, value propositions and key product attributes they’re bringing to the table.

According to eMarketer’s forecast, U.S. influencer spending was expected to surpass $3 billion in 2021 and will exceed $4 billion in 2022. To get the most out of their influencer budget, brands can put their paid media behind sponsored influencer posts to directly target the shoppers they want to reach — whether by promoting a particular post from an influencer or using the influencer’s images to create social media ads of their own. Instead of choosing influencers based on follower demographics, brands should focus their attention on finding an influencer who already creates the type of content that lines up with their goals. Brands can then leverage this content to create authentic connections with shoppers in a targetable and measurable way.

Use Data For Happier, More Engaged Customers

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a connection is worth a million, and brands are looking to connect with shoppers whenever and wherever possible. This does not end when consumers leave home. In fact, DOOH is expected to account for roughly a third of the nearly $7 billion being spent on out-of-home advertising this year. Brands are utilizing DOOH to connect with shoppers in a measurable and targetable way, which wasn’t previously possible with traditional OOH. These capabilities move the channel from the upper funnel to the mid- and lower funnel.

During the holidays, brands can use in-store screens to promote stocking stuffers like specialty candies and other treats. Data makes it possible to segment the audience based on attributes, such as those who are interested in buying candy versus those who are not. For the latter, a brand may take this opportunity to remind consumers of the experience — the taste and satisfaction of enjoying the candy. But for consumers who are already shopping for this item, the message may focus more on why this brand is best.

Drive Results That Are As Valuable As They Are Meaningful

No omnichannel strategy would be complete without promotions. With more than 145 million people expected to redeem digital coupons in 2021, digital promotions have taken center stage and become a prominent part of the market.

Brands use digital promotions to incentivize a purchase — to encourage shoppers to try a new brand or to repurchase a product that they bought in the past but haven’t recently. Promotions can also reinforce the purchase of an item consumers already love and inspire them to stock up (e.g., “buy three, get one free”) or ignite interest in a new or limited-run item. With loyalty card data, brands have insight into the categories people do or don’t shop, the types of brands they frequent, how often they purchase an item and more.

This empowers them to deliver targeted promotions that consumers will actually want to use. After all, brands wouldn’t want to give a hamburger coupon to a vegetarian — it’s a waste of promotion spend. But with the right insights into shoppers’ preferences and buying habits, brands can deliver promotions and ads that will resonate with each individual consumer.

Make Every Touchpoint Count

The world is evolving and has become more digital than ever before. People now consume information across a variety of channels in a nonlinear fashion. An omnichannel strategy is critical for brands and can offer an approach that is stronger than the sum of its parts. Brands can use this to successfully connect with consumers where they are — such as with a campaign that targets shoppers on social media with ads that link back to an e-commerce hub.

Knowing that some shoppers will also want to go in-store to make a purchase, brands may then run DOOH ads at the same time to reengage with these consumers while they’re on their way into the store and at the point of purchase. For shoppers who engaged with the original ads but did not make a purchase, brands can later retarget them with a digital promotion to further incentivize their interest in trying the product.

This kind of omnichannel strategy is a great way to meet and connect with consumers where they are in the moment. And with data informing brands every step of the way, they can make sure that every touchpoint counts.


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