Insights

Marketers can use automation in different ways to maximize audience engagement, increase sales and free up bandwidth for more strategic pursuits.

Easier, faster and more accurate amount to the Holy Grail of business. No matter what market, industry or era, these have been constant objectives. That’s why tech always advances and why business always follows. Marketing automation helps companies generate leads and sales, while freeing up people for more strategic efforts.

The Sends of Change

Tech tools might be viewed as an “easy button,” but for effective marketing, you still have to do the work to get to know your customers and target audience. From junk mail to spam calls and emails, there are plenty of reminders in daily life of messaging attempts that aren’t targeted and finish way off the marketing mark.

With customer behavior tracking and proper audience segmentation, targeted emails can be an excellent way to use marketing automation to nurture leads, while also allowing marketers to track campaigns and measure ROI, according to Syed Balkhi, company founder and content management system expert. Targeted emails include content relevant to the receiver’s interests, thereby helping them get to know your brand more and increasing the likelihood of turning them into customers. Also, a personalized email drip campaign keeps recipients engaged over time at various touchpoints and thus more likely to proceed down the marketing funnel to sales conversion.

As discussed before in this space, getting a potential customer’s attention is not enough. By offering deals and incentives with marketing automation, i.e., email marketing, “you can give leads an extra nudge that encourages them to take the next step and become paying customers,” Balkhi writes. In a similar automation vein, push notifications can be used to seize the marketing moment by sending timely reminders to prospective customers who are about to leave your website or are exhibiting other visitor behaviors.

In Game

Outreach is naturally the main thrust of a marketing program, but prospective customers need to have a place to go when interested in your products and services. Creating custom landing pages is another great way to nurture leads via marketing automation, according to Balkhi. There’s a reason why they are sometimes known as lead capture pages. It’s not advantageous to direct targeted visitors to a general homepage; time is money or rather less money if you’re adding too many steps to the customer’s journey.

Custom landing pages should be designed to appeal directly to the needs and interests of leads. Depending on where the person is in the buyer’s journey, the appropriate landing page could offer a free trial, guide or other resources.

Right Time & Place

The idea of a blog post on a billboard is absurd, but companies do regularly churn out content without thinking of the proper distribution and engagement. “You need to repurpose your content or simply share it with the right people at the right time and through the right channels,” Balkhi writes.

A content experience platform can help. It allows marketers to tag content according to different factors, including buyer persona, sales funnel stage, channel, and content topic and type. Couple that with the customized landing pages and companies can be on the level with each segment of their audience and thus more likely to convert leads.

Of course, content marketing and distribution must involve social media. Automation platforms can help distribute, organize, and publish material in a much more targeted and comprehensive way. They help maximize valuable engagement by tagging or categorizing content based on the mood, intention, or type of post and then automatically assign pieces to different social media networks, saving lots of valuable time.

“The  numbers don’t lie — spending on marketing automation software will more than double by 2031 to $11.2 billion,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Marketers have to do more to connect with potential customers and with marketing automation they can actually do more with less. We are here, of course, to help with the extra time and resources you’ll have to devote to elevating your branding strategy.”

Marketing bloggers can follow these content creation steps for the best chance to generate internal traction and trigger external action.

Good content turns your head, fixes your eyes and engages your mind. From a bookstore to a billboard, a wide variety of written content is designed to be consumed — or, more precisely, marketing and other creative minds have put forth their best content effort to attract people to products with the staying power that leads to successful business.

The attention of some audiences, like sports or Harry Potter fans, comes easier, but what about engaging people who have no prior connection to your products or services? That’s the big challenge facing marketing bloggers. Maximizing the following “AIDA” content creation path will help:

Attention

Nothing is achieved with a blog post if a person’s attention is not captured first. So what are the critical elements to get your content noticed and pull readers in?

First, create a catchy, topical headline. A descriptive deck can help explain the blog post’s more fully, ensuring that the audience quickly identifies the goal and relevance of the write-up. Also, make sure titles and headings contain relevant, search-able keywords.

Consistent, easy-to-process article structure is a must, as are appealing photos and other entry points, such as pull quotes and graphs. This first step in creating attractive and effective blog posts has only grown more imperative with social media distractions and the other factors contributing to shorter consumer attention spans.

Interest

After capturing the reader’s attention, it’s time to cultivate their interest in your content. As covered in ReadWrite, the best way to do so is by using simple language and authoritative phasing and always staying sharp with grammar.

Gaining the interest of readers first requires a smooth experience: they want to get the scope of the work right away without any hurdles or confusion. Simple wording and good flow, i.e., transitions, make that possible. An authoritative tone adds to the momentum of the reader’s experience and compels them to continue on to the value statement and call to action. Finally, air-tight grammar, which exudes focus and professionalism, is like the glue that keep the boat together and readers onboard with your content mission.

Desire

Congratulations, you’ve gotten your readers’ attention and gained their interest. Many bloggers unintentionally offer an exit ramp from their content goal during those steps, but you’re ready to go further, into a prospective client’s mind where they feel actionable desire.

You must understand the topic thoroughly so you know the audience, the appropriate tone to use, the needs or challenges they experience related to the subject and then how your solution or argument brings value to that audience. Relatability is essential so use ‘real life’ examples. Statistics not only display your knowledge about the effectiveness and reliability of a product or service — always provide authoritative links to data, ReadWrite reminds — but also provide a real world, metrics-based picture of the implications of the offering.

Action

You’ve provided in blog form the compelling stepping stones to decision time. Now tell the reader how they can take action. Engaging with the blog post (including sharing!), asking the audience for feedback and asking the prospect to subscribe are “ideal” components of a call to action, according to ReadWrite. Keep the audience engaged and interacting and they will keep your company and value proposition in mind.

“We tend to think of a blog post as one topic or angle, but it’s also a series of connections and steps that are only reached if the one prior to it has effectively done its job,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Like enticing a deer to eat from your hand with a string of measured, trust-earning steps, it’s about deft persuasion, rather than any push or pull, that will get readers to consume your blog content and then ultimately act on your offering.”

At infinitee, we’re INto tracking trends that impact our clients. For more than 30 years, our Atlanta-based agency has helped clients capitalize on branding and marketing trends, including print and digital media. To learn how we can help your company, call Vince Vitti, VP of Business Development, at 404-231-3481.

B2B influencer marketing helps build lasting relationships, improve brand reputation and awareness, and generate new leads.

The marketing-sales funnel turns 125 years young in 2023, and marketers still approach it with youthful zeal to try to squeeze every ounce of energy and advantage from it to benefit their bottom lines. A renewed focus on the last stage of the funnel, trust, has led to a new approach: influencer marketing.

Whom do you trust more about a product or service – a stranger posting on Twitter, a TV advertisement or a long-time, influential friend? While influencer marketing isn’t about enlisting your buddy to sell you on stuff, it does attempt to leverage influencers, whether creators, subject matter experts, industry experts or others, and the authenticity and trust they engender.

“B2B influencer marketing provides an ideal way to combat disintegrating brand trust,” writes Lane Ellis, a veteran social media and content marketing manager, adding that this type of influencer marketing is the “business-oriented cousin to the B2C Instagram entertainment and lifestyle influencer.”

The marketing move is definitely getting results, i.e., customers to proceed through the marketing-sales funnel and buy the product or service in question. The B2B influencer marketing vertical was projected to reach $11.7 billion in revenue at the end of 2022, with over 38% of B2B firms exploring influencer marketing for lead-generation and more, according to AdAge. Average brand boost could reach 16.6% with a sound influencer marketing strategy, according to an analysis by the Harvard Business Review, with influencer originality accounting for a 15.5% rise in return on investment.

U.S. organizations are expected to spend $6.16 billion on influencer marketing during 2023. Nearly six out of every 10 (59%) marketing leaders noted that they considered B2B influencer marketing a priority today, according to 2022 survey data from the  Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

Focus & Favor

The world of media messaging has never been more expansive while consumer attention spans have never been shorter. B2B influencer marketing helps counter that challenging landscape, building lasting relationships, improving brand reputation and awareness, and, of course, generating new leads. And given Hootsuite’s findings that 42% of organizations exceeding 1,000 employees work with influencers and creators and only 28% of smaller businesses (under 100 workers) do, your company could seize almost instant upside with a quality influencer marketing initiative.

The “influencer economy” is undeniable. Influencer recommendations have even surpassed those of friends and family among the most important factors in purchase decisions, according to one report. Ellis does offer a note of caution though: given that “crafting award-winning B2B marketing content that elevates, gives voice to talent and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort” it’s a good idea to partner with a leading digital marketing agency.

“We talk a lot about the need for brands to be authentic, responsive and create meaningful experiences for consumers,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “An effective influence marketing program definitely hits on the authentic and meaningful. People relate to and trust people more than companies so brands are smart to lead with that personal embodiment of expertise and reliability.”

What new trends should retailers stay on top of to find success in 2023?

Staying on top of trends can sometimes sound business cliché, but being in the know about new and changing industry currents can open up new opportunities and differentiate your company in all the right and revenue-producing ways. As we’ve discussed before, retail is an especially dynamic sector that requires constant monitoring. Be sure your company stays abreast of these retail trends in convenience, service, and safety and reliability.

Convenience

E-commerce, which was born out of the Great Recession and surged during COVID-19, is here to stay. That should be a no-brainer, but did you know that there are now an estimated 12 to 24 million e-commerce stores globally and that nearly 6 of every 10 Internet users are buying online each week? eMarketer predicts that e-commerce’s cut of the total retail market will eclipse 22% this year, and global e-commerce sales will grow to $8.1 trillion by 2026.

On the in-person retail convenience front, self-service checkout will become more and more of a factor. Driven by increasing costs of retail store space, longer customer wait times and, of course, labor headwinds, both shortage and costs, the self-service checkout market was expected to grow at 13.3% from 2022 to 2023 after reaching a $3.44 billion worth in 2021.

From high-tech to high-touch service, appointment shopping allows consumers to schedule exclusive time in-store to browse products. This omnichannel and experiential retail sales strategy gives customers greater choice as well, where they can browse and test products or book an appointment to buy online and pick up in-store.

From clicks to bricks, customers want efficiency and the ability to choose their own retail experience. Retailers should be able to deliver these conveniences in quality, personalized ways.

Service

Okay, Boomers, we know chatbots aren’t your favorite part of retail user interface and customer service, but the numbers and efficiency don’t lie. Gartner predicts that one out of every four companies will use chatbots as their main customer service tool by 2027. And it’s little wonder why considering the cost savings, always-on customer service and other benefits the tools provide.

Speaking of always-on, retailers navigating the unprecedented level of customer service expectations should be providing reliable 24/7 customer support. Hootsuite cites a Retail Dive survey showing that 93% of respondents would be more patient about shipment delays if the brand offered great customer service. A conversational AI chatbot works around the clock and never complains!

Safety & Reliability

Safety first, it’s been said, but it’s an even bigger priority given how social media platforms gather and utilize data and the fact that since 2020 the retail sector has been the most targeted industry for cyberattacks, according to Hootsuite. Statistics show that more than four out of every 5 Americans (81%) have expressed concern about how companies collect private data, and governments from the EU to California to China are responding with new laws. There should be no cutting corners when it comes to protecting your retail customers’ data.

Supply chains have not been safe nor sound in recent years as major upheavals, including pandemic and war, threatened retailers’ flow of goods. There’s definitely no convenience or even service without healthy and reliable supply chains. Retailers should rely on innovation and, yes, staying atop the trends to keep their logistics flexible, agile, and thus successful.

“Retail trends change, but the values — convenience, service, safety — stay the same,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Find people and a marketing team that match your strong values, and it helps if the team has navigated 30-plus years of trends. Our team’s experience and belief in limitless possibilities can guide you down the long and winding road of retail.”

Mobile, personal and interactive priorities continue to expand for marketers aiming to maximize engagement.

It's been said that ignoring digital marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone. And not improving your online marketing is akin to taking two steps back for every one you go forward, given the pace and expansion of the industry, which is expected to see a compound annual growth rate of 9% until 2026.

To keep on the right digital marketing course, a company should keep a close eye on key trends, including collecting more precise personalized user data, creating mobile-first content, especially short video content, and incorporating interactive media into content strategy. That advice comes straight from a tech entrepreneur and CEO who’s “been in the digital marketing game since the AOL days — before even Google and certainly long before Snapchat and TikTok were ever a thing.

‘Say My Name’

Contrary to the movie Godfather, digital marketing should be both personal and business. Just because a company wants to cast a wide marketing net doesn’t mean it can’t be personal, i.e., strive for personal engagement in its digital marketing. As Amine Rahal writes at Entrepreneur magazine, “We naturally love to be addressed by name, as doing so is dignifying and a marker of respect.”

Designed to collect personal, actionable information about a consumer’s site visits, third-party cookies are on the way out, with Google announcing a 2024 phase-out on its Chrome browser. That puts the onus on brands to be more proactive in getting a lead's name and other identifying information when they sign up. In short, collecting personalized user data will increasingly be something companies will have to do on their own.

Attractive & Interactive Content

A picture is worth a thousand words, and stunning visual marketing content can be worth even more in this mobile world. The good news is that your company’s content is never farther away than a person’s hand, pocket or pocketbook, but on the flip side, there’s so much mobile device competition for attention spans that are getting increasingly shorter.

To keep up with the pace of business and stay top of mind with consumers, Rahal suggests ramping up visual content production with infographics, reels and informative videos. Citing TikTok nearly doubling its monthly users in 2022 to almost two billion, the digital marketing guru recommends creating short, vertical video content in the 30-second to 3-minute range. Content optimization goes especially for mobile devices, which account for 54% of web traffic and growing.

Finally, digital engagement is much more effective when marketing content is interactive. People will always want their voice to be heard and to be able to get more from both information and entertainment perspectives. Rahal recommends including polls, quizzes, rating sliders, and “Ask a Question” widgets in mobile marketing content. Forbes reported that voice assistant use (e.g., Siri and Alexa) was projected to increase more than 30 percent from 2018 to 2022, showing increasing promise for voice-enabled search marketing. Engagement is simply more effective when consumers are participating rather than being passive onlookers.

“In our fast-paced marketing world, brand creation and management are not merely presenting a pretty picture to your audience, it’s increasingly about putting the consumer in your company’s picture and story with personal and interactive engagement,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “The digital marketing river can seem dauntingly fast, wide and deep, but with a limitless possibilities mentality and decades of experience we’ll guide you around the obstacles to make all the right connections.”

New channels and trends get the attention while these marketing fundamentals get the business-critical engagement.

“Success comes from standing out, not fitting in,” said Don Draper on the popular TV series Mad Men. Yes, effective marketing content must be outstanding, but the tactics used by a company to distribute it should adhere to the tried and true formula: know your audience, pick the right time and place, and then deliver value to that audience.

No matter which area of communications, it’s critical to know one’s audience. Otherwise, the goal of connecting with people is very difficult to reach.

Writing in Inc., Amy Balliett relays important stats with regard to marketing content: four out of every five customers expect a personalized experience from brands while nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of them are annoyed with companies that convey generic marketing messaging. Given that 42 percent of marketers still don’t segment their audiences and only 4 percent of those that do rely on more than one data source to inform this important subgrouping tactic, a smart marketing company or team can really achieve some competitive separation on this step alone.

“Rather than jump on the next big trend in content, step back and carefully evaluate your audience,” Balliett advises. “Marketers that deliver the right message to the right consumer see an average five to eight times increase in ROI on marketing spend and a 10 percent increase in sales. It takes insights to see that kind of kickback!”

Right Time & Place

Customers’ attention spans are not getting any longer. In the social media era, there’s so much content out there that 32 percent of folks are feeling overwhelmed. Some marketers have responded with high content volume themselves, which on one hand enables more entry points to their brands, but on the other hand, adds to the swamp effect.

“Great marketers don't simply deliver content based on a preset publishing calendar, they instead identify the times their audience is the most approachable and build from there,” asserts Balliett.

Where to connect with a brand’s audience is just as important as when, but again volume is a challenge. There are so many new channels and trends out there. Is it the best use of your marketing spend to overextend by trying to ride the next wave and capitalize on, as Balliett says, the next Twitter? Marketers should do their homework and figure out where their audience segments spend most of their time.

“You'll see far more success connecting with 100 attentive people than you would trying to get the attention of 1,000 disengaged individuals across disparate venues,” Balliett adds.  

Value Creation

It’s not enough for your marketing content to be timely and on target. It also must deliver value to the audience.

Balliett, who shares that 42 percent of marketers view creating content that appeals to different segments of customers to be the biggest challenge, provides an example from LinkedIn. An audience segment that is found to regularly visit a certain LinkedIn Group would find value in the compilation of group quotes made into a handy eBook of tips.

“In a business world where marketers increasingly find it more difficult to capture the attention of their core audience, all the while being asked to do more with less, let’s recommit to the core marketing fundamentals,” said Amy Norton, infinitee’s Director of Strategy & Accounts. “And never forget that you have expert help to rely on — with more than 34 years of branding experience.”

The retail-ification of shared workspaces was destined to be in a world of mixed-use development, omnichannel shopping and hybrid work models.

It was said in 2018 that the future of healthcare is retail. If it works for medical office space, why not regular office space?

Sure enough, the trend of coworking spaces setting up in retail places, which grew before the pandemic especially in low-demand places like malls, has gotten even stronger over the past couple of years. Old school (mixed-use development) and new school (omnichannel shopping and hybrid work) naturally agree on this fantastic fusion.

"Our best-performing locations are within mixed-use developments, like retail centers,” Jamie Hodari, cofounder and CEO of Industrious, told Forbes. “Much of this is driven by the fact that people want to go to workplaces that are conveniently located and easy to access. This means spaces that are nearer to home and that don't require anyone to get into an elevator to go 10+ floors up, but that rather they can go in and out of in a matter of seconds.”

Sounds familiar to the retail customer experience (CX) that we’ve often focused on in this space. Just like retail customers, workers want a frictionless and connected online and in-person experience. Consistent, positive interactions on the worker side advance both top of mind and the bottom line for the provider.

Community-based ecosystems rather than office solutions, “partnerships with retail-tech startups and corporates, utilization of the retail environment for product testing, investment in design and flexibility and a criteria for member selection” are key ingredients for success for coworking spaces in retail places, according to Megan Hanney. The senior consultant in the strategic advisory team of CBRE listed the following benefits: close proximity to leisure uses, strong transport links, position at the forefront of retail innovation, extra visibility for increased footfall and popular uptake of private office memberships.

“The main challenges for [coworking] operators include lack of control over building operations, potential lack of daylight and opening hours, along with frequent positioning in remaining space on higher floors,” Hanney added. “The main challenge for shopping center owners is the decision to share revenue by letting space to an operator or launch their own coworking brand as a new entrant to the workspace market.”

Still, the benefits seem to far outweigh those challenges. Cheaper operating costs, networking opportunities, better amenities than most traditional office locations (and Starbucks lounges) and, of course, flexibility will keep companies interested in shared workspaces. And keep smart retail landlords happy.

“The office and retail sectors have both been in a state of flux, so why not combine what they do best?” said Tim Patton, infinitee’s CEO. “Retail developments have always been looking for ways to have a bigger and even ‘built-in’ consumer population, and office providers are striving for more convenient, scalable solutions. As a firm with a ‘limitless possibilities’ customer service mentality we embrace this new fusion of space.”

New ideas and technology, coupled with traditional marketing and branding commitment, will help retailers hurdle the challenges of this new industry stage.

It is not the strongest that survive, but the one more responsive to change, it’s been said. Retailers were already dealt with a ton of change pre-pandemic, including the rise of e-commerce and the “death” of malls, but they had to rise again to a very unique challenge.

“To say the least, retailers have navigated a lifetime’s worth of change over the past two years,” wrote Amit Mathradas, president and COO of Avalara, in Forbes. “All of that change has prompted many to reinvent themselves and establish operations fit for a digital-based, omnichannel world.”

Yes, during the pandemic, consumers relied on e-commerce, but now that they’ve returned back to stores and restaurants they’re not leaving behind their digital shopping expectations. Customers want the best of both worlds. Here are the obstacles for retailers to avoid, according to Mathradas, when serving that new reality and providing “delivery options and multichannel shopping experiences so that consumers can shop when they want, where they want”:

Competition for Talent

Retail, of course, is not immune from the very tight labor market.

Forbes cited a 2021 survey that found that  94% of retailers were struggling to fill empty positions. To make matters worse, retailers need not only better talent but a bigger range of it to execute their ever-growing omnichannel businesses.

Vince Vitti, infinitee’s recruitment marketing guru who said “I have never seen a job market like I see today,” shared key strategies on the critical recruitment marketing front.

Supply Chain Disruption

Anybody who’s waited to find a new car for purchase or been surprised by the related soaring prices on the used car market knows about supply chain pains. Labor shortages, inflation, shipping delays, and demand peaks all play a part in the logistical logjam. On one hand, omnichannel means retailers can source from new or expanded supply chains — with larger companies that “can afford to pay for entire cargo ships and even planes to receive materials quicker” holding a sourcing advantage — but on the other, it also increases the potential impact that supply chain delays can have on business operations, according to Mathradas.

Cross-Channel Complexity

Omnichannel isn’t an “easy button”; it comes with complexities. Forbes uses the example of a retailer expanding into online marketplaces and having to navigate the complex shipping and tax requirements, such as the  45 U.S. states that require remote sellers to collect and pay sales tax based on customer location.

Mathradas asserts that a good deal of the omnichannel complexity is found at checkout and in “the backend technology infrastructure.” The more channels, the more demands on backend systems to keep business processes in sync, from inventory management to customer support.

The old saying “you can’t be in two places at the same time” is about as retail-relevant as a Blockbuster Video store. A sound omnichannel strategy will help your business cover all your bases, but the latest “retail restart” does come with the aforementioned obstacles.

“We’ll be here to assist in this new, exciting retail stage, of course,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “infinitee continues to mix the old like personal connection and the new, such as the latest digital strategies, knowing that the more things change with tech and data and omnichannel, the more they stay the same – like customer experience and the power of a good story.”

Navigating labor market dynamics and other variables, many companies rely on hybrid work models to strike the right balance with their RTO approach.

Your professional life doesn’t have to extend back beyond the era of flip phones and the dot-com bubble to know the ol’ management saying “Our employees are the most valuable resource.” Companies had to demonstrate that belief in unprecedented ways during COVID-19. Now post-pandemic bosses are pushing again for a return to office (RTO), but what’s the right approach in this new age of employee flexibility?

The Wall Street Journal examined the delicate balance between worker and workplace in a year with almost 120 million square feet of new office space on the way to a sector already experiencing a record 217.8 million square feet of available sublease space, according to Colliers.

Timing

Time was on the side of employees during the pandemic. We cited in this space research that predicted the increase in work from home would result in a 4.6 percent boost in productivity for the economy due to workers spending approximately 435 million fewer hours commuting each month, with about a third of that savings shifting to work time.

That was then, this is now. With Labor Day not only the traditional end of summer, but also a symbolic restart to routine, many company leaders used the calendar transition as an opportunity to transition back to the office. Some have taken a tougher stance on remote workers or sent reminders to staff or simply upped the number of in-office days required. The willingness of employees to return to the office has increased with COVID-19 cases in decline.

Leverage

WSJ reports that the position of bosses has strengthened due to the weakening economy. The threat of layoffs obviously leaves less ground to stand on for the more empowered workers of the last 2.5 years, thus making them feel more compelled to return to the office. Although with unemployment at 3.7%, the economy can’t quite be labeled an employer’s market yet, but big layoff headlines, including Ford Motor Company and Netflix, do carry a lot of weight.

Data is another option for strengthening management’s RTO case. WSJ reports that some corporate leaders are linking identification-badge swipe data with other metrics to communicate how employees who go to the office regularly are more productive and engaged.

Balancing Act

There are undeniable factors going against RTO. Employees have embraced flexibility and there is certainly no love lost between employees and their old commutes. As for following expanded freedom with a forced policy, Katarina Berg, Spotify’s human-resources chief, told WSJ, “If you recruit grown-ups and then you treat them as kids, it’s going to backfire.”

With bosses more interested in the benefits of coming into the office and workers such fans of flexibility, what can be done? Balance is key and the hybrid work model is the best solution to that end. It promotes collaboration, including helping younger employees connect with senior colleagues, and helps energize corporate culture.

“People choose to work in flexible office and traditional company office spaces for similar reasons — largely to socialize, collaborate and feel connected,” said Bryan Berthold, global lead of Workplace Experience at Cushman & Wakefield.

“We’ve heard the saying ‘never waste a good crisis,’ well now we’re past the crisis, but a major challenge remains,” said Vince Vitti, infinitee’s vice president of business development and the firm’s recruitment marketing guru. “Negotiating a successful return to the office will demand not only management authenticity and transparency and upgraded amenities, but also deftly harmonizing HR efforts with a flexibility-focused and much more aware, health-conscious employee. We are here to help!”

Omnichannel performance and a widening window of opportunity are two big retail priorities to keep an eye on in fourth quarter.

Beset by huge challenges of the uncharted territory variety in the past decade-plus — see e-commerce and COVID-19 — the retail industry will gladly tackle known knowns this holiday season. Yes, supply chain issues, labor shortages and inflation will be major factors, but the industry enters its biggest sales season with pent-up energy and fresh omnichannel balance to counter those headwinds.

We’ve said before in this space that there’s no substitute for substance in retail marketing. That includes good data for advanced analytics. To help the marketing cause, Paris-based advertising tech company Criteo combed through millions of consumer transactions from its retailer partners and findings from its global monthly Consumer Sentiment Index survey to make these five predictions about the retail holiday season:

1. Cyber Month will continue to steal Black Friday's thunder

The rise of e-commerce has shifted consumer attention away from the one-day buying binge known as Black Friday and spread it across all of November. What’s come to be known as “Cyber Month” should get a faster start as shoppers start buying earlier to counter lingering supply chain and labor shortage issues. More than three-quarters of Americans (77%) told Criteo that they “often purchase holiday gifts during Amazon Prime Day and the competing events offered by other retailers in July.”

2. Acquisition opportunities will be strongest at the beginning of the season

It follows from the above that earlier season shopping volume makes the period an important time to acquire new customers. Criteo asserts that later in December is the time to focus on returning customers and client loyalty.

3. Highly variable shopping journeys will require agile marketing

Interestingly, Criteo found that for the one-quarter of U.S. consumers with the shortest path to purchase the average time between a first-page view and a purchase was just a half hour. For the quarter of consumers with the longest path to purchase the average time was 48 days! This confirms that consumer journeys aren’t all the same and, as we discussed in late June, the importance of digital experience analytics in understanding customers and tailoring your online offerings to meet their needs.

4. Stores and online will both be strong this season

Omnichannel is more than multi-channel; it harnesses consumer tendencies and preferences to mix bricks and clicks for their best match. In-store shoppers buy almost twice as often when they also visit the retailer’s website, according to Criteo sales data, and survey findings point to increased year-over-year volumes of people buying online and picking up in-store.

Michael Rivera, infinitee’s creative director, wrote in August that with a smart omni-channel strategy retailers can complement their digital game with physical engagement, strengthened through experiential offerings. It really hits home when one considers the Forester finding that 72 percent of U.S. retail transactions will occur in physical stores, and that 62 percent of online orders are fulfilled at physical locations, according to ICSC.

5. Shoppers will start checking off their gift lists now

Some still scoff at Halloween store displays in August or Christmas ones right after Halloween, but Criteo’s findings support early consumer engagement. Its ongoing global consumer survey found that half of respondents started thinking of holiday gifts in July 2021, and 30 percent had bought gifts in August 2021.  

“The things that make us storytellers and creative advocates in business also help give us a finer appreciation of the holidays, I believe,” said Marcia Homer, infinitee’s Director of Brand Management. “Our firm’s personal touch and habit of having fun along the way are definitely conducive to brightening the season. We’re here to brighten your retail business and branding prospects all throughout the year.”

Make sure your company masters these five customer experience fundamentals to win business and keep customers coming back.

There may not be more ways to wrong a customer these days, but there are certainly more ways for that customer to voice his or her displeasure and much less time required for them to find a replacement for their consumer dollars. Customer experience (CX) has never been more critical for businesses, as shown by the global customer experience management market increasing 16.9 percent year-over-year to as much as $7.6 billion in 2020, according to Grandview Research.

Did you know that 89 percent of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience? Yet, it takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative one, according to one industry expert.

“So it goes in a world where customer loyalty often hinges on the quality of the experience,” writes Craig Halliday in Newsweek. The CEO of the Virginia-based software company Unanet offered five ways to implement an “effortless, loyalty-building” CX:

1. Be Comprehensive, Caring & Connected

Make sure your service and support are the best they can be across all your channels. You can’t just check the proverbial box in this omni-channel customer service environment. If you show up, you better show out. Whether B2B or B2C, Halliday says that customers “expect smooth, natural conversations and interactions that cater to their communications preferences” from text to chat to phone.

2. If You’re Not Improving, You’re Falling Behind

It’s important to constantly monitor and refine your company’s CX. When you regularly measure programs and new initiatives, you collect important, actionable data that will help you move forward and improve, eliminating friction points and whatever else that’s not working. Feedback — “via quick, in-the-moment surveys and other non-disruptive methods that provide insight into the attitudes, opinions and priorities of your audience,” Halliday writes — and enhanced data analytics will help your organization evaluate the real customer journey. Guesswork doesn’t work.

3. Emphasize Employee Satisfaction

The Golden Rule applies to your workforce as well. It’s critical to make sure your employees feel valued, especially in this labor market. After all, a happy customer service front line means that critical connection with the lifeblood of your business will be the best that it can be. “When your customer-facing teams feel valued and aligned with your organization's goals, they excel at their jobs. They're also more likely to stick around,” Halliday asserts.

4. Become an Indispensable Resource

Like that trusted handyman in the neighborhood who always makes time for a neighbor in need, you can make an incredible connection by making your knowledge, both institutional and industry, available to customers who need help. Free advice now can really pay off down the road with deeper, long-lasting business relationships.

5. Go the Distance

Speaking of relationships, you and your team should aim to be partners throughout the customer journey. Your clients notice when someone prioritizes a transaction over a connection and relationship, just like they know that the accessibility, accountability and trust are hallmarks of the latter. What lasts long after the initial sale? Loyalty. What lasts a long time with loyalty? Your business.

“We’ve all had that no-show, not-my-problem or other terrible customer experience,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s Creative Director. “To avoid those things and really embrace quality CX on the service side, let’s empathize and forge that understanding and enduring team dynamic that values all parts of and parties in the consumer equation. At infinitee, it’s not only about our unique, innovative ideas, but how we deliver them with a personal touch to the client.”

Content marketers committed to attracting more eyes to their brands should keep a firm focus on these market movements and preferences.

Companies have always aimed to attract, engage and retain customers. In the digital age, the sales funnel — getting people to know the brand, then progress to liking, trusting and finally buying from it — can start anywhere at any second.

That’s why it’s important to have a strong content marketing strategy so a company, by creating and sharing articles, videos and other media, can get noticed and known by people whenever and wherever and grow that connection to bigger business. Ella Neale of Relevance has suggested the following content marketing trends for proven brand success:

1. Personalization

Content marketing is no secret obviously; you can tell by the sheer volume of multi-channel messages aiming to make an impression. How do you stand out from the barrage of business messages out there? Personalize!

There’s no greater connection than a personal one. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that provides a personalized experience, according to Epsilon. And this is not just about including the target customer’s name on a mailer or e-blast. As Neale explains, the “hyper-personalization” approach is “data-driven, utilizing consumer data, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to create bespoke client interactions. Digital marketers can consider their buyer’s characteristics and cater to everything from content and design to product recommendations.”

2. Localization

The pandemic should’ve taught brands many things, including the importance of localized and unique experiences. When millions of consumers were shut down and socially distanced, they yearned for experiences and had little more to consider than what was local to them. In addition to personalization, an effective localization strategy should modify content and adjust channels to appeal to the target audiences' preferences or local customs.

3. The Metaverse

While the graybeards among us were deriding the utility of this shared virtual space, an estimated 85 million people used augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) in 2021, according to Forbes. The numbers don’t lie. Neale asserts that digital marketers must understand the nuances of the metaverse to take advantage of its growth, including, for example, creating digital experiences that parallel your brand’s real-world experiences.

4. Sustainability

The trust part of the sales funnel looms even larger these days as Millennials, Gen Z and alphas want to know that the brands they’re patronizing really care, especially about the environment. Neale cites an Accenture study that found that 63% of consumers prefer to support purpose-driven brands and will reject those that don’t show real, quantifiable commitment to green causes. Just look to the rise of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investments and protocols in recent years.

Like a company’s overall operations, content marketers should explore how to use resources more responsibly. Neale offers the re-commerce alternative, a second-hand buying approach that has been found to help reduce fashion’s carbon emissions by up to 90%, according to a global marketplace for pre-owned styles.

5. Inclusivity

The social part of ESG stands for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which are big priorities for Millennials, now three years into being the nation's largest living adult generation. Traditional marketing messaging would miss from the standpoint of access and representation. Have you assessed your content marketing efforts through a DEI lens? As Neale says, customers identify with brands when they see people like themselves reflected in the marketing.

“You never want to miss an opportunity to establish your expertise, promote brand awareness and keep your business top of mind, but while those goals remain the same your content marketing tactics must evolve and be responsive to the latest trends and market shifts,” said Michael Rivera, Infinitee’s Creative Director. “Our limitless possibilities mindset embraces this reactive impetus and then forges ahead with innovative ideas for high-engagement branding solutions.”