Do you ever feel jealous of those brands who are digital natives? They never had to deal with a transition to online selling and everything appears so easy for them. Fear not! Having a digital-first mindset is easy and we’re here to help you learn how so you don’t feel like you’re constantly playing digital catch up. Leveraging data, customer insights and opportunities unique to your company/brand is critical to online success. A digital first mindset attempts to deliver on the company goals and objectives in innovative and distinct ways that create an advantage in the marketplace. Below you will find 5 keys to online success that worked for brands such as Wish, AllBirds, Dollar Shave Club, Glossier, and many more. Stay the course, we encourage you to take the leap to digital.
1. OWN IT
Your brand needs to own digital space. Often, digital space is referred to as your direct-to-consumer ecommerce platform, branded website, mobile app, or a landing page. This is the first and arguably most important step to competing with brands native to digital. Consider this space the “innovation lab”. Massive retailers like Walmart and Amazon may not carry every single product you offer, or express the same willingness to experiment with pricing/bundles. That is why you need to own the digital space, where customers can signal their interest in your brand in unique ways that retailers aren’t prepared for or capable of offering.
2. LEVERAGE YOUR DATA
Leveraging your proprietary data for growth and customer retention is critical to the success of any business. However, with digital comes a plethora of tools for data/trend analysis offering a distinct advantage over traditional brick and mortar retailers. Also, it’s important to set up the appropriate measures to generate and own your data because nobody is going to hand it to you. Retailers are less likely to share their data and they consider their shoppers THEIR data.
3. ADD ANOTHER DIMENSION
How do you expand what looks like a shrinking merchandising space? As more consumers turn to mobile and voice-assisted shopping habits, the need for appification, loyalty rewards and education programs has increased. The goal is to turn the traditional merchandising window into an interactive space for your customers. Great examples of adding dimensions to the customer journey include educating consumers on-the-go through a mobile app or rewarding repeat shoppers through loyalty programs.
4. ATTRIBUTION & ACCOUNTABILITY
You need to know and be accountable for the dollars you’re spending – afterall, it’s your money! Unlike before, digital brings a myriad of ways to ensure accountability when making difficult decisions for your brand. If you have configured attribution correctly and accountability is available, that also means you can understand your audience and quickly optimize campaigns to meet your objectives.
5. COMPRESS THE JOURNEY
Finally, you need to compress the consumer journey because it can be convoluted. The digital landscape is fragmented and accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The silver lining is that consumers have the choice to buy products from nearly any device. If you own that experience, they are essentially carrying your brand with them wherever they go. Every platform operates differently and it’s important to understand each one. You need to pursue the appropriate channels for the right reasons with the hope that your audience is there too.
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