The past year has seen many businesses forced into digital transformation – even businesses that had never heard the phrase before the pandemic hit. From construction companies to local pizzerias, every type of organization has had to learn how to conduct business from a digital-first perspective.
But while companies shifted their businesses online, many haven’t yet learned how to fully leverage digital to their advantage and aren’t seeing the incremental revenue opportunities the digital world can offer them. It’s one thing to set up shop online or contract with UberEats for delivery, it’s another to actually harness the power of digital for customer acquisition.
Here are a few smart ways businesses – even those that are new to digital - can expand their online presence and start driving incremental revenue.
Run well-targeted ads with smart creative
This is the obvious way to drive additional revenue with programmatic advertising. Know your audience. Customize creative for each segment, and then engage them in campaigns that “speak” to them. As with any medium, it’s all about reaching the right customer at the right time, and on the right device. Programmatic advertising is fueled by data and Beeswax gives you the power to leverage customer data and reach your audiences at scale, plus all the analytics you need to optimize and get the most from your campaign. The creative is up to you, but when it comes to technology and data, we’ve got your back.
Bottom line: Best practices generally pay off. A well planned and well managed programmatic campaign will deliver solid ROI.
Use remarketing (wisely) to keep customers coming back
Many brick and mortar retailers that were slow to adopt omnichannel strategies over the last decade were quick to get on board in 2020 – and those that didn’t paid the ultimate price. Even smaller retailers began offering “buy online, pick up in store” (BOPIS) to keep their businesses thriving during lockdown.
As a result, ecommerce was huge in 2020. Digital Commerce 360 estimates that consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020, a massive jump of 44 percent year over the previous year – and the biggest annual ecommerce jump in 20 years. While Amazon remains the biggest online retailer, other stores like Best Buy, Kroger’s, and Wayfair also contributed to the high numbers.
Many of the retailers who raised their game in the last year are still missing opportunities, though. With a healthy database of new customers, there’s a lot that can be done to keep shoppers coming back. There’s a reason marketers have relied on remarketing (also known as retargeting) for years – it’s an effective way to get customers back to your store. Whether they’ve abandoned a shopping cart, or you have an offer you know will resonate with them, remarketing is a great way to win their business. For example, if a customer recently purchased a spin bike from your store, they’re sure to need bike shorts or water bottles, right? If a customer abandoned a shopping cart with your popular track pants in it, targeting them with a free shipping offer might be the ticket to a new customer.
Just be cautious with your ads: make sure you’re not targeting your prospects too often or for too long. A day or two after that cart’s been abandoned, you have to admit defeat.
Bottom line: Remarketing works. If you make the right offer to the right customers, you’re sure to get them back into your store.
Conquesting Works Really, Really Well
If you’re in the competitive retail or casual dining space – or really any competitive market – you probably have opportunities to win some of your competitors’ customers. Have you considered targeting the users of competitor apps? How about geo-targeting an area near a competitor’s store and making them an offer to get a better deal at your place of business?
It seems simple, but it’s a tactic that works. Using programmatic advertising, you can actually target consumers who have downloaded a competitor’s app or have visited their website or store. Make them a compelling offer to come to your site or store, or to download your app, and you may just win a new customer.
In the physical world, geofencing a competitor’s location could be the ticket to pulling someone from their doorway straight into yours. If they see an offer from you for BOGO tacos just as their heading over to the competition at lunch break, it could be just enough to make them change direction.
Bottom line: Think about it: if you’re a QSR, it could be a simple as offering free fries, a free dessert, or free delivery to your competitor’s customers to win new business. For retailers, a discount or free shipping on that first order could be all it takes.
Have you tried retail media?
Brands with multiple distribution channels have a great opportunity in retail media. Stores like Overstock, Wayfair, BestBuy and Walmart offer items from a variety of brands, and many of these marketplace retailers have opportunities to promote products within their online stores. Most people will recognize the “Sponsored” recommendations on Amazon as the best example of retail media.
Depending on the retail environment, there are lots of ways to drive incremental revenue this way. Some retailers will offer virtual showrooms, others will offer sponsored listings in their product search results, still others will offer more innovative placements: for example, the shopper buying sneakers may see a “you may also like” ad for the socks your brand offers. A shopper buying a computer may respond to an ad for your company’s surge protector or laptop case during checkout.
Bottom line: Retail media campaigns may not offer the reach of traditional campaigns, but what they lack in scale, they make up for in targeting. Marketers for brands that sell in big box stores online will find it worthwhile to investigate these opportunities.
Ultimately, programmatic provides all the tools you need to drive incremental revenue and boost your bottom line. There are a million different directions you can take to get there, but it ultimately boils down to using best practices in digital advertising to target your audiences with messages that resonate with them at the exact moment they’re ready to take action. With the targeting capabilities programmatic has to offer – and the many features Beeswax can deliver – you can build campaigns that will bring in the ROI you need to look like the rock star you are.
For more on some of the programmatic advertising terms referenced in this article and other programmatic advertising, bookmark our glossary of programmatic advertising terms here!