New challenges ahead! Ecommerces will have to take into consideration new modes of delivery according to raising customers’ expectations. We will also pay more attention to the concept of Customer Lifetime Value instead of focusing on isolated transactions.
We shift perspective to see relationships with customers in a long run.
We also need an answer to mobile revolution: mobile is no longer an optional channel, but a paradigm of customer behavior, the key mode of content consumption, shopping and communicating. PR will also evolve and emphasize more listening to your audience and courage to create remarkable statements.
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That’s what we discussed on Marketing Automation Congress.
Ecommerce: new approach to delivery
Ecommerce will grow (and the number of transactions made on mobile devices will increase) must open up to new options of delivery to meet customers needs and changing behavior. As Rafał Brzoska pointed out, it forces entrepreneurs to be agile and search for innovations on the regular basis. When you stop developing, you go back.
There are 2 most significant delivery problems ecommerces must face:
1) Local doesn’t matter. More and more online customers buy abroad, in another country that they live in. Products go global: look how Kickstarter or Indiego revolutionized the business – thanks to them a product can become famous worldwide before even being produced. For small companies offering niche items, it’s an enormous opportunity to increase revenue in foreign markets. The trend entails a burning need to find new mechanisms of delivery. Nowe we test drones that are told to reduce the time of delivery to 30 minutes.
2) The same day delivery: customers love to shop online because that way they can buy when they want, compare prices and opinions, make a decision at their own pace. But there is one thing they hate: waiting for delivery. That’s why more and more companies (like Amazon or Ebay) test the same day delivery options. Experts also stress the role of free delivery and returns. Consumers expect the wide array of delivery options, involving both economical and fast options. Amazon is now trying the new option called “On My Way“, when regular people, not company’s employees, can pick up packages for customers on their way for a little gratification.
The end of classic PR: do something exceptional and break the rules
PR means building relationships: with partners, media, customers and employees. But PR Specialists will have to find new tools for building bonds: old press releases and events won’t do. We become resistant to these.
Shorter and more visual press releases: as Pam Flores points out, due to changing content consumption habits (and it applies to journalists, too), notes should become more concise and visual. Involve graphic materials that illustrate your message and make it more compelling.
Something remarkable: changing your style of writing is not enough. To draw attention, you must do something remarkable, something that will put people off their strides, something that wasn’t designed by the book. Something that surprises and shock.
That’s Seth Godin mantra. He keeps on telling marketers “Do something remarkable!”. To illustrate his point, he refers to a cow, just an ordinary cow, similar to many other. What do you do when you see one? Nothing! You barely register the animal, because it resembles everything you have seen before. Nothing to remember! Nothing to focus on! You go on, ignoring the cow.
But if that cow was pink, you would pay attention. You would start to think, how did it get here? Why is she pink? Who did it? Is it ethical? Isn’t that silly? You begin to care.
That’s the reaction PR wants to achieve. Jacek Stryczek talked about that on the Congress. He has realized a couple of such controversial actions: he put a confessional in front of the biggest shopping mall in Cracow during the Advent or ironically asked entrepreneurs to stop their businesses because business is presumed to be sinful and wrong by definition.
Some experts called his performances “a death of a PR.” Maybe so. Still they generate buzz and allow Stryczek’s non-profit organization to help thousands of families in need.
Being remarkable pays off also in social media: combine your listening abilities and courage. Michał Sadowski on the Congress talked about Virgin Trains case: the brand responded to customer’s plea on Twitter, creating unique and funny content. To be precise: they delivered toilet paper to the toilet in his compartment when he requested for one on Twitter.
Customer Lifetime Value
CLV is the only metrics that matter. Michal Kreczmar, Łukasz Dziekan and Jarosław Trybuchowicz stressed its importance during the Congress. It means the total revenue one customer can generate during the whole relationship with a brand. So we don’t think in the perspective of isolated transactions, but we focus on the long-term relations. What are the advantages of that approach?
– using that metric will help you allocate resources better: you will invest in customers that will deliver the biggest revenue
– possibility to increase CLV: today companies spend $92 on Driving Traffic Compared to $1 on Customer Experience (Econsultancy). We invest incomparably more in acquiring new customers and neglect delivering the best experience to existing ones. That’s absurd! With CLV at the heart of your marketing, you can change that.
– CLV is a precise tool for measuring and increasing loyalty. It won’t be an empty buzzword, but a trackable quality you can improve.
Although that metric isn’t hard to calculate, it poses a problem. Only 42% of companies can calculate it (Econsultancy) because departments work silo-like. Calculating CLV requires a cooperation between sales, marketing, and customer service to provide a reliable picture of revenue one customer can generate.
Mobility: death to mobile channel
The term “mobile channel” should be put to death. Don’t talk about mobile as something optional or additional. With users consuming more content via mobile devices than on desktop, mobile revolution became a fact.
Jay Henderson postulates that we start using the word “mobility” because it indicates that mobile is not just a device, but a new way of life. Consumers use many devices, starting her buyer journey on one t to finish it on another, and requires instant feedback. She searches for information related to her location and demands perfect personalization.
Mobility means that customers changed: they want cohesive experience across many touch points and devices, ability to get what they want right now, and communication tailored to the context: to their interests, the situation they find themselves into, their location and time.
It calls for a deep integration between Marketing Automation and Mobile Marketing Automation.
Are you ready for the revolution?
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