Blog | 2019 Review | Digital Marketing & Technology Agency

Consumer Disloyalty: Welcome to
the new normal

Fact: Brand loyalty has gone the way of flip phones and fax machines.

Only 8% of consumers consider themselves to be brand loyal

8%

Instead, today’s shoppers have roving eyes:

46% say they “love to try new brands”

46%

49% can be “convinced to experiment”

49%

What’s more alarming is this recent shift isn’t price-driven. Consumers are more attuned to value, convenience, customer service and the quality of the experience. If your brand doesn’t offer those things, it better start.

Retention is the new acquisition.

Examine your customer data per segment and emphasize programs that create high value for each, over the lifetime of your relationship with them.

Women are a huge opportunity

Make no mistake, women represent the largest market opportunity in North America. As it stands, they:

Influence 85% of all B2C spending in the U.S.
Own 40% of all U.S. businesses (12 million+).
Will control 75% of household discretionary dollars globally by 2028.

So what’s the problem?

91%

say they feel misunderstood by marketers

Despite their economic power, women aren’t getting the experiences they’re looking for – and it’s costing marketers big time.

Despite their economic power, woman aren’t getting the experiences they’re looking for – and it’s costing marketers big time.

Make authentic connections with women

“Pink” isn’t a strategy. Ask deeper questions: How does my brand give her time back in her day? How does my brand simplify her life?

Welcome your chatbot overlords. (They’ll you save time and money)

Chatbots are gaining momentum.

From Amazon to Apple, Taco Bell to United Airlines, these automated customer service reps are helping consumers with everything from ordering tacos to solving shipping errors. In fact, Business Insider predicts that in 2020:

80% of businesses will have some form of chatbot automation.

What’s more, thanks to machine learning, chatbots are able to handle increasingly complex tasks – at a fraction of what it costs to train physical employees. In dollar terms this means:

A chatbot can cut customer service costs by more than 30%.

Chatbots are a smart way to save money.

They’re always on, don’t sleep, and thanks to AI, train themselves. Just be sure to design the experience well and carefully map out consumer conversations.

Say,
“what’s up?”
to WhatsApp

It’s time to make friends with social messenger apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp, of course. Why? Your customers use them daily. They also provide great ways to communicate with consumers.

How are they being used? You name it:

Customer support
Offer delivery
Campaign support & fulfillment
E-vites and reminders
Product promotions
Transactional message delivery (e.g., purchase or shipping confirmations)

Social messenger apps aren’t just for chatting anymore.

Think of them as a new channel for promoting your brand or products, and for communicating with your customers in real time.

“Siri, tell me the benefits of Voice Search”.

You got it.

While we still think of them as a recent addition to our lives, Amazon Echo, Google Nest/Home and Siri are now mature products:

More than 25% of adults in the U.S. own a smart speaker.
Voice searches will account for 50% of all searches in 2020 (ComScore).
31% of global smartphone users use voice-activated search.

Where is this all headed?

With the improvement of natural language processing and higher adoption, voice search may be one of the strongest digital trends of the year.

Ignore voice search at your (brand’s) peril.

Digital markets can no longer ignore voice. Remember to optimize for local search listings and factor in long tail keywords (“how to cook quinoa” vs. “quinoa”).

Zero
is the new #1

We know the math seems off, but when it comes to search results, #1 is no longer #1.

In 2020, the top search spot is the Featured Snippet, aka position zero.
This is the result that apears before the start of the search results.

Keep in mind that Featured Snippets don’t always appear on-page. They also don’t always result from a user’s first organic search. However, with the right SEO strategy you can make your brand land on position zero, and:

Generate up to 4x more CTR than you can from a first organic search result

Position zero is prime SEO real estate.

To make sure you organically rank on first page results, consider queries that speak to your offering, use spiderable content that targets queries and update your Wikipedia page, the source of most Featured Snippets.

Page load
is paramount

In the mobile age, life moves fast. In fact:

Up to 50%of mobile users will abandon a page that takes longer than 3-4 seconds to initially load (versus fully load with scripts, tracking code and ads).

If you’re in mobile retail, the stats are even worse:

2/3 of shoppers will abandon an online store if pages load slowly

The fix? When building a mobile site, make sure to compress site images, optimize code, including CSS and Javascript files, leverage your browser cache and shorten pages where possible.

Want to retain users? Max out page speeds.

Once you’ve done all the above, run your site against Google’s PageSpeed Tool: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/.
This will allow you to judge page speed, before your customers do.

Regular people are the new celebrities:
the new influencer marketing

When it comes to influencer marketing the age of the celebrity is over.

Why?

Celebrities are expensive
Consumers see through paid endorsements

Savvy marketers are learning that by employing local, “regular people” as influencers, they can connect with consumers in a more natural, organic way. “Real” influencers are also viewed through a lens of trust celebrities aren’t.

Ditch the celebrities for local influencers

Leveraging local influencers, such as those found in existing online communities, can generate real ROI. Choose them carefully. Scan podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, then reach out to them directly.

Micro moments are major moments

I-want-to-know | I-want-to-go | I-want-to-do | I-want-to-buy

In the mobile age, consumers want what they want, and they want it now. Google calls these now moments, “micro moments” – intent-driven moments when a user interacts with their device to do something in real-time, on-demand, without waiting.

Brands that want to take advantage of these micro moments need to follow the three “Be’s”:

Be there.
Be useful.
Be quick.

If your brand isn’t ready, another brand will happily step up to the plate.

Be what your customers want, when they want it.

How? By identifying your customers’ have-to-buy levers and delivering mobile content that delivers frictionless interactions. A great example can be found in the new shoppable posts on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook that facilitate impulse purchases on-the-go.

Immerse yourself in Augmented Reality (AR)

Never underestimate the power of an AR-powered, immersive brand experience. By combining AR and mobile, brands are finding innovative new ways to engage with consumers and opening up disruptive new ways to shop. There’s nothing virtual about the stats:

AR increases click-through rates by 33%.
When a customer can view a product in AR, the likelihood of a successful online sale rises to 40%.

How is it being used?

Virtual fitting rooms and sizing tools from Timberland and Nike.
Home Depot, Lowe’s and IKEA are leveraging AR to let customers can see what products, furniture and paint will look like in their own living space.
StubHub is using 3D models of stadiums, parking garages and concession stands to let customers visualize fan experiences before events.
Bauer is launching an AR app (that Majestic built!) to let hockey players find custom-fitted hockey equipment using a mobile scan.

AR increases click-through rates by 33%.
When a customer can view a product in AR, the likelihood of a successful online sale rises to 40%.

How is it being used?

Virtual fitting rooms and sizing tools from Timberland and Nike.
Home Depot, Lowe’s and IKEA are leveraging AR to let customers can see what products, furniture and paint will look like in their own living space.
StubHub is using 3D models of stadiums, parking garages and concession stands to let customers visualize fan experiences before events.
Bauer is launching an AR app (that Majestic built!) to let hockey players find custom-fitted hockey equipment using a mobile scan.