Our team attended Social Media Week in Austin this year and walked away with pages and pages of notes and a renewed passion for what we do and why. As a full-service digital marketing agency, continued learning is a priority for our team. Trends, algorithms, and entire platforms shift and evolve at an incredible pace and conferences like these are an opportunity to both reaffirm our approach and learn where we can grow.
What is Social Media Week?
Social Media Week (SMW) is “one of the world’s premier conferences and industry news platforms for professionals in media, marketing, and technology. The mission is to give professionals at the intersection of media, marketing and technology the insights, ideas and opportunities they need to advance themselves and their organizations in a globally connected world.”
Read Top Takeaway #1: Storytelling is Key
Top Takeaway #2: Personalized Ecommerce is the Future
The future of digital marketing lies in personalization – and by creating an experience tailored specifically to your customer, you can magnify the value you offer. Take Dollar Shave Club for example; they’ve changed how people obtain shaving products, while also allowing customers to create their own buying experience.
In a world where automation touches almost every facet of our lives, offering a recurring purchasing solution that makes life easier is a no-brainer. Even when asking users to buy into a subscription service, there is a multitude of ways to allow people to curate their ideal experience. Whether that means offering multiple silos or tiers of products like Dollar Shave Club or offering different intervals of time between deliveries like fellow razor-merchant brand, Billie.
When you allow customers to choose their own purchasing path rather than force them down a traditional sales funnel — it shows you value their experience versus just the end result. A customer can take a straightforward approach and buy a single item or suggested kit and be done in 2 minutes. Or, a customer can choose to spend 30 minutes bundling different products together to create a customized kit of grooming and self-care essentials. Both customers reach the same end (make a purchase) but they each walk away feeling in control.
The takeaway? When customers are offered a personalized ecommerce experience — they’re more likely to make a purchase and share their positive experience with others.
Before you run off to customize your checkout process, it’s important to know who your customers are, the problems your product can solve for them and the value your brand can add to their lives. If you can’t answer these questions confidently, there is some foundational work to be done! At Alter Endeavors, we specialize in helping develop the story behind your brand, and why someone should choose you over the competition. If you’d like to see a sample of our work or to talk through our process, drop us a line! We’d love to meet you!