Category Archives: Social media

Online retailers: how to beat the snow

Posted on by Rosie Freshwater

The atrocious weather conditions this week will no doubt have affected retail sales in the build up to Christmas, particularly on the high street as shoppers find themselves restricted to their homes (it will be interesting to see the impact on high street sales when figures are released in the coming weeks).

But the adverse conditions do present opportunities for online retailers, as it is likely customers will have time on their hands with their normal routines interrupted. With conditions expected to continue into next week (and beyond – it’s still only December!), we’ve been thinking about the ways in which online retailers can minimise the impact of the weather with a few quick-tips. Here goes…

Your website

  • Update your delivery information to reflect any changes due to the snow. It is better to be open and honest with your customers rather than maintain delivery promises that you may not be able to fulfill. If you are confident you are still able to deliver on time then shout about it on your home page
  • If relevant, upload some interesting content to your blog around how your products can be used in the snow, or alleviate the boredom of being snowed in. Fun or interesting content around such a hot topic has the potential to go viral

Your paid search activity

  • As the snow is such a hot topic of conversation, and if you can make it relevant, get creative with your ad copy by referencing the snow to encourage click through rates (CTR’s). Again, if you are able to offer a normal delivery service mention it in your ad copy as that is a real plus point for people affected by the snow
  • Some regions may be more adversely affected by the weather than others. If working to a limited budget, consider utilising geo-targeting options to focus budget on areas least affected where you can guarantee timely delivery

Social media

  • If you are utilising social media then this is the perfect tool to engage with your customers. Keep them up to date with delivery times and answer any queries where the answers may not be available on your standard information pages or where customers cannot get into a store to ask
  • Engage online with those complaining that things have arrived late or damaged due to the snow. It may not be your fault but if you can show you are responding publicly to concerns, customer loyalty will be positively affected
  • Take advantage of the current obsession with the weather by utilising relevant and popular hastags in your Twitter updates i.e. #uksnow. But only do so if there if the weather conditions are relevant to the tweet i.e. if you are talking about how the snow has impacted your ability to deliver on time. By doing so, you may capture additional traffic from social media users not previously aware of your brand

This weather is snow joke (sorry!) so consider these quick and low cost solutions to help minimise the negative impact during the busiest time of the year for online retailers.

Retail: gearing up for Cyber Monday (part 5 – social media)

Posted on by Johanna Hakala

Well here we are, the final of our five part series looking at the online tactics you can execute to make Christmas 2010 your most successful yet.

Having already focused on planning, optimising your website, refining your paid search campaign and editorial link building, we finish the week with some social media tips.

Day 5 – Social media

We advised on Monday to focus your Christmas marketing efforts on channels that are already established. Therefore, we’d argue that now is not the best time to embark upon a social media strategy unless planned well in advance, understanding the time and resource that is required to make social media a success. On this basis, the advice given in this post assumes that you are already active in the use of social media tools and networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, and that you have a reasonable following.

With that in mind, here are a few tips to make your social media efforts on Cyber Monday and over the Christmas period a success:

Identify your brand advocates

These are the customers most active in shouting about your products or brand. If you don’t already, make sure you know who they are. If they are happy to talk positively about your brand, can you encourage them to do so during the build up to Christmas, by sending them  your ‘hero’ products to review, for example?

Utilise your content

Using Twitter for the purposes of offering your ‘followers’ discounts can be highly effective. But don’t limit your Twitter activity to shouting about your great products, special offers and discounts. Look to offer your target audience more value. Therefore, make sure you use your social media platforms to shout about the great content you have created to support sales, such as buyers guides, articles and so on.

If you have user-generated-content on your websites, such as customer product reviews, use them as collateral. Can you tweet review snippets for your ‘hero’ products, for example?

Set up alerts

Set up alerts using a tool, such as Radian 6, or use Twitter Search to find those prospects talking about the products or services you sell, or asking more general questions you may be able to answer.

For example, if you come across a tweet where someone asks, ‘help, I can’t decide what to buy my girlfriend for Christmas’, respond with one of the helpful buyers guides you have already created when optimising your website.

A word of warning though – don’t go steaming in with products or special offers. People on social networks generally don’t want to be ‘sold to’. Instead, answer their question in a helpful manner, seeking to adding value. Directly interacting with prospects in this way can help enhance your reputation as a useful brand, and if managed in the right way, can aid sales over the Christmas period by bringing prospects into your ‘sphere of influence’ who may not have otherwise come to you.

Use social media for customer service

Customers will use their social media profiles to provide feedback on your products and quality of service over the Christmas period; good and bad. Have an agreed policy in place with your sales and service teams who engage in social media. When feedback is negative, which will inevitably happen from time to time,  ensure staff know when to deal with this in public and when to take the query offline.

Continue the dialogue after Christmas

Consider how you can generate repeat business from newly customers acquired in the New Year. Have you connected with them through social media channels? Are they on your mailing lists? Can you ask their opinions on what they bought? What products their friends and family loved? Can you add them to mailing list?

Conclusion

This brings to an end to a week of posts covering key tactics to help make this Christmas your most successful yet. We hope you’ve found them useful in developing and executing your online strategy.

All that is left for me to do is wish you a very Merry Christmas (well, they do say Christmas gets earlier every year!).

Christmas retail: gearing up for Cyber Monday (part 1- research and planning)

Posted on by Ben Potter

Back in January, Logan Tod‘s Annual Online Shopping Index predicted that online sales will hit £1.26 billion during the Christmas 2010 shopping season, with UK consumers intending to do 23% more shopping online than they did in 2009.

If you’ve not yet put plans in place to take full advantage of Christmas 2010, you’re not too late…just. Although we’d usually recommend retailers start planning for Christmas during the height of the summer, there’s still enough time to execute tactics to make this Christmas your most successful yet.

Every day this week, we’ll be publishing a post looking at a different area of your online strategy, covering website optimisation, paid search, editorial link building and social media. If you’re in the early stages of your Christmas planning, we recommend you follow suit by dedicating a day to each of your main online marketing channels for brainstorming, planning and execution…but do it quickly…the clock is ticking!

The culmination of your efforts should be aimed at maximising sales on Cyber Monday, recognised as the biggest Internet shopping day of the year. It is the first Monday in December, this year falling on the 6th.

With that target in mind, we start by looking at research and planning.

So, down tools, take some time out and let’s get started:

Day 1: Research and planning

To maximise sales over the Christmas period you need a solid plan in place. Before looking at specific channels, such as paid search, we recommend focusing some thought on five key areas; products, target audience, key messages, marketing channels, and ensuring your business is prepared for the uplift in sales you can expect by executing your tactical plan.

By taking some time out to consider these five areas it will provide much needed focus for your Christmas marketing efforts, ensuring you are selling the right products, to the right audience, at a profit.

Products

Think about the products that are most commercially viable to push over the Christmas period. There is a lot to consider here; first and foremost, are you price competitive, especially compared to major players such as Amazon? If you don’t consider Amazon a competitor, think again; they sell products crossing virtually every market from consumer electronics to clothing…and they do so at very competitive prices. This highlights how you might need to re-think your competitive landscape; run searches across Google for your key product lines to see who is present and their price points.

Also, think about your margins as these are likely to be squeezed as marketing costs, such as those for paid search advertising, increase over the ultra-competitive Christmas period. Once you factor in these costs, you may find that the products you thought you wanted to push may not be the ones that make commercial sense to do so.

In summary, consider products that are unique to you, where you can compete on price or where you offer such a compelling reason to shop with you that price is of secondary importance. Based on this analysis, select your ‘hero’ or ‘champion’ products; those that have the potential to perform best for you, and focus your Christmas marketing efforts around them. And then consider other products that compliment your ‘hero’s’, using cross selling techniques on your website; dynamic merchandising for example, to increase basket values. We’ll look at this further on day 2.

Target audience

Once you have established your ‘hero’ products, consider who you are trying to sell these products to; appreciate that your target audience may be different at Christmas to other times of the year; adjust your web content and marketing messages accordingly to appeal to this new audience. For example, if you sell ladies clothing, your audience will typically be female. But in the build up to Christmas, your site is likely to attract a male audience searching for that perfect gift. Think about the motivating factors for this audience. Unlike your typical female shopper, who may be happier to spend time browsing, men will typically be looking for ease and immediacy. Consider how you can tweak your messaging to account for this. Also, begin to consider additional content you can create to aid the target audience, in this instance helpful advice or buyers guides you can offer to men. Again, we develop this further on Day 2.

Key messages

Talking of key messages, what is it that will make you stand out on Cyber Monday and over the Christmas shopping period as a whole? Are you offering the cheapest prices, the widest selection of products or no quibble returns? Competition is fierce over the Christmas period – establish these key messages as they will be integral to your web content, paid search ad copy, press releases and so on.

Channels

Consumers expect the ability to connect with your brand across a number of channels…seamlessly. You must therefore ensure that if running promotions around Cyber Monday, for example, that they are timed to hit all channels, and therefore customers, simultaneously whether they are on your website, following you on social networks, using your mobile app or of course, in-store.

Ensure your channels are well established before dedicating too much time and resource to them. I would argue now is not the time to be moving into mobile marketing, for example, unless planned well in advance. Focus on those channels you are familiar with and that you have already demonstrated provide the business with a return.

Be prepared to deliver on your promises

For consumers, Christmas is a stressful time. Many view shopping online as means of avoiding the high street, instead enjoying pain free shopping from the comfort of their armchair.

Use this to your advantage by ensuring information concerning delivery and returns policies are highly visible across the website. But, be absolutely sure you deliver on these promises. Failure to do so at any other time of year might be forgivable – but let down a customer in the build up to Christmas and they are unlikely to show you much in the way of festive goodwill. Any future relationship you hoped to build will be destroyed in an instant, not to mention the likelihood of their anger being vented across social networks, thereby spreading this negative experience to a wider audience.

Therefore, ensure the business is prepared for the uplift in sales you can expect. Are you well stocked with the items available on your website (especially those ‘hero’ products), do you have appropriate staffing levels in place and can your fulfilment channels cope with a sudden increase in demand?

With time dedicated to thinking around each of the above areas, you should feel ready to move onto day 2; getting your website ready…

Until then, happy planning…

Online retailers – New Twitter is your new best friend

Posted on by Rosie Freshwater

The twitterati are awash with excitement about ‘NEW TWITTER’, which is being rolled out as we speak. Although I am not seeing it yet, I have had a sneak look here and I have to say I think it will be a big bonus for online retailers.

This is because the new layout has two columns; the left hand side remains the normal Twitter stream (but prettier and with extra functionality) and the right hand side is now a details pane that will show extended information about the author or subject of a tweet you click on. This is a bonus as it will also show any imagery, photos or video that is attached or embedded in a tweet without the reader having to click on a link and visit a 3rd party site, such as Flickr or YouTube.

This new details pane will allow retailers to share great images and videos of products in a fashion that does not require visitors to click away from their twitter stream. This can only enhance the levels of engagement as we all know that if customers see gorgeous product images and video they are much more likely to buy.

You may think “I am not on Twitter so this won’t affect me”, however if you have great images and videos of your products placed on 3rd party websites, such as YouTube and Flickr, then the new Twitter layout will allow your prospects and customers to share visual information about your products with greater ease and therefore to a wider audience.

This is just another reason why having top quality, visual assets, such as product images and video is so important. Many purchase decisions are emotional and there is nothing better than imagery to provoke a positive response. With social media becoming more and more visual (not to mention the recent advanced google search options), retailers who fail to underpin their online strategy with strong, shareable digital assets will fall behind those who do.

Networking with the media

Posted on by Johanna Hakala

Building good relationships with journalists and contacts in the media is key to what we do in the social media and content team here at Leapfrogg. Understanding what journalists are looking for in a story makes our work more effective as we can come up with creative content that is more likely to be featured in relevant publications, particularly online. Working in partnership with our key media and blog contacts helps our clients benefit from PR exposure and enhanced SEO benefit via the links we create.

I try to attend as many networking and media events as possible; often they are a great way to break the ice with journalists and can be really beneficial for developing and establishing contacts. Last week I was invited to PR News Wire’s Meet the Media evening at the Gherkin in London. Set in a stunning venue on the very top floor of the building, the event provided a chance for PR professionals from a variety of backgrounds to exchange ideas and contacts.

Ruth Barnett from Sky News gave a great presentation on how the journalists at Sky use social media to enhance their coverage. Part of Ruth’s presentation included a video which showed how Sky had put together their coverage of the day Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister back in May. It was fascinating to see how one of the most established media outlets in the world had used social media to report on one of the biggest news stories of the year.

The evening strongly reinforced the argument that social media is now commonly accepted as an effective and authoritative way to share and discover news as it happens. Brands that don’t embrace it will fall behind as journalists and media outlets now expect public figures and businesses to be present, and to communicate, through social media in a real time.

At Leapfrogg, we take it for granted that our clients understand the importance of digital strategies and social media. But among the professionals attending the event it was interesting to see the divide between those who had a good knowledge of how to use digital marketing as part of their communications strategy and those that didn’t. I believe the future has already arrived in the sense that social media isn’t something new anymore, but instead the accepted way of doing things. PR and marketing executives who don’t build social media into holistic digital marketing strategies will fall behind very quickly.

A quick guide to new features on LinkedIn

Posted on by Johanna Hakala

At the end of last month, social network LinkedIn rolled out some fairly major changes with regards to how the site’s groups feature works. LinkedIn is a really useful tool for developing your career; whether it’s for networking, sourcing new employees, or quickly finding out the answer to a difficult question. Since the groups feature was introduced last August it has proved an invaluable tool for networking with industry peers and keeping up with the latest news in your sector.

So what have they changed? Well first of all, conversations threads are a lot easier to follow; when group members post links to external pages they appear as they do in the news stream on the home page. This allows you to view important information much faster – essential if you’re trying to find something quickly and easily.

The success of Facebook’s ‘like’ button has inspired LinkedIn to add a similar feature. So users can find the most popular and useful content, everyone has the chance to vote on whether they ‘like’ the information that’s been contributed. This saves time and lets everyone find the most important content without having to search through the irrelevant stuff.

The biggest change LinkedIn has made, and arguably the most exciting, is the profiling of the most influential users in each group. Previously, you needed to scroll through all of the conversations to find out who posted the best content. That has all changed, as LinkedIn now does the leg work for you by rating the top influencers.

Now users can find out who the most influential members are straight away and keep up to date with what they are contributing. The new changes let you choose to receive email updates when individual members post comments or ‘like’ a piece of content.

We are always preaching to clients about how useful LinkedIn groups are for discovering news and insight from industry peers. The changes make it a lot easier to find new content; but more importantly they let you find out who is regularly posting it.

Once you discover who is posting really good content make sure you follow them; find out if they have a blog (most LinkedIn users have links to their blogs or websites on their profile), and find their Twitter details (again these are usually found on the user’s profile page).

Once you are following them start engaging; ask them questions, offer advice and get involved! LinkedIn selects the most influential users based on the amount they post and the number responses their posts get. So start posting interesting and useful links and you too could become a top influencer!

My first blog post – ‘hello’ and a look at Nike’s Football Facebook campaign

Posted on by Johanna Hakala

Hi, I’m James one of newest members of the Leapfrogg team. I’m originally from Brighton, although I lived and studied in Bristol for a couple of years, before the lure of sea air and lack of cider drinking farmers was too much for me and returned to the seaside back in 2008.

My role at Leapfrogg is as Digital Marketing Trainee, which I’m really excited about since I have always been interested in social media, digital marketing and frogs…well, maybe not so much the latter.

The last month or two has somehow flown by, as quickly as my notes have mounted, however I’ve learned an awful lot about a lot of things, in particular web optimisation, paid search, copy writing and social media. This has been a really interesting inception to agency life, with the whole team making me feel very welcome and showing me around.

For my first post on the Froggblog I thought I’d write about the Nike Football Facebook campaign and what we can learn from its success.

When Facebook first started to get popular back in 2007, the only real commercial representation on the site was from music promoters and dodgy students offering dissertation ‘writing’ services. As we all know, with the massive increased popularity of the site (Facebook just overtook Yahoo in the US for regular visitors) many brands, particularly those with a youth oriented audience, have flooded to the site to promote themselves. Obviously some have done a better job than others and in my view Nike have done a better job than pretty much everyone else.

Nike Football’s fan page is certainly the best one I’ve seen on Facebook. The page has been spruced up with fancy bits of FBML (Facebook’s version of HTML) and looks nothing like a traditional default fan page.

It is often said that social media is a great way to interact and engage with your consumers – Nike has taken this interaction to a whole new level. The page features a training section which contains videos that users subscribe to. The videos featuring training tips and sessions with some of Nike’s superstars, such as Liverpool FC’s Fernando Torres. They import snazzy graphics and are professionally executed, which you would expect from a global brand.

What makes these videos so successful is the content they feature is genuinely worth something to the user. What makes the videos so effective for Nike is that they are able to cram as much of their branding in as possible and also add some less-than-subtle product placements that they could never get away with on TV or offline.

As well as the training videos, the page contains regular status updates on the football issues of the day; these updates receive hundreds of comments and ‘likes’ from Nike fans all across the world – all of which helps to increase awareness though Facebook’s news stream. Nike have also launched an IPhone App which updates users Facebook accounts about how far through the training schedule they’ve got.

So what can your brand learn from Nike? Obviously not everyone has the resources or budget that Nike does, however, that doesn’t mean you can’t create useful and engaging content and universally spread it (virally) via Facebook.

At the core of the Nike Football’s page success is the simple idea of offering content that is really useful and valuable to the user and allowing the content to spread so quickly. Instead of flashy training videos with millionaire superstar footballers, a cookery company, for example, could offer simple yet effective cooking tips in videos on the Facebook page. If the content is useful enough for the user it will spread and more and more people will find out about your brand.

Another important point to take from the Nike campaign is about scheduling your content. Their training videos are set up for a week-by-week programme; they could have been condensed into one longer video but that means users would have no reason to come back so by creating a schedule the user becomes far more engaged.

I am really looking forward to getting involved with similarly successful Facebook campaigns for many of our clients here at Leapfrogg; especially in the luxury retail market.

A beginners guide to: real time search (part 2)

Posted on by admin

Last time I introduced you to the concept of real-time search. In this second installment I look at how you need to adapt your search marketing efforts to take full advantage of this potentially game-changing development. Although it’s early days for real-time search all the signs are that it will become an increasingly important part of how search engines deliver highly relevant and newsworthy information to users. Therefore, the winners will be those online marketers that adapt early.

I’m going to begin by looking at the sources search engines use to populate their real-time search results because naturally that leads to the activities you need to incorporate into your online strategy.

While Bing currently concentrates on Twitter as its primary source of real-time information, Google includes sources such as Google News links, Google Blog Search links, Google Buzz posts, as well as Jaiku, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, MySpace and Facebook fan page updates.

With most, if not all of these sites having a social element to them, the introduction of real time search reinforces the importance of a well-thought out content and social media strategy to complement ‘traditional’ SEO efforts. On this basis, I recommend you consider the following action points, not only to take advantage of real-time search, but also to widen your reach and engage directly with your target audience:

  • Set up accounts or profiles across the above websites even if you do not plan on using them quite yet. By doing so, you are at least taking ownership of those accounts under your brand name (before somebody else does!)
  • If you are going to use one social network to take advantage of real time search in the short term, choose Twitter and establish a strategy for its use (assuming it is relevant to your target audience)
  • Develop a robust content strategy. Success in social media, and therefore real-time search, is dictated by the quality and relevancy of the information you publish whether this is 140 character tweet or a video masterpiece. To help…
  • …invest in buzz monitoring software. Not only can you monitor where your brand name is being mentioned online but you can also monitor hot topics to see if they are relevant to your brand or line of business. This in turn will help you shape the content you create and in what format. Getting involved in the most newsworthy conversations makes it more likely you will gain visibility in the search results
  • Once you have created relevant content consider the most appropriate channels by which it can be pushed out. For example, press releases are likely to feature in Google News so ensure you create and distribute them using the right tools when appropriate
  • Get blogging; consider how you can publish regular blog posts relevant to your business / industry. The steady stream of fresh, newsworthy content, particularly in response to the major changes / events/ developments in your market place will, in time, ensure your target audience favours you as a source of up to date and valuable information. Search engines may well begin to so the same
  • Ensure that all of the above is keyword driven. Integrate targeted keywords into your content, utilising hashtags where relevant

The efforts described above will inevitably require additional internal resource. However, the relationship between search, social media and content demands that brands take a more holistic approach to their search engine optimisation efforts. With social media activity having an increasing influence on search engine performance brands cannot afford to sit on the sidelines of social media.

Conclusion

In recent months I’ve introduced you to the latest developments shaping how search engines display their results. What I hope this highlights is that search engines are in a constant state of flux as they seek to provide the most relevant results to their users.

What we must do in instances such as these is to remain clear-headed and focused on making sure that the innovations in question do not catch us out. We must therefore be innovative ourselves. Change can be good as long as you know how to tackle it. With that in mind, keep your eyes peeled for regular updates and advice.

Digital marketing benchmarking report for premium home and garden retailers

Posted on by Ben Potter

Over the course of 2010, Leapfrogg is conducting a series of surveys investigating premium retailers’ use of, and attitudes, towards digital marketing. We are looking at a number of very specific niche markets beginning with home and garden. Further surveys will look at premium fashion, health and beauty, and food and wine.

This first survey was sent to 80 premium home and garden retailers with just over a quarter taking part. Respondents included well recognised high street brands and smaller retailers.

The full report is available to download here. Below we have included some of the key findings:

Use of marketing channels

The top five online marketing channels being ‘heavily’ or ‘partially’ used by premium home and garden retailers are articles and press releases (75%), email marketing (67%), search engine optimisation (67%), paid search (66%) and voucher codes (48%).

Respondents are ‘just getting started’ with social networking (38%), micro-blogging i.e. Twitter (33%), blogging (30%) and involvement in forums and communities (25%).

Interestingly, respondents have ‘no intention of becoming involved’ in the creation of audio (55%) or video content (35%), mobile marketing (33%) and shopping/comparison engines (33%). And although a number of retailers are adopting the use of voucher codes, a further 33% have no intention of using them.

It is suggested that premium home and garden retailers take the time to investigate the opportunities presented by video and mobile in particular. Video and the use of mobile technology to access the Internet, read product reviews and download coupons/vouchers are experiencing significant growth with consumers.

Importance of marketing channels

The top five online channels that are considered most important to the success of the business are search engine optimisation (76%), email marketing (50%), articles and press releases (33%), paid search (30%) and reputation management (25%).

The areas that are felt to be unimportant are voucher codes (33%), social networking (30%), audio (27%), mobile marketing (24%) and shopping and comparison sites (24%).

Understandably, premium brands may feel the use of voucher codes ‘cheapens’ their offering. However, Leapfrogg would consider it a concern that so few companies rate the importance of social networking and mobile marketing, in particular.

Channel rating according to return on investment (ROI)

The key channels that are claimed to deliver return on investment are search engine optimisation (SEO), email marketing, and articles and press releases.

In respect of the other 13 online channels the majority view is that the return on investment is indifferent.  Social networking is perceived to have a very poor return on investment by one quarter of the respondents, suggesting that premium home and garden retailers have not yet implemented appropriate systems to measure their social media marketing efforts with accuracy and in line with business goals.

Channel resource plans

The online activities where resource is being increased in 2010, compared to 2009, are social networking (65%), email marketing (60%), micro-blogging (58%), SEO (57%), activity in forums and communities (43%) and blogging (44%).

Plans to increase resource in social networking is interesting when it is considered that a quarter of respondents perceived social networking to have a very poor return on investment, whilst a lack of internal resource (see later section) was also deemed a significant barrier to the success of social media efforts. It is therefore suggested that premium home and garden retailers need to carefully consider objectives from social media activity, set up appropriate systems to measure performance and ensure adequate levels of in-house resource are dedicated to managing social media effectively.

Multi-channel marketing

Results indicate that respondents combine more traditional online activities, such as SEO, PPC and email when running multi-channel campaigns. Social media and blogging also represent popular channels, yet integrating mobile is very low, despite consumers growing use of smart phone technology to access the Internet.

It is recommended that premium home and garden retailers consider all the ‘touch points’ between brand and consumer and implement multi-channel marketing campaigns that ensure a consistent offering and message is present across all of them.

Management of marketing channels

Marketing is the department responsible for managing all online activities except PR, of which there is either a dedicated department or it is outsourced.  IT is responsible for search engine optimisation (SEO) in just over one third of the retailers who responded, which might suggest it is viewed as a technical discipline as opposed to a marketing activity.

Knowledge of customers

Generally, premium home and garden retailers feel that they need to know more about the behaviour of their customers online. 82% do not know how their customers behave on social networks and 66% do not know what their customers are saying about their brand online.

The latter is a particular point of interest as consumers are increasingly willing, and easily able, to share their thoughts with hundreds, possibly thousands of others through blogs, forums, reviews sites and social networks. In turn, purchasing decisions are heavily influenced by the positive and negative reviews a retailer may receive online. It is therefore suggested respondents investigate the use of buzz monitoring tools to quickly identify the conversations happening around their brand and products.

55% feel informed about their customer’s behaviour on their website suggesting respondents have implemented, and are using analytical tools to good effect. However, 45% appear not to be using tools, such as Google Analytics, to great effect therefore limiting the opportunity to make informed decisions on optimising site performance.

Knowledge of search engine ranking factors

Premium home and garden retailers rate keyword placement (67%), website architecture (57%), Meta tags (55%), the user experience (48%) and external links (43%) as crucial to achieving high search engine rankings. Rich media content and blogging were considered by the majority as important but not crucial to improving search engine rankings.

A quarter of respondents were unsure of the impact on search engine rankings of choice of technology and social media activity. Concerning the latter, it is recommended respondents investigate the relationship between search and social media as these channels cannot, and should not, operate in isolation of one another.

Goal setting

Half of premium home and garden retailers used past performance as a benchmark for setting goals for digital marketing activity along with basing predictions on financial goals.

One third of respondents do not currently set goals for digital marketing activity. It is highly recommended that premium home and garden retailers work to establish objectives using SMART methodology to ensure there is direction and focus for digital marketing activity. In addition, appropriate tools and processes should be put in place to measure goals accurately.

Ability to track goals accurately

Respondents rated their ability to track search engine rankings (57%), online conversions (48%), email marketing performance (47%), behaviour of site visitors (35%) and affiliate marketing (33%) as good.

Areas not being tracked accurately include conversions from social media activity (74%), mobile marketing (73%) and customer lifetime value (71%).

59% do not currently track overall return on investment from digital marketing activity.

This would indicate there is still a great deal of progress to be made in the area of measurement. Retailers should be implementing the appropriate tools and processes to measure the impact of each online channel. Better tracking will not only enable return on investment to be calculated from each channel but also provide invaluable data for forecasting and developing future strategies.

Agency relationships

The split between managing work in-house and the use of external agencies is 50:50 with a slight preference for conducting more of the work in-house but using specialist agencies where needed. Those that use external resources use specialist SEO agencies, full service digital agencies, web designers, affiliate marketing and PR companies.

Premium home and garden retailers rated the ability to deliver results (95%) as the most important factor when working with an agency. Specific knowledge of the customers’ market (76%), and having open lines of communication (67%) also rated particularly highly.

Premium home and garden retailers believe it is ‘crucial’ that an online agency has knowledge of the clients’ target audience (80%), their key performance indicators (73%) and knowledge of the business plan (53%). Yet only 40% believe an agency should have knowledge of the clients’ offline marketing strategy (40%).  This indicates that premium home and garden retailers need to better communicate offline activity with their agencies therefore ensuring a consistent, and properly integrated online/offline marketing strategy.

Barriers to success

The barriers that prevent premium home and garden retailers from maximising their online marketing efforts are lack of internal resource, lack of budget and a lack of understanding.  Board approval and not having an appropriate measurement tool are also cited as significant barriers.

The ‘lack of internal resource’ is of particular interest as a high number of companies choose to manage digital marketing in-house yet do not appear to possess the necessary capacity to do so to maximum effect.

Download the full report here. If you would like to discuss any aspect of the report findings, please get in touch. And remember to keep a look out for future reports covering premium fashion, health and beauty, and food and wine.