One thing I have learned from my years of experience in digital marketing is that retailers will continuously expect consumer’s changing behavior and innovate constantly if they want to remain relevant.
Advertisers have recognized drive-to-store-advertising as a golden opportunity to bring customers back into stores and increase sales, and they are leaping at the chance to be a part of it.
For those of you new to the concept of drive-to-store, the term encompasses any advertising campaign where the primary aim is to increase customer visits to a target location. While campaigns are traditionally bought on OTS, views or clicks, these campaigns are goaled, optimized and measured solely on their ability to deliver more customers in-store.
It’s safe to say we are in the post covid19 stage as several individuals and businesses have gone back to their routines, it’s business as usual now. As we continue to adjust to the current situation, here are some tactics to help your business offset the major shift in consumer behavior.
With these tactics, you can
1. Keep your business top of mind through powerful location data and marketing.
2. Adapt advertising strategies and communication with your customers during the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.
Keep in mind that;
The estimated global ad spend for 2020 according to market research company eMarketer has also been revised and reduced by US$20.3bil, which speaks a lot in terms of advertisers being more cautious about their spending.
Also, the advertising impact, particularly on sales and the number of in-store visits, is the first factor that pushes retailers to invest in drive-to-store.
Conversely, advertisers who do not measure the impact of their drive-to-store campaigns name their unfamiliarity with the technicalities of the measurement tools available on the market as the main reason for it.
So whether you’re an established brand or a newcomer, here are the tactics to look out for in your drive-to-store partner.
1. Leverage Digital Channels
Generating in-store traffic has always been one of retail’s primary goals, and advertisers are dedicating an increasingly greater part of their advertising strategy to it. The world retail advertising market will reach €113Bn. By 2023, by which time more than half will be attributed to drive-to-store.
This growth is strongly led by digital channels, the digital-to-store, the leading media used by retailers to increase the number of in-store visits.
By 2023, these drive-to-store campaigns will amount to 65% of worldwide retail advertising spend – the equivalent of £66bn while 75% of all retail ad spend will be on campaigns measured on incremental store visits.
If you think holistically, drive-to-store tactics can effectively be translated across all your mediums. While the location data required for proving attribution is heavily reliant on mobile technology, the goal of store visits can be applied to your display, audio, (D)OOH, and video campaigns, with attribution data sourced from an independent third party.
2. Have a dynamic control group that truly reflects your target audience.
For each campaign, the control group will need to be identical to the target group in every respect and adapt to its evolution in real time, but won’t be exposed to any advertising. This is the only way to ensure the traffic measured in-store is generated by the advertising and not based on external factors, like any organic customers the store may have.
By then comparing both groups’ conversion rates, it’s possible to accurately measure and attribute the in-store visits delivered by the campaign.
3. Evaluate Performance
In the advertising industry, brands have access to a wide range of tools to push their ads to customers and measure their engagement.
From GPS to beacon and wifi, this implies there are several ways for technology partners to measure in-store visits. A growing demand for effective and measurable solutions can explain the rise of digital-to-store.
These innovative solutions result from the staggering growth in mobile use and its technical specificities, especially with geolocation data, which enables brands to bridge the gap between the online and offline world.
For example, GPS measurement has the most reach, unlike beacon, which requires a device’s Bluetooth to be turned on at all times. But to have a complete view of in-store visits and overall campaign performance, it’s useful to partner with companies that can combine all these measurement methods for optimum results rather than choosing a single one.
This way, reach, repetition, click-through rate, impressions, the number of visits particularly incremental visits, and sales in stores are key performance indicators (KPIs).
Other tactics are;
4. Adapt messaging to speak to consumers’ immediate needs
5. Create positive brand perception wherever possible
6. Drive efficiency through automation or managed service teams
7. Focus on serving the public and delivering any support and services required.
Conclusion
There is already significant investment in drive-to-store ads among retailers. This is very much expected.
First, drive-to-store is undeniably successful at increasing visits to stores and, as a result, in-store sales.
Second, it improves the speed and efficiency with which you can engage with prospective customers. Third, it allows you to increase the scale of your reach–you aren’t just targeting the rare customers who engage with ads (very few), you’re targeting people who are likely to go to your store.
Not adjusting to this market shift could be high-street suicide. Be part of this evolution, and you have to start now. If you don’t, you risk becoming another cautionary tale. While this pandemic is a passing moment in time, brands will be remembered by how they supported their customers in their time of need.
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