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Welcome To A New Retail Reality http://ift.tt/2l1lGNu PSFK's Future of Retail 2018 report presents a new framework for physical, online and mobile retail After a tumultuous few decades that saw the world introduced to new terms like e-commerce, m-commerce and multichannel, the marketplace may have finally settled on a new reality—that all retail is digital. Just ask consumers. Today’s highly connected shopper doesn’t think in terms of physical, online or mobile. They simply want to shop with their preferred store or brand how and when they want and enjoy the best experience possible when they do. Which means that retailers and brands must break from the siloed approach that assigned different teams and strategies to each of its channels and take an integrated view of its customers, operations and stores. With our latest report, we apply this unified vision to the reinvention of offline retail, exploring how the best of digital—convenience, personalization and data-rich insights—can transform and enhance the brick-and-mortar experience. By starting with a foundation of digital intelligence, retailers and brands can activate (and monetize) the physical store in entirely new ways. Now shoppers can benefit from the same level of recognized service they receive online, and companies, in turn, can monitor their behaviors to constantly refine merchandising and marketing. Common points of friction—checkout, stock availability and fulfillment—become streamlined, ensuring customers always get exactly what they want in the most convenient way possible and businesses benefit from increased efficiencies. With this digital infrastructure in place, retailers and brands can focus on amplifying the qualities that make physical stores so special—human connection, tactile experiences and product curation. Freed from the need to display endless aisles of inventory, smaller footprint showrooms can present products as part of an aspirational lifestyle, educating shoppers on optimal use cases and helping them achieve their broader goals. With the addition of one-on-one attention, partner services and events programming, companies can return greater value on their customers’ investment in time, while simultaneously creating more incentives to visit. Despite the recent struggles of traditional incumbents amidst the growing reach of digital-first juggernauts, we no longer see the future of retail as an on- and offline divide. The organizations who not only survive, but thrive, in this landscape will prioritize strategies that are channel-synergistic and customer-first. The Future of Retail 2018 outlines how companies can transform their stores into experience centers that extend their supply chain and digital commerce platforms, creating mutual value with a focus on shopper experience. Members can download the report today or all readers can immerse themselves in the findings at our retail sessions on Jan. 17, 2018. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ December 26, 2017 at 07:06AM
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Top 10 Content Marketing Posts of 2017 http://ift.tt/2kZxwYx
Lucky for our readers, we have excellent content marketers contributing to our blog including Ashley Zeckman, Josh Nite, Caitlin Burgess and one of our new content team members this year who has made quite a splash: Anne Leuman. As a body of work, this collection of our top 10 content marketing posts represents an incredibly useful resource, full of practical examples and relevant topics for CMOs to copywriters. As you put finishing touches on your 2018 content marketing planning, I hope these posts prove useful. I’m going to take the most popular content marketing post with 5,500+ social shares (50 Influential Women in Content Marketing 2017) out of the list below because it’s not an article per se. You may still find it useful though, as it recognizes 50 talented professionals in the content marketing world ranging from Ann Handley to Amanda Todorovich to Amisha Gandhi and many more. Now, on to the top 10:
There you go – 10 of our top content marketing posts for 2017. A HUGE THANK YOU to Ashley Zeckman, Josh Nite, Anne Lueman, Caitlin Burgess, Nick Nelson, Tiffani Allen, Alexis Hall and Elizabeth Williams for contributing posts on content marketing topics! We published well over 100 posts specifically about content marketing this year and we’re working to improve the effectiveness of those efforts. To that end, we’re making a number of editorial changes to our blog in 2018 and one of them is a refinement of our topical focus to make sure we are delivering what our community is most interested in. What content marketing and content focused topics would you like us to focus on for 2018? Data? AI? Technology? Video and Interactive? Basics or advanced tactics? Case studies? We’re all ears and welcome your feedback. Of course, with the success of our content marketing efforts for brands like LinkedIn, SAP, Dell and many more B2B industry giants, we are continuing to grow our content marketing dream team. If you’re an experienced B2B content marketing manager that wants to start 2018 with a great team of smart content marketers, you’ll want to check this out. Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the © Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Top 10 Content Marketing Posts of 2017 | http://ift.tt/faSbAI The post Top 10 Content Marketing Posts of 2017 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®. Mobile Marketing via Online Marketing Blog – TopRank® http://ift.tt/faSbAI December 26, 2017 at 06:32AM
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Could Mobile’s Rise & Desktop’s Decline Save Retail, Stop Amazon? http://ift.tt/2C2iXuy The relative decline of desktop internet shopping could provide new opportunity for stores to engage customers, at the expense of pure-plays Our new industry report shines a light on the opportunities in retail the industry, and provides a lifeline to struggling traditional retailers and the brands sold within them. Researchers behind PSFK’s Future of Retail 2018 Report found that IRL stores can build an experiential strategy with shoppers through personalized, AI-powered and mobile-enabled systems. As part of the research, PSFK Labs analysts conducted a quantitative survey with 400 retail professionals in November 2017 and found an opportunity for retailers to differentiate, and even combat, the threat of Amazon and similar pure-play services. Their poll shows that mobile retail’s share of revenue should grow by 10% between now and 2020, and brick-and-mortar retail will decline by 10%—numbers that reflect expected industry opinions. The most surprising result was that retailers also expect the share of revenues through desktop internet to drop too—by 7%! Offline shopping is about to boom but the place of transaction will switch from the store cashier to the shopper’s phone. Recognizing that retailers can create new experiences that feed off this shift to mobile, I wonder if Amazon could get seriously challenged when people have fewer and fewer reasons to visit their website through their home or work computers. While we might marvel at Alexa’s ability to connect, Amazon’s mobile experience leaves much to be desired. When a shopper uses their phone to connect with Amazon in a store or shopping mall, they can’t do much more than check the price or buy something direct. Shoppers can’t interact with the store associates through the Amazon app or receive special treatment or a brand-led experience. This leaves a wide-open space for retailers (and brands) to play and create difference in ‘Blended Retail.’ This latest Future of Retail report provides a roadmap on Blended Retail that shows how to build experiential retail underpinned by an invisible layer of technology-driven services to connect with shoppers in a meaningful way to drive sales, encourage repeat engagements and build brand affinity. To back up this sentiment, key data points from the survey showed that retailers’ top two enterprise strategies lie in data management and in-store experiences, while the top two technologies that they’ll be investing in will focus on personalization and AI. Blended Retail is a single channel vision that mixes real world experience with dynamic data to allow retailers and brands to connect with the needs of the customer—and will ultimately drive sales. Leverage the contents of the Future of Retail 2018 report as a framework to guide your innovation strategy to rebuild a rich and effective brick and mortar retail strategy today. Key elements of the report for brick-and-mortar retailers and the corporations who sell products in them include:
The Future of Retail 2018 outlines how companies can transform their stores into experience centers that extend their supply chain and digital commerce platforms, creating mutual value with a focus on shopper experience. Members can download the report today or all readers can immerse themselves in the findings at our retail sessions on Jan. 17, 2018. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ December 25, 2017 at 07:22AM
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The End Of The Digital-Offline Retail Divide http://ift.tt/2DK7ws1 The End Of The Digital-Offline Retail DivideKey stats from our Future of Retail 2018 report show how online and offline retail can exist together Today’s highly connected shopper doesn’t think in terms of physical, online or mobile. They simply want to shop with their preferred store or brand how and when they want and enjoy the best experience possible when they do. However, the retail industry is still strictly defined by the separate logistics of each channel. This presents as much a challenge as it does an opportunity. While there’s a lot of doom and gloom in the brick-and-mortar marketplace, there exists a silver lining: brands such as Warby Parker and the b8ta Store are investing in offline because offline experiences enhance the customer experience beyond what a screen or digital assistant can deliver. However, digital integration—within the store and along the larger supply chain—is required for retailers to be efficient and effective at scale. Here are statistics gathered from the Future of Retail report the demonstrate how brands and consumers are interacting in this new marketplace:
The Future of Retail 2018 outlines how companies can transform their stores into experience centers that extend their supply chain and digital commerce platforms, creating mutual value with a focus on shopper experience. Members can download the report today or all readers can immerse themselves in the findings at our retail sessions on Jan. 17, 2018. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ December 25, 2017 at 07:14AM
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Happy Holidays from the Team at TopRank Marketing http://ift.tt/2C22Yg8
2017 has been a year of change, evolution and innovation for the digital marketing industry and at TopRank Marketing, we are incredibly grateful for the attention and trust that our community and clients and have put into our mutual success. Few people ever reach a fraction of their true potential and we are dedicated to continue supporting and growing an environment where each of our clients, agency team and community can realize their true potential as marketers. As we evolve as marketing professionals, TopRank Marketing is also focused on helping the marketing industry community find clarity, confidence and purpose in the growing complexity of modern business. There’s something magical about the holidays, but there’s no magic solution for actualizing as professionals. It takes hard work, smart work, flexibility, patience, determination, passion and most of all, teamwork. We are happy to be on that journey with our community! At TopRank Marketing I am proud to say that we have an incredible team of smart, creative and results focused professional marketers (who also have a great sense of humor!). Along with an incredible portfolio of new clients, we’ve added 15 new team members in 2017 including designers, content strategists, search marketers, social media and influencer marketers, account management and senior management, each with minds full of optimism, ambition and talent. All of that energy is bringing us into 2018 with pride, momentum and the knowledge that we’ve barely scratched the surface of our individual and collective potential. We are continuing to grow and hiring in many roles ranging from Account Management to Content Marketing to Digital Marketing Analyst. See our careers page for a full list. We’ve learned many lessons in 2017 including that SEO, social media, content marketing and online advertising are not competitors to influencer marketing, but component pieces of a customer-centric, integrated approach that we call “A Best Answer Strategy”. It has been very satisfying to see that many of our clients have evolved their marketing from core SEO, advertising and basic content creation engagements to more sophisticated and integrated “Best Answer” programs that incorporate research based strategy, data, interactive, creative, influence and more robust content and analytics. That trend toward data informed, integrated and creative content experiences will drive much of our solutions in the next 12 months. Thank you to our readers for your trust and choosing TopRank Marketing as a source of expertise in your digital marketing journey. And most of all, thank you for being a part of our community! Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the © Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Happy Holidays from the Team at TopRank Marketing | http://ift.tt/faSbAI The post Happy Holidays from the Team at TopRank Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®. Mobile Marketing via Online Marketing Blog – TopRank® http://ift.tt/faSbAI December 25, 2017 at 07:02AM CNN Ends 'The Update' http://ift.tt/2BXHR10 Kicking Snap while it’s down, CNN just announced plans to shutter its daily Snapchat show “The Update.” After less than a year, it became clear to CNN that the show wasn’t working. Both Snap and CNN insist the imminent demise of "The Update" doesn’t have broader implications for their relationship. “Snap and CNN have built a great partnership over the years, and our teams have enormous admiration for each other,” the pair said in a joint statement. Both insisted the relationship would continue. Last month, Snap reported its third consecutive losing quarter. During the period, it racked up revenue of just $208 million -- a net loss of $443 million -- and, worst yet, only 4.5 million new daily active users. Taking what CEO Evan Spiegel called a real “risk,” Snap redesigned its flagship Snapchat app. The biggest changes included the removal of the app’s Stories page, and a clear line between personal communications and media. advertisement advertisement As Spiegel explained, the new division was a reaction to negative trends in the social media space, like the spreading of “fake news” and inauthentic self presentation. More broadly, marketers seem increasingly wary of Snap. “From an advertiser’s standpoint, it’s tough to recommend Snapchat right now beyond its obvious cultural relevancy,” Ian Baer, Chief Strategy Officer at full-service marketing agency Rauxa, recently told Digital News Daily. “When faced with the opportunity to include Snap in brand campaign recommendations, we’re finding it’s smarter and easier to recommend Instagram," he added. "From a targeting and analytics standpoint, as well as overall market trends, Instagram can deliver the same audience in a more stable, predictable way.” Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2017 at 03:16PM Google Gives SEO A Little Love http://ift.tt/2Dz3imW Google's latest video series focuses on helping webmasters and search engine optimization professionals with short answers to their webmaster and SEO questions. The series, available on YouTube, already has six short videos, each several minutes in length. While the short-form format intended to educate the SEO community provides quick snippets of insights, it's not much different from Mueller's weekly series, the Google Webmaster Central office-hours hangout, where he typically is joined by search experts via video to discuss pressing topics. Webmaster Central brings in SEO professionals from around the world. The format is a little more relaxed, and it runs live. Both are intended to educate search marketers and webmasters. This past week, Mueller invited guests -- such as Chris from eBay and Veronica from the publishing house, Ringier -- to his location in Zurich and streamed the discussion live. During the hangout, Mueller discussed Google's move to the mobile-first index. He said that as engineers continue testing the transition they are finding that responsive sites have less of a challenge -- "you don't really notice any big difference. We just crawl with the mobile user agent and the responsive site has the same content. And that's how you would recognize it in the log files." Mueller said the desktop bot is crawling about 80% of the sites, and the mobile bot about 20%. Eventually, most of the crawling will be done with the mobile bot and less with the desktop. Google expects to put up a blog post by the end of 2017, noting some of the changes that could be done. "It's trickier with websites that use separate mobile URLs," he said. Things like the interlinking within the mobile pages should be with the mobile pages and the structured data URLs should point to the mobile pages, he said. The hreflang links should be within the mobile pages, so each type of site is linked together, he said. Happy Holidays! Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2017 at 12:08PM Under Armour Deploys Drone Drop For Digital Scavenger Hunt http://ift.tt/2BRrFvx Under Armour, in partnership with digital agency partner Red Interactive, invited fans of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry on a one-day digital scavenger hunt to support a special edition of the brand's Curry 4 basketball shoes. Fans using their mobile devices were first invited to participate in the digital scavenger hunt via UA Basketball’s Instagram page to download a unique QR code to receive an interactive map of the Bay Area. Fans outside of the Bay Area were also able to get in on the action, with hidden prize markers scattered throughout the digital map enabling them to enter a sweepstakes for UA merchandise. The drone drop was a first for Under Armour. advertisement advertisement Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile http://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2017 at 11:59AM
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Why Bulletin Is The WeWork Of Retail http://ift.tt/2BQInvi PSFK sat down with Bulletin co-founder and CEO Alana Branston to discuss how the company makes it easier for brands to rent space and track their in-store sales Despite the fact that we now have interactive dressing rooms, smart mirrors and virtual racks in stores today, when it comes to procuring the actual four walls within which these cutting edge innovations are housed, the retail real estate game today looks close to the way it did 50 years ago. No matter whether a brand is super established or venture-backed, the barrier to entry for companies to move into a retail space is incredibly high—so high in fact that many decide to remain in the pure-play online space or sell through demand-fulfillment giants like Amazon. But what if you could facilitate a drawbridge for these brands? Enter Bulletin—often called the ‘WeWork of retail’—is doing just that by enabling online brands to rent sections of its physical stores on a month-to-month basis. Currently operating in New York’s SoHo and Williamsburg neighborhoods, Bulletin lets brands decide which of their products get sold, the pricing and how they’re displayed. Its female team celebrates women with every inch of its stores, through its design, shopping experience, product selection and programming. Each item it sells was dreamed up by a female entrepreneur, and every event it hosts is meant to inspire and bring women together. Its stores feature products from female-led brands that, until now, have only sold on the Internet. The coolest part? Bulletin gives 10% of all store profits to Planned Parenthood of NYC. PSFK sat down with co-founder and CEO Alana Branston to discuss how Bulletin is able to create stores with timely, reactive content, making it easier for brands to rent space and track their in-store sales. PSFK: What are the biggest shifts and trends you see in retail today? Traditional brick-and-mortar retail as it exists right now is this very cumbersome, outdated, long process to go through. You’re signing leases, you’re building stores, you’re hiring staff. It’s very difficult for a brand, whether they’re venture-backed or super established to quickly get into a space. So the subscription model or a pop-up model or whatever it is makes it easier for brands to quickly get access to a physical space to get their products out there. It’s really important to lower that barrier to entry as much as possible.
The nature of the way we structured the store helps us do this. It’s not like a traditional brand where you’re like, “OK, we only do apparel and we just put out new stuff every season.” We curate our stores around editorial concepts. That’s another thing that technology really helps us with. For us to onboard a new brand only takes about five days from the time they apply to the time they get their product in the store, which is much, much faster than most retail spaces. For a lot of these brands that have built up this amazing online presence, all of their customers have only been able to interact with them via their Instagram Stories or a little e-commerce site that you can only see on a laptop. We know that our customer is very interested in female empowerment. They’re very politically active. They’re very progressive. We’ve built our store experiences around that. Could you give us a hint of what’s on the horizon for Bulletin in 2018 and beyond? We’ll be opening a store in LA in 2018. We have a lot of brands that we work with and out there. It should be really exciting for us. Then, we’ll continue to expand in New York. The strategy for us is to build stores around editorial concepts, which is something that we’ll continue to do because it’s worked so well for us. We just launched the Bulletin Mini Mall in Flatiron, which has been great. We’re now starting to come up with other stories that we are looking to tell. What would be fun to show in a store? And what kind experiences does a store’s customer want? We are really building those editorial concepts around that. The other thing that has been interesting to see is the types of brands that work with us. Even in the past three months or so, a lot of the brands that are applying to sell in our stores aren’t traditional brands. A lot of them just sell their products on Instagram. Some of them have a really popular Instagram account and have decided to start creating products to basically monetize the audience that they have. For a lot of them, retail and creating product and selling product is still new. It has not been the cut-and-dry, “You’re a brand, you’re established, you’re ready to do physical retail.” Because of our platform and how easy we’ve made it to sell in a physical store, so many of these brands only exist on Instagram. Also, for the customer, they’re like, “Oh my God. My favorite Instagram profile is now creating all these fun products. I can actually go shop those products in person,” which hasn’t really happened before.
Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ December 22, 2017 at 11:09AM More Holiday Cheer From Agencies http://ift.tt/2BA4DN0 Spreading Love, supporting causes and mocking Adland obsessions are all part of the fun in this latest batch of holiday wishes from ad shops. Seattle-based Copacino+Fujikado is making fun of the advertising world's obsession with Millennials with its holiday card. Staffers are seen in the video citing absurd numbers attributed to the next big generation Gen Z, such as 40% of Mariners baseball tickets are purchased by 5-7 year olds directly and highlighting its newest creative hires, two nine-year-olds who made Ad Week's "Nine Under Nine" list. The clip ends with one young talent saying "Wieden called me today."
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