Part 3 - Activate Your Consumer

In part 1, we shared why a brand that sells primarily through retail, Amazon and/or marketplaces would want to do digital marketing. And that reason is to own the customer relationship that will ultimately fuel future brand growth.

In part 2, we shared a key element of the digital marketing mix to build the base of those customers that will ultimately drive your future growth: search marketing. By dominating the Google search page just as you would dominate the retail shelf space to win, you should aim to grow your web traffic so that as much as 50% is coming from search (both organic and paid search).

In this final part, we’re going to share with you how to actually build that customer relationship once your prospective consumer has found you through search, what to talk about when you have nothing to say, and creative ways to reach that customer where they are to activate them.

So you’re getting an influx of traffic from search and you’re happy with how you’re showing up for your prospective consumer. Don’t stop there. Once that traffic lands on your site, the worst thing you can do is end the communication chain there and leave it to chance that they will come find you through your resellers. The simplest way to ensure you stay in contact with consumers is to invite them to join your email list. It’s not enough to have a pop-up on your site with an opt-in box. Give customers something of extreme value for opting into your list. Some ideas:

A manufacturer’s coupon to redeem in-store
A free cookbook (as an ebook) if you’re a food brand
Exclusive access to an event
Early access to a limited edition product or sale event
Free swag
Entry into a giveaway package with like-minded brands you partner with

That’s great, but you may be asking yourself what communications do you send when you don’t have anything significant to say? Some of our most successful clients augment their communications with customer testimonials, press mentions, creative ways to use their product, and of course product launches, store launches, and sales events.

The real value of your customer email list

Now that you have an audience base that you’ve converted into prospective consumers you can build a relationship with via email, the real magic begins. The two hidden gems of having an email list:

Your sales team now has a secret weapon to talk about in pitch meetings with important retailers. When they’re trying to get that sell-in, it’s powerful to be able to say, “we’ve got a database of 7,000 consumers that we own in this region we can announce our partnership to on launch day to help drive sell-through.”
That email list can be uploaded to Facebook and Google to intelligently find more consumers like those in your database. Within a matter of minutes, you’ve now opened yourself up to a highly qualified audience of potential buyers. And as your email list continues to grow, the audience matching grows and becomes more intelligent, performing even better over time.

We love number two because this isn’t a tactic many lifestyle or CPG brands are savvy to, meaning we can find very qualified customers for dirt cheap. Want to talk? Book a free consultation with us today & let’s strategize on how your brand can be best positioned for stronger growth. hello@makadigital.com