Point of sale messaging has long been a marketing staple for retailers. But, thanks to the rise of digital, today it offers far more potential – from digital in-store signage, to ecommerce platforms.
Increasingly, we use screens for shopping, allowing retailers to collect valuable data. But, while ecommerce sales may have grown year-on-year, around 85% of all retail sales in the US still happen in stores.
So, if you are one of the growing number of advertisers eyeing up retail media for your upcoming campaigns, how can you make sure you maximise the opportunities it offers? And avoid common but expensive mistakes?
To help you, we look at three common retail media mistakes you need to avoid.
1) Ignoring the customer lifecycle
Every customer will go through a process before buying from you: they need to discover you and your offering, they need to consider whether or not to buy, they need to make a decision to buy now, they may decide to buy from you again, and they may recommend you to others.
The key to successful digital advertising is understanding this journey and showing potential customers the right messaging, at the right time, in the right place.
Retail media enables you to reach potential customers where they are, and build your relationship organically throughout the entire customer journey – from researching products and services online, through to physically walking into a store.
2) Not having the right creative
In order to use retail media effectively you need the right creative. Old-fashioned, static digital campaigns will never deliver the same impact as campaigns built using dynamic creative optimisation (DCO).
Unlike static campaigns, in which you pre-build a number of completed ads, DCO campaigns comprise thousands of different elements that can be assembled in real time, based on insights from data.
This means that, as long as you have the right data, you can show highly relevant ads that are specifically created for an individual person, based on where they are in your customer lifecycle, actions they have already taken on your website, and even the day of the week and weather. You can also integrate your ads with your product feed to be able to show in real-time what’s available, pricing, offers and more.
So rather than generic, even tone deaf, ads that fail to deliver the performance you need, your campaigns can be highly relevant and more impactful.
3) Not being able to track data
Speaking of data, your retail media campaigns will only be as impactful as the data powering them. And in a post-third-party cookie world, it has become increasingly tough for advertisers to generate the legally consented data they need (sometimes leading them to be trapped in walled gardens).
This is why you need to work with a single programmatic partner, like Crimtan, who is able to build audience segments for you.
Our ArchiTECH platform combines your brand data with our own unique data segments, based on 23 real-time online behavioural signals, and builds bespoke data segments based on your customers’ unique user journeys.
But once you have that data, how can you track people across your customer lifecycle, and across multiple media channels – including retail media and connected TV (CTV)? Our unique ActiveID technology is the answer.
Having a long-lasting user ID allows us to know when someone has seen an ad before, so you won’t waste your budget or alienate your customers by showing them the same ads on repeat. It also enables you to attribute activity throughout an omnichannel campaign – and measure the all-important halo effect of your campaigns.
Leaving your retail media campaigns to chance, without implementing the technology and strategies above, is risky and potentially expensive.
There is huge potential in retail media, particularly when used as part of a well-planned omnichannel campaign that combines both online and instore experiences. And we want to help you maximise it for your business.
If you’d like advice on how you can better use retail media as part of your omnichannel marketing strategy, contact us and one of our experts will be happy to help.