At a recent ECRM event, I spoke to the attendees about the Digital Path to Purchase and how our engagement with consumers has fundamentally changed. For all the buzz about “Customer Journey," there are typically three areas of focus for most retailers and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies:

1. Pre-Store engagement via social media 
2. Near-Store engagement via mobile 
3. In-Store engagement via beacons 

Pre-Store Engagement via Social Media
Today, we are likely to find exactly who we are looking to influence on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks such as Instagram and Pinterest. This is where your customers are formulating their opinions about your brand, what to shop for and where to shop.

But how do you influence your ideal customers on social media? In my presentation, I referenced the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Joanna Berger. In his well researched book, Mr. Berger identifies 6 “STEPPS” that generate word of mouth marketing both online and offline. By aligning with tried and true strategies, you can avoid interrupting your audience and instead engage them in new and interesting ways that will result in the pre-store engagements you seek.

One of the biggest challenges most marketers face is measuring the ROI of their social media efforts. This is typically because they are measuring the wrong things. Data points such as impressions, clicks, likes and followers without the right context do little to connect the dots all the way to the retail sale. For more on the accurate measurements of your social media activities, please download the supporting ebook, The ROI of Social Media.

Near-Store Engagement via Mobile
By combining geo-targeting technology on mobile devices with specific retail footprints, we can now connect with shoppers when they are within the proximity of your desired retail location. These mobile drive to retail activities further reinforce the work you’ve done in social media and provide continuity when your ideal shoppers are “in the zone”.

Not only can you perform anything you’d typically do on the web via mobile devices, but you can add physical proximity to your targeting and even leverage the shopper’s GPS to take them directly into your desired retail store. From store look-ups to driving directions to downloadable offers, there are many tactics that can be deployed on mobile devices to win the hearts and minds of your shoppers.

Since more than 92 million American’s shop with their smart phones, it only makes sense that mobile advertising is gaining traction. Yet, by and large marketers have failed to embrace mobile marketing. While consumers spend 25% or more of their time on mobile devices, less than 10% of marketing budgets are carved out for mobile advertising. This will most certainly change in the years ahead, but there continues to be a gap between the time consumers are spending on their mobile devices and the advertising budgets targeting shoppers.

In-Store Engagement via Beacons
When it comes to digital in-store, nothing has gripped the marketing world like beacons technology. These small devices allow for an Amazon-like experience in physical retail and will no doubt shape the in-store shopper marketing experience for years to come.

Today, most retailers are conducting tests to determine how best to integrate beacons into the shopping experience. In-store analytics has been the first priority of most retailers which makes sense as smart marketers prefer to listen first before rolling out campaigns to their customers. In-store positioning where consumers can easily find the items on their shopping list has gained traction and the early tests of outbound offers have seen substantial returns including McCormick’s 20 times lift in purchase intent and similar results by Hillshire.

With these kinds of results, is it any wonder why manufacturers are clamoring for more beacons integration and retailers are working hard to figure out how to manage these kinds of digital in-store programs in the future?

Next Steps
If you are interested in learning more about any of these core components, be sure to attend the education sessions at your next ECRM event. Or, if you can’t wait until then, feel free to reach out to me directly: bill@trepoint.com or (646) 867-2252. The digital world of marketing is changing every day and Trepoint is happy to help ensure you stay on top of the changes that will deliver the results you seek.