Customer-centric Marketing in the New Normal: Strategies and Tips to Succeed

If you are a brand builder, marketer, or product manager, the COVID crisis has been an exciting time to discover new ideas. The need of the hour is a customer-centric marketing approach. And the digital transformation has opened many doors to make this process easier. 

Jamie Gagliardi, the Head of Marketing at JimmyBrings, shared his wisdom on a webinar with MoEngage. After working in the retail space for many years and working for brands like ToyRUs, Jamie leaped JimmyBrings. 

JimmyBrings is an Austrian on-demand alcohol delivery application. Users can get alcohol at their doorstep in just thirty minutes — a model that played wonders after the COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Some of the most significant takeaways from this chat are here below: 

The Transitioned From Offline to Online

Back in 2016, the digital world exploded with social media. The words “content is king” are thrown around to set the precedence for the platform. The social media craze was a trend to follow. People would post content without too much attention to detail or planning. 

Brands back then did not focus on the factors that mattered, which are critical today.  Today the role of digital is defined by customer satisfaction, growth, and retention. 

The benefit of an online business is the ability to track all data about a customer’s journey. This pool of information allows brands to quickly change strategy and adapt to the needs of the consumers.

This is the definition of a customer-centric approach. To find the data points that matter and ensure the present-day factors continue. 

In the case of an offline store, the data is very product-level and sales-related — the end goal is getting the product off the shelf. However, the aim of digital is customer satisfaction. 

Achieving Engagement and Retention

To reiterate the above example, customer satisfaction is giving users the feeling of a one-on-one experience. This approach is possible by having a single-customer-view. Using your data to define the one ideal consumer and target them as close as possible. This process has two advantages: 

Firstly, the single parameter for all consumers works wonders when dealing with various platforms of the business. 

Let’s consider the example of JimmyBrings. They discovered consumers on both the website and mobile applications. More people would flood the website, but purchases remained higher on the app. This means the website is on the educational and awareness front of the user. So, JimmyBrings made website changes to improve the awareness aspects of the website further.   

Secondly, the single customer view gives you the omnichannel benefit. For example, consider an abandoned cart. A brand can understand if a push notification is getting better sales when compared to an email based on this factor.

Marketing Observation In The New Normal

To set the context of “new normal,” we refer to the people locked into their homes. The first few months of the pandemic in Australia noticed a lot of panic buying and hesitation to leave the house.  

There was even some news about shutting down of bring-and-mortar stores because people refused to return even after the situation relaxed. Some statistics show a time when ten out of ten users shopped online. 

As ppl did not leave home, less marketing happened on offline channels like billboards. This means each brand has to make massive observations on where people follow media and then target their ads relevantly. 

Some brands also moved to channels they never tried before, And JimmyBrings is part of this group. They put together a traditional campaign based on a TV commercial. The idea of this unorthodox move was two-found.

Firstly, Television had a vast reach and would meet a whole new audience compared to online paid acquisition. Secondly, It was more about brand awareness. Apart from sales, a TVC can enforce brand presence, loyalty, and trust in the users. 

Five Hooks of Retailers Moving Online

For those considering a digital transformation; here are some helpful pointers: 

1. Experienced Digital Marketer

It’s imperative for brands to first hire an experienced team for digital marketing. The subject knowledge of the domain will help make the right decisions and use the tools. Another simpler alternative is to upskill the people in the existing workforce. 

Even if your brand picks to work with an agency, you will need someone who can speak the same language and ensure transparent practices.  

2.Agile Adaptation

Marketing is not just about the 5-years strategy; it’s more about the next three weeks ahead. Being able to adapt faster will always give an upper hand to any brand. 

To state an example from JimmyBrings — they added a toilet paper purchase option to their alcohol selling app in just twenty-four hours. When the pandemic hit Australia, there was a panic buy of toilet paper, and the commodity was fast missing from shelves. JimmyBrings saw this as an opportunity to gain some marketing brownie points. 

They found a distributor and set up the sale of TP on their app. For each roll sold, they also promised a contribution of $1 to a COVID relief charity. This addition gave them both popularity and reach. 

The Right CRM tools

Having data is one thing, but knowing how to use them is further critical. Companies must know precisely how to study and apply matrics. The first step would be to invest time into finding the right tools. 

Jamie Gagliardi recommends finding one that has more features and fits your cost profile. It becomes easier to make decisions and track processes when the whole team uses the same tools. 

Testing and Scaling

Since brands moving to digital now are tipping toes into many channels, they could lose money if you do not test strategies. You cannot do something because others are doing it; each brand must find its own ways. 

Omnichannel strategy

Lastly, this should be the end goal. Companies should aim to build one brand. Users do not differentiate brands as “offline” or “online” — they look for well-defined features on them all. 

Additions like click and collect are a popular start for more retail brands. One can also use partner stores in the network to ship items to a closer address and provide higher value for the user.