Data privacy restrictions, economic shifts and Facebook and Google ad platform evolutions create a moving target for growth-oriented brands. In this webinar, the speakers share details about a framework for successful growth marketing that includes: building a first-party data strategy, leaning into social commerce and marketplaces, implementing an agile creative testing framework and expanding your media mix.
Speakers:
- Suruchi Shukla, VP of Marketing (Omnichannel Growth), Tailored Brands
- Houman Akhavan, Chief Marketing Officer, CarParts.com
- Eric Tsai, VP of Marketing and Business Development, Joybird
- Kevin Goodwin, VP of Client Engagement, New Engen
Watch the replay here or read the recap of key takeaways below.
In the digital advertising space, the Google and Facebook duopoly has made deep and personal 3rd party data accessible to all (for a price), built some of the most powerful customer acquisition tools and given rise to pure play DTC models. New Engen shared how to lay the foundation for invincible ecommerce to adjust for the major shifts taking place in the ecommerce space:
- Build a first-party data strategy
- Lean into social commerce & marketplaces
- Implement an agile creative testing framework
- Think differently about new channels
While internal input is important, brands who seek external input (from customers, advisors, board members etc.) and respond quickly are more successful than those who don’t.
Panel Discussion Takeaways
1. Privacy Restrictions’ Impact
Privacy restrictions have impacted brands in different ways:
- CarParts.com, which relies on a needs-based market, has seen limited impact on their ROI. Their strategy prioritizes personalization and scalability versus visibility in every step of the customer’s path to purchase.
- Tailored Brands has a strong social media presence for their marketing strategy, so they optimize device testing and larger lookback windows to separate what is happening in the marketplace from what was caused by the IOS update.
- Joybird’s approach is to not fight the constantly evolving algorithm and try to change along with it.
2. A New Era Of Proactive Growth Marketing
Having a strong growth marketing strategy is important for brands to stay in control of their future rather than being subject to external factors. Here’s how you can stay ahead of the curve:
- Keep the customer at the center of everything and be purposeful with your data—how you collect it, use it, and target customers (Tailored Brands). Stay away from the “one size fits all” approach to incrementality testing and measurement. The path to purchase is a complex and personal journey that varies with each customer, brand and industry. CarParts.com utilizes Data Driven Attribution (DDA) which leverages machine learning models to assign a credit to every click that’s in a path to purchase.
- Work with partners that will help your organization understand the mechanics of channels and what is slowing growth. This will lay a foundation of understanding to help you counter big shifts in the marketplace (New Engen).
3. The Importance of Creative
Marketers agree that creative is one of the most important parts of a marketing stack. According to Tailored Brands, a consumer in 2020 is seeing between 4,000 to 10,000 pieces of creative in a day. Within this landscape, the challenge becomes how to be competitive and stand out in the consumer’s journey, in terms of graphics, branding and uniqueness. While having the most innovative creative can help you stand out, the best way to succeed is by building a rigorous testing framework.
Joybird involves their customers in the creative process through 3D ads. In providing the customer with the tools and resources to interact directly with the creative and ad, there is a higher chance of it resonating with them.
The panelists all emphasize the importance of testing your strategies—you can have the most interesting creative but if it doesn’t resonate with your target audience, it won’t be helpful for your brand. The marketing landscape is always changing and building a strong growth marketing strategy is at the heart of keeping your brand successful. Make sure you stay tuned into future CommerceNext webinars as we share new industry best practices.
