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Antony Hoyland - VisualSoft - Shared Success
- 1. Visualsoft Shared Success: Removing the barriers to growing your business & some handy tips for Q4! – By Antony Hoyland Enterprise Sales Director
- 3. We understand the challenges facing retailers today, but what are the barriers to growing your business? – ● Brexit ● Lack of available skills/resource ● Lack of Strategic Planning and a vision ● Inefficient systems, processes and procedures ● Not resourcing to deliver growth ● Inadequate or inappropriate sales and marketing activity ● Doing the same as you have always done ● Algorithm Changes & Marketing Challenges ● GDPR & Online Security ● Budgets
- 4. Change, Adapt & Overcome. – The Solution?
- 5. “TO HELP RETAILERS GROW ONLINE” – Our Mission
- 6. Working together to reach more customers and grow your business online through our award-winning eCommerce platform and digital marketing services. –
- 7. Our USP is the Shared Success model – Shared Success
- 8. – “Rather than charging for big projects like other agencies, we charge you a small fee per transaction, meaning we care if we get results”
- 9. Shared Success provides access to the entire Visualsoft portfolio. –
- 10. Affiliates CRO Social Working for you, whenever you need us. Your extended Visualsoft team, meet the newest member of your eCommerce team. – BUILD Dedicated Project Manager SUPPORT Dedicated Account Manager Enterprise Agile Support Team Enterprise Front-end Development Enterprise Technical Support Design Enterprise Projects Team PPC Email SEO GROW Dedicated OLM Strategist Marketplaces
- 12. “We become aligned with the successes (and pains!) of the retailer and makes us more accountable, helping to drive growth” – Shared Success
- 13. Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whether we like it or not, Black Friday is here to stay! –
- 14. It’s the most wonderful demanding time of the year! – ● We’re into Q4… Black Friday and Christmas will soon be upon us! ● Crucial quarter to the majority of retailers. ● Planning and preparation is key to unlocking opportunities for visibility & growth. ● Competition is rife. 51 DAYS UNTIL BLACK FRIDAY
- 15. We must not underestimate the power of Black Friday – Interest over the last 5 years Interest over the last 2 months Source: Google Trends, worldwide, web search, shopping category. £1.4 billion was spent online in 2017 on Black Friday alone… a 11.7% increase from 2016... despite a drop in the number of shoppers visiting stores. In the UK, sales volumes for Black Friday were 78% higher than Cyber Monday. More than a third of UK sales were made on mobile with 15% made via tablet and 49% attributed to desktop.
- 18. Key dates to remember. – Halloween 31st October Bonfire Night 5th November Black Friday 23rd November Cyber Monday 26th November Manic Monday 3rd December Free Shipping Day 14th December Christmas Eve 24th December Christmas Day 25th December Boxing Day 26th December New Year’s Eve 31st December
- 19. Top 10 tips & tricks. Add some festive sparkle to your Q4 strategy –
- 20. Top 10 tips & tricks. – STARTING POINT: What did Black Friday look like for you last year?
- 21. Top 10 tips & tricks. – Create & maintain a marketing calendar for Q4.1. Decide and define any key sale dates...and stick to them!2. Decide on last delivery dates and return policies for over the Q4 period.3. Create a cohesive customer journey with consistent design and messaging.4. Plan your media budgets and decide on increase spend levels.5.
- 22. Top 10 tips & tricks. – Run regular competitions to create noise and excitement!6. Review your stock range and depth to maximise digital activity.7. Fine tune your prospecting and retargeting strategies.8. Ensure your website is scaled up to cope with increase of traffic levels.9. Determine the health of your digital channels.10.
- 23. Planning and communication is key. – Design banners and creation Campaign briefs Projects - website go-lives Marketing - campaign changes We advise against making significant changes to campaigns close to go-live dates for sales, or on Black Friday. Try and plan ahead as much as possible! Get platform ready
- 24. Leverage all your digital channels. From acquisition, to retention, engagement and conversion –
- 25. Email. – SEGMENT YOUR AUDIENCE OPTIMISE BASKET ABANDONMENT EMAILS Segment your audience based on their previous purchase or click tag behaviour. Christmas gift ideas ‘for him/her’. Christmas gift ideas for different price brackets. Purchase history (did they purchase during the festive season last year?) Majority of customers will be adding items to their basket with the fear of missing out but, will more than likely look elsewhere to compare prices. Optimise your basket abandonment emails by: - Reviewing send time (40 mins) - Include key USPs - Pull through product feed USE A/B INSIGHT TO DETERMINE CAMPAIGN ELEMENTS To ensure that you’re one step ahead of competitors and that your email stands out in the inbox, use your findings from your A/B testing. This could include: - Send time - Subject line length - Keywords - Layout/design
- 26. Social Marketing. – DECEMBERNOVEMBER Structure your ad campaigns to reflect the urgency of delivery deadlines and to showcase easy gifting options and wrapping. Create fun ideas to gain engagement on your social profiles - why not run a 12 day Christmas countdown competition or an advent campaign? This is where Facebook advertising is imperative. Ensure customers are targeted from discovery all the way through to advocacy. This not only allows users to have personalised content based on their previous experience online, but you will see a dramatic improvement when it comes to engagements, clicks and sales - as content is more relevant. OCTOBER Introduce appropriate awareness days such as International Coffee Day (1st Oct), National Techies Day (3rd Oct) or even Internet Day (29th Oct). These awareness days usually come with a hashtag, and networks like Twitter and Instagram will be full of trending posts.
- 27. PPC. – DECEMBERNOVEMBER Traffic tends to drop off after the first 2 weeks, most of the Christmas parties are over and it’s nearly time for sale Keep an eye on your device bidding. Are your delivery messages clear? Your potential customers will want to make the most of Next Day Delivery nearer Christmas. Review your Time of Day bidding Performance. Ensure your bids are competitive enough throughout the Black Friday peak. This usually takes place all week! Panic buying party outfits, next day delivery and free returns, take advantage of this little peak! OCTOBER Plan out your budgets, ensure you have some flexibility! Review audience lists, are they built out, do you have a variety of targeting? Know your competitors in advance. ‘Christmas Party outfit’ searches start in August but now you’ll start seeing people purchase.
- 28. SEO and Online PR. – JANUARYDECEMBER Sale promotions. Promote key brands. Remove festive graphics. Update website navigation to reflect the January sale, and remove any Christmas categories. Link with other channel activity to give greater visibility online. Try to engage with customers via various platforms such as blogs, gift guides on external sites, online press releases and social media Stay ahead and complete content relevant to New Year and sale periods. NOVEMBER Create blogs and content on top products for Christmas. Ensure key products and brand category pages have fresh, unique content, as this can help with overall brand visibility. Prepare content for customer information e.g. delivery dates.
- 29. Affiliate Marketing – JANUARYDECEMBER Communicate sale banners to all publishers. Design new generic banners ready to go live after the sale period. Reinforce key USPs with all publishers to ensure all out of date promotions are removed. Offer free delivery if possible across different dates throughout December Onsite offers through overlays can really push last minute sales and increase conversion rate. Prepare for your sale as early as possible - publishers will be getting a lot of information sent through during this time, so ensure everything is confirmed prior to sending. NOVEMBER Design festive banners that tie in with promotions for all publishers to use. Look at increasing commissions to cashback sites to ensure customers become more likely to convert. Create a range of promotions to reach different customers. From discount codes, to free gifts and 3 for 2’s - creating engaging promotions is vital!
- 30. Explore other multi-channel opportunities & features –
- 31. Black Friday is going nowhere! It’s crucial to plan ahead to unlock opportunities for visibility & growth. Implement your campaigns around key Q4 dates Your customers are more in demand and will be expecting this. Planning and communication is key Whether internal or external, keep everyone on the same wavelength! Leverage your digital channels Optimise, test and plan ahead of Black Friday and throughout the Q4 period. Key takeaways. –
Editor's Notes
- In the case of the 20 retail stores trading as High & Mighty, Jacamo and Simply Be are all to close as their owner, N Brown, seeks to become a wholly online business. By 2017, the stores contributed only 2% to its turnover.
- Our vision is to be at the forefront of the UK eCommerce industry.
- What makes VS different?
- Make more like a team view rather than escalation ladder
- Our vision is to be at the forefront of the UK eCommerce industry.
- Day 2 in Q4, a lot of retailers will now be sitting in panic starting to plan Black Friday! A lot of retailers rely on this quarter for….
- Started in the US, football game after Thanksgiving, Police in Philadelphia hated it, too many shoppers and tourists. Retailers 30 years later tried to change this connotation to it’s customers and the result was essentially red to black - when the day after Thanks Giving markeed when America’s stores finally turned a profit. Started in the UK 2010 - onto our 9th year. We understand the importance of thinking ahead to plan for the increase in demand and competition. Learning - identified - search (end of October) - advice on clients don’t rely on the weekend These extended sales periods have now also made their way into the UK retail calendar, with many businesses now offering longer deals on and around Black Friday – which might be something SMEs may also wish to consider with their respective promotions. Mobile browser confidence grew into mobile buyer confidence These insights highlight the increased shopper confidence on mobile devices and suggest decided improvement in mobile UX and checkout systems by retailers. Early indications also show this trend bleeding into Cyber Monday, with 60% of all sales attributed to a mobile or tablet device, between the hours of 6am and 9am in the UK.
- Admin is scalable If you’re expecting an influx in traffic or higher-than-normal traffic volumes then it’s worth discussing whether a dedicated server is the right option for you. Confirm your scheduled sale/promotion launch dates, especially any that are outside of the norm, combined with expected traffic levels as quickly as possible. It is advised that you speak to your Project Manager as quickly as possible to discuss the prioritisation of any bespoke work and/or to discuss website projects including additional fascias or redesigns. If you’re planning to add any features onto the website, our advice is to ensure these are added in advance so please get in touch to let our team know. We also have ControQ integration as an option, which is a traffic control system designed to prevent websites from being unresponsive during unpredictable surges of traffic.
- Halloween - Trick or Treat! E.g discount Bonfire night - theme, get ready (fashion) Black Friday & Cyber Monday Manic Monday, first day of December **Crap I need to get those gifts in!** Free shipping day - could you take advantage of this?
- Create and maintain a marketing calendar for Q4 with key dates clearly highlighted and defined. Don’t be fooled - your competitors will be doing the same, so don’t leave this until last minute. Create a Google sheet and share with your Client Relationship Manager who will help coordinate your planning. At the very least, decide and define your key sale dates and stick to them as best as possible to minimise disruption. Communicate this with your Client Relationship Manager including start/end dates, percentage discount and any traffic level estimations, who will liaise with our Technical and Digital teams to discuss your scheduled dates for peak trading activity. Decide on your last delivery dates and return policies for over the Christmas period as early as possible, and ensure your CMS pages for returns and delivery are updated. Remember to inform your Client Relationship Manager if you’re a Visualsoft Marketing client, they will communicate this information to the relevant teams. Update creatives and banners with festive imagery and promotional messaging. Keep imagery consistent where possible across the website and digital marketing channels to create a cohesive customer journey. If you’re planning to use Visualsoft for design work, please speak with your Client Relationship Manager to schedule this work ahead of time. Plan your media budgets and decide on increased spend levels, ensure you have key channels activated, optimised and ready to go ahead of time - refrain from leaving this until last minute as immersion and setup can take 4 weeks if you’re planning to use any of the Visualsoft Digital Marketing services.
- Create and maintain a marketing calendar for Q4 with key dates clearly highlighted and defined. Don’t be fooled - your competitors will be doing the same, so don’t leave this until last minute. Create a Google sheet and share with your Client Relationship Manager who will help coordinate your planning. At the very least, decide and define your key sale dates and stick to them as best as possible to minimise disruption. Communicate this with your Client Relationship Manager including start/end dates, percentage discount and any traffic level estimations, who will liaise with our Technical and Digital teams to discuss your scheduled dates for peak trading activity. Decide on your last delivery dates and return policies for over the Christmas period as early as possible, and ensure your CMS pages for returns and delivery are updated. Remember to inform your Client Relationship Manager if you’re a Visualsoft Marketing client, they will communicate this information to the relevant teams. Update creatives and banners with festive imagery and promotional messaging. Keep imagery consistent where possible across the website and digital marketing channels to create a cohesive customer journey. If you’re planning to use Visualsoft for design work, please speak with your Client Relationship Manager to schedule this work ahead of time. Plan your media budgets and decide on increased spend levels, ensure you have key channels activated, optimised and ready to go ahead of time - refrain from leaving this until last minute as immersion and setup can take 4 weeks if you’re planning to use any of the Visualsoft Digital Marketing services.
- 6. Run regular competitions to create noise and engagement on the run up to Black Friday, and other key dates, too. Use this as an opportunity to gain explicit consent and increase your subscriber database to engage with them when your promotions go-live! 7. Share information regarding your stock range and depth, and any anticipated changes in these levels so we can help maximise digital activity, ensure guns are blazing and upweighted in the right areas! Also ensure you have resource available in-house to meet expected demand. 8. Fine tune your prospecting and retargeting strategies to ensure acquisition and retention tactics are fully maximised to drive customers through the conversion funnel. If you’re not sure, don’t worry, we’re here to help you. Speak to your Client Relationship Manager who can facilitate a discussion with your dedicated Digital Marketing Consultant. 9. Communicate regularly with your Client Relationship Manager to ensure the website is scaled up to cope with the increase in traffic levels by communicating dates for peak trading, sales messaging, scheduled dates for email sends and other go-live dates at your earliest opportunity. 10. Determine the health of your digital channels and ensure they’re ready to cope with the increase in demand as early as possible before momentum starts to spike! Speak to your Client Relationship Manager who will be more than happy to help.
- CONTROQ - Feature (buffer) Leverage the expertise you have available to you at Visualsoft. Your Client Relationship Manager is there for you, whenever you need them. Communicate with them at your earliest opportunity to discuss estimated traffic levels, scheduled sale dates and to determine the health of your digital channels. They will facilitate introductions with your dedicated Digital Marketing Consultant to discuss your Q4 strategy and plans in more detail. Whether you’re a Visualsoft marketing client, or you manage your business marketing in-house or through a third party agency, we advise against making significant changes to campaigns close to go-live dates for sales, or on Black Friday. Try and plan ahead as much as possible! Confirm your scheduled sale/promotion launch dates, especially any that are outside of the norm, combined with expected traffic levels as quickly as possible. Speak to your Client Relationship Manager who will liaise with our SysAdmin team to review your current infrastructure and ability to cope with the increase in demand. If you’re expecting an influx in traffic or higher-than-normal traffic volumes then it’s worth discussing whether a dedicated server is the right option for you. Speak to your Client Relationship Manager who will have this discussion with you. It is advised that you speak to your Project Manager as quickly as possible to discuss the prioritisation of any bespoke work and/or to discuss website projects including additional fascias or redesigns. If you’re planning to add any features onto the website, our advice is to ensure these are added in advance so please get in touch to let our team know. Remember to setup and test discount codes ahead of time, especially before any planned launches, to ensure codes are working as expected with all of the correct criteria. If there are issues then please speak to our Technical Support team on 01642 676 018 or speak to your Client Relationship Manager who can help guide you through the setup process. We also have ControQ integration as an option, which is a traffic control system designed to prevent websites from being unresponsive during unpredictable surges of traffic. Get in touch with your Client Relationship Manager if you’d like to learn more about this
- Remember to setup and test discount codes ahead of time, especially before any planned launches, to ensure codes are working as expected with all of the correct criteria.
- paid media to dominate over organic because it’s more scalable and easier to manipulate visibility through bid management.] 50% October 100% November December - front weight in , backend- visibility (sale- spike it)
- They have been building SEO equity in the background for key pages ensuring that at the time of the sale going live all their comms channels will be driving consumers to those hot deals.