How to Create Compelling Retail Marketing Experiences with Movable Ink + Oracle Marketing Cloud
Shoppers are savvy. They know exactly how and when to find the best offers on the products and services they want. They can easily check prices, instantly download coupons, and do comparison shopping all from their smartphones.
When it’s time to make a purchase, they have plenty of options, too: they can order online, but they can also do in-store pick-up if that’s more convenient for them. And many retailers are promoting in-store only offers to their online customers. The retail experience no longer happens in just one place. As a result, shopping has become an omnichannel experience.
So what’s a retailer to do?
Discounts, coupons, and free shipping alone aren’t a long-term solution for standing out and gaining loyal customers. The most innovative retailers are competing on customer experience. To outshine the competition, retailers need a repeatable, strategic approach that goes beyond promotions and avoids death by a thousand discounts.
Creating compelling and personalized customer experiences is the most effective way to differentiate and drive revenue and loyalty. That means retailers are looking to their marketing teams to drive this change through personalized digital experiences that enhance the entire customer journey.
That’s a tall order.
Retail marketers understand the power of personalization. According to Forrester, 68% of firms say that personalization is a priority. But implementing those personalized campaigns is easier said than done.
Leading Barriers to Achieving Their Company’s Personalization Goals According to UK and US Marketers, April 2017
Source: PWC, Total Retail Survey 2017
So what’s a retail marketer to do?
How email marketing helps solve the personalization problem
Email has long been the workhorse of digital marketing. It is the most natural channel to deliver on the promise of personalized digital experiences. Email allows for a direct and intimate 1:1 relationship between a brand and their customer.
And it makes sense: your email subscribers are the people who opt into your communications – they’re your biggest fans! It makes sense to send them relevant and helpful content that empowers them to grow with you. Since email is the best channel to build and grow customer relationships, the more personalized your email content is, the better.
But as we’ve discussed above, achieving next-level personalization is a challenge for most marketers, who have precious little time and resources to spare. When you take into account the production time needed for designing, coding, developing multiple variations, testing, and approvals, it’s no wonder why it can take months for a single campaign to get out the door.
Retail marketers need a solution that helps them easily source personalized content without putting a strain on their email production process. And believe it or not, that solution exists.
In our newest ebook, we teamed up with Oracle Marketing Cloud to show you three powerful examples of retail marketers using Movable + Oracle Marketing Marketing Cloud to create data-driven, customer-centric email campaigns.