With internet usage set to increase exponentially and retailers moving further away from their physical stores and online, there is desperate demand to act NOW and get in front of your consumers in the online world.
My previous post discussed the increasing urgency and demand for speed within the online world and the every growing need for speed online.
Below are three vital tips to keep up to speed with your consumers online:
1. Be in the Right Places:
It is all well saying 'We're online!', however if you're not in the right places online then your efforts are almost all wasted. You must perform detailed research into your target audience's online behaviours. Where are they talking? Who are they talking to? What are they talking about? When are they online? Once you have answered these questions you will have a better idea as to how to be in the right place and get amongst the conversation between your target audience.
2. 24/7 Online Support:
I am a strong believer that there is no 'down-time' in online activity. Instead the deciding factor is how consumer centric your brand or organisation are. If you are a large, global consumer facing brand, the need to be online 24/7 is vitally important. As previously discussed, the need to be at your consumer's every beckon call with urgency and precision is paramount.
3. Seamless Connection between On & Off-line:
It is all well and good saying that everyone is online and you need to be there in order to succeed. However, as the initial statistics disclose, NOT all of us are online and certainly NOT all of us are making every single purchase decision online. So, a happy medium needs to be adopted, again steaming back to really having an understanding of your target audience's online and offline behaviour. Once you have established this solid research base, and like the majority of brands and organisation, you have both on and offline audiences, there needs to be consistency and a seamless approach to marketing and communication efforts. As a consumer myself I admire the ability to swap and change between on and offline, ordering online but going into the store to pick items up from real people, Tesco have this mastered with the Click & Collect initiative.
The above points lead me back to the close of my previous post. Could all three points be better executed by an algorithm?
Algorithms could address the 'Where?' question, but means of assessing and sorting through masses of user's online behaviours.
Algorithms could most defiantly provide 24/7 support online, they do not require rest or sleep or a cup of tea every hour, like us humans!
However, the personal touch that is brought through with the use of real people in real time, can this be replicated using algorithms?
If is a very interesting debate, one that formed one of the original questions that lead me to the construction of this blog.
In my next post I will aim to tackle this question more directly, Can algorithms provide a genuine substitute for real human interaction and marketing as we know it today?
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