To better understand your customers, how they interact with the organization, and build brand loyalty, brands are developing a digital-first marketing strategy. Digital can help provide your organization visibility into customer behavior at every point of their journey.
While traditional marketing uses newspapers and magazines, digital marketing uses a variety of digital channels, social media, and websites. However, before you embark or continue that journey – it’s important to recognize who your audience is, who you are trying to target, and what types of channels those demographics leverage.
How Digital Marketing is at the Core of One Fast-Growing Brand
A fast-growing restaurant chain, Chicken Salad Chick, heavily relies on digital to improve their engagement and encourage customers to return.
“We learned that community on social media can really drive business.”
-Tom Carr, CMO, Chicken Salad Chick
Tom Carr, the CMO of the chain, spoke about this at a GDS Group Digital Marketing Summit. “Digital from this standpoint is everything.” Carr shares that the chain has roughly 200 restaurants and they focus on marketing that is in close proximity to their locations. “Working with the local community that really high-touch marketing and building relationships with schools, churches and other organizations, locally.”
Carr says digital fits right into leveraging this community approach. “We are a heavy Facebook brand. Every location has its own individual Facebook page.” He shares that since a lot of his guests and staff are very connected with the community and one another – they can really use that to grow digitally and grow their brand with a personalized and trusted touch.
“Guests want the personal touch. We also found out we can’t overcommunicate with an audience…If you have something engaging and you are giving them something of value, that’s what they are looking for. That connection.”
Personalization – Not Just Another Buzzword
Carr makes a great point about leveraging community on social media to drive business and give a personalized touch. Personalization is not just another buzzword, it’s what customers (especially younger generations) crave. We want to know that we matter as a consumer and when we receive an ad or an email from you – it’s relevant and worth our time, reading.
In fact, SmarterHQ reports that 70% of millennials are frustrated with brands sending irrelevant emails. With the decline of third-party cookies – brands need to leverage their first party data to create this personalized experience. While that may seem difficult, customers are willing to share their info for that type of experience. An Accenture study says 83% are willing to share their data to create a more a personalized experience and 64% of consumers are fine with retailers saving their purchase history and preferences if it allows them to offer more personalized experiences (BRP Consulting).
The (Digital) Future is Bright
With Millennials and GenZ flocking to Instagram and TikTok – don’t forget to watch the trends and utilize the channels your consumers are on. Make sure when you send them a notification its meaningful and valuable. McKinsey’s US Consumer Sentiment research shows that “77% of consumers tried new shopping behaviors in the past year, and that they were primarily driven to it by a need for value, convenience, and availability.”
And if you can embrace this local approach like Chicken Salad Chick, take Carr’s advice and embrace the local communities and the influencers in them. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to try something and embrace this digital-first approach.
Want to learn more about what leading Digital Marketers are doing in this space? Join one of our industry leading GDS Group Summits!
GDS Summits are tailored 3-day virtual event conferences that bring together business leaders and solution providers to accelerate sales cycles, industry conversations and outcomes. Regarding the Digital Marketing Summit 78% of Delegates said the Digital Summit provided them with actionable outcomes to support their current initiatives and 80% of Solution Providers said they would be interested in sponsoring future events.
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