Consumers have an expectation that their shopping experience will be seamless no matter which device or channel they use to engage with a brand. At the recent “Creating a multi-channel customer experience” sponsored by digital agency Advantec, Aiko Phillips Brand Marketing Manager for Sass & Belle, detailed how the homeware retailer is creating that seamless experience, through their omni-channel marketing strategy.
Moving The Brand Online
Sass & Belle’s move into marketing their brand online is a relatively recent one. The website was launched in 2011 and it is only in the past eighteen months that Sass & Belle has started to adopt an integrated, omni-channel marketing strategy. Despite Sass & Belle being relatively recent converts to digital marketing, the retailer has already made some interesting moves in the space.
Phillips explains that the Sass & Belle primary target market is females aged 18 – 30, with a secondary market of 30 – 45 year old females. Their audience that is very much involved with social media. Consequently, being active on social media, and continually developing fresh content, is critical for keeping the audience engaged. She recommends staying on top of what your audience is interested in. To make Sass & Belle seem relatable the brand adopts a playful tone on social media. All social media is handled by Sass & Belle in house.
Sass & Belle lends itself towards visually orientated social media platforms. Not surprisingly two of their most popular platforms for the retailer are Instagram where they have 18,000 followers and Facebook with more than 16,000 followers.
Marketing With Video
Phillips emphasises the importance of using video to market your brand online. Sass & Belle have made clever use of video marketing introducing a homeware haul campaign featuring video bloggers. By giving away products to female YouTubers, Sass & Belle leveraged those YouTuber’s audience, while also creating video content for their own channel.
As she points out entire businesses are being built using video as their sole marketing strategy. She recommends that if you do have a product that lends itself to video, then you should strongly consider using this as part of your marketing strategy.
Watch an example from the Sass & Belle homeware haul campaign below:
Maintaining A Consistent Experience
Customers increasingly demand that their experience of shopping online remains consistent no matter whether they are shopping online or in-store. One common cause of customer anger, is when they purchase a product online, but could have purchased for a lower amount in-store, or vice versa. Sass & Belle works toward ensuring an identical brand voice and shopping experience no matter where customers interact with the brand.
Sass & Belle may be relative newcomers to digital marketing but it is clear from their presentation that have a very clear understanding of their customers and how to build a strong relationship with them online. It was interesting to learn how the Sass & Belle is not only responding, but capitalising on, the current consumer-centric retail environment.
To learn more about Sass & Belle visit Sassandbelle.co.uk
To see Advantec’s training, seminar’s and networking events visit www.advantec-internet.co.uk/events