Showrooming by definition is when a shopper physically visits a bricks and mortar retail store to check out a product, and then purchases the product online from home at a lower cost. Fewer than 10% of ‘Showroom Shoppers’ buy from the same ‘bricks and mortar’ website. How can a bricks and mortar retailer survive when they are losing more than 90% of committed shoppers?
 
Retailers possess a wide variety of new tools available to engage potential customers and build relationships. Such relationships can be established through a social media strategy. By listening to the customer through data metrics, successful retailers can provide custom tailored offers through instant couponing (QR Codes, SMS and email messaging). All of this can be automated resulting in increased sales at higher margins. A key benefit to an effective implementation is customer retention and loyalty. Price is not the sole purchase criteria for all customers. Creditability, warranties, and product bundling are all factors that influence customer behavior. Customers need a reason to stay engaged.
 
A well-executed social media engagement program can build loyalty through online communities. Many retailers have challenges creating content. An effective social community will create content through customer involvement. When customers are engaged with you they are not listening to your competition. By measuring online activity, successful retailers will know which topics are of interest. Imagine the positive results if you knew what made each customer tick. Engaged customers are loyal customers.
 
Bricks and mortar retailers need to fight back. Old methods are delivering ‘free customers, to online sites. Platforms such as OneBigBroadcast.com provide the tools from content creation to data metrics to guide retailers to successful strategies to drive revenue and bottom line results.  Today’s technology has changed customer behavior forever. This paradigm shift provides opportunity for some, yet creates chaos for others. All successful retailers will use data metrics to understand what customers want. This is the new reality.
 

Social media is having a disruptive impact as consumer behaviour evolves. Organizations are finding that traditional marketing programs are no longer effective in generating sales or building customer loyalty. Traditional programs are at best, a guess accompanied by long “wait times” to determine results while successful organizations are creating change through proactive consumer engagement. Customers are increasingly using their phones to shop and have conversations through social media to voice their desires and concerns. Market response times have vaporized as all of this new activity is taking place in real-time.

Market leading organizations are seizing new opportunities by increasing their utilization of social media to communicate to their customer base (active and prospective). Their ability to respond or create an opportunity is increasing everyday as consumers embrace this new reality. The challenge for many organizations is the manpower required to manage an effective social media program has becoming overwhelming. Who has time on an ongoing basis to check Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest and then to respond? In a large organization, this is now and entire department. Further, this trend now requires successful organizations to harmonize social communications within their brand and marketing strategy. Who is in charge? Should the agency get involved?  Should it be re-organized?

Social media has passed the tipping point creating a paradigm shift.... a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis driven by agents of change.  Successful organizations understand that the secret to social media success isn't in talking - it's in listening. Within this context, social media is quickly becoming the leading component of marketing communications and promotional messaging.

New platforms are emerging in the marketplace that enable automated social broadcasting. By automating task intensive functions (Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest), successful organizations are reducing cost and are better able to focus on content creation. Coupled with data analytics, successful organizations are able to measure and fine-tune the effectiveness of their messaging (content, frequency and timing). Automated social broadcasting is driving search by linking social media which in turn is reducing (and often eliminating) the requirement and cost associated with traditional SEO. That’s right … all that money you are spending on SEO needs to be redeployed to effective social media engagement. An effective social media plan will drive search. The game is changing for all of us. The only roadblocks we face are the inability to recognize that we are in the midst of a Paradigm Shift.

Properly executed and maintained, organizations can develop a comprehensive foundation for providing a ROI model for all marketing programs by linking them to social media initiatives. Consult, execute, measure and adjust on an ongoing basis is the platform for future success in an increasingly changing market. Building a relationship with your customers and prospects means they are busy communicating with you and not your competitor. Out of chaos comes opportunity. The secret to business success isn't in talking - it's in listening. That sounds like something from the 70's ... the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Just the tools have changed. The rules are the same.
 

Exceptional methods deliver exceptional results: this is the truth of marketing. Standard fare no longer courts consumers. Instead search engines are needed to generate traffic and sales. 

The proof is in the statistics.

According to Experian Marketing Services, search engines dominated the final quarter of 2012, claiming 49% of consumer shopping. This is a staggering number, especially when compared to the 16% of users who relied on classified sites and the 12% who utilized email services to find products. Other options, such as portal pages and directories, carved out even smaller niches (at 4% and 3%, respectively).

Too often do companies ignore the potential of search engines. Social media--networking, video posting, blogging and more--tends to capture their attention and rightly so. This method helps to develop brands, inspires trust and opens the lines of communication between businesses and consumers. It’s undeniably useful. Trying to channel consumer shopping through it, therefore, seems logical. 

Experian Marketing Services, however, offers a different view: less than ten percent of overall sales traffic is generated from social media. In 2012, Facebook offered 3.8%; Amazon managed 1.5%; YouTube struggled to rise above 1%.

And companies that relied purely of social networking saw their traffic tumble and their profits stagnate. 

It becomes imperative, therefore, to create a strong search engine presence. While social media should be employed, sites like Google, Bing and others are essential. One Big Broadcast helps to take advantage of these engines, utilizing a cloud-powered platform that highlights every post and attracts consumers. This provides stronger sales and long-lasting results.

The need to dominate search engines is understood. Companies can no longer rely on basic branding. Instead they must seek consumers online.

Many businesses are doing this. They’re simply not doing it correctly. Social marketing is being improperly utilized throughout the Web, with its methods and goals unaligned. 

Analytics can change this.

Analytics--the process of measuring information, such as site performance and individual post traffic--is a not a new concept. It’s simply a concept that’s often overlooked, with real-time reporting underdeveloped within companies. Social campaigns are often separated from the brands they represent, with a lack of communication and data analysis making them ineffective. According to Matt Lawson, VP of Marketing at Marin Software: “I can't tell you how many companies have their search marketing team in a little separate silo.”

It’s this thought that led Marin Software, with support from Forrester Research, to conduct a study of search engine marketing and how it’s being used. Within this study, it was discovered that 83% of participants believed their online efforts directly effected their overall revenue outcomes.

This is an easy number to accept. What follows, however, is less encouraging: because 65% of those same participants admitted to a lack of metrics and ad goals, focusing instead on simply driving in traffic. There was no analysis or strategy reported. There was just a series of poorly executed social campaigns.

This is a waste of the estimated $33 billion that will be devoted to search engine marketing and social networking within the next few years. Companies are not examining their performances or their consumers. They are merely generating empty traffic, and this leads to a lack of sales and weakened brands.

One Big Broadcast helps to rectify this. Our platform embraces the analytics process, allowing businesses to understand what their services truly mean. We evaluate sites, posts and social campaigns, offering real-time results and helping to further the media experience.