Keeping up to date on consumer trends is especially difficult during the busy holiday season. Use these insights and best practices to super-charge your campaign efforts.
The holidays are just around the corner -- are you prepared for the busy season ahead? The 2011 trends indicate that e-commerce sales are still on the rise. Clothing and shoes, toys and games, and gift cards are the most popular online purchases with the majority of those transactions occurring on Mondays.
Armed with that information, Kailei Richardson and Sarah Ripmaster of PointRoll predicted this year's hot consumer trends in their spotlight presentation at the iMedia Brand Summit in Coronado, Calif. Here are the key takeaways from that presentation.
Mobile and tablet advertising are critical
- Tablet use has doubled, and mobile phone use has increased by 20 percent -- making it imperative that retailers jump on the mobile bandwagon in order to beat out the competition.
- Tablets are going to be the e-commerce superstars of the season, with consumers spending three times more on tablets than on mobile phones. It's worth noting that this is not due to an increased volume of purchases on tablets; it's that the average order value is higher on the tablet than on the mobile phone.
- Not only are consumers purchasing more on mobile, mobile and tablet ads drive more purchases on PCs.
Cross channel advertising is essential
A MyBuys study determined that 72 percent of consumers want an integrated marketing approach. This demonstrates that siloed advertising will become a thing of the past as consumers expect streamlined access to products.
Make your campaigns "Pinteresting"
People follow brands on Pinterest more than on any other social platform. Additionally, consumers are purchasing more after browsing Pinterest (59 percent) than Facebook (33 percent).
Ann Taylor set a great example for how brands can use Pinterest. The company enabled users to pin items directly from the ads in addition to running multiple contests on the platform. As a result, metrics around this ad were through the roof.
Don't forget about the experience
Rich media drives people to recommend more often than other types of advertising, so it's crucial that brands think outside the box to create engaging ads. However, when building these engaging ads, keep in mind that the call-to-action must be clear and easy to find. Games are great for keeping users engaged, but the call-to-action needs to be so strong that consumers know exactly what's going to happen when they roll over the advertisement.
"Choose your own adventure" style marketing tactics are an effective way to offer product recommendations to your customers. Some customers know what they want and just need help finding a specific product. Other customers only know who they're shopping for and seek out gifts through product recommendations. This provides a great opportunity to introduce your customers to new products and to offer up coupons.
Jennifer Marlo is associate editor at iMedia Connection.
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