It was pretty much the worst case scenario realized for retailers last month. Retail sales declined 2.7 percent in the all-important month of December, drawing to a close the worst holiday season since 1969. With consumer confidence still at record lows, how can a typical retailer hope to survive such dire circumstances? While there are no easy answers to address this multitude of problems, it’s time for retailers, especially those in the SMB space, to embrace digital marketing to help survive and possibly even thrive in the current economic conditions.

As I noted in my previous article, digital marketing should be top of mind for anyone in the SMB sector, and this is especially true for retailers, both online and “brick and mortar.” Here are a few reasons why:

It’s Affordable-Unlike other more traditional marketing channels, digital vehicles like email and SMS should be within the budget of even the smallest of retailers.

It’s Trackable-Lower revenues and disappointing sales mean it’s time to re-focus on maximizing ROI, and digital marketing in its very nature is designed to be trackable. Whether you just want to see how many people respond to a specific offer, or you need more sophisticated conversion tracking, you can monitor, in real time, the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.

It’s Attainable-Gone are the days where only larger companies could effective deploy and manage digital marketing strategies. This is especially true for mobile marketing, in which SMB retailers can use applications like our mobileStorm SMS platform to quickly and easily launch highly effective campaigns, such as mobile coupons.

It’s Adaptable–Being stuck with an ineffective marketing campaign can be a serious blow to a retailer, both in terms of lost revenue or even your reputation. Changing course in the traditional media outlets can be cost both time and money. In the digital realm, however, such corrections can be done with minimal effort and expense.

It’s Personable–Most forms of mass communication are geared towards the mass market, meaning that the same message is applied across a wide section of potential consumers. Digital marketing allows you to take an inverse approach, giving you the flexibility to customize your offer to a much smaller (and arguably more effective) niche audience.

It’s Inevitable–Whether or you are currently engaged in digital marketing, the fact is that eventually you’ll have no choice but to use it. Your competitors will be, or already are, doing so.

What has your experience been like using digital marketing as a retailer? If you haven’t started, what is holding you back from doing so? We’d love to hear your thoughts either way.

Until next time,

Steve Chipman
“Analog thoughts in a digital world”

We’ve all heard the dire predictions of what 2009 will mean to marketers and make no mistake about it, the news isn’t great. I won’t bother with a rehash of what others have reported because, quite frankly, it’s too depressing to do so. What I offer instead is the proverbial silver lining in this dark, gloomy cloud we’re facing: Digital marketing.

While traditional marketing budgets have shrunk over the past few months, digital marketing has proven to be a much more resilient form of communication in this same time period. In fact, most analysts are predicting at least a slight uptick in overall spending in digital marketing, notably email and mobile marketing, but nothing close to what had been initially projected before the economy was finally deemed to be in a recession.

Still, there are many reasons why companies should not only maintain but increase their digital marketing budgets in 2009, especially within the SMB (small-to-midsized business) space, to take advantage of its unique properties. These include:

Price
Digital is still by far the cheapest of the mass forms of communication. TV and radio rates have not fallen nearly as far as expected, despite the weakened economy; print is in a death spiral and increasingly not a safe play for a decent ROI; and outdoor/out of home is still a niche play at best.

ROI
Digital marketing wins this in a landslide as well. Other forms of mass communication simply do not or are not equipped to give the level of insight that digital can when it comes to ROI. Digital by its very nature is trackable, with more and more sophisticated analytics becoming available on almost a daily basis to even the smallest of companies.

Reach
Digital penetration rates are now as high as more mature forms of mass communication, especially mobile phones, which should reach 100% penetration over the next few years according to most studies. Mobile marketers have only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible and although email marketing is much more established, it too still has potential growth opportunities. This is especially true in the SMB market, where there are many affordable digital marketing platforms from which to choose.

Segmentation
Not only can digital provide companies with a way to reach a mass audience, it also works extremely well in terms of market segmentation. Digital marketing is a natural for “narrowcasting” and customization of the message, which isn’t economically viable in the other forms of mass communication. With a solid digital marketing platform, the message can be tailored to a specific audience or even an individual consumer in a matter of moments.

Control
As any seasoned marketer knows, keeping and maintaining control of a marketing campaign is vital to its success. For a small company, this is even more critical because of tight budgets and lack of internal resources. With a digital marketing platform, such programs can be created and managed by even a single individual, while still maintaining the polish and feel of a much larger, more sophisticated marketing firm or company.

The bottom line is that 2009 is going to be rough on pretty much every business, with marketing budgets shrinking in kind. However, savvy companies, big and small, will recognize and embrace digital marketing as a key objective for the coming year. After all, just because the economy stinks doesn’t mean marketing will cease all together. Companies will simply have to be much more selective and expect real results, which is exactly what digital marketing can bring them.

What other unique benefits does digital marketing offer companies? Feel free to list your own and/or discuss the ones noted above. Your feedback is always welcomed.

Steve Chipman, Chief Operating Officer, mobileStorm
Analog thoughts in a digital world

Maintaining consistent email delivery can be a very tricky thing. Sometimes, even if you are following best practices such as proper email collection, removing bounces and generally being a “good” sender, your delivery can degrade over time. Once this happens, it’s time to reassess what is going on and look at the potential pitfalls you may have triggered. One of the most obvious symptoms can be whether or not you are on a shared IP or a dedicated IP.

Let’s quickly talk about the basic differences of each:

Shared IP – A shared IP means that your mailings are being sent off an IP that includes other users/companies. Most ESPs will start your account on a shared IP. They sometimes use this as a probationary step because they need to see what you are like as a sender before determining where best to place you in a tiered structure.

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The digital marketing world is one in constant flux, which is the nature of any industry that centers on technology. From Apple vs. PC to BluRay vs. HD DVD, standards for new technologies become the battlegrounds for many companies trying to have their chosen formats to be the winners. Of course, this is hardly surprising given the vast sums of money spent to win such format wars.

As a result, companies trying to establish their particular format as the standard tend to dismiss the other proposed suggestions. So-called “early adopters’ are used to such shifts but by the time a particular technology reaches the mass consumer audience, normally one standard is established… hopefully.

Digital marketing channels are no different when it comes to standards, both good and bad. Some communication vehicles are more or less uniform in their standards but others offer digital marketers a sometimes bewildering array of options, causing many to go with the less common denominator approach. To help sort through the mess, here’s a quick guide on how various digital marketing communications deal with standards, from the easiest to the most contentious.

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