Recently Louise Stephenson (Associate CIPD) and Peter Holt ran a highly successful event with HSBC at The Ivy for digital marketing leaders and SME owners. Speakers included Online4baby‘s Tom Fotheringham and HSBC‘s James Sawley, but what were our key takeaways?
1. Covid forced many businesses to pivot online to stay alive and for many newer businesses, this gave a false impression of how successful they could be.
2. Since the end of lockdown there has been a levelling of online sales back towards pre-covid levels, but not quite all the way back. For example, grocery shopping online went from 6% to 15% and has now settled back to 11%, general retail went to around 80% online from 30% but is now settling back at around 40-45%.
3. Both James and Tom agree that successful businesses are those that take an omni-channel approach to how they measure and engage with their customers. Successful businesses capture online and offline data to give a fuller picture of the multiple touchpoints that influence a customer along their journey to purchase for the first time, and to purchase again & again.
4. Brands that succeed are those that are willing to take risks, are prepared to utilise all the channels available to them and are building communities (across paid, owned and earned spaces) and collecting social proof as they go.
5. As the market has embraced the digital approach we are seeing a rise in digital appointments. However, not all businesses embark upon the same journey, and the sector is still learning and growing, so it’s important to choose a team that is not frightened to challenge and embrace change.
6. The role of a senior marketer/CMO/Sales Director is to embrace change, drive agility, challenge what has gone before and continually test and improve on the proven methods of reaching and retaining customers.
If you’re a CMO, aspiring CMO, Sales Director or SME owner, contact Louise directly for further discussion and to be a part of her dedicated retail/e-com thought leaders group.
Louise’s team is also growing. Recent hires include Lexi Graty from outside of the Search industry. If you can demonstrate our five key values of authenticity, commitment, progressiveness, collaboration and rigour, and show an aptitude for the job – we want to hear from you! Get in touch ->
