By Mark Kersteen - January 27th, 2016

This year’s Incite Summit: East led to a wealth of insights and soundbites.

The following are from a panel on called “Create and Share Content Your Audience Will Love”, featuring Lisa Kolodny Johnson, Vice-President of Marketing at FreshDirect, Christian Kugel, Vice-President, Consumer Analytics and Research at AOL, Elanah Entin, Social Media Director at BaubleBar, and Anisha Raghavan, Executive Director of Marketing and Consumer Engagement at StriVectin, moderated by Digiday’s Retail Reporter, Hilary Milnes.

“Vines don’t really work for us. We have too much to say in six seconds.” – Anisha Raghavan from antiaging beauty brand StriVectin, on how not every social media platform is right for the brand to reach its core audience

“We’re really not trying to be the Food Network on Snapchat. We’re just trying to find out what audiences are engaging with.” – Lisa from FreshDirect on experimenting with newer social platforms.

“Online retail was so far into search for so long, and now it is so far into social.” – Christian Kugel of AOL, discussing how social media has changed the way retailers connect with consumers.

“Our hero channel is Instagram for sure.” – Elanah Entin from jewelry company BaubleBar, on how Instagram and its ‘Like2Buy’ feature have increased the brand’s sales

How important is that a brand own its voice across all platforms?

Christian: “It’s a difficult challenge to connect the dots between what the brand stands or, its voice, and its values When you can connect those three, really magical things can happen.”

Christian: “Some sites go too narrow with content - like only putting up recipes. But
that’s not a good strategy, because it eliminates most content moment types. You can’t be everything to everybody, but there’s somewhere in the middle that is relevant.”

Anisha uses data to push conversion – she can target a female skincare customer who shops at Macy’s and is within 5 miles of a store. An ad to this person at this moment is much more likely to convert than a less-targeted ad. “If you treat customers like a friend, they become loyal to your brand. And since skin care is not something you need to buy every day, our focus in our day-to-day strategy is on acquisition and building awareness.”

For Elanah: “Social media is an e-commerce tool, but we are just as interested in getting likes and comments as we are in getting purchases. We post three to four times a day on Instagram, and make sure we display a balance of products, quotes, and content from our customers.”

Christian has seen a rise of the habit of shopping at all times. “55% of millennials shop every day. Shopping fulfills the same needs as media does. In fact, shopping fulfills every single human need state.”

“If you look at data like abandoned carts, you can infer intention, but you shouldn’t. The current data collection tools don’t capture emotional state. You need to be sensitive to the different motivations for shopping: boredom versus being really passionate about a product, for example. The shopping path should be different to fulfill those different motivations.”

Lisa picked up Christian’s thread, “Our typical customer spends 20 minutes a week on the site shopping. You have to be sensitive to their states. For example, that abandoned cart may actually be a live cart, because they’re filling it throughout the week.”

Elanah works with hundreds of bloggers, and makes sure to include their hashtag on all posts, emails, etc. “We encourage people to post photos of themselves wearing the jewelry, because seeing a piece of jewelry on another customer is more powerful than seeing it on a model.”

Anisha: “We use video for awareness, and then target those people who viewed the video with a more product-focused message.”

Lisa: “It’s impossible to be on every platform and have an impact. It’s hard, because you want to be everywhere. But at the end of the day, you have to choose platforms that will drive the business.”

Christian: “Most mobile moments happen in the home. When you’re sitting at home watching TV, your phone or tablet is in your hand. About 50% of mobile moments are generated by this need for ‘me’ time.”

“It’s important to take a view of the totality of the digital experience, though that’s not getting any easier.” 

The Incite Marketing Summit: West 2016

May 2016, San Francisco

The Incite Summit: West is the USA's best brand-focused marketing conference. Taking place in San Francisco on 18th and 19th of May, we will bring together Chief Marketing Officers from major brands to debate one key issue. How you can get a more granular picture of your customer and then engage in "one-to-one marketing". We'll focus on perception, precision and personalization.

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