How to Create Value for Consumers Through Digital Marketing
TLDR
Digital marketing has a role in each of the steps of the customer journey, and value is the glue that holds it all together.
You have a working relationship with your customers. Like any partnership, there is a give and take. Your brand puts in the work to listen to the audience and offer them something of value. In turn, you garner loyal customers.?
Creating value through digital marketing is more important than ever. Let’s break down what value is and explore what it means in digital marketing.
What is “value” for consumers, anyway?
In a basic sense, “value” is what drives someone to buy into what you’re offering. Value enriches the customer experience. There is value in a product itself, but also in everything surrounding the product. By putting effort into adding value, your brand is more likely to gain customers and keep them coming back.
The concept of value sounds both incredibly straightforward and complex. It kind of is. That’s because there are two key types of value: financial value and… everything else.
Financial Value
Financial value is the tangible “more bang for your buck” advantage customers experience with your product or service. Maybe your price point is better than your competition without sacrificing quality. You may also roll out digital marketing campaigns that offer reward programs or coupons with discounts. All of that can generate value for your audience.
Brands can also add financial value by incorporating new and improved additions into their existing offerings. Ultimately financial value-adds are anything your company does to give customers the experience of getting more for less.
Everything Else
Then we have all the other less tangible value-adds. Generally speaking, nonfinancial value for consumers comes in the form of a positive experience with your brand. The goal here is to create value in the customer journey from the beginning and continue to do so after a purchase is made. Nonfinancial value is just as important as financial value for developing a repeat customer base.?
In practice, we’re looking at things like how you communicate with your audience, the content you put out there, and the customer’s overall experience with your brand.?
When customers have difficulties, are you addressing them in a straightforward and polite manner? Do you engage with your audience? That is all key to a positive customer experience and rapport — it is a huge nonfinancial value-add.?
Does your content clearly demonstrate what your brand offers and what’s unique about those offerings? When you can provide relevant and insightful content rather than just “stuff,” you develop depth and reputability for your brand.
Digital Marketing at a Glance
So, where does digital marketing come in when you’re working to add value for consumers? Before we dive in further, let’s recap what digital marketing is, exactly.
Digital marketing is advertising through online means. It can be done through a variety of digital channels such as websites, social media, search engines, phone applications, and email. Digital marketing typically reaches audiences through computers, smartphones, and other mobile devices.
Digital Marketing Channels
Here’s a run-down of the different digital marketing channels you can work to create value in:
Content marketing : Content marketing includes blogs, infographics, and eBooks you make for your audience. Develop content that provides relevant, valuable information to your customers. This content can help answer questions your customers commonly have, inform your audience about interesting happenings in your field, and create a meaningful brand narrative that builds consumer trust. We’ll talk about that more later!?
Social media marketing : Brands can use social platforms in digital marketing to engage with their audience — these include Instagram, Twitter, Meta (Facebook), LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Provide valuable content on your social media channels by:
Search engine optimization (SEO) : SEO is the front- and back-end work you do to get your website to show up when someone searches for your brand, product, or field. When optimizing your website, you can structure data so it answers Google users' questions and populates at the top of search results in visual, engaging formats. This can be in the form of videos, lists, shopping results, or what Google calls the “featured snippet” — a quick answer to a question right at the top of the user’s search results.?
Doing so provides value to the user because they have their immediate need met. Their question was answered and they didn't even have to leave Google to get the answer. Your brand's name and a link to your site appear underneath the answer so a user can click through to learn more. This helps build credibility for your brand as a source of information.?
When optimizing your site for search engines you also improve the user experience on your site in a number of ways. Strong SEO positively impacts usability, content quality and formatting, link structure, load times, and a whole lot of other factors that make your website a valuable resource for users.
Email marketing : Email marketing campaigns need to be engaging and concise — and of course relevant to your customers. Your emails should reach the right customers, with the right content, at the right time.?
Use data from your customers to help segment your audience by behavioral trends and activities. What are your customer’s interests? What have they engaged with in the past? Where are they at in their buyer’s journey? Considerations like this can help brands deliver email marketing that provides value to the customer’s experience.?
Perhaps someone’s been browsing the shoes in your shop but hasn’t made a purchase yet. Sending a coupon their way for discounted shoes can add value to the customer’s experience. Now that they can get a bargain, they might consider making a purchase.
Why work to create value in the digital marketing space?
The question may just as well change from “Why create value in digital marketing?” to “Why would you not?”
Reach Your Whole Audience
The digital space offers a world of possibilities for adding value to the customer experience. To reach your full potential as a brand, it’s important to have an online presence these days. Otherwise, you’re ignoring a significant section of your audience — and missing out on lots of opportunities to engage with your customers and communicate value.
The pandemic expanded how people use digital platforms and it also caused a new wave of people to embrace digital options out of necessity. Globally, the average person is online for over six hours per day. Customers continue to do more shopping online, discover new brands in the digital space, and communicate with companies through digital platforms.?
Meet and Exceed Customer Expectations
Even though life has returned to some semblance of normalcy, customers are still just as active in the digital world — and their expectations remain high. Today, customers demand more out of a brand’s digital offerings and capabilities. Let’s use a restaurant as an example. We’ll call it sōsh Soufflés.
On sōsh Soufflés’ website it’s easy for people to browse the menu, understand the promos that are offered, order food online, book reservations, and submit feedback. The restaurant is responsive on its social media platforms to customer comments, inquiries, and complaints. Sōsh Soufflés also uses digital ads and emails that reward and delight customers with valuable coupons and promotions.?
If your digital platforms don’t provide convenience, quick solutions to customers’ problems, and digital tools that work seamlessly with your brand’s offline experience, consumers will go elsewhere.
The question may just as well change from “Why create value in digital marketing?” to “Why would you not?”
Build Credibility and Trust
People are more inclined to become loyal customers to your brand if you can provide useful, engaging content and connect with them in a meaningful way.?
When you provide valuable information to your audience for free it starts the relationship on the right foot and makes your brand a trusted information source. Demonstrating credibility in your particular niche and offering quality content shows you listen to your audience. Customers will learn your brand provides more than just merchandise or services. You provide expertise, advice, and solutions to their problems.
For instance, a bank writes a blog with tips about how to buy a house in a competitive real estate market — something that’s at the top of their customers’ minds. An ethically-focused meat processor creates an infographic that describes ways consumers can support sustainable farming . A lighting company sends out an email to enlighten customers on how to properly prepare their outdoor lanterns for the upcoming winter, ensuring their purchase will be protected and last a long time. These are all relevant and valuable pieces of content for the target customer.?
Let’s explore these examples, shall we?
Great Midwest Bank’s Blog
Buying your first home, remodeling your current home, or deciding to build your dream home are all major life decisions that require careful consideration. This local bank uses its blog to offer free education and industry insight to its readers. Great Midwest Bank answers common questions, provides tips to make the mortgage application process go smoother, and is genuine and helpful in every blog. The bank starts the relationship with customers where customers start their home purchase journey — online.
Strauss Brand’s 1LB Challenge Infographic
The 1LB Challenge was created as a way to educate people about how their choice of protein directly impacts the environment. It challenged consumers to switch out a pound of the beef they usually bought with a pound of sustainably-raised, grass-fed beef instead. This infographic illustrates the impact of that action, providing educational content in an easily digestible — and shareable — way. By putting this important message in such an easy-to-share format, those who are passionate about saving the environment can spread help the message and further their impact.
领英推荐
Brass Light Gallery’s Educational Emails
Providing value through digital marketing doesn’t stop once a customer makes a purchase. Your past and current customers are the lifeblood of your company. They may purchase again, and they may tell their friends and family about your brand. Brass Light Gallery understands that maintaining a relationship with past customers is critical to their business, which is why they send out helpful, actionable content their customers can use to extend the life of their purchases. This particular email explains to customers who purchased outdoor lanterns how to prepare and protect them from the harsh elements of the upcoming winter.
Core Components of Value-added Digital Marketing
We now understand why digital marketing should provide value to its audience. But sometimes, it can be hard to imagine just how your brand can provide value through content. To understand how, we must first understand the core components of value-added digital marketing.
Determine What is Relevant to Your Audience
When you add value in your digital marketing efforts that value needs to be aligned with your audience’s interests, outlooks, and needs. What is valuable to one audience can mean nothing to another — and even detract from their experience.?
Relevant marketing is what keeps people engaged and connected to what you offer as a brand. You’ll need to have a deep understanding of who your customers are, what they care about, and what motivates them. As a brand you show that you listen to your audience when you respond to customers with content and solutions that address their needs.
What is valuable to one audience can mean nothing to another — and even detract from their experience.
Offer Convenience
Another key aspect of value-added digital marketing is convenience. There are a few considerations here.
First, it is helpful to frame your offerings as solutions rather than as just a product or service. How your product can make someone’s life easier, save them time, save them money, et cetera — those are all conveniences to incorporate into your digital marketing campaigns.?
Convenience is also important in terms of user experience. A value-add initiative adds no value if it is cumbersome for the consumer. In fact, it tends to take away value if it backfires. For example, if you want to add value by offering a promotion, it shouldn’t require the customer to go through a gauntlet of steps to acquire a coupon. In that case, you may end up frustrating your customer when you meant to excite them with a discount opportunity.
Provide Something “Different” and Creative
People tend to gravitate toward things that are new and novel. Your digital marketing strategies add significant value when you succeed in catching someone’s eye and keeping their attention. This may be in the form of showing your innovative solution to a common problem or providing a fresh take on a classic product.?
A brilliantly designed ad can compel people to stop scrolling and read what you have to say. An insightful infographic can pique your audience’s interest and offer a new perspective they had never considered before.?
Let your product or service help drive your marketing angle. What sets your offerings apart from that of your competition? When you can answer this question, you have a strong foundation for your value message.
How to Get Started
Alright, it’s settled. You want to work on creating value in your digital marketing. Where do you start?
Analyze Your Position
First, take a look at your current situation. What has worked for your brand, and what hasn’t? Examine data points like customer engagement, how many of the promotional emails you send actually get opened, and how active customers are in your rewards programs. This helps paint a picture of the customer’s journey and interactions with your brand. It also gives clues about what they like and what they don’t like or are uninterested in.?
Another effective tool you can use is SWOT analysis, which is a brainstorming method that explores strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your business efforts. Using SWOT analysis can help your brand discern how you can best connect with your audience and stand out from competitors.?
For example, you might start by asking yourselves:?
When you take a step back to look at the full panoramic view of your efforts, you can get a better understanding of what your customers want. In turn, this insight will help guide your next value-add marketing efforts.
Hear Your Customers Out
You know another terrific way to help determine what your customers want? Just ask them.
Give customers a platform to share feedback. Some ways to do this are to encourage customers to leave reviews, create a suggestion box on your site for people to share ideas, send out surveys, and have an open dialogue on your social media pages.
You’ll want to keep an ear out for audience feedback about the good, the bad, and the ugly of your brand’s offerings. It’s rewarding to hear what you’re doing well, but it’s equally if not more important to collect and address negative feedback.?
Hearing the customer relates back to relevance: understanding what the customer cares about and what they truly want. When your brand takes action by adding a feature that customers have been asking for, or streamlining snags in your website experience to make it more user-friendly, you demonstrate that you’re listening to your customers. They’ll feel valued they’ve been heard and pleased about the improvements — and are more likely to give you repeat business.
It’s rewarding to hear what you’re doing well, but it’s equally if not more important to collect and address negative feedback.
Create a Positive Customer Journey
Collecting data and feedback from your customers will help guide improvements to the customer journey. The goal is to connect the dots between brand awareness, interest, purchase, customer retention, and customer loyalty. Digital marketing has a role in each of the steps of the customer journey, and value is the glue that holds it all together.
Through the customer feedback you collect, see if you can answer:
Once you know some of the hoorahs and hiccups in the customer journey, you can work to fine-tune them. Sometimes the biggest problem is one broken cog, and sometimes you may need to replace all the wheels.?
For example, maybe your brand is missing the mark on how you’ve rolled out your loyalty program — but you otherwise have an amazing product and digital ad campaign that people are responding to. So you focus resources on refining and adding value to the loyalty program.
Make Everything Easy
People ultimately want innovative solutions, products that work and that they enjoy, a pleasant experience with your brand, and ease of use. You can have a stellar product, but if steps along the buying process are arduous people will move on.?
This all connects to convenience. Now more than ever, customers drive in the fast lane. They don’t want to jump through hoops to get to the products they’re looking for, rewards your brand is offering, or customer service assistance.?
One way to make things easy for customers is to improve your website . Focus on mobile-friendliness, intuitive navigation, and streamlined design. Your website is the face of your brand, and customers’ experiences with it play a large part in how they perceive your company.
Give ‘em Something to Talk About
Don’t forget to work on creating a unique and memorable experience for your customers. When you can add more depth to your brand, you’re more likely to spark interest and buzz among your audience.
Here are a few ideas:
Today’s customers yearn for something different and intriguing. Work to find out what excites your audience, and play off of that in your value-adds.
Is it time to create more value in your digital marketing?
There is a lot to consider when working to add value in your digital marketing strategy. If you want some guidance for figuring out your next move, sōsh has your back. Let’s talk about where you’re at. What makes your brand unique? We’ll help you communicate that to your audience. Reach out to us today! We’d love to help bring your digital marketing to new heights.
About Us
Founded in 1999, sōsh is a Milwaukee-based creative marketing and advertising agency specializing in data-driven strategies for small to large brands. Sōsh focuses on a wide range of disciplines such as creative services, social media, digital marketing, web design, advertising, and our trademark events. Sōsh creates meaningful connections between brands and their audience and does so through strategic communication, captivating creative, and thoughtful engagement. We are a collection of strategists - creatives dedicated to adding value to both our client’s brands and their consumers’ lives.