Big Data: Unlocking the Connection between Digital Marketing & In-Store Sales

We’re pleased to feature a guest post from Stephanie Martone, Manager of Strategic Initiatives at RevTrax. She is RevTrax’s in-house, go-to data expert! When Stephanie isn’t checking out new bands at music festivals or exploring hidden gems in New York City, she is working closely with RevTrax clients and their data to extract clear and concise actionable insights that will ultimately lead to recommendations for further business success.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all heard that the potential for Big Data is huge – boundless actually. But what kind of intelligence are retailers and brands really able to extract from Big Data that allows them to connect their digital marketing spend straight through to the in-store sale? McKinsey states that the number one use of Big Data is customer analytics. Acquired and used effectively, customer analytics can provide a wealth of knowledge about consumer behavior, social trends, purchasing behavior, customer loyalty, as well as preferred digital channels to engage on.

Discovering the opportunities

Most retailers and brands find it challenging to attribute value to even the most basic of digital data metrics captured (conversions, visits, page views, etc.) and then apply that value back to an online campaign. The crime here is that, without the ability to take even the most basic of data and convert it into intelligent analytics, the opportunities that exist within the data are then lost. A report by Deloitte Digital found that 94% of all retail sales are happening in-store, while digital technologies are expected to influence 50 percent of in-store sales, accounting for $1.52 trillion, by the end of 2014. The impact of the digital path to purchase is greater and is growing exponentially faster than previously expected.

Rising above the digital chaos

One channel in particular, Search, is proving to be highly effective in connecting online consumer behavior directly to in-store revenue. An integrated paid search campaign with an advanced data analytics platform will result in:

1. The tracking of individual consumer behavior from first digital touch point through to an in-store sale, allowing marketers to optimize bids right down to the keyword level.

2. Retailers’ and brands’ ability to optimize search budgets to drive maximum revenue at the lowest cost.

3. The ability to measure mobile search activity and the keywords that drive in-store revenue.

4. Data capture (average order value, product margins, category margins, etc.) that will allow retailers and brands to optimize search campaigns and identify trends for long-term strategic planning.

Retailers and brands need to start creating digital campaigns that will allow them to finally attribute in-store revenue back to the digital channel, and in the case of search, directly to the search term used.

Join us for a webinar on May 29^th, where we will present a national retailer’s search marketing campaign that integrated RevTrax and Skai technologies to provide an unprecedented opportunity — optimizing bids using retailer redemption info, down to the keyword and channel used, to deliver real-time results.