Digital experiences have become a key factor in the customer journey of generation Z and millennials. We know that technology is part of their daily lives, and has become indispensable in their consumption habits, so understanding their needs and expectations in their shopping moments is essential.
Offering digital experiences through immersive strategies can connect more with audiences and improve CX in the “Big Data” era. It’s not just about adopting trendy tools, we have to consider our audience in order to successfully engage with them.
From creating apps, to implementing chatbots and personalizing content, meeting customers’ digital expectations can increase loyalty and sales. And this can be applied at every touchpoint with brands.
Thinking about experiences before, during and after consumption is key.
Before: This moment is crucial for the purchase decision, among thousands of options in the market, the experience we give customers can define whether they choose to buy or not. From an intuitive and easy to navigate website we can impact that decision.
During: In the buying process, new generations are excited by experiences that make them believe that they are designed by and for them. They value ease of use, security and speed in the checkout process.
After: The post-purchase digital experience can be critical to fostering consumer loyalty and engagement. Discounts, loyalty programs or unique experiences when receiving your products are some examples of how we can make consumers feel motivated to buy again in the future.
We can benefit from tools such as Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality to create unique customer experiences. With AI, data analytics can provide valuable insights into customer behavior patterns and preferences, so we can personalize communication and content, enabling greater interaction and satisfaction.
In addition, VR allows us to offer more immersive experiences, either through a virtual fitting room or the simulation of a product in a specific space such as a bedroom.
We can also take advantage of having allies such as Snapchat and TikTok to connect with the audience, these platforms offer various tools, such as filters and personalized ads, which makes them an ideal communication channel to connect with markets according to their interests.
Key points to consider for different channels:
Personalization: With AI and machine learning we can analyze customer behavior and offer personalized product and service recommendations.
Interaction: With AR we can allow customers to interact with a product virtually before buying it.
Omnichannel: We can improve CX by integrating different sales channels; allowing to browse online, buy in the physical store and make returns and exchanges online.
“Investing in digital experiences is a great opportunity to merge and connect the different points the user journey with brand storytelling and use the resources previously created to amplify and continue the discourse that the brand has generated, but applied to the moment of consumption; a space that is generally considered too ‘hardsell’ or cold to the marketing eye. It’s an intimate opportunity to sell or close a sale.”
Nelos Cisneros | Design Experience Leader
Some tools/platforms for DX:
Synthesia: AI video creation platform.
Runway: multimodal AI platform that can generate videos with text, images or video clips.
Midjourney: text to image image generator.
BLACKBOX: AI-powered coding assistant.
ChatGPT4: the new version of this popular chatbot.
Snap AR Lens Studio: app to create AR experiences for millions of Snapchat users.
Digital experiences can be a key factor to differentiate us from the competition and increase CLV. We have the opportunity to create emotions at the moment of purchase that impact our audience’s decisions and foster their loyalty. Remember that there are tools accessible to each company according to its strategic plan and resources.
In an increasingly competitive market, evolve your customer journey with digital experiences!
Ready to evolve every touch point with your audiences?
As we mentioned in our previous article “The demise of cookies”, the era of cookies will come to an end in 2022. Apple with Mozilla, Microsoft with Edge and now Google with Chrome, will focus on user privacy and as a result, remove all cookies from their browsers.
If we double click on digital advertising, we will find that approximately 8 out of 10 online ads are based on cookies and 7 out of 10 web pages use at least 1 cookie.
Advertising digitally without thinking about cookies is like proposing to someone without ever having seen their face. It’s time to think outside the box!
This revolution in digital marketing will bring questions; How to know which are the most visited media by users? What is going to be the online behavior pattern I have to follow as a brand? When to invest in programmatic if your main guarantee was specialized data?
The answer to all these questions is: 1st Party Data.
1st Party Data
Cookies were created to collect information (3rd Party Data) in an exponential way compared to how we could collect 1st party data. In exchange for collecting particular user data, digital advertising focused on massively collecting data and looking for patterns in it.
If you want to go deeper into What is and how are 1srt, 2nd and 3rd Party data used, read our article “Data Driven Company”.
“1rst party data is what is going to revalue the importance of providing something of value to the user in exchange for their data.”
Alberto Alvarez, LDM CEO
What data alternatives exist for the cookie-free era?
Aggregate data: Stop focusing on one-to-one data and focus on cohorts by similar behavior. This solution, in a nutshell; is the one proposed by Google for 2022. FLoC (‘Federated Learning of Cohorts’), a system that allows identifying users’ preferences while respecting their individual privacy.
Something particular about this solution is that only large companies will be able to perfect it, due to the fact that large ranges of data are needed to be able to decipher uniform audiences.
Context targeting: This segmentation analyzes the content of the web page, regardless of the user who is visiting the offer. This provides indicators of content preference. However, the challenges are in the editorial line, because many advertisers do it by keywords and do not always match the content targeting. Ex;
The user may be reading an article on car pollution in cities with the highest population, and an ad for a car for sale appears. It would not be appropriate for the moment or for the user, but the advertiser got carried away by the keyword “automobile” and “big cities”.
Authenticated user with consent: This model is based on storing a user’s profile with a server-side pseudonym. Consent is managed from the beginning with a level of transparency inspired by the European regulation on data protection, so that the user can authorize its storage by site and preferences in the most transparent way possible.
These data alternatives will be executed by digital content, what will change is the quality of such content so that these options can give positive results.
Through engagement strategies, lead gen and brand positioning, it will be sought that the user connects.
The marketing strategies implemented for these data alternatives are the ones that will change the game. Brands will now be buying their data from users through high-value content.
LDM Digital Marketing and Business Intelligence Agency in Latam
We take brands to the next level!
At LDM we have managed to anticipate a post-cookie era and implement these alternatives through innovation strategies; ID-based solutions, implementation of a high-level technological stack, generation of 1st party data in our own environment, integral technological platforms for data management and high-value content as a proprietary data generator.
Are you looking for new creative communication alternatives that promote higher levels of audience participation, loyalty, engagement and enthusiasm?
The answer could be Transmedia Storytelling, yes! Maybe the term sounds a bit strange to you but you have probably already been part of it because it is already positioned in the cultural, journalistic and communication industry and, undoubtedly, in digital marketing.
What is transmedia storytelling and how does it help to gain more visibility?
Well, without further context, transmedia storytelling or also known as transmedia storytelling is a concept introduced by American researcher Henry Jenkins, who described it as a way of telling stories across multiple media, platforms and formats.
“(…) each media must give its best so that the story can be incorporated into a film, expanded through television, novels and comics, and so that its plot can be explored and experienced through play. Each of these media franchises must possess sufficient autonomy to allow for autonomous consumption”.
(Jenkins, 2003)
Jenkins, the communication and media scholar, highlights this type of narrative with two peculiarities:
1. It can be told through a variety of media and platforms. For example, the narrative can start in a comic book, continue in a television series, extend to a feature film and expand to a video game by adding new interactive adventures.
2. It refers to the consumer, whose role is not only to receive the story, but to expand the narrative world with new textual pieces. In short, transmedia narratives suggest an experience that encompasses various media and devices linked by a narrative thread (Scolari, 2013).
Thus, by implementing transmedia narratives in marketing, you can innovate by mixing different media to disseminate your messages and thus, take advantage of all new technologies, having a peculiar and current style to tell stories.
Let’s not lose sight of the active participation of users, as well as the expansion of the story from one medium to another.
Why use transmedia storytelling?
Transmedia storytelling offers an excellent way to strengthen your brand’s reach and create a sense of community among followers. It is an effective tool for driving engagement and loyalty.
As part of the strategy, social media plays an important role as an excellent platform for storytelling and also encourages customers to create content in interaction with your brand and each other. This empowers them to make their own stories.
For example, an Instagram campaign can be effective in creating a sense of brand loyalty and trust from new users. Engaging the community in the brand makes them increase trust.
Importantly, the narrative created should be unique, creative and appropriate for the medium. Different platforms have their own individual characteristics that should be taken into account when crafting a story or message. Understanding how your content will work on each is vital.
Because for a platform to keep users engaged, it must introduce new aspects of storytelling and provide updates that enhance the action or bring in new characters.
6 formats for transmedia storytelling:
Audios: allows you to talk to people about the product.
Infographics: Communicates ideas and data in an easy way, a great tool to go viral.
Events: Leverage experiences as a means of dissemination.
Videos: Can build a lasting bond with consumers that appeals to their emotions.
Social media: Encourages user participation.
Blogs: Can allow extending the narrative, telling the story.
1. Audios
In this tenor you can use radio programs, a podcast, or an audio. Remember that this format allows you to talk to people about the product. However, not only in digital media with the use of podcasts, for example; but it can also be done on the radio as a traditional means of communication, in which we would be addressing a wider audience.
2. Infographics
Infographics are designed to represent information in a visually attractive way by combining images with related concepts of a particular topic. They are an effective tool for communicating complex ideas and data in an easy-to-understand way, which makes them a great tool for going viral.
At the same time, interactive infographics are also a good resource for transmedia storytelling because it is a type of infographic that has some element of interaction so that the audience can engage with the content in a unique way, being part of the construction of the material.
3. Events
The creation of events that include the main story you want to tell is a form of transmedia storytelling because not only are you playing with the concept of reality, but you are also taking advantage of experiences as a means of spreading your brand, thus reinforcing the authenticity if your story if based on a real fact.
4. Videos
Transmedia strategies are not only designed to drive sales, but also to build a lasting bond with consumers that appeals to their emotions; and videos are a good tool to achieve this.
Current trends indicate that adopting a multichannel presence, which includes both video and audio formats, is the most optimal strategy. This is largely due to increasing market penetration.
5. Social Media
Currently there are several resources to extend digital content. In social networks, the goal is to encourage user participation, so you can offer stickers for Facebook chat, emojis, frames for the profile picture, a challenge, among others.
6. Blogs
This digital format was one of the first with which this great communication movement began, when consumers continued the original story through personal blogs.
An example is the Harry Potter saga, in which fans took over the main axis of this narrative world and began to propose many alternatives to the story. It is said that there are about 720,000 new stories told by consumers of this movie and its book.
Transmedia storytelling examples to inspire you
A very clear example are the sagas that have used cinema and other media and platforms to continue their discourse and create transmedia content. However, discover these examples that, although they have made good use of the way they tell their stories, when you see them you may be surprised at how familiar you are with some of them.
1. The Matrix
Let’s remember the movies that this franchise has made. Mainly the first one, the Matrix universe also involves books, video games, a series of animated shorts and other products that use different media and formats.
An important and peculiar point is that this transmedia narrative is not based on the adaptation of a text, but enriches and gives continuity to the story through multiple media, platforms and formats.
2. The Master Swindle
Created by the Mexican media outlet Animal Político, this transmedia narrative was based on a corruption case known as “La Estafa Maestra” (The Master Swindle). The journalistic work was not only a report that spun the story based on chronicles, digital timelines and testimonies, but also expanded the story through different formats such as videos and comics.
It is important to mention that this transmedia narrative was disseminated through social networks generating a conversation and extending the collaborative universe with other media that, in turn, fed the story.
3. LDM and consumer brands
At LDM we generate transmedia narrative based on the objectives of each brand with the appropriate specialists. To make it clearer, we tell you how we developed it for one of our clients dedicated to baby care: The objective was to generate more traffic on their websites, we started from Google’s EAT guidelines that require that websites must generate trust, have authority and experience in the information.
With this, we created an innovative SEO content strategy where we highlighted creative and collaborative writing. In addition, under Google’s guidelines, we sought to generate user trust through the creation of various formats that expand the content, thus becoming a reference source on the subject. Transmedia content was the option.
What were the results?
We created 68 new contents with transmedia narrative for five regions covered by our client, with these transmedia contents, we achieved:
More than 13 million users consulting the transmedia content.
More than 36% of organic traffic, versus the previous period.
More than 3 minutes of time spent on the page.
What did we learn?
The lessons are that: with content created/optimized under a transmedia storytelling strategy, it is possible to build solid stories capable of living independently in each medium and, at the same time, be relevant and attractive enough to capture the user’s interest.
Gamification in transmedia storytelling
Gamification is present not only in marketing strategies, but also in various fields such as human resources, education or health.
At least in our subject, in digital marketing, gamification helps companies to increase user participation, loyalty and brand recognition (Estanyol, Montaña and Lalueza, 2013).
Taking into account these four aspects of gamification:
A good story
Aesthetics
Platforms
Users
We can create a memorable story, so these points also relate to transmedia storytelling: driving a more active role of users through storytelling.
In Summary
Technology has enabled transmedia storytelling to emerge and grow, so it is essential for us to explore and understand it.
In today’s era, we have numerous media sources that can be leveraged simultaneously to develop transmedia storytelling. This was not possible in the past due to lack of technology and access.
Remember that transmedia storytelling fits the new generations as a powerful tool that can help maintain audience interest because it creates excitement around any new story release, regardless of the format or platform on which it is published.
Thanks to Samara García for the collaboration of this article.
LDM Digital Marketing
Additional link: Expansión interview with Israel Santiago, president of LDM.
Sources:
Estanyol, Elisenda. Montaña Mireia y Lalueza, Ferran. (2013). Comunicar jugando. Gamification en publicidad y relaciones públicas. VII International Conference on Communication and Reality Blanquerna School of Communication. Ramon Llull University. Barcelona. Junio 13-14, 2013 · ISBN 978-84.936959-9-6
Fernández Castrillo, Carolina. (2013). Prácticas transmedia en la era del prosumidor:Hacia una definición del Contenido Generado por el Usuario (CGU). Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación 2014, vol. 19 5367
Scolari, C. A. (2013).
Narrativas transmedia. Cuando todos los medios cuentan. Barcelona: Deusto.
Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, has become a fundamental means for businesses today. It has undoubtedly changed the way consumers buy and companies sell, because it allows reaching larger audiences and growing without the limitation of a physical store, as well as offering consumers the ability to shop from anywhere, at any time and with a wide range of options.
Competition in the online market is growing and companies need an effective digital marketing strategy to stand out in this environment supported by e-commerce platforms such as BigCommerce.
What is BigCommerce?
Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create and manage their own online store. It is a perfect platform that adapts to any size of business, since the maintenance costs of creating your own platform are not always affordable.
BigCommerce, allows you to design the interface of your digital commerce, some of its options are:
It offers a variety of predesigned templates.
Optimized for viewing on mobile devices
Allows inventory control and tracking
Receives purchase orders
Stores customer and sales information
In addition, it has an open and accessible code, which allows to manage e-commerce sites with more freedom than other platforms, according to the needs of each business; it also has advanced tools for performance optimization.
With BigCommerce, you have API access to the platform, which allows greater flexibility in terms of the products offered, as they can be adjusted or modified according to the needs of each customer.
This platform has a headless software architecture which separates front-end and back-end, allowing greater customization and control of the pages; design or content changes can be made without affecting the back-end, so any changes required, according to new trends or changes in algorithms, can be addressed without complication.
BigCommerce has become one of the leading platforms in the market, with more than 60,000 customers worldwide, including Gillette, Skullcandy and Ben & Jerry’s, which increases its credibility and confidence in attracting new companies looking to manage their e-commerce store.
Why use BigCommerce?
SEO: Optimize the SEO of your e-commerce to position your store in the different search engines.
Multichannel: Connect your e-commerce site with different marketplaces. You can connect your social networks to sell products through Facebook and Instagram.
Technical support: 24/7 technical support by phone, e-mail and chat.
Multi-storefront: Create multiple e-commerce stores with their respective interfaces, this works perfect for companies that manage more than one store or brand.
Pricing: It offers different pricing plans according to the needs of each business, with a more economical license than the rest of the competition, either on a monthly or annual basis.
Benefits of BigCommerce for your business
“One of the biggest attractions of BigCommerce lies in its ability to create tailored experiences for each audience with its multi-storefront. Imagine being able to show your B2B customer your catalog with the conditions of purchase by lot, tracking of purchase orders and discount per unit, while your B2C customer with the same inventory and on the same platform you show in detail the sizes and other separate delivery system. “
BigCommerce Experts
Although it is a tool with ease of use, you can learn to use it in more depth to get the most out of everything it has to offer.
BigCommerce University has BigDev (technology and education) certification courses, which allow you to learn more about coding and fully optimize the performance of the stores you develop.
At LDM, we are certified as expert developers in BigCommerce, so we can offer developments more tailored to the needs of each business model of our clients. This allows us to help companies reduce their digital operation costs while transforming their shoppers’ shopping experience.
The world of e-commerce is increasingly dynamic and constantly evolving, so companies must stay current to remain competitive. It is crucial to have a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that includes efficient user experience (UX) design, search engine SEO strategy and different digital experiences that appeal to customers. The key to success in e-commerce is to offer an exceptional shopping experience and adapt to the needs and desires of customers.
So, if you are looking to improve your online presence and take your business to the next level, consider BigCommerce as an integral tool for your business success.
