Ways to Convert the Digital Window Shopper Into a Customer

The pandemic created an unprecedented shopping environment in 2020 where an increasing number of consumers were “window” shopping, submitting leads while still in the early stages of the customer journey. During the recent webinar with Digital Media Solutions (DMS), How To Engage The Digital Window Shopper, we discussed ways to evolve our marketing strategies to:

• Identify and better nurture digital window shoppers
• Treat these digital shoppers uniquely from those with immediate intent 

Below are a few key takeaways from this webinar and you can access it on demand here. 

Embrace Agility 

Consumers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages a day, making them tune out most of your efforts. Yet many marketers respond by turning up the volume with more messages that are often sensational or interruptive. This just creates desensitized and cynical consumers—and the cycle repeats. 

When we think about consumer behavior, we need to architect our marketing to be agile and anticipate the consumer needs. Window shoppers are interested but they often require more nurturing. We need to evolve past pre-pandemic marketing practices of ill-timed outreach, generalized segments, and over/under communication. 

Agile, in the marketing context, means “using data and analytics to continuously source promising opportunities or solutions to problems in real time, deploying tests quickly, evaluating the results, and rapidly iterating.”

Have the agility to return to that window shopper with the right message and they’ll remember you when they’re ready to buy.   

Meet & Exceed Customer Expectations

Marketers have to deliver an engaging customer experience with personalization that matches that of face-to-face interaction. And the best way to do that is to stop averaging consumers though marketing personas and, instead, understand individual buying journeys by compliantly using available data. 

While digital window shoppers are just browsing, they didn’t stumble onto your website by accident. To meet their expectations, evolve with them by redefining how to market, sell, and nurture these relationships by: 

• Focusing on the buyer experience to engage them and drive desired behaviors 
• Using the lens  of the buyer journey to accelerate life cycle progression
• Considering marketing and sales decisions through the eyes of your customers

Create Unique Experiences

A great buyer experience doesn’t “just happen” because the majority of marketers don’t have a full picture of consumer behavior, which leaves them guessing at the right outreach. Digital window shoppers are collecting information before they make a purchase decision. So create a great experience for them. 

This may take you beyond the four walls of your company and web properties. Meaning enhancing your first-party data with third-party behavioral data.

Leverage the Power of Data

By leveraging alternative and unique data sets, you’ll be able to learn more about those window shopping journeys and create the experiences that connect and resonate. Behavioral data provides a clearer view of the consumer in real-time. 

Typically provided by a third-party data partner and through effective capture and analysis of your own first-party data, behavioral data provides insights on actual actions, giving marketers a more accurate understanding of an individual’s intent.

Access behavioral data signals can tell you where consumers are in their shopping journeys. It widens your view of consumer pain points and actions, enabling you to deliver better customer experiences and increase our marketing performance. It helps you determine buyer readiness and allows you to personalize consumer outreach. 

Deliver Higher Value

It’s clear that marketing teams need to take a smart approach to deliver truly customer-centric and behavior-driven content experiences. Know the facts about the consumer’s path from inception (window shopping) to the present moment by:

• Developing a clear understanding of consumer intent and engagement level from your first-party data.
• Enhancing your first-party data with consumer behavioral data that is occurring off-site.
• Continuously test and implement different data models to ultimately find the data mix that works best. 

Access the webinar on demand: How To Engage The Digital Window Shopper