So, how’d they do it? Growing an online retail platform is really damn hard. It takes a lot of money and a lot of innovation. We’ve had many clients make similar mistakes in the past when it comes to online sales, and that’s to put too many eggs in the one basket. Success doesn’t come from one channel – focusing solely on social media content isn’t enough, the same as an SEO strategy must be complemented by an excellent website. Every piece of the marketing jigsaw has to come together for eComm to work. The Iconic have done just that. Here are a handful of ways they’ve found online success…
Facebook pixels are the thing that follows you around on every device after you’ve visited a website or engaged with a post, pestering you until you purchase. Once you’ve purchased, you’ll probably see a new iteration of the ad, checking if you’d like this top to go with your pants.
The Iconic retargets better than most. They are as specific as can be – if you visit a product page, that product will appear everywhere. If you’ve added to cart, you’ll see ads telling you you’ve forgotten something. Based on what you’ve viewed, you’ll see other carousal ads showing you other clothes that are probably to your taste as well. If items on your favourites list are suddenly on sale, you’ll know about it.
Often, this level of pixel tracking is really annoying. But, because the re-targeting campaigns are so personalised and so accurate, it almost feels like they’re doing you a favour. Getting it so right takes untold amounts of testing, and to test you need lots of cash up your sleeve to keep honing in on the formula that works for your audience. Should we do a traffic campaign, then a lead form generation campaign, then maybe follow it up with a pixel tracked conversion campaign? The options and combinations are endless but this is clearly an area that The Iconic have heavily invested in, and one that we’re sure has more than paid for itself.
Key takeaway: pixel tracking can be very powerful and re-targeted ad campaigns will often see the highest ROI from any social media ad option. To make it work though, be prepared to stick with it for the long haul. We wouldn’t be expecting returns under 6 months and would realistically advise clients to look at the strategy in year long blocks. It’s about testing, data gathering, tweaking, and doing it all over again.
Similar to the re-targeted ad campaigns, The Iconic are serving up seriously personalised eDMs to your inbox, very regularly. It’s easy to tune most of your emails out because you can expect at least two per week if you’re on their database.
Here’s the key: they don’t waste your time with filler content in their eDMs. They’re either about sales, about products you’ve previously shown interest in or perhaps an exciting launch or some particularly good content. For the most part, it’s stuff they know you want to hear about. Because they’re trained their audience to expect that, we’re sure that their open rate far exceeds the industry standard. Sales are clearly a huge component of their overall strategy and we wouldn’t be the only ones who “just do a quick check of The Iconic” before buying elsewhere, as whatever you’re shopping for can often be found at a discount.
Again, perfecting your CRM and eDM strategy is hard and takes time and effort.
Key takeaway: eDMs are another avenue that will often see high ROI. The Iconic have clearly focussed their efforts on places they know will pay for themselves in future. When it comes to eDMs, don’t waste your viewers time. Is there content that they REALLY want to see? Train your audience to expect quality from you and they’ll keep opening. Dish up the boring stuff and you’ll see that unsubscribe rate start to climb.
Most of our online shopping is done on mobile (although this trend has probably shifted slightly more towards desktop since WFH). The Iconic has shaped their digital strategy accordingly – with an app that offers a smooth shopping experience and no need to hop onto the browser. If you can’t be bothered downloading it, no worries. Their website is optimised for mobile and it’s done well. Often brands will pour money into a website and whilst it’s able to be used on mobile, it’s far from optimised. The Iconic offers easy navigation and an easy checkout experience.
All of the above really come down to one thing: customisation. The Iconic make your shopping experienced feel tailored and personal and as consumers, there’s nothing we love more. On a smaller scale, you can see this in the explosion in popularity of monogrammed products. Ads targeted based on our previous shopping behaviour is genius and common sense would say you’re significantly more likely to click through for a look. They also offer functions such as follow the brand, find your fit and snap to shop. Their wishlist isn’t clunky as they so often are. The Iconic make it about YOU, rather than their audience as a whole.
Now excuse us while we browse the current 50% off sale… we’ve got activewear to buy.
