Retail marketing is changing. Connecting with the right audience has become the key to success for retailers. Within the last couple of years, the presence and behavior of shoppers has evolved from searching within a singular channel to searching within a variety of places to approach, to learn from, to buy from, and to interact with a business. The future of the retail industry is not only online or offline but a combination of both. The better retailers master all of the different available channels to connect with their audience, the more ROI they’ll receive.
Today, we share the story of our client, Lombardi’s Seafood, a third generation retail and wholesale premium seafood company located in Central Florida. They have come to understand that in the era of what Google has defined as the “omnichannel shopper”, the convergence of their local store and digital presence was necessary. Being the third generation of the company, they needed more than a strategic marketing plan. They also needed a branding strategy that would capture the essence of their family tradition with innovative vision.
A New Branding Strategy For a New Generation
In order to make this ambitious company stand out from their competition, On Target generated a branding and marketing plan with the main objective of communicating their services, products, and tradition to their current customers. With this in mind, On Target helped create a new logo and a website optimized for search marketing to better serve their clients digitally. This new scenario helped to create the dialogue with new prospects. As a result:
The On Target digital marketing team increased brand search sessions by 77.92% and increased their organic search sessions by 35.20%.
This branding process also required an offline transformation, and a new makeover was necessary to support and speak the language and mission of the new generation, not only to their online customers but also to the offline customers that were going directly to the store. Lombardi’s had to present their product in a more delicate and modern way, so everything, from the way they presented their product to even the pricing sign designs, had to change accordingly as part of the branding strategy. The new sign would have their new logo on it and would present the prices in a more visible and stylish way.
Content marketing & creation was needed to reinforce the amazing reputation that Lombardi’s Seafood had in the community while enhancing quality and service to its new and existing loyal customers. Through the power of storytelling, Lombardi’s was able to, not only compel their audience with rich content, but also to enhance their value and to start charging a premium because their audience now understand what made them stand above their competitors and were willing to pay for it.
With an educational and brand awareness purpose, their blogs increased their user engagement with a current session duration of 2:14 minutes on average and a 37.50% average bounce rate, since we started with our content marketing efforts.
Promoting Their New Location Through the Power of Social Media
With the commitment of providing both retail and wholesale customers with the finest selection and quality of fresh seafood, Lombardi’s decided to move to a new location in 2015 where they could add an upscale-gourmet cafe to their seafood market.
Staying ahead of the game is the key to success of our client. In fact, a recent study from the Stanford University suggests that social media activity and keywords search interest are directly connected. To make the most of this trend, the On Target team developed and implemented a social media campaign with the main goal of informing and keeping the buzz around the new location while increasing their brand awareness and conversation with their current clients.
Through the power of Facebook ads, engaging posts, and a very targeted tribe building action plan, On Target was able to increase the social media traffic by 91.84%.
A Mobile Experience is Necessary for Retail Businesses
According to Google, 71% of shoppers who use smartphones for research in-store say that it’s become an important part of the experience.
Our journey with Lombardi’s has been and continues to be a very rich and delightful digital marketing adventure where we’ve been grateful to experience how a family business that started in the early 1950s has been able to adapt through the times and keep growing exponentially through the power of digital marketing. Lombardi’s started from an offline audience, transitioned to a desktop audience, and finally transitioned to a more mobile-based audience with an average of 49.10% of their customers currently accessing their website from a mobile device on a monthly basis.
Knowing this type of data is what has allowed the On Target digital marketing team to continually increase the ROI for Lombardi’s. Keeping a simple and clean web design has been key to making mobile experiences easier for our client’s users and, therefore, bring our client more customers. Offering their current and potential omnichannel customers a consistently rewarding experience has been and continues to be key to achieving the success with Lombardi’s.
If your retail business is stuck, be sure to contact On Target digital marketing so we can guide you through the digital marketing journey. Our team will go above and beyond to create and execute a solid, concise digital marketing plan.
Happy Holidays!
Lydia
