A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

It's not surprising that online shoppers these days want more. More features, more options and more from you.

To keep up with the demands of the fast-moving consumer, businesses must stay ahead of the curve by adding features and options to their multichannel plan in order to increase conversions and provide the optimal customer service to make the customer come back.

In a recent study by Opinion, over one-half of Internet users surveyed desired the option of having merchandise delivered to their home or available for in-store pick-up after purchasing online. Additionally, over 80% of those purchasers would like to return the merchandise to the store even if they purchased it online or over the phone.

Other desires by Internet users include:

Taking this a step further, a more recent survey was conducted to monitor features that would help increase performance of online sales. These features include:

This new demand for convenience will help set the pace for retailers looking to increase their sales in the online retail market.

A recent study conducted by KnowledgeStorm, in conjunction with MarketingSherpa, concludes that eighty percent of b-to-b tech buyers indicate that offline marketing materials will "frequently" or "often" drive them to specific sites. Once they reach their "content destination," technology buyers place greater value on certain types of marketing material and want to have a good idea what they're getting before they commit to registering for downloaded content. The study also concluded that an offline marketing program of magazine advertisements, direct mail, seminars or tradeshows has the advantage of increasing online activity.

Finding the right content and call to action within the offline programs can make a huge impact on the success of the online program. For example, knowing the tech buyers typically place the highest value on content like white papers and case studies to influence their buying (and registration) decisions, it follows that this same information should be referenced in all offline efforts. An effective way to do this is by providing executive summaries of the white papers and teaser information from case studies to drive the buyer back online for more information.

And, to bring the marketing efforts full circle, tech buyers now in increasing numbers use and participate in online activities such as interactive blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, podcasts, mobile messaging, etc. to acquire knowledge and information. Promoting these channels in the offline efforts (and seeding these channels with marketing communications) will strengthen the entire program and relationship with the tech buyer.