Digital Marketing Trends Within The Female Fashion Retailer Sector
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CONTENTS PAGE Introduction....................................................................................................................Page 3 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)...............................................................................Page 4 Pay Per Click (PPC)........................................................................................................Page 6 Keyword Analysis...........................................................................................................Page 8 Online PR........................................................................................................................Page 9 Social Media....................................................................................................................Page 10 Online Partnerships.......................................................................................................Page 18 Mobile Marketing...........................................................................................................Page 20 Link Building..................................................................................................................Page 22 Online Sponsorships......................................................................................................Page 28 Affiliate Marketing........................................................................................................Page 29 Interactive Advertising.................................................................................................Page 32 Behavioural Targeting..................................................................................................Page 34 E-mail Marketing..........................................................................................................Page 35 E-mail Design................................................................................................................Page 37 Viral Marketing.............................................................................................................Page 40 Conclusion......................................................................................................................Page 43
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Introduction The purpose of this report is to analyse, critique, compare and contrast real life examples of digital marketing, all within the female fashion retailer sector. This reports follows on from a previous one, in which it discussed the various websites within this sector. The websites that were previously analysed were, ASOS, Next, Topshop and Dorothy Perkins. These were chosen on a basis of primary and secondary research, which showed these to be some of the most popular within this sector. Within this report there will be the analysis of digital marketing in female fashion online. This is to have a more varied analysis and comparison of other retailers websites in the sector. Some of the aspects to which were analysed were, the use of social media, e-mail marketing, pay per click (PPC) and affiliate marketing. 3
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Search engine optimisation involves ‘achieving the highest position or ranking practical in the natural or organic listings on the search engine results pages after a specific combination of keywords has been typed in.’ (Chaffey and Smith). Therefore for any business that has a website or online shop, they will be wanting to achieve the highest rank in any search engine. In order for companies to achieve this, they have to ensure that the keywords that are associated with their website are going to be those used by customers. So, ‘the position or ranking is dependent on an algorithm used by each search engine to match relevant site page content with the key phrase entered’ (Chaffey and Smith). There is no charge for companies in relation to the listings to which their company would be found on a search engine. It has been said that SEO can’t be left to an agency to do, it needs the work of content owners and editors within a company. There are four main processes search technology involves, these are; Crawling Identifying relevant pages for indexing and assess whether they have changed. This is done through search engines running automated programs, that use a hyperlink structure of the web to ‘crawl’ the pages and documents that make the World Wide Web. Indexing An index is then created to enable the search engine to find the most relevant pages containing what has been searched. This database needs to be managed, so that each search can be sorted out in a fraction of a second. Ranking or Scoring Once the index has produced pages that relate to that of what has originally been searched, they are sorted in terms of relevance. Query request and Results serving Once the search engine has determined which results are a match, the engine’s algorithm runs calculations to work out which is most relevant to the search. These are then sorted on the results page in order from the most relevant to the least.
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It can be seen that when searching for ‘online fashion’, there are various websites that come up. Those that are found on the first page and towards the top, are likely to be those that will get the most traffic. Along with the fact they have used the appropriate keywords in order to achieve this.
When the search is changed to ‘womens fashion online’, it can be seen that some of the same websites still appear in this search. Therefore showing that these websites are likely to have the most relevant key phrases associated with the website. Along with this, it could be said that as these websites do come top of the search, they may have the highest traffic to their websites.
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Pay Per Click (PPC) PPC is seen to be similar to conventional advertising, this is because PPC involves ‘a relevant text ad with a link to a company page is displayed when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase.’ (Chaffey and Smith). These are usually displayed as sponsored links on the search engine page. These sponsored links are found to not always be clicked on, as many searchers prefer to click on the natural listings. However, around a quarter or a third of all clicks are through the sponsored links, these are found to be highly profitable for Google, as well as the company themselves.
Sponsored Links
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PPC is becoming more and more used throughout many companies, as it is seen to have its own benefits to it, especially in terms of comparing it with conventional advertising. There are 2 main advantages to the use of PPC these are; 1. 2.
‘The advertiser is not paying for the ad to be displayed’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009) – This is due to the fact that, cost is only incurred when the visitor actually clicks on the link. ‘PPC advertising is highly targeted’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009) – The link to an ad is only shown when the user types in a specific phrase, therefore meaning that there is a lot less wastage in terms of the advertising being used.
Overall, it can be seen as to why there has been an increased use of PPC as there are many other ways to achieve the same benefits of conventional advertising.
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Keyword Analysis It has been said that the key to successful SEO and PPC is ‘achieving keyphrase relevance’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009), this is the overall aim of search engines as they aim to match the combination of words that have been typed into the search box, and this then leads to showing the most relevant destination content page. The keyword analysis can also be looked at through each individual website that is being analysed, this is so to see what keywords they have associated with their website. Therefore, they can ensure that when people are searching for items that are linked with their website, that they will benefit from it. There are a few ways in which the keyword analysis can be looked at, one of these is Google Adwords;
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Online PR Online PR involves maximising mentions of the company, brands, products or websites on third party websites, that are likely to be visited by the target audience. There needs to be the assurance that there is some kind of control over the reputation of the company or brand, through monitoring and controlling what is placed about the company online. Ranchhod et el. (2002), identified 4 key differences between online PR and traditional PR, these are; 1.The audience is connected to the organisation. 2.The members of the audience are connected to each other. 3.The audience has access to other information. 4.Audiences pool information. (Chaffey and Smith, 2009) In order to be able to manage online PR there are four key activities that need to be considered, these are; 1. Search marketing activities (SEO) – This is that there is the need for other links, which will assist with this technique. 2. Brand engagement activities – engagement is all about creating interaction or dialogue with online audiences to help understand needs and potentially influence them. This is most likely to be through the use of a companies own website or through blogs. 3. Buzz-building activities – Through the use of social media, in order to create some kind of ‘noise’ about a campaign or message. This is likely to then help spread the message through the help of viral marketing. Along with these methods there is the option to be able set up a press release area on the website, create email alerts and submit news stories to online news feeds. 4. Defensive and crisis PR – There needs to be the use of online reputation management tools, in order to be able to track the health of a brand online. These then need to be responded to quickly, so to escape a potentially negative incident occurring.
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Social Media Facebook Facebook has become more and more of a tool and essential for any company. As with today’s generation, Facebook and other social media websites are a key way for a business to communicate with their customers. As it can be seen below, all varieties of female fashion retailers have a Facebook page.
Topshop
New Look
Missguided.co.uk
Gucci
River Island
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Burberry
It can be seen that each of the retailers that have a Facebook page all have different ways of using them. ASOS use there’s as a way of letting their customers know of any offers, and the ‘daily discovery’.
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Twitter Twitter is used by businesses to connect them with their customers, in that they are able to quickly share information with those individuals who are interested in their products. Twitter has been seen to constantly grow over the years, this now includes people being able to access it on-the-go.
A few facts about Twitter; •Launched March 2006 •175 million registered users and growing • 95m tweets are written per day.
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Tweets used by Next to announce the winner of a competition. Tweets used to promote an event that Topshop have coming up.
Twitter is slightly different to Facebook in that, they can’t have photo albums or videos to any of their products. However, as it can be seen with both of these Twitter pages, they put links to the collections they are talking about.
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Blogs Blogs are best known as an ‘easy method of publishing personal web pages which are online journals or diaries’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). These are usually created by individuals, however they are best suited to having different columnists writing on different topics. Blogging software is incredibly cheap, as many of them have free tools to be used. It’ll become more expensive once it is ‘more closely integrated with the main site since this will require additional development costs for coding.’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). By Topic
By Time
The format and template of a blog is important as this enables the content on a website to be delivered in different ways. The different ways in which this can be done are; - By topic – in categories or topics to help with browsing. - By tag – each article will be tagged to help them appear in searches. - By author – these could be features from different authors, whether they’re internal or external. - By time – this helps the reader in searching for a specific blog entry. There are however risks to using blogs, which may put some companies off blogging these are; 1- Damage to reputation – members of the public could write negative posts or comments about the posts or company. 2- SEO spam – These are spam links to other sites, which people may not want to click on. 3- Poor levels of traffic – This could be if the blog is labelled14 wrongly, it’ll put people away from seeing or bookmarking it.
Blogs are used as a way for retailers to be able to share with their customers the latest trends. The blog will then show the follower that they can purchase this from the retailer.
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Each retailers blog are used for the same kind of purpose, to inform their customers of any latest trends or products. However, some of them have other parts that make them stand out from the crowd.
Dorothy Perkins have used their blog to show their products in use, through various fashion bloggers.
Topshop use their blog to share any videos or music that they are liking.
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YouTube
As the growth of social media websites such as, Facebook and Twitter have emerged, there has also been the emergence of many retailers to have their own YouTube channels. The YouTube channels are used by all kinds of retailers, going from high street stores, to pure play online retailers and designer brands.
Within these YouTube channels, there are various videos which show behind the scenes footage of photo shoots or catwalk shows that have been produced by the company.
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There are three key types of online partnerships that need to be managed: link building, affiliate marketing and online sponsorship, using a structured approach to manage links which directs users to the site. Link building is a key activity for search engine optimization. ‘More quality links from relevant sites means more quality visitors and more marketing outcomes.’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009) There are various female clothing retailers who have partnered with Fairtrade, creating a range of cotton clothing. This shows a list of women's fashion retailers providing Fairtrade clothing providing links to sites.
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Here is an example of an online partnership in which, Missguided have partnered with Apple. This allows Missguided consumers to download an app using their iphones/ ipad, enabling their consumers' to access and shop for Missguided content through these Apple products.
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MOBILE MARKETING It has been said that marketers can no longer ignore the potentially powerful tool that mobile marketing is, especially with ‘penetration in many western countries already exceeding 80% and estimated mobile use worldwide exceeding 2 billion’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). There are many technologies within mobile that have seen this market expand, and made it easier for companies to communicate with their customers. Such examples are, live e-mail downloads and Bluetooth technology. One of the most used mobile marketing techniques is through the use of SMS, this has ‘proved a great way to get closer to customers, particularly those in the youth market who are difficult to reach with other media.’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). Along with the use of SMS for mobile marketing there are other marketing applications such as, games, applications (B2B inventory and order tracking), MMS messaging, text and win, and quizzes. In a recent newspaper article by Rik Haslam, a group creative architect at RAPP, he expressed how ‘the marketing world has suddenly realised just how many handsets consumers are carrying around.’ (Rik Haslam, Guardian Newspaper, 2009). It has been said that mobile feels cheap, however in the current climate it is the perfect way to have a low-cost opportunity with your customers, while being ultra-repsonsive. 20
Within the fashion market there has been an increased use of mobile marketing, this is in the way of applications being created for iPhones and iPads, which mean the customer is able to look for and even shop for items through the retailers app. Also, there has been the use of movies on iPhones, in order to show customers of new products.
Chloe have also launched an iPhone app, which enables consumers to ‘stay connected with the luxury apparel and accessories brand while on the go.’ (Mobile Marketer, 2008)
Dior used mobile marketing to promote its iconic Lady Dior handbag. They did this with a black and white film ‘The Lady Noire Affair’, which was only available to iPhone users.
Ralph Lauren created an iPhone app which enables customers to view Collection styles, along with video highlights from their latest catwalk shows, and a Lookbook feature.
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This is an approach to link building, in which a campaign is run through partners, providing traffic for the site.
Here Dorothy Perkins have partnered up with Glamour. Sponsoring the magazines 10th anniversary offering readers 20% off all dresses, linking back to the site to make purchases and gain the 20% discount.
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Another approach to link building is, allowing sites to create their own external links, by using blogs and forums which links users back to their site.
Here Dorothy Perkins has used their own blogging site and embedded a link to the site in the article.
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Another approach to link building is, placing links through partners. Above shows examples of how Look magazines shopping section provides a channel for users to make purchases from a list of fashion brands. They’d like to browse on directing them back to the original site when they make the purchase.
Debenhams is a partner of Nectar. When customers use the Nectar card to do female shopping, Debenhams is the brand that appears linking back to the site allowing users to shop on the site.
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Site owners may decide to purchase links, this one has appeared on the Look magazine website. Along with an ad placed by Google, providing a link to the New Look site.
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Here is an article created on Dorothy Perkins about the Breast Cancer campaign which contains links back to the site.
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Placing links into articles help to build traffic to the site as users reading the articles like to find out more and this directs them to the site.
Cosmopolitan magazine has written an article about a new range of clothes for New Look, in which a link has been put within it. The same has been done by Look magazine for Dorothy Perkins, on news about the retailers with links placed in the article directing them to the site.
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Online sponsorship is defined as ‘ the linking of a brand with related content or context for the purpose of creating brand awareness and strengthening brand appeal in a form that is clearly distinguishable from banner, button or other standardized ad unit’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). The benefit of using online sponsorship is that, it allows sites to be associated with an online brand that the site visitor is already familiar with. Therefore, the use of online sponsorship just build upon the existing relationship and trust.
Fashion Retail Academy and London Fashion Week are sponsored by various female retailers. These types of partnerships help to enhance the brands, as London Fashion Week and the Fashion Retail Academy play a big role in the female clothing market.
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Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is a ‘commission based arrangement where the merchant only pays when they make the sale or get a lead’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). With the use of affiliate marketing it means that, it can drive a volume of business in a range of sectors. However, it isn’t suitable for lower priced consumer products, as it won’t be as profitable as it would be for others. There are many benefits to the use affiliate marketing, some of these are; - Gain more visibility in the paid and natural listings of searches - Can use different affiliates to target different target audiences -Enables you to reach customers on generic phrases at a relatively low cost -Increase the reach of your brand or campaign - Pay per performance – the costs of acquisitions can be controlled well. But of course there are many negatives to the use affiliate marketing, some of these are; -Affiliates may exploit your brand name – This is when affiliates exploit brand names by bidding on variations - May damage brand reputation – Ad may be displayed on sites not associated with the brand image. - Programme management fees – An affiliate may take up to 30% of each affiliate commission. - Programme management time – Affiliate marketing is found on forming and maintaining good relationships.
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Here H&M and River Island have placed banner ads which directly links back to their site.
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This a form of affiliate marketing that can be done. Here Dorothy Perkins have placed an ad of the offers on a voucher code site, enabling users to find out more about the offer they are directed to the site.
Voucher code sites allow users to search for offers and deals on various categories, here lists the female clothing deals from various retailers.
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A visitor who clicks on an interactive banner ad is then forwarded onto the site of the company who paid for the banner ad, which then links through to a destination site. Interactive advertisements can help build traffic, but also have a role in building brand recognition. Rich media and large format ads are effective in targeting visitors through placements on specialized portals and dynamic or behavioural ad targeting.
Here are examples of various interactive advertisements that Boohoo do on other sites allowing users to navigate on the banner ads.
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Here is an example of interactive advertisement for John Lewis, allowing users to interact with the ad. Viewing various spring outfits and prices of the items listed, it even allows consumers to view more or buy it and even bookmark items on social sites.
Here users can scroll through to next images. There is also a direct link to the site
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Here is an example of behavioural targeting, where audiences are targeted to how they use the web or an individual site. The following interactive advertisement has applied the following as Boohoo advert appeared when browsing on the Channel 4 beauty site, this shows how audiences have been targeted due to the content they are viewing.
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EMAIL MARKETING When running an e-mail marketing programme, there needs to be the combination of both excellence in devising effective outbound e-mail campaigns, and managing incoming emails effectively. Many companies use emails as a prospect conversion and a customer retention tool. This is with the use of an opt in house list of prospects and consumers who have given permission to be contacted by a company.
Many online fashion retailers have adopted this method of marketing. Consumers are most likely prompted to subscribe whilst making an online purchase, or consumers can sign up upon entering the site.
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Sites such as boohoo.com are regularly updating their consumers’ with sales promotions, trends and any other news and information via e-marketing. As well as this, boohoo.com regularly tries to gain one on one feedback from its subscribers, in order to find ways in which it can improve the website.
For a company to be successful at e-marketing, the content needs to be regularly updated, however not to the extent where the user feels bombarded by the messages received.
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E-Mail Design Link to online version of e-mail if it has been blocked as spam.
Links to the website through the e-mail.
Prices and discount on their products made clear.
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Chance for recipient to enter a competition.
Links to social media sites.
Information about the competition.
Link to Terms & Conditions
Feature to unsubscribe to the emails
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Viral Marketing Viral marketing is described as being ‘a clever idea, a shocking idea, or a highly informative idea which makes compulsive viewing.’ (Chaffey and Smith, 2009). Viral marketing comes in the form of various forms some of these are, a video clip, TV ad, a cartoon, a funny picture, or a song. What makes viral marketing such a successful method is that because it is likely to be such a different thing, that it makes people want to pass it on. Therefore, viral marketing can be effective in reaching a large number of people rapidly. Kirby (2003) believes that there are 3 things that are needed to make a viral campaign these are; 1. Creative material – This is the creative message or offer and how it has spread. 2. Seeding – Identifying web sites, blogs or people to send e-mail to start the virus spreading. 3. Tracking – This is to monitor the effect and to assess the return from the cost of developing the viral.
An example of a viral campaign run by a fashion retailer, is that done by H&M in which they used a viral campaign to ‘tease’ their customers with the unveiling of a new designer for the retailer.
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Viral marketing campaigns are a great way to generate a huge amount of buzz surrounding a product or brand, whether it be done via online or offline. The purpose of a viral marketing campaign is to introduce web users or website developers to pass on a marketing message to other websites or internet users. Fashion websites are increasingly adopting this marketing strategy to create buzz for a new product or service, which more often exposure can be generated that is more valuable than traditional advertising.
Above is a link to an article in which, explains how in order to promote Jay-Z’s new autobiography he used various forms of viral marketing.
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Viral marketing has grown greatly over the past few years, as more and more companies are noticing the big response and network of people that these campaigns can get to. Here are some of the biggest viral campaigns recently put throughout the world and UK;
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CONCLUSION Altogether from looking at the digital marketing trends within the female fashion market, it is clear to see that there are some trends that all companies have followed, to ensure they are making the most of getting brand recognition. These trends for example are that of having a presence within social media, whether it be just a Facebook page, or having all aspects of social media. However, there are other aspects such as viral marketing that not all fashion retailers have gone into and focused on. This could be due to the lifestyle of this sector, as they’re not likely to grab the right kind of attention from their customers. Also, from looking at previous research conducted in the previous report, it was clear to see that the typical age of online shoppers was between 35 and 44, therefore being digital immigrants. This means that this age group are just discovering the wanders of technology, therefore are more likely to be aware of and use all or most aspects to digital marketing. This is in terms of them having the use of various apps for their phones.
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