Ahead of her presentation at the DigitalX conference in May this year, Janice Thomas, managing director of Look Fabulous Forever, talks about why it's important to take customers on a journey and build understanding of your brand in 2024. explain.
Q: First, please tell us about Look Fabulous Forever.
We are a consumer beauty brand for older women, especially postmenopausal women. Basically, our founder, Tricia Kasden, was very frustrated with the lack of proper makeup and skin care products designed for her, so in 2013 she created a I started my brand when I was 65 years old.
Mainstream beauty brands and retailers didn't really focus on her demographic. So she figured out how to formulate, manufacture, and distribute these products.
Q: You're talking about full-funnel marketing this May. What will actually happen in 2024? Why is this year especially important?
I've been a big supporter of Full Funnels for a long time. Because we believe that is ultimately the way to grow a successful business. We're always thinking about customer conversion, and that's really important, whether it's performance marketing or conversion rate optimization. But at the same time, you need to create a pool of people who understand your goals, brand, and proposition. Otherwise, those customers aren't there to convert.
This is something I've been drumming for a really long time. Even if things were focused on performance marketing, all of a sudden there's a swing his round and everyone says, “Oh, it's all about brand.''
In 2024, that balance will be questioned. Our world is changing, cookies are being phased out, and last click attribution may be on its way out.
Google Analytics 4 has really made us rethink the way we look at metrics and a lot of the vanity metrics we relied on. Are they actually working on the things we really care about: overall revenue, overall profitability, new customer acquisition? Changes in indicators are also part of this.
And there will be major changes in the media landscape. In particular, there are SEO optimizations as well as updates to Google's beneficial content algorithm. This is another strategy for the entire funnel. Because you need to tell your brand's story and provide content that's engaging and useful. This is its very funnel-wide nature.
Additionally, there is generative AI and the ability for brands to create content more easily. Creating content that is actually relevant at the stage of your customer's journey can really help you move forward. Also, Meta's Advantage Plus Shopping paid media situation is a very broad and common type of teaching algorithm.
All of these changes lean toward a more holistic approach to the customer journey.
Q: Are these changes – generative AI, smarter algorithms – technological advances changing what marketing is and its role?
Marketing jobs are going to change dramatically not just in the distant future, but in the next year or so.
That poor designer who had to re-version 50 million ads in different sizes and different languages – that highly repetitive work will almost disappear.
We're more focused on what's built into these models. What are our goals? What data do we have? What can the data tell us?
If you don't include the right things in your model, you won't get the right output. Even when using something like ChatGPT, you need proper prompts. There is a huge focus on what is included and what questions need to be asked.
On the other hand, there is also customer experience and understanding to know what you get from these models and whether something is right or wrong. And what's wrong with that? That's something you can't do with these models. We need very smart people who understand our customers and bring that emotional layer to them.
It's a really exciting time because we can do some really interesting things.
Q: Going back to the emotional connection with customers and customer retention. That sentiment helps you retain existing customers. How important is that as we move through a cost of living crisis and face a recession?
This is where full funnels come into their own. This isn't very transactional, it's the bottom of the funnel. When you try to drive people to your website, you're taking them on a journey, talking about your brand, and explaining what you do.
As a result, you build trust and understanding, making those customers more likely to return and make a second purchase.
For example, let's say you're looking for a red dress. There's something that catches your eye. Half the time, I don't even know which website I bought it from. It's very different from a brand that guides you through a relationship, explains what the brand stands for, and provides useful and informative content.
The whole concept of complete funnels and acquisition for retention makes retention easier. We place great emphasis on a full-funnel approach, which means that on average more than half of our customers return and make a second purchase from us. In fact, if we can get a customer past the second purchase point, he or she will buy with us at least seven times.
Building relationships may take time, but instead of focusing on getting customers to cross boundaries right away, you end up with more valuable and loyal customers over time. I can.
Register for Janice Thomas’ presentation – Why full-funnel marketing will matter in 2024 – is currently open. Find out more about DigitalX at Houndsditch 133 on May 14, 2024.
DigitalX is part of RetailX Event's Spring Festival, and the full agenda will be published in the coming weeks.
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