Enhancing M&S’s Online Presence and Customer Experience
M&S’s Digital Marketing Strategy
M&S has seen an increase in sales of a range of products following social media campaigns. These have included a coffee flavour for Walnut Whips and the return of Percy Pig sweets.
M&S are looking to attract younger customers by experimenting with photo-sharing app TikTok. They are also using localised marketing to promote their stores, with 350 store Facebook pages attracting a million views each week and communications to reassure shoppers about Covid during lockdown.
Website
Iconic British retailer M&S is well-known for bringing quality, great value food, clothing and homewares to millions of customers around the world. The company is investing in online customer experience by optimizing the website and using tools like Contentsquare’s digital experience analytics.
M&S has also been active on Instagram and TikTok, where it promotes its stores through organic videos. The store in Romford, for example, posts a Halloween video that generates more than 300,000 views on the platform each week.
M&S is focusing on SEO to boost its online performance. It hired Journey Further, a performance marketing agency with a strong relevance-led approach to digital PR, to manage its UK clothing and home organic growth strategy. The agency will also handle broader creative support on ad hoc digital campaigns. The work is part of M&S’s MS2 division, which focuses on a future of intuitive and personalised shopping both online and in-store. The MS2 team works in collaboration with the m&s customer and data analytics teams.
Social Media
M&S has embraced social media as a way to reach and engage customers. The retailer uses Instagram Stories, a platform that allows users to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. This strategy helps the retailer promote sales and promotions. It also encourages shoppers to share content on the platform.
M&S’ enlightened social media team have full trust in local partners too, sending them products they would like promoted but giving them the freedom to present it how they want. M&S’s Facebook page is now a two-way dialogue with 2 million interactions a week.
M&S has invested in making its online content more shoppable after discovering that 24 per cent of customers who visit a site after reading content are more likely to buy. M&S has launched a virtual character called Mira to help with this and is encouraging staff to act as micro-influencers, including starring in TikTok videos. The retailer is using influencers to break away from its older customer pigeon hole and attract younger shoppers.
Email Marketing
Email is a powerful marketing tool, which can be used to promote sales or special offers. It also allows marketers to experiment with different promotional techniques, such as cross-selling and upselling. M&S uses its email marketing strategy to communicate with customers and drive them to their website, social media pages and physical stores.
The company’s new campaign focuses on value and highlights its price-first strategy and no compromise approach to quality and sourcing standards for best-selling lines. It also stresses the importance of embracing data-driven decision making, rather than using gut instinct or consensus.
M&S’s new campaign is designed to be inspiring, focusing on “must-have wardrobe essentials” across Womenswear, Menswear, Lingerie and Kidswear. The company has also appointed Journey Further, a performance marketing agency that specializes in relevancy-led search PR and SEO. The agency will use its own technology to create and measure relevant content to improve M&S’s search visibility and relevancy. It will also manage M&S’s digital PR efforts, including broader creative support for ad-hoc campaigns.
Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is one of the most important aspects of a business’s digital marketing strategy. Search engine optimization involves making small modifications to a website that improve its organic ranking in search results. These improvements might seem minor when viewed individually, but they can have a significant impact on a site’s performance.
During the coronavirus lockdown, M&S was keen to ensure that the hero products that were advertised online and in-store were available in stores. The company’s marketers were holding hourly calls with merchandising teams and retail staff to make sure that hero-products were replenished quickly in store.
M&S also partnered with Instagram to promote its Must-Haves campaign. The retailer’s marketing team is focused on creating seasonally relevant content and delivering hyper-personalized experiences to customers. The brand has a new focus on value that customers can trust and is building its team with more experienced, digitally-savvy marketers. It also has a renewed emphasis on data and is breaking down silos to combine its online and in-store customer profiles.