Every single digital asset you air should provide a direct opportunity to buy your product. And it should take no more than two clicks.
This is the current mantra in digital communication. To ensure a perfect link between communication and e-commerce, in a way that is unrivalled by traditional media. And it is just based on logic:
- the consumer logic, that if a consumer finds a product s/he likes and needs, it wants to buy it in the most convenient way;
- the customer journey logic, that says that you want to shorten the path to purchase as much as possible;
- the sales logic, that says that you should never lose an opportunity to sell, as "a sale lost today will never be recovered tomorrow" (and thank you for the lesson 15 years ago, João Aleixo)
Until a few years ago, this was nearly impossible. The paradigm would be that you advertise (even digitally) to indirectly generate sales in brick & mortar stores. But e-commerce changed this and it is now easy to setup sales opportunities on digital assets - any kind of digital asset. On search terms, you can do it through Google Shopping, that connects a search term directly with online retailers to buy the product you googled; or through a shop section on your Facebook account; you can link any display (banner) or video to your direct-to-consumer online store or your product's page in a partner customer. And you can even generate powerful data and insights into the shopping behaviour of your shoppers that can help you improve your product / shopping experience.
There are still many digital assets that are produced and aired daily that point to a quite passive brand page or Facebook brand page that still follow the indirect advertising path from traditional media. To be more effective, these digital assets should be linking with e-commerce opportunities. It really is the way forward. So, repeat after me: "Every single digital asset should be linked to a direct opportunity to buy my products". That's the mantra.
