Earlier this year, the National Retail Association (NRA) joined forces with content marketing agency Edge to uncover the strategies Australian retailers are using to navigate the new media landscape.
The resulting survey – 2014 Leading the content revolution – highlighted that one third of retail businesses fail to exploit the opportunity to promote their brand through content marketing.
This is in contrast to the 43 per cent of Australian marketers as a whole that don’t have a documented strategy.
The reason behind this could be time constraints, with 47 per cent of Australian marketers citing time as a major challenge for them in the creation of content.
However, research suggests that taking the time to consider a strategy, or employing an agency to create one, reaps huge ROI later down the line.
Particular emphasis was placed on visual and social media channels and video marketing techniques.
Efficiency of channels
According to the survey, company websites and Facebook are cited as the channels that retailers find most efficient when delivering content.
In contrast, only 29 per cent of the retail marketers surveyed think Instagram is effective and 15 per cent think Pinterest works for them.
In accordance with the ‘Global Digital Statistics 2014’ report by We Are Social, this finding tallies with general uptake of social media in Australia.
The report, published in January, found that 81 per cent of Australians have a Facebook account, while only 15 per cent have an Instagram account.
However, visually led social media channels – such as YouTube – should not be dismissed, particularly for Australian retailers with attractive product to sell.
Its propensity to be shared also makes video a great tool for amplifying retailers' marketing messages, with an Advertising Age feature recently having claimed that videos are shared 1200 per cent more than text and links combined.
Edge department of moving image executive Kevin Lim noted that some forward-looking retailers' are catching on.
“With brands embracing social video channels such as Vine and Instagram, we’re seeing a form of storytelling that’s powerful for the future of marketing. Brands are creating snackable, reactive content with a lo-fi, almost film-school, DIY approach that’s short and shareable.”
Fashion footwear etailer Shoes of Prey is a case in point.
A case study on the brand, included in the report, cited that the company has fully embraced video, integrating it into its marketing mix in a number of ways.
The site has seen a major uptake in customer traffic as a result, with more than 60 million minutes designing tens of millions of shoes since its launch.
Other case studies included luxury retail giant Net-A-Porter and British etailer Asos.
Quality over quantity
Of the Australian retailers surveyed, a majority of 72 per cent cited the challenge of ‘creating the right content’ as a key concern.
However, editorial excellence and quality content has been recognised by retailers as an essential component in cutting through the general media noise.
As a result, many brands are increasingly seeking to mimic publishers, producing content built around consumer lifestyles and using traditional newsstand editorial tricks to do so.
Retail marketers are thus turning to external agencies to help them create original, compelling and innovative content - 37 per cent are already working with an external agency, with a further 27 per cent saying they are considering it for the future.
However, despite content marketing’s recognised power to convert, retain and engage, the opportunities are yet to be fully exploited by retail marketers.
Websites (98 per cent), Facebook (80 per cent) and e-newsletters (59 per cent) are cited as the three most common channels.
YouTube uptake is at just 37 per cent, which is far below the Australian average (74 per cent).
