postImg

How to track and optimize marketing campaigns across retail, reseller, and distribution channels

Posted in:

Channel marketing has never been as dynamic as it is today, and a significant part of this dynamism is due to the growing importance of retail, resale, and distribution channels. As consumers explore new ways of purchasing products and services, companies seek to adapt and steer their marketing efforts effectively. In this context, monitoring marketing campaigns closely and being prepared to analyze the data generated during such campaigns is crucial. This article will discuss how to achieve goals through this combination better.

Retail is selling a company’s product directly to the consumer. Retail can include e-commerce, physical stores, and online marketplaces. On the other hand, distribution involves all the logistics aspects of moving products to desired locations to reach the end consumer appropriately. The resale channel typically acquires products from a distributor or directly from suppliers, often integrating them into specific solutions. Product manufacturers undertake marketing campaigns targeting these three channels, focusing on sales to household consumers, primarily via retail channels and business buyers using the three channels. 

Such campaigns require constant monitoring for accurate results assessment, operational adjustments during campaign periods, and ensuring that incentives for the channels and professionals involved align with their performance, among other reasons that necessitate ongoing tracking. Some key metrics that can be monitored in a channel marketing campaign include ROI, customer acquisition, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost (CAC), cart abandonment rate, churn rate, customer engagement, and others.

Managing campaigns in the retail, reseller, and distribution channels is a strategic process that involves planning, implementing, and controlling marketing activities across these points of sale. This management is essential to ensure the effective execution of marketing strategies and achieving business objectives. Here are the critical aspects involved in campaign management in these channels:

Strategic Planning: the process begins with a solid strategic planning phase, involving setting clear goals, identifying the target audience, and selecting the most suitable distribution channels to reach these objectives.

Campaign Development: marketing campaigns are based on companies’ or departments’ marketing planning. They usually include creating messages, special offers, and content that resonate with target audiences and align with the brand.

Channel Selection: each distribution channel may have different characteristics. Management involves carefully selecting channels that will be used to implement the campaigns, which may include physical stores, online stores, reseller partners, and marketplaces, among others.

Coordination and Implementation: Effective management requires careful coordination to ensure that all parties involved, such as marketing, sales, logistics, and channel partners, are aligned in implementing the campaigns.

Training and Enablement: in many cases, it is necessary to train sales teams and channel partners, providing them with information on the products and services involved in the campaigns or about the company itself (positioning, details on product lines, value offering, and so forth). Such a training process ensures they get well-informed and can effectively promote the products or services.

Monitoring and Control: during the execution of the campaigns, it is essential to monitor performance in real-time, which involves collecting data on sales, store traffic, and online conversions, among other KPIs.

Results Evaluation: after the campaign conclusion, a thorough assessment of the results should be conducted, allowing for the identification of what worked well and what can be improved for future campaigns.

Adjustments and Optimization: based on the results and lessons learned, adjustments should be made to future strategies. Continuous optimization is critical to improving ROI and overall campaign performance.

Internal and External Communication: effective communication with internal teams and channel partners is crucial. Keeping everyone informed about the campaigns and their progress is essential for success.

Adaptation to Market Changes: markets and consumer preferences are constantly evolving. Campaign management must be flexible enough to adapt to these changes and seize new opportunities.

Campaign management in the retail, distribution, and reseller channels requires a strategic approach, effective coordination, and constant learning and adapting. When done successfully, this management can drive sales growth, strengthen the brand, and build solid relationships with channel partners.

In order to track and interpret these critical metrics in real-time, it is essential to have a tool that can effectively manage the campaign. With the assistance of an interactive platform, companies can make more assertive and informed decisions based on evidence, avoiding the creation of tactics based solely on guesswork. The lack of campaign management implies certain risks, such as waste of financial resources, campaigns that do not reach the target audience, and lack of capacity to monitor competitors. However, why is campaign management so important?

The campaign needs to reach the consumer effectively. This communication is carried out through communication channels such as e-mail marketing, landing pages, social media, chats, ads, and offline campaigns. With a monitoring platform, tracking metrics and campaign results is possible, helping companies recognize if their investments in their communication channels are yielding results and financial returns. Some benefits of the campaign management platform include the following: 

Improvement in customer experience: to foster customer loyalty and retention. It should always be focused on enhancing the end consumer’s experience with the brand.

Understanding the buying journey: marketing campaign management helps the retail sector better journey, from the product selection process and how many times a specific product was added to the cart to the final purchase process.

Choice of communication channel for your campaigns: through campaign management, it is easier to decide which communication channel will be prioritized, considering which generates more engagement and ROI with the end consumer.

Omnichannel integration: effective marketing campaigns rely on various communication channels to reach the target audience. With campaign management, it is possible to integrate these channels and monitor KPIs to create more assertive strategies.

Coherent campaign planning: one of the benefits of campaign management is the ability to plan logically, aiming to achieve effective results.

Contemporary marketing can integrate various sectors of the company, such as sales, finance, and customer service, guiding leads towards conversion. Analyzing the information generated in marketing campaign management makes it possible to adjust marketing strategies based on the results obtained. Some examples include:

  • Identifying distribution issues and creating action plans to resolve them;
  • Generating more precise customer retention strategies to keep the end consumer more engaged with the brand and its products;
  • Redirecting financial resources to marketing distribution channels that are providing the best ROI;
  • Filtering campaigns and messages to improve the conversion rate.

Despite its complexity, monitoring and optimizing marketing campaigns across retail, resale, and distribution channels is essential for achieving business excellence. With the help of a marketing campaign management platform, companies can quickly adapt to market changes and make strategic decisions to drive their growth. Therefore, one should consider and invest in combining marketing campaign management and data analysis to achieve the desired results.

ASM has a highly customized marketing campaign management platform to meet the individual needs of its clients. Such a platform enables logical, consistent, and simplified campaign management. Some benefits of the marketing campaign management platform include:

  • Effective tracking of results across multiple channels;
  • Collaborative interaction in an online environment;
  • Precise monitoring of campaign progress with intervention tools;
  • Application of KPIs and benchmarking for critical evaluation of the results achieved in each campaign.

With the monitoring solution, ASM can help your company optimize the results achieved with your marketing campaigns for channels.