February 16, 2015

Spotlight On: Not on the High Street.com

Betfair Portraiture Photography LICENSE AGREEMENT This Photograph taken by VisualMedia is supplied with an indefinite license for editorial purposes, but excluding advertorials or competitions. The license also covers internal communications requirements such as newsletters and non-commercial website use. Usage for external marketing / advertising purposes will attract additional fees that need to be negotiated dependent on requirements. For further information please contact VisualMedia on +44 (0)20 7613 2555. Note to Press: These images are supplied free of charge for editorial usage. Mandatory credit: VisMedia

Marketing Director Ben Carter

Fiona_1125_Fin_230

Head of Digital Marketing, Fiona Wallin

Ben Carter and Fiona Wallin at Not On The High Street.com speak at the Figaro Digital Retail Conference in London on 14 May 2015. They tell us how the brand is using social media channels to engage its users and drive sales

Give us a quick overview of Not On The High Street’s social strategy – what are your key objectives, which channels do you find most effective, and what sort of content works?

Our social strategy is divided into two very distinct strands of activity with completely separate objectives: content syndication to drive engagement, and direct response activity to drive purchases.

From a channel perspective, both Facebook and Twitter have proved incredibly successful platforms for both components of our social strategy, with our Facebook direct response (DR) activity now rivalling PPC in terms of the ROI we can generate. Our success on the engagement piece has been to learn what content our users find engaging and useful, and to syndicate this at the right time, whilst effective targeting and an agile, test-and-learn approach has been the key to driving the results we’ve seen from the DR activity.

We tend to think of social media as a channel for increasing visibility and driving brand awareness rather than as a sales channel. Is that right, or can it do both?

It can absolutely do both, if used in the right way. Social media is now a viable sales channel for us as a business and we run always-on, DR-focused activity that delivers ROIs in line with our well established, traditional DR channels.

Given the enormous amount of content presented to us all on social media every day, is reaching your consumers a challenge, and if so how do you achieve cut-through?

Reaching our consumers with our engagement-focused content has definitely become more challenging, particularly since the changes to Facebook’s algorithm came into play last year. Efficient use of paid amplification, overlaid with effective targeting, has been really successful for us in terms of getting cut-through and reaching the right users at the times when they are most likely to engage.

What do you see as the biggest social media issue(s) facing online retailers in 2015?

The social landscape has become very crowded and noisy, and that combined with platforms limiting the organic reach of content has made it difficult for brands to gain visibility and really stand out. The volume of content available to users online is huge – it’s really key for brands to ensure that what they are putting out there is useful and engaging to ensure they don’t get lost amongst the competition.

Any quick takeaways for retailers who want to increase their social media effectiveness on a budget?

Establishing clear objectives then ongoing testing and targeting have been the two key factors that have allowed us to deliver success with a conservative budget. There are so many targeting possibilities and different ad formats available that it’s imperative to determine what works for your business to ensure that budget is being spent effectively.

Ben Carter and Fiona Wallin will be among the speakers at the Figaro Digital Marketing Conference in London on 14 May 2015.