Business professionals offer advice and guidance on adapting brands to digital platforms during COVID-19 and beyond

Throughout the month of October, the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) hosted the Business Recovery Summit Series, a virtual event aimed to help franchisors and franchisees manage, adapt, and grow their businesses during the “new normal” of COVID-19.

The featured Franchise Marketing Summit included a presentation titled “The COVID-19 Recovery Plan Will Be Digital: Are You Ready?” This session was moderated by Kirk Allen, COO and co-founder of Reshift Media, a digital marketing firm and software developing organization. Allen was joined by fellow co-founder and CEO of Reshift Media, Steve Buors, and Marta Rzeszowska, director of portfolio product management at Moneris, a Canadian financial technology company specializing in payment processing.

During the virtual presentation, the panellists discussed tips, advice, and best practices for how brands can adapt to a digital platform.

Digital is the new brick-and-mortar

Throughout the pandemic, businesses have adapted to the growing online experience that comes from social distancing and the changing everyday lives of Canadians.

“One of the number one things that’s changed through COVID-19 is people’s use of digital media,” says Buors. “Here in Canada, we saw a big increase in how much time people spend on digital platforms. What might be surprising is one of the biggest increases has actually been on mobile.” He says the average Canadian spends 22 per cent of their awake time on a mobile device and there’s been a nearly 40 per cent increase in mobile use over the last couple of years.

Though he calls this increase “counterintuitive” since many people are spending most of their time at home and not on the go, Buors explains the reasoning behind increased mobile use: people are often multi-screening with content streaming on their TV while surfing the internet on their cell phone.

This has led to an increase in online shopping. Rzeszowska says that Moneris has “seen a huge jump in how many businesses have opened up online storefronts. We continue to see that going up and we encourage everybody to look at that as a solution going forward.”

She adds that even brick-and-mortar businesses with an established physical presence are learning how to move to a digital platform to adapt to their consumers’ changing needs. One of the ways they do this is through a hybrid omni-channel model: ordering online or through the phone and picking up curbside, for a fully touchless experience.

“Convenience will always be the key factor,” says Rzeszowska. “If it’s easier for the customer, that’s how they’re going to want to interact.”

The touchless experience

How we’re paying for these digital services has shifted too.

Using Apple Pay and Google Pay as examples, Rzeszowska notes that concepts that were slowly progressing in the Canadian market have now skyrocketed with popularity as people are starting to trust and understand how to use these services.

She adds that in restaurants, “Something that was really unique was how quickly people implemented QR codes: the ability to offer a touchless digital solution for being able to look up things like menus. Things that you were used to having physically touched.”

These are concepts businesses could easily implement that offer a low cost, touchless experience for consumers in a time when physical contact should be at a minimum.

Marketing goes digital

To transition your business to a digital platform, you should create a marketing plan to make your online presence known.

Rzeszowska cites a recent poll that indicates 70 per cent of Canadian consumers are actively trying to support their local businesses. However, she adds, “The issue is if they don’t know you have a digital presence or how to get a hold of you, they don’t know how to support you. Letting them know that you are open for business is important because people are getting incredibly comfortable with the fact that everything is at their fingertips. They’re looking for ease, and they’re only going to spend so much time looking for you.”

So, how do companies know how to invest their money as part of their digital marketing plan? Buors references a recent CMO survey that reveals marketers have shifted their money from an acquisition strategy into a brand building and retention strategy.

“In the meaty part of COVID-19, companies weren’t necessarily trying to acquire new customers, they were trying to stay top of mind by investing in brand building and working on retaining the customers they already had.” Examples of what their dollars were spent on include advertisements and managing organic social property on social media.

“You don’t just put up a website and suddenly the world comes to you,” says Buors. He adds that you want to avoid doing a “one and done” strategy where you run a Google ad, someone clicks the ad to buy your product, and then never sees you or your website again. “Think about how you build a relationship, not how you build a website.”

The customer journey

It’s important to think through the customer journey to understand their experience and build repeat clientele.

Rzeszowska notes that one of the challenges businesses face when they start a digital channel is that they overly focus on creating their first website, but sometimes forget to think about what they’re offering to customers. That includes considering how to interact, attract, and market to consumers, the quality of customer service, and whether they’re trying to attract local or international customers.

However, it’s not only physical products that are being purchased online. Rzeszowska says companies that normally offer goods and services as an in-person experience are also shifting to a digital platform. Examples include gym, karate, and cooking classes, which are now offered through a virtual experience, allowing those businesses to remain open during the pandemic.

Fortunately, Canadian consumers have quickly adapted to the digital realm. “Canada historically has been a bit of an international laggard in terms of e-commerce adoption,” says Buors. “But we were forced to change our behaviours, so we’ve accelerated our e-commerce adoption by multiple years in the space of a few months.”

Buors adds, “If you don’t have a digital solution about how people can interact with you online, get creative because people are craving a virtual experience. People have learned that this is very convenient, and they’re going to continue to want it.”

Data is king

Behind all that marketing and customer acquisition lies statistics that hold the key to brand success.

According to Rzeszowska, “Data is king right now.” She advises that businesses collect as much information as possible including demographics, age, preferences, location, and shopping behaviours. She also points to loyalty programs as a great point of data.

“You as a franchise system have more data than you know,” Buors says, adding that simple things like website and Google Analytics give you a tremendous amount of data to analyze. “I encourage you to look at it in a ‘what’s changed?’ perspective because that will give you a clue about how consumers’ behaviours have changed during the pandemic.”

As for social media, Buors says Facebook provides free analytics from the back end, and businesses can turn to Twitter to find out any concerns people have with their service.

Looking to the future

Ultimately, the digital experience is here to stay.   

Rzeszowska says that by 2025 or 2026, digital shopping is expected to catch up with physical shopping, though the latter isn’t expected to go away entirely. “We’ve done in the last five months what we were forecasting would take five years, so that 2025 is going to move up a little faster. You want to make sure you have that digital presence, but it doesn’t mean you have to shut down that physical presence as well.”

Buors advises that brands don’t put their business into a holding pattern, waiting for things to go back to the way they were before the pandemic, because they likely won’t. “Now is the time to be aggressive in terms of taking advantage of these changes in behaviours. If you can be an innovator in your sector where you’re able to provide services and your competitors can’t or don’t want to, then you can establish yourselves as a leader so even once things go back to more normal, your relationships will continue.”

At the end of the day, customers have learned to expect the quick, simple, and contactless convenience of digital shopping. “Once consumers learn certain behaviours and know that it’s possible,” says Rzeszowska, “they’re not necessarily going to want to go back to the old way of doing things.”

SOURCE:
CFA’s Business Recovery Summit Series, The COVID-19 Recovery Plan Will Be Digital: Are You Ready?, October 28 – Kirk Allen, Steve Buors, and Marta Rzeszowska