We’re living in a digital world, where it’s no longer seems unusual to buy all sorts of products over the internet. But with the pandemic inevitably accelerated changes in the way we shop and the increase in digital purchases to grow.
Despite the changes being forced upon us many people miss visiting shops and that personalised service and customer experience interacting with the sale team. This has meant rethinking how marketing needs to evolve along with the change of shopping habits and create a new concept to blend e-commerce experience and physical presence brick-and-mortar shopping together.
As consumer behaviour changes, marketing strategies have had to shift right along with them. Good marketing takes advantage of everything that is available to the customer. In this age, digital technology has become a big part of everyday life, and that meant that marketers needed strategies that considered this element. It’s what drove the growth of digital marketing.
However, consumers still crave for some physical elements of brick-and-mortar establishments. So, it has become necessary to craft marketing plans that incorporate the digital and physical aspects that matter to consumers, giving rise to phydigital marketing. You might have come across this term or not. Whatever the case, it’s crucial for essential business executives and marketers to know what it’s about.
What is Phygital Marketing?
What is the meaning and definition of Phygital? The term is a combination or portmanteau of two words ‘physical’ and ‘digital.’ It describes the concept of merging digital and physical marketing strategies to create a consistent customer experience.
Physical + Digital = Phygital
What is the phygital experience?
Phygital is about seamlessly marrying both your online and offline presents in one space to create a symbiotic customer experience.
There are many types of marketing strategies
Multichannel Marketing: Customers can buy via “many” channels ( two or more) and each channel exists as a separate purchase opportunity.
Omnichannel Marketing: Creates a single customer experience across “all” channels. Integrating all channels together for seamless, connected customer experience.
‘Phygital’ is the next and latest evolution marketing concept strategy.
Phygital strategy takes it one step further than even omnichannel marketing as it aims to completely connects both online and offline experiences together.
Consistency in customer experience and purchasing process which offers familiarity.
Just think… We can get anything we like delivered with a click of a button from our mobile phones. Many people research and browse for products digitally but then have the need to “feel”. This is what drives people into a brick and mortar shop to complete their purchase.
But also the opposite occurs: A day out browsing in shops, seeing, touching and getting that interpersonal interactions with staff members but then to return home to order online. Identifying that there is both a physical and emotional components to the purchase process and essential to customer experience.
Digital marketing meets physical marketing.
What is Phygital strategy?
The need for digital marketing is apparent. With a majority of consumers doing their shopping online, businesses have to sell their brands on the web. However, the growth of digital marketing did not diminish the need for old-fashioned tactics. Even as people get goods and services online, some still prefer to interact with brands physically.
It’s why hard-cover books are still selling even with e-books, and traditional retail stores attract buyers despite the rise of e-commerce. For this reason, it is vital to bring together physical and digital marketing components. This strategy does that.
It focuses on providing consumers with a seamless experience by combining the best of digital and physical marketing. From the name, it would not be impossible for some companies to dismiss the idea as a fad. However, this is far from true. Customers will always want some form of real-life experiences, despite how excellent the digital platforms are. It’s this understanding that has e-commerce enterprises investing in physical experiences. Thus, marketers should expect physical-digital marketing to stay relevant for a long while.
Developing a Physical-Digital Strategy
If a physical-digital marketing campaign is to work, you must know how to create a good one. The principle of this marketing form is to focus on emotions and senses. You need to provide a full sensory experience. Customers can see and hear online messages. With physical ones, you can give them the opportunities to smell, taste and touch. Come up with campaigns that exploit the human connection.
In any marketing campaign, understanding the audience is fundamental. Therefore, research yours thoroughly. Know how to appeal to shoppers both digitally and physically. Learn about which customers prefer what sectors. If you have previous campaigns, use feedback from those to see the best way to reach your audience.
Define your goals for physical-digital marketing so that you can decide where to focus your investments. Are you looking to reach new shoppers? Introduce a new service? Or scale operations? Your objectives will serve as the blueprint of the campaign.
Examples of Phygital Digital Marketing
There are many examples of phygital digital marketing, here are few examples in our phygital digital marketing checklist.
[checkify checklist=’7dfd7e7d-5d40-472c-a9ea-553b7eb0ed79′]
Phygital Value to Your Business
Why should your company invest in phydigital marketing? Firstly, it provides a broader audience reach. Marketing in both the physical and digital fronts allows you to target the customer journey in multiple ways. So, you make sure that you don’t miss on buyers who prefer one over the other.
Physical-digital marketing makes it easy for consumers to engage with the brand. Shoppers don’t have to be online all the time to interact with your company. Communication is dynamic and fast. Physical-digital marketing allows you to satisfy the expectations of consumers across the entire buying cycle.
Marketing in both the physical and digital fronts has become a necessity. Businesses have to find ways to connect the digital and physical spaces to provide seamless experiences to consumers. With the right approach, companies of any size, in any sector, can use phygital strategies on their brands.
Marketing in the Experience Economy
Using a phygital strategy is great in the era of experience economy will connect your customers online digital user experience with offline real life experience making sure the transition between them is seamless.
Marketing across the physical and virtual spaces while creating more human connections can boost positive feelings about your business, brand, which in turn will increase sales.