Phygital MarketingThe phygital customer is by no means a new phenomenon, as some very clever brands have been targeting this group for a while, but it’s a new buzzword making the rounds.

Before you roll your eyes and ignore it, you might want to give this one a closer look.

More and more of us expect the brands we do business with to combine the physical and the digital for a best-of-both-worlds experience.

And all that’s left for the business is to try to keep up and meet the phygital customers’ expectations.

Here are some key phygital marketing strategies you can use to get started.

The Social Snap

For your first phygital marketing experience, create a way for customers to combine your brand or location with their social networks.

Create a sign, have a particular product, or even highlight your physical location and ask customers to take a selfie with it.

They post it on social media, tag you, and use a particular hashtag for a chance to win something.

This is a great hit of physical (being with your product or location), plus digital (social media) plus physical (reward).

Not only that, but it increases brand awareness, too.

This is probably the most simple and easy-to-implement strategy, and customers already know how to get involved because they have seen it before.

It’s a winning solution for brands not yet ready to jump on the phygital marketing bandwagon.

The Email Rewards

You should be doing some very clever things with your mailing list already, such as A/B testing and email drip campaigns, but you can take it a step further.

When an app or email offers a physical reward, you hit the phygital marketing nail on the head.

Your customers must interact with you in a digital way in order to collect a physical reward.

But why not turn this on its head, too?

Ask customers at a physical location to offer their email address and they will have a digital award waiting in their inbox.

These are great ways to both grow and exploit your mailing list, creating brand loyalty in the process.

The Digital Display

Recently, Adidas blew the minds of their customers with a fantastic digital shoe wall, allowing customers to “pick up” and examine shoes that weren’t in stock.

This is an incredible demonstration of the power of phygital marketing.

Customers have to be in the physical store to access this digital display, which is an experience in and of itself.

Not only that, but it drives sales.

You might not have the resources to go to this scale, but something as simple as an iPad in-store could make all the difference.

For products such as clothing, accessories, beauty, and so forth, you can even create an app which shows the customer how they would look with your new product line—like Urban Decay did.

Phygital Marketing: Make the Physical Digital

Speaking of that Urban Decay app, let’s talk about what they did.

They took the physical task of trying on make-up, which you can only do in-store, and made it a digital experience.

This is really exciting, and if you can do this for your own customers, your sales will increase.

To do this, consider the aspects of your business that are physical.

Can you start offering consultations via video call?

Could you have a virtual catalogue with 360-degree views of your products?

Deliver this and you have something unique that sets you apart from the competition within your niche.

A bespoke app is definitely the way to do that.

Once you hook your consumers, you will find these phygital marketing techniques not only drive sales, but increase brand loyalty.

That is hugely important in this market, and if you don’t make your business available to phygital consumers, you can be sure your rivals will.

image credit: shutterstock

James Pointon

James Pointon is a blogger and a customer consultant supporting OpenAgent - real estate experts from Sydney.

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