How To Use Branding To Drive Ecommerce Conversions

Investing in brand marketing is often one of the fastest ways to boost performance of your existing marketing motions.  I’ve implemented this approach successfully multiple times in my career. Brand marketing helps you create an emotional connection with your customers that fosters trust - and that trust makes them more likely to choose you over competitors, even in a crowded market.  You yourself can probably think of many brands that do this well and impacts how you purchase. The key to understanding brand marketing ROI lies in its role as a multiplier for your marketing mix, rather than viewing brand marketing in isolation. So how can brand marketing be additive to your current investments?  Here’s a step-by-step approach.. ❇ Leverage a control/test approach:  Before introducing a new brand campaign, measure your current performance marketing efforts over a consistent time frame.  You can apply a test market vs. control market if you want to start small with the brand investment. ❇ Brand campaign launch:  Introduce a brand campaign highlighting your brand's story, emotional benefits, and unique selling propositions to the customer. It should be designed to resonate with your target audience's aspirations and pain points, leveraging channels that allow for deeper storytelling engagement. ❇ Integrated Marketing Phase: While the brand campaign is running, continue your existing marketing efforts, but include messaging and creative that echoes the brand campaign's themes. This creates a cohesive customer experience across the customer journey. ❇ Measurement and Analysis: Measure the same metrics as in the baseline period or in your test/control markets. Look for changes in website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and sales numbers. Ask the sales team for any qualitative insights they may have.  And, if possible - assess brand health metrics such as brand awareness and brand preference for both you and your competitors. ❇ Comparative Analysis: Compare the pre- and post-campaign performance. An effective brand campaign will yield an increase in direct marketing performance, giving those channels a lower customer acquisition cost, higher conversion rates, and increased overall sales. The uplift in these metrics is a tangible indicator of the brand campaign's additive effect on your marketing investments. This approach to brand marketing highlights that a strong brand acts as a lever and can be the decisive factor that tilts customer preference in your favor, proving that brand investment is not just a cost center but a strategic asset that drives measurable ROI.

Users determine whether your products are right for them in just 1/2 a second. If you're leading with discounts, you've already lost the game... First impressions don't just matter, they're everything in the digital world. Half a second is all it takes to form a lasting anchor in your customer's mind. Yesterday I spoke with an ecommerce brand selling premium products at premium prices. The first thing visitors see on their site? A 15% discount offer. This undermines everything they've built. The psychological principle at play here is called anchoring bias: whatever users see first becomes the reference point for every decision that follows. So when your homepage leads with "15% OFF!" you're telling customers price is your main differentiator. You've just anchored your brand as a discount option, even if you sell luxury goods 😳 This has devastating long-term effects on perceived value. Customers trained to expect discounts will wait for sales rather than buying at full price. They'll question the value of anything that isn't discounted. The data proves this approach is deadly for conversions. For one client, we shifted focus from discounts to their unique value proposition: "the best guarantees in the industry." This simple change in anchoring generated over $1.1 million in additional sales. The initial anchor point set customer expectations for the entire journey. When we positioned the brand as premium rather than cheap, customers responded accordingly. Take a hard look at your website's first impression: ↳ Are you anchoring on value or on discounts? ↳ Are you setting yourself up for sustainable growth or a race to the bottom?

If more of your store sales start on TikTok lately, you might wanna read this. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦. The checkout happens in-store. But the sale happens everywhere else. Here's the reality: This year 60%+, and in 2027, 70% of retail sales will be digitally influenced. I can't emphasize this enough; here's what most brands miss—digital influence isn't just about online sales. It's about shaping every moment before the customer even walks into your store. L'Oréal cracked this code: 100M+ AR try-on sessions driving real conversions. 31 brands orchestrating seamless experiences across 72 countries. No.1 in beauty influencer marketing (29% market share), 20-80% higher conversion rates through enhanced digital experiences. The new customer journey isn't linear—it's layered: - They discover you on social - Research you through reviews and UGC - Try your product virtually through AR - Get retargeted with personalized content - Finally purchase in-store (feeling confident they're making the right choice) Every touchpoint matters, and every interaction influences the final decision. The brands winning today aren't just selling products—they're orchestrating experiences across owned, paid, and earned media that guide customers from curiosity to checkout. Digital discovery is increasingly pay-to-play and shoppers are paying attention. ++ Tactical Recommendations for CPG / FMCG Brands ++ 1. Beyond just having perfect, high SOV product pages, create discovery ecosystems. - Optimize for "zero-moment-of-truth" searches. - Activate shoppable content at scale. - Leverage user-generated content as social proof. Brands that do these see a 35% higher conversion rate from digital touchpoints to in-store purchases. 2. Connect digital engagement directly to retail execution. - Geo-target digital campaigns to drive foot traffic - Create "store-specific" digital content CPG brands using geo-targeted social ads see a 23% higher in-store sales lift in targeted markets. 3. Most important one; stop flying blind—measure digital influence on offline sales. - Implement unique promo codes for each digital touchpoint to track conversion paths. - Use customer surveys at point of purchase. - Partner with retailers on shared data insights Brands with proper attribution see 15-25% improvement in marketing ROI within 12 months. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. #CPG #FMCG #AI #ecommerce Procter & Gamble PepsiCo Unilever The Coca-Cola Company Nestlé Mondelēz International Kraft Heinz Ferrero Mars Colgate-Palmolive Henkel Bayer Haleon Kenvue The HEINEKEN Company Carlsberg Group Philips Samsung Electronics Panasonic North America