Crafting the Brand Experience
Lifestyle brand Dormify wanted to quickly publish customer experiences - not only on their blog and social channels, but also directly on their ecommerce website. So Nicole Gardner, COO, and her team began examining new strategies to bridge the gap between content and shopping. With Creator by Zmags, Gardner and the rest of the Dormify ecommerce team began creating content that truly inspires customers. Gardner took the stage at Magento Imagine 2017 to share some of her biggest takeaways from the transition to Creator and how they can now connect content to commerce.
1. Know your brand and your audience
Dormify was launched with a very specific consumer in mind: young adults who are embarking on a new stage of their lives and are living on their own for the first time. They recognized there was a huge market of young people craving products, guidance, and inspiration for that intimidating dorm move-in process. Dormify’s goal was to establish a strong and recognizable brand voice. Nicole describes it as your “cool older sister”-- she’s relatable, inspirational, and trendy. They wanted their content to feel personal, like it was designed for each individual customer. Creating this brand relationship is a huge part of the brand’s success.2. Make it easy to buy
It’s a general rule of thumb that customers should be able to quickly and easily make a purchase as soon as they are ready to buy. But this goes double for the millennial consumer, like the Dormify shopper. Whether you believe the “instant gratification” stereotype or not, your brand’s path to purchase should be streamlined and effortless. Quickviews allow customers to add to cart without ever leaving the experience, meaning they can continue shopping without being redirected to another page. Dormify creates rich and immersive content that is entertaining as well as educational. The last thing they want is to pull customers away from the experience, sending them on a search though stale product grids. Quickviews mean consumers are shopping directly from their editorial content, without barriers.3. React quickly to trends
Creating content that reflects the latest style and design trends keeps Dormify on the cutting edge. In their “Bring Hygge Home” experience, they were able to recognize the growing hygge trend (cozy and comfortable) and capitalize on it before their competitors. Within days they had a fully formatted and shoppable landing page on their site, and their marketers and creative team did it all without the assistance of their developers. Being able to react quickly means Dormify isn’t investing huge amounts of time and money into every single experience, so they’re not afraid to take creative risks. As Gardner said, “Dormify prides itself on being able to react quickly, and stay on top of trends.” When creating shoppable experiences, be sure to ask yourself:- Is my content on brand?
- Is it instantly shoppable?
- Can I give customers the content they want when they want it?