In today’s digital marketplace, so much of our experience is artificial. This is particularly true with online shopping, where what you see isn’t always what you get. Consumers are far more cynical today than a decade ago, which is why more and more shoppers are turning to online ratings and reviews for advice. Like the rest of ecommerce, the volume…

If you’ve ever led the merchandising of a retail product, you know how hard it can be. There are a wide range of moving parts, uncontrollable environments and multiple stakeholders with sometimes conflicting agendas. It’s one thing to get through it without mistakes. It’s another to come out the other end feeling victorious. If this sounds familiar, we’ve got a…

The retail industry is a two-headed beast. One head speaks the language of business, the other speaks the language of consumers. Getting products through this complex creature requires speaking both languages without missing a beat. That’s what we call B2B/B2C fluency, and it’s an essential skill for getting in and succeeding in retail. Because every product in retail has to be…

It seems like we just can’t stop talking about the pandemic and its effect on commerce. In the retail universe, it’s a bit like the big bang, complete with cascading ripple effects, like the massive shift to eCommerce that gave certain retailers a massive advantage. Sure enough, retailers are leveraging their massive online traffic to attract advertising revenue. It’s called…

If you’ve walked through any big-box retailer in the last decade, you’ve probably noticed that more and more product is not on the shelf. Point-of-purchase (POP) displays are especially ubiquitous in home improvement stores where the aisles are wide and seem to invite retail merchandising. Shoppers may have mixed reviews about sharing aisle space with retail merchandising, but there are…

A lot of clients come to Porchlight looking for help with digital marketing for their home improvement brand or product. And a big chunk of those clients have tight budgets. So, there comes a point – early in the relationship – where we have to prioritize. We have to eliminate some digital marketing channels in favor of others that are…

Everyone is talking about omnichannel marketing, which may have you wondering, “Are we ready for omnichannel marketing?” Omnichannel is certainly the new buzzword in retail marketing, and there are plenty of brands for whom it makes a lot of sense. But there are equally, if not more, brands for whom multichannel strategies are a better fit. This is especially true…

We’re talking about money again. The more clients we speak to, the more we understand the increasing demands being placed on tight budgets. It’s a real challenge to develop a budget that is comprehensive and delivers ROI. And agencies can add to the complexity because we all take a slightly different approach to pricing. While we can’t fix agency pricing across…

In the creative services industry, price can be a taboo subject. No one wants to talk about pricing and with good reason. First of all, value is subjective because the thing being sold is intangible. Second, there is the awkward idea of profit. Agencies are in business to make a profit after all. And no one likes the idea of…

Modern marketing is all about data. As it should be. Because so much of today’s marketing happens on tiny computers we carry in our pockets and on our wrists, nearly everything we do is trackable. But what does that really mean? Better yet, where can you get ahold of some of this data and use it to your advantage? The…