Digital Edge in 10 Minutes: 4 Takeaways From 6 Business Leaders

Our flagship event, Digital Edge 2022, took the internet by storm on June 14, highlighting trends and challenges in digital business innovation, the efforts to address them, and growth plans.

A diverse panel of experts – from thought leaders to brand executives – shared tips on how to use website data analytics to optimize digital marketing, research, sales, app, and investment strategies.

Missed it, or after a refresher on what was covered? You’re in the right place. We’ve compiled the key lessons from our virtual event to help you create effective digital strategies for 2022 – and beyond.

Lesson #1: Smart growth means shifting to complementary data sources to win

Our founder and CEO, Or Offer, revealed how Similarweb’s digital intelligence suite direction will help businesses grow in evolving market conditions.

What were the main takeaways?

The future is uncertain, so a company’s growth game needs new rules. Rising interest rates, inflation, and financial market uncertainty affect businesses’ ability to grow. A responsible leadership team needs to take advantage of competitive data and digital insights to positively impact prices, sales, inventory, profit margin, and new market needs.

A business’s future is no longer about Fast Growth but rather Smart Growth – Or Offer Tweet this

As a result, the business focus is no longer on rapid growth but on smart growth. To achieve this, companies need data – not only on their own customers, but on their competitors and industry, too. With Similarweb, your employees don’t need to learn multiple products and data methodologies – enabling you to do more, with less.

If you don’t have the budget to add people to your organization, it’s better to simplify your tool stack and focus on becoming experts on one platform and solution set.

Similarweb products complement your existing operational tools, like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Magento, by offering datasets that supplement the data in use.

Why is this important?

Without competitive data and actionable insights, you’re left operating in “digital darkness.” Yes, there are analytics tools for seeing your data, but only Similarweb shines a light on your digital landscape to deliver game-changing insights and long-term competitive advantage.

Or’s keynote demonstrated this approach at work:

1. Total Economic Impact™ of Similarweb – a commissioned financial analysis by Forrester Consulting found that its client’s decision-making experience benefited from a sales cost optimization of $16.93 million over three years versus a cost of $2.28 million, or an ROI of 642% using Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence and Similarweb Digital Marketing Intelligence solutions.
2. DHL’s success story – Similarweb Sales Intelligence dramatically improved DHL’s sales performance and win rate last year, resulting in an ROI of over 500%, and changed how the global delivery service sells online.
3. Bicodex’s digital advantage – this Paris-based pharmaceutical company used Similarweb Shopper Intelligence to optimize its Amazon.com marketing spend, resulting in a 40% growth in market share compared to its leading competitors.

How can you implement this into your business?

The Similarweb platform enables you to grow your business smartly, helping you:

• Expand website traffic
• Protect your market position
• Benchmark performance vs. competitors
• Improve conversion rates
• Allocate resources with precision
• React quickly to market changes
• And much more

See for yourself by signing up for a free account, or booking a demo for an overview of our products and features.

Lesson #2: More data across more touch points means more informed business decisions

Carrie Lazorchak, Similarweb’s chief revenue officer, hosted a fireside-style chat with insights gurus Shibani Walia (Google’s strategy and insights manager), and Cristina Marinucci, (global head of shopper insights and analytics at Mondelēz International, the CPG giant that counts Oreo and Triscuits among its portfolio of food products).

In the session, the duo shed light on the partnerships, strategies, and insights helping their brands grow.

How does Google use Similarweb?

Shibani and her team use Similarweb to explore Google’s complete customer journey. She says, “More data across more touch points means more informed business decisions.”

If you’re looking at the entire customer journey, there’s an advantage to pinpointing market gaps, which can only be surfaced through regular analysis. At the same time, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each company needs to hone in on the data most relevant to its needs.

Google’s favorite Similarweb features

• Google uses Similarweb to generate real-time insights, especially the Keyword Seasonality feature — like back-to-school shopping-related keywords. This means looking at historical seasonal behaviors, and what they look like now.
• Demographics is another critical tool, and is perfect for deciphering which brands engage new and younger audiences.
• The Audience Interests report helps the company spot parallel and rival brand behaviors, and decide which untapped markets are most worthwhile.

How does Mondelēz International use Similarweb?

Mondelēz International’s data team looks at search and eCommerce insights to see trends, in specific markets and globally. Mondelēz uses Similarweb to benchmark against peers who are considered best-in-class. They also use it to develop successful content strategies and determine how to invest in paid acquisition channels based on where shoppers are browsing the most.

Mondelēz International’s favorite Similarweb features

• Benchmarking, to understand what ‘good’ looks like, and how to measure against it.
• Trends enable the brand to discover which keywords, websites, publishers, and content is most engaging for website and app visitors. That information then informs the R&D team, and helps better position or promote products.
• Similarweb Shopper Intelligence enables Mondelēz International to see search volume and clicks on marketplaces where its products are also sold and, as a result, optimize for that sales journey. Similarweb’s easy-to-use UI makes it possible to track, measure, and optimize the full click-path.

Shibani’s success tips

1. Learn your customer — leverage digital partners to understand the ins and outs of your customers and their main touch points. That’s the only way to retain them.
2. Embrace a culture of curiosity — take the time to look for data and insights and use those to tell better, more personalized stories.

Cristina’s success tips

1. Get outside of your four walls — look beyond your space to gain new inspiration; borrowing ideas from others is always welcome. It also helps you see where things are headed.
2. Always be agile — the pace of digital is changing rapidly, so there needs to be continued agility and a willingness to pivot due to shifts in online trends, so your strategy doesn’t become outdated or irrelevant.

 

Lesson #3: Three must-have pillars to securing sustainable digital growth

Next up, Similarweb’s chief product officer, Benjamin Seror, gave an inside look at how our digital intelligence can help solve the main pain points facing professionals in 2022. That is how to ensure more sustainable patterns of growth using fewer resources and thus lowering operating costs.

Similarweb ensures that you spend your money wisely. Knowing not only where you have problems but understanding where your competition is successful helps you better invest in the right places.  Operating only on data you know about limits your view of market opportunities, and the chance to learn from others’ successes.

Knowing where your competition is having success helps you mitigate risk and grow smartly – saving you valuable time and money. – Benjamin Seror Tweet this

Smart growth, as Benjamin puts it, lies on three pillars:

1. Business strategy — build a bullet-proof strategy to grow market share and profitably by gaining better visibility into your business environment.
2. Marketing expenses — minimize spending on keywords and partners through better targeting while maximizing the impact of each dollar spent on advertising.
3. Revenue — optimize campaign planning, sales efficiency, and marketing distribution channels to bring in better leads, more closed deals, and longer-lasting customer relationships.

For Similarweb to help you achieve these goals, we’ve built a single source of truth; a one-stop-shop offering for companies to grow:

• Similarweb Research Intelligence can help analysts from virtually any industry or sector research trends, benchmark competitors, and grow market share.
• Similarweb Digital Marketing Intelligence enables SEO and SEM professionals to increase user acquisition and efficiency through real-time access to billions of websites and click streams.
• Similarweb Shopper Intelligence helps eCommerce and brand managers understand buying behaviors to improve online product engagement and conversions.
• Similarweb Sales Intelligence is a must-have for any sales team, as it enables you to grow your pipeline and increase win rates through data-driven sales prospecting and lead generation.
• Similarweb Stock Intelligence is a market-multiplying investment tool that offers alternative data for public investors to make better, smarter investment decisions.

Benjamin demonstrated how our product suite helps publishers and media brands become influential, digital-first organizations that can maximize ad revenue and drive their subscription growth.

As a publishers or media brand, you can use Similarweb to:

• Contextualize your brand’s competitive position by analyzing your share of voice.
• Research your audience’s cross-browsing behaviors against your competition, and discover which age groups are most loyal.
• Understand how audiences arrive at your website, where your companies are spending, and which players are essential to your ecosystem.
• Optimize your organic traffic and content strategy by uncovering organic keywords to create content around.
• Ad creative research enables you to see which campaigns and creatives work for the entire publishing ecosystem.
• Find and track new sales leads using Similarweb Sales Intelligence, to create a winning pitch and use insights to sell the media.
• Deep dive into what people buy; when you understand that, you can send affiliate links and monetize traffic by driving traffic to eCommerce marketplaces – and focus on creating content that converts.

To learn more about how Similarweb’s data helps publishing and media brands win online, book a live demo today.

Benjamin also discussed three areas in which Similarweb is investing in the future:

1. Ensuring customers have a 360-degree view of the digital world — across web, mobile, apps, and at a more granular level – meaning specific categories, brands, and products on leading marketplaces
2. Building better role workflows, automation, and custom recommendations — this includes combining our unique datasets within customers’ data and minimizing manual analysis through a new automation engine (that includes a reconditioned engine that surfaces custom insights and untapped market opportunities), giving you a greater digital edge.
3. Better customization per industry — as outlined in our publisher example above, we’re continuing to customize our offering to specific industry needs. So whatever industry you’re in, you have the data and insights most relevant to you.

And our very own gurus took to the stage to give you some actionable insights.

Lesson #4: COVID has transformed how shoppers behave. You need to adapt

Similarweb’s Alex Nisenzon, business development and data partnerships director, and Mackenzie Cahill, solutions senior director, presented an insight session on the digital consumer trends emerging in the post-pandemic world – and what they mean for brands that want to win. They dove into several different industries, to demonstrate how they have been impacted.

Industry deep dive #1: Retail and CPG

Retailers capitalized on demand during COVID. But as shoppers returned to brick-and-mortar stores, growth on retail websites was unsustainable. In the first quarter of 2022, the top three marketplaces all experienced declines in traffic when compared to the previous year – Best Buy by 21%, Target by 13%, and Walmart by 3%.

Looking more closely at the category level reveals that the shifts in consumer demand were not consistent. While durable products like home appliances, video games, and baby products saw significant declines, on target.com, categories like household essentials and groceries increased by 7% and 12%, respectively.

During COVID, consumers felt more comfortable shopping for premium products – with double-digit increases for categories that previously saw less online consumer behavior. For example, furniture grew by 25%, women’s clothing by 44%, auto parts by 40%, and jewelry by 49% year-over-year (YoY).

But declining traffic doesn’t necessarily mean declining profits. As seen below, amazon.com’s site visits and product views decreased by 5% and 13% – yet revenue grew by 23%, YoY.

Another key factor to consider is the persistent supply chain challenges that impact manufacturers’ ability to ship products to consumers.

Industry deep dive #2: Healthcare

Retail wasn’t the only industry to undergo transformation. In healthcare, we’ve seen a massive shift from the traditional experience of on-site doctor appointments to digital patient/physician experiences, from Telehealth and Sesame Care, which have revolutionized how we receive medical care.

Industry deep dive #3: Financial Services

Financial Services is another industry where COVID-induced trends are continuing. The GameStop and AMC fiasco on Reddit and WallStreetBets in June 2021 is a clear indicator of a broader trend in which consumers are taking more independent ownership of their finances – made possible by trading apps like Robinhood and Coinbase.

Industry deep dive #4: Automotive

The auto industry’s picture looks quite similar. Nowadays, physical dealerships play less of a role in purchasing a new car with consumers profiting from go-to brand or aggregator websites to find their car of choice. Monthly visits to Ford Car Configurator pages in January 2022 are up 311% while dealer locator pages are down 34% over the same period last year.

This doesn’t just speak to the success of new business models but also to the shift in minds of consumers. Traditional automakers are taking notice, too.

You need to Tik(Tok) the right boxes

What do these trends mean for the future? How can brands win in their digital landscape?

Brands across all industries and categories need to take advantage of social platforms. Statista estimates that social commerce will exceed $3.3 billion by 2028 as consumers spend more time on social media, especially younger generations.

The current leading platform is TikTok, whose users spend an average of 46 hours a month consuming content – more than double Facebook, who’s next in line, with 19 hours a month.

Similarweb is the best tool for anticipating shifts in market conditions and consumer behavior. We have demonstrated this time and again – before, during, and after the COVID pandemic. And we’ve been doing it for years for extensive market research and investment companies.

Now’s the time to invest in the platform that gives you the most relevant, real-time data.

Wait, we’ve got footage

Digital Edge wasn’t just about expert insights – it was crammed with innovative ways to kick start smart growth with Similarweb’s products.

#1: Tracking the Impact of Mobile Apps on Your Market

Sean Mizrahi (Similarweb’s Product Marketing Manager) demonstrated how to assess the growing impact of apps on your market – using Similarweb App Intelligence Premium.

#2: Enhance Your Products and Offerings With Similarweb Data

Doron Schwarzblat, Similarweb’s OEM Account Manager, introduced exciting new ways to leverage Similarweb’s data and gain a significant advantage over your competition.

#3: 8 Tricks to Grow Your eCommerce Sales with Shopper Intelligence

Discover how to grow your eCommerce business with Similarweb Shopper Intelligence. Anat Avshalom, Team Manager, Product Marketing at Similarweb, walks us through eight tried-and-tested tricks you can use to spot fast-growing categories and products, optimize pricing, and master retail SEO.

#4: Reframing Market Research with Similarweb

Learn from James McCarthy, Director, Product Marketing at Similarweb, how Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence is changing the shape of traditional market research and digital competitive analysis in the fast-moving digital world.

#5: Win Across All Channels with Digital Marketing Intelligence

Watch our marketing channel tactics teardown by Anat Snah, Director of Solutions, as she goes over Gymshark and Lululemon’s marketing strategies from the past year. You’ll walk away with new tips and tricks that’ll make your digital campaigns fly.

#6: How to Win More Deals with Sales Intelligence 

Are you in sales? Want to win and retain more business? In this video, Robin Morley, our Senior Content Marketing Manager, and Pedram Yasharel, our Director of Product Marketing, Sales, show you how Similarweb Sales Intelligence can help you find prospects ready to buy and build win/win relationships that’ll create and close more deals.

Win the future with intelligence. Grow your digital edge.

That’s it for our recap. But don’t go anywhere! These were just a few of the many sessions that took place at Digital Edge. Get all the recordings from the event straight to your inbox – simply sign up below.

If you’re looking for more expert tips on developing a growth strategy that delivers results, book a live one-on-one demo today.