Covid has brought to light a huge problem of Italian companies: the poor digitization and online presence. It took a pandemic to realize that customers – in a trend that has been going on for at least three years – are reaching brands from different touch points, in a multichannel scenario .

Technical big words to say that the customer today is a person who no longer wants to feel like a ‘consumer’, but a subject who chooses carefully: for this reason he reads, studies, searches for reviews, enters the stores to feel with his hand and maybe buys online where it suits him best. .

Is this the death of small shops?

No. As far as I’m concerned, it’s simply a challenge, a new opportunity that some will be able to seize on the fly, to grab more sales.

How can we react, right now, even with small budgets?

The challenge is not all about digital: it is a mix of loyalty, skills, services and then digital.

I put you in order of importance. Let us remember that online marketing is not just about selling, but also:

• acquire followers and lists of potential customers
• create a community of potential customers
• convey interesting content
• create useful services
• communicate with communities through influencer marketing

And do you know what the summary of the whole post is? I’ll spoil you at the beginning: multichannel marketing strategies (online and offline) only work if you understand who your ideal customer is. If you’ve entered his head, if you really know his habits and desires, if you really care about his well-being.

Let me give you a recent example of a small restaurant that since May 4, or since the DPCM allowed take-away, has started publishing weekly menus and combining take-away + home delivery:

• it worked : the weekly menu, because people order on Sundays what they like most during the week = increase in the average amount of the receipt and greater possibility for the restaurateur to organize himself, buying raw materials without wasting them
• did not work : put simple dishes on the menu; the dishes that have been gladly ordered are the elaborate ones, such as lasagna, meatballs, fish dishes, dishes rich in ingredients and condiments.

Because? My answer, as a customer, was: because we have been eating home cooking for 60 days and we are fed up. I know how to cook pasta with tomato on my own. Now I want to have food brought home: that would require too many ingredients; that I cannot find with quota shops; that require too many elaborate steps that I don’t do at home.

All scandalized by the lines at Mc Donald’s Drive.

Instead, that’s the point! What is the desire – today – of the Italian customer? Eat sushi, burgers full of sauces and portions of eggplant parmigiana. Because life is short, because you can’t go on vacation, because you can’t go back to work… and then Italians console themselves with food.

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