Cross-Device Customer Journey Mapping [Infographic]

An example from Financial services showing insight on how to map your customer journey and optimise it for maximum conversion rates

Twenty years ago, customer journey mapping was much simpler. Your customers likely saw an ad in a magazine or on television and then went to a brick and mortar location to make the purchase or made an order over the phone. Simple, right?

Not so today.... With all the digital devices your customers have access to (television, smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, etc), the customer journey can become much more convoluted. Consumers may hop on their tablets to research a product, and then later that week, use their desktop computers to place an order online. There are an unlimited number of ways that customers can move through the consumer journey, but one fact holds true: only 2% of customers buy a product on their first visit to the website, meaning that understanding the various twists and turns on your customer journey is crucial to recapturing lost sales opportunities.

This financial services customer journey mapping example from research analysts GfK shows the complexity of today's customer journeys across multiple devices and through time, particularly for high involvement or high-value purchases. For personalization to be truly effective we need to deliver messages based on how our audience has previously interacted with us and the device they are using or, where known, their current location.

Because the customer journey includes so many types of technology, businesses can benefit from building adaptable cross-channel experiences for their customers. While it’s true that marketing and retargeting may help you capture and recapture your customers, you can also take preventative measures to stop them from falling off the path to purchase.

Three of these preventative measures are known as the three Cs: create, capture, and calibrate. By creating ecommerce sites that are responsive across devices, capturing your users’ attention with fast-loading content, and calibrating your experience to your unique customers, you can prevent customers from falling off the path to purchase, resulting in increased conversions and revenue for your company.

Thanks to Signal for creating this infographic

 

source http://www.smartinsights.com/online-brand-strategy/multichannel-strategies/cross-device-customer-journey-mapping-infographic/

How to Leverage Pinterest’s Ecommerce Abilities

It's Time for Ecommerce Marketers to start taking Pinterest seriously.

Pinterest is about far more than collecting aspirational pictures of perfectly decorated rooms, stylized desserts, and faraway locales. With the introduction of buyable pins last year, the platform’s more than 100 million active users now also flock to the site to shop.

Compared to other social networks, Pinterest users spend an average of 50 percent more. Many brands are already taking advantage: By the end of 2015, there were more than 60 million buyable pins. In 2016, buyable pins became available on mobile platforms, increasing shoppers’ ability to purchase anywhere at any time.

While other social networks struggle to find ways to convince users to make purchases, Pinterest’s visual user interface makes it an ideal showcase for products of all kinds. Research by Shopify found 93 percent of Pinterest users utilize the site to plan purchases, almost like a vision board.

A Pinterest Home Run

Businesses of all sizes are using pins and boards to effectively market and sell products. Etsy is one major success story — Pinterest makes it easy for the social commerce pioneer’s network of independent sellers to use the platform as a seamless e-commerce portal.

Etsy sellers have used the platform for years to display their products. When a critical mass of users was pinning the website’s images, Etsy added a Pinterest Save button, which allows users to easily save photos from the site onto Pinterest.

That was in the days before buyable pins. Now, the buying process is even more seamless — when an item is for sale, its pin features an attention-grabbing blue price. Instead of being redirected to a third-party site like Etsy, the purchase is made directly within Pinterest’s servers, using BigCommerce, Demandware, Magento, and Shopify’s e-commerce platforms.

Transforming the Online Shopping Experience

Buyable pins open up a new lane for e-commerce companies that may want to bypass Etsy’s (and similar sites’) listing, transaction, advertising, shipping, wholesale, and other assorted fees. By not taking a cut of sales, Pinterest even beats Amazon’s subscription, referral, and closing fees for both individuals and professionals. This positions Pinterest much better in the e-commerce marketplace than competing social networks.

It’s only a matter of time before additional shopper-friendly features follow. In fact, with the introduction of Rich Pins, the company is making its internal search experience work more like Google. This free feature embeds maps, recipe ingredients, and other valuable information within images.

In the future, you may even be able to add multiple Buy buttons for situations such as purchasing all the ingredients for a recipe or supplies for a craft project.

Getting Started With Pinterest

All of this may sound like terra incognita, but optimizing a Pinterest board for a healthy ROI is very similar to SEO-optimizing your web page. To get started, follow these three steps:

1. Create a buyer’s journey. To successfully utilize Pinterest for e-commerce, it’s essential to first determine whether your target audience uses the site. For instance, nearly 70 percent of the platform’s users are female and between the ages of 25 and 35.

What makes Pinterest unique is that you can determine what stage of the buyer journey a user is in by the location of your pin. If she’s viewing a pin on your brand’s board, she’s likely just becoming aware, but when she repins it to her own board, she’s likely in the consideration stage. Once a user reaches the decision stage, Pinterest’s Buy button handles the rest.

2. Fill themed boards with great content. Etsy’s evergreen popularity on Pinterest is thanks to the site’s enticing boards filled with great content. Guest pins by Etsy sellers, popular bloggers, and even major brands like Martha Stewart Living have all been featured on the brand’s boards.

And not every Etsy pin is sales-related. Many contain links to points of interest all around the web, not just back to Etsy.com. By following a similar tactic of delighting your followers, you’ll build a strong network that increases visibility, backlinks, and traffic to your Pinterest account and, ultimately, your web page.

Keep in mind that the more you pin, the more engagement you’ll get, so try to schedule between 10 and 12 pins per day.

3. Apply for buyable and rich pins. Of course, neither Rich Pins nor buyable pins are available to just anyone. They’re additional features brands have to request. The Pinterest for Business site has a waitlist you can sign up for, or you can activate buyable pins on one of the e-commerce websites listed above. Keep in mind that while you won’t owe Pinterest any fees for these features, you will need to subscribe to one of the e-commerce platforms.

You’ll also need to validate your website to have Rich Pins appear on it. Similar to Twitter Cards or Facebook’s Open Graph, Rich Pins can greatly increase the visuals on your web properties using social integration.

We increasingly rely on mobile devices to browse the web — content with eye-catching visuals is 40 times more likely to be shared than text. This makes Pinterest an ideal social platform for e-commerce. If your brand isn’t already represented on the platform, what are you waiting for?

Thanks to Tony Tie for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Tony Tie is a numbers-obsessed marketer, life hacker, and public speaker who has helped various Fortune 500 companies grow their online presence. Located in Toronto, he is currently the senior search marketer at Expedia Canada, the leading travel booking platform for flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and local activities.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/social-commerce/leverage-pinterests-ecommerce-abilities/

What’s the Bleisure Revolution? [Infographic]

How workplaces at high-tech social media giants meld work and leisure

According to Edel Mahony's research, from All Systems Commercial Fitouts, there is a new phenomenon called 'Bleisure', referring to the blend of work and personal life, or leisure time and he showcases in his infographic how the big tech giants (Facebook, Google and Twitter) are accommodating this for their workforce through innovative work and social spaces.

Google provide free food for their staff (is this for the staff to work longer hours or to keep them sweet?) and nap pods (for late nights or does a quick nap increase productivity?).

Facebook's 'Bleisure' code is driven to 'change people's thinking' through their work environment by offering cupcake stores, barbeque joints and workable walkways for fast meetings.

Jeremy Myerson, Co-Editor of Time and Motion Redesigning Working Life, sees this new future as the 'new contemporary workforce where the gates never close'.

This may not be for everyone, although it seems to work for these companies whereby loyalty is rewarded through social and cultural benefits.

 

Thanks to Edel Mahony, the marketing executive of a company called All Systems Commercial Fitouts, he has produced a stunning infographic on how tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are shaping the in which we work, and are shaping the work culture of tomorrow.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/manage-digital-transformation/digital-transformation-strategy/bleisurerevolution/

The 3 types of Hashtags you should use

Are you using hashtags correctly?

The discipline of marketing is filled with jargon, especially within digital marketing where constant technological change causes prevailing shifts in the landscape. Never have there been more three letter acronyms (TLA).

The elusive ‘hashtag’ symbol, which most people know from entering conference calls, still causes confusion amongst my clients and peers when used on social media platforms. Not so much what they are but when and how to use them. The approach laid out here is by no means an all-encompassing thesis study, merely a brief attempt to demystify the matter in my own subjective opinion.

Hashtags, although used in IT since the seventies in a different context, were popularised by Twitter in the late noughties as a way of clustering similar topics into easily retrievable categories, i.e. search #summer to find all conversations categorised as a ‘summer’ topic. This enables you to join conversations on topics that interest you, from politics to the final episode of Game of Thrones.

Hashtag defined

“A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the hash character (or number sign) # in front of a word or unspaced phrase, either in the main text of a message or at the end. Searching for that hashtag will then present each message that has been tagged with it.” (Wiki.) For a more comprehensive introduction to hashtags I can recommend this article.

Here is a list of some of the social platforms where hashtags can be used, with varying degrees of results.

1. Twitter
2. Vine
3. Instagram
4. Facebook
5. Pinterest
6. Tumblr
7. Google+
8. YouTube

Extend your reach beyond your fans

With the evolution of social advertising solutions, a growing number of monthly users and ever more content platforms are slowly adjusting their algorithms to optimise what people see in their newsfeeds. According to Facebook there are up to 1,500+ daily posts in people’s newsfeeds. As such they had to adjust the algorithm to favour content from your family and friends over brands that you may follow. It’s the ‘user and user experience always comes first’ ethos. Well, and Facebook want you to advertise too.

Although organic reach is diminishing it is still possible to reach a large audience with organic content. We posted a piece for a client last week which achieved 1,500+ comments, 700+ Likes and reached over 40,000 people. That post was not promoted (advertised). Good content and a strong fan base can still cut through. What’s more, other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc. still haven’t throttled back their organic reach (Although Instagram is starting to). Here lies the opportunity to deploy strategic hashtags to extend your reach and join other relevant conversations.

According to conversations I’ve had with Twitter and Instagram, the recommendation is to use up to three hashtags per post. Again, this article simply provides a recommendation, depending on which sector you operate in and the platform in question you may well have had success using more hashtags.

The three Hashtag types I would recommend (example Nike):

1. Brand related (#JustDoIt)
2. Category related (#Running)
3. Moment/cultural (#LondonMarathon)

You can read the rest of Eliot's blog on his site, and follow him on Twitter.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/twitter-marketing/the-3-types-of-hashtags-you-should-use/

The Rise of Ad-Blockers [Infographic]

How Marketers and Publishers Can Tackle the Issue of Ad-Blockers

Ad blocking software is great for internet users, but it can be a giant problem for both advertisers and online publishers. When ad blocking software is installed, both display and pop-up ads are prevented from being served. When this happens advertiser’s potential views or CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) are negatively impacted.

Most ads are typically paid for only after they’ve been served. This means that publishers aren’t paid for visits from any browser that has an ad-blocker enabled. Ad blocking is projected to cost publishers nearly $22 billion in 2015 with publishers losing almost 10% of ad revenue due to ad blocking. This number increases as high as 50% for some websites with teach-savvy readerships. As you can see this is a big potential loss for publishers for something that is outside of their control.

The use of ad-blocking software is on the rise as well which spells more bad news for advertisers and publishers. Nearly 200 million people now regularly use ad blocking software which is a growth of 41% over the past year. All hope is not lost however. Signal, a leader in cross channel marketing technology has put together a really useful infographic that offer’s actionable advice for both publishers and advertisers on how to deal with ad blockers and how to rescue your CPM’s. Take a look at the infographic below for more information.

Thanks to Signal for publishing this infographic

source http://www.smartinsights.com/advertising/rise-ad-blockers-infographic/

The Top 3 Marketing Trends for 2017

What are the most important marketing investment priorities for Smart Insights members for the year ahead?

Each year, we ask Smart Insights members for their predictions of THE most important high-level digital marketing technique for their business or their clients. This has been really interesting to take the pulse of opinion on marketing trends across the main digital marketing techniques. Thanks if you shared your opinion, we had 2,352 responses from marketers around the world! Here are the results for 2017:

How the top trends were selected

From September to mid-December 2016 we asked readers of our post on Digital Marketing Trends for 2017 to select just one marketing tactic which would give them the biggest uplift in the year ahead. While this doesn't have a controlled sample of our free research reports like Managing Digital Marketing, it does canvas opinion widely.This isn't necessarily the most important channel by volume of leads or sales, rather it is the tactic which will give the biggest increase.

Note that the technique shown in the chart isn't necessarily the most important channel by volume of leads or sales, rather it is the tactic which will give the biggest increase in the year ahead. By asking for just one tactic, this helps shows the the top 3, 5 or 10 top-level trends.

We asked our members this question:

"Select one marketing activity that you think will give your business the biggest incremental uplift in leads and sales in 2017 (or your clients if you work for an agency or as a consultant)".

To help the decision on which to choose we expanded upon the short labels you see in the graph to help scope the example. For example, 'Big Data' is a nebulous term, but when we expanded it to include insight and

• Big Data (including market and customer insight and predictive analytics)
• Content marketing Communities (Branded niche or vertical communities)
• Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) / improving website experiences
• Display (Banners on publishers, ad networks social media including retargeting and programmatic)
• Internet of Things (IoT) marketing applications
• Marketing Automation (incl CRM, behavioural Email marketing and web personalisation)
• Mobile marketing (Mobile advertising, site development and apps)
• Paid search marketing, e.g. Google AdWords Pay Per Click
• Online PR (including influencer outreach)
• Partnerships including affiliate and co-marketing
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO or organic search)
• Social media marketing including Social CRM and Social Customer Care
• Wearables (e.g. Apple Watch, activity trackers, augmented reality)

You can read more analysis and details under each of these headings in my full article on Digital Marketing Trends for 2017.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/top-3-marketing-trends-2017/

How Instagram can Elevate your E-commerce Store in 7 Steps

Example of how to harness Instagram to capture new audiences and convert that attention into sales

Instagram is one of the most effective ways to boost your e-commerce marketing. In a recent Yotpo survey of over 165,000 e-commerce businesses, 75% of them reported being active on Instagram. Customer research data is on their side. In fact, the research found that:

• Traffic from Instagram is the most engaged: this means that visitors from Instagram stay on a site for an average of 192 seconds – that’s longer than visitors from every other channel, including Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
• 30% of Instagram users have bought something they first spotted on Instagram: meaning the potential for the browsing conversion to sales is high.
• 83% of Instagram users reported that they were influenced by friend’s posting about a brand on Instagram: meaning Instagram is a powerful megaphone for your brand’s messaging.

Instagram attracts highly engaged customers and providing a giant signal boost for your brand’s message, so here are 8 ways to put Instagram to work for your eCommerce store:

Integrate Instagram user-generated photos into your website

User-generated content, UGC, is proven to be far more effective in catching the eye of internet shoppers.
According to a survey on user-generated photos, 77% of shoppers reported that they’d rather see customer photos than professional photos when making a purchasing decision.
In fact, 72% said that seeing Instagram photos of a product increased their chances of buying.

One of the best ways to capitalize on this is by harvesting customer Instagram photos of your product and featuring them on your product pages.
A recent A/B test of a major E-commerce company’s signature product revealed that displaying customer Instagram photos on the product page increased the product’s checkouts by 24%!

Inspire with creative hashtag campaigns and contests

Hosting a hashtag campaign or contest is a great way to encourage your customers to engage with your brand on Instagram. Here are a few tips to make the biggest possible splash:

• Offer an irresistible reward: An exciting prize will definitely draw crowds. In the #Castmemarc campaign, Marc Jacobs offered a modeling contract to the user who posted the best photo with the tag. This not only generated a huge number of responses- 12,000 selfies in the first 24 hours, to be exact- but caught the attention of bystanders who were intrigued and watched the drama unfold.
• Call on customer creativity: In the #PutACanOnIt campaign, Red Bull challenged customers to take photos of their cans in clever ways that made the can appear to be in unlikely places. Fun or unusual tasks that let customers get creative inspire customer engagement.
• Go beyond product photos: While getting customers to take photos of your product has obvious advantages, it could pay off to think in a different direction. In their #withoutshoes campaign, TOMS donated one pair of shoes to a child in need for every Instagram pic of barefoot customers with the hashtag. These photos required that they not include the product - yet the buzz created for the brand was enormous, with over 296,000 links leading to TOMS.
• Keep contest durations short: The internet moves quickly. Contests should be a week in duration or less. This inspires fast action and keeps things interesting for your customers.
• Make sure your introduction is clear and compelling: Don’t spoil your own contest with a poor introductory post, such as a text-only image or an unclear call to action.

Create a Shoppable Instagram gallery

Instagram currently does not allow clickable links in photo captions, so the easiest way to sell directly through Instagram is to set up a shoppable Instagram gallery, which is a parallel site to which you link in your Instagram bio.
This link will take customers to an augmented version of the Instagram storefront, which contains clickable images that lead to different product pages where items can be purchased. You can also place checkout links in image captions.
The key benefit is that a Shoppable Instagram creates a direct link between your Instagram and product pages. Without it, a potential customer would have to search through your eCommerce store for a product that interested them on Instagram, which could cost you a sale - or a client.

Get Instagram Influencers on your side

Remember the 83% of users that said they were influenced by a friend’s Instagram post? That power is multiplied if you get an influencer posting authentic content about your brand on their Instagram.
Influencers can have hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers, garnering a similar reach to celebrity endorsement with a much lower price tag.
PuraVida bracelets are Instagram marketing pros, and their co-founders know more than a thing or two about the strategic use of influencers. They recently shared with Yotpo some key influencer advice:

• Choose an influencer wisely: Gone are the days when just any influencer will do. Since UGC on Instagram is effective because it’s authentic, it’s important to partner with an influencer who truly fits your brand, enjoys your products and whose followers match your target audience.
• Allow influencers to choose which products to feature: In the same vein, influencers will post more compelling content if they’re showing off a product they truly find valuable. Give influencers a choice in your product line so their reviews will be more sincere.

Place dynamic Instagram Ads

In addition to organic content, Instagram is also a strategic spot to place ads. Forrester reported that engagement from Instagram ads is 58% higher than Facebook ads and 120% higher than ads on Twitter. To fully take advantage of this potential:

• Include reviews: Including a short review or testimonial with your image boosts your ad’s relatability and authenticity. According to Facebook, ads with customer reviews have a 4x higher CTR and a 50% lower CPA.
• Use customer photos: The key to success on Instagram is to blend in, not stand out. Your ad should appear similar to the other posts in a user’s feed so it is not easily skipped over, and the best way to achieve this effect is to utilize the unique UGC you’ve cultivated from the steps above.

Engage with customers

An Instagram hashtag gallery on your website is one way to shift the spotlight to your customers and increase their brand loyalty. Such a gallery not only shows off your product being used in real time, but it also makes those featured feel valued by your brand and encourages their continued engagement, while inspiring new customers to get involved and connect.

Use your Instagram bio link

Your bio link is the only place on your Instagram that you can post a live URL, so make it count!

Here are a few ideas for making the most of your bio link:

• Link to your shoppable gallery: If you have created a shoppable gallery as described above, your bio link is the perfect place to connect your two Instagram galleries.
• Change it up: If you’re not using a shoppable gallery, alternate posting your homepage, your Instagram hashtag gallery, or a featured product, and mention the link in new posts. If you post an image of a particular product, include in the caption that a link to the product is in the bio.
• Tread carefully: There are many websites that Instagram bans links to, such as competitors. Linking to another one of your social media sites, for example, would be risky. Do your research and check that your bio link won’t get banned.

Wrap-up

The numbers are undeniable, Instagram is a major game changer in eCommerce marketing. As you make Instagram work for your brand, remember these main take-aways. Your Instagram page should:

• Inspire - The design and activity of your page, from Influencer posts, to ads, to a shoppable gallery, should inspire potential customers to create and share their own content around your products.
• Feature - You should then feature the customers who deliver the most authentic and appealing content, inspiring those clients to participate more and tempting others to join in.
• Engage - Take that participation to the next level by incorporating featured customer content on your website, and rewarding the best contributions through contests and special campaigns.

If you can achieve all three, your Instagram will not only boost your sales - it will create a dynamic, organic fan base which will only grow and attract new customers to your brand.

Thanks to Ronit Epstein for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Ronit Epstein is the Marketing Communications Manager at Yotpo. Yotpo is a user generated content marketing solution for online businesses focused on providing the best review experience for customers. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/instagram-marketing/instagram-can-elevate-ecommerce-store-7-steps/

6 social media trends to guide your 2017 social media actions

Talkwalker shares their views on the trends to shape social media in 2017 and practical actions businesses should take to gain advantage from them

In 2016 we saw social media networks introduce many new features including Facebook’s live streaming, Reactions, Instagram Stories and major updates to Snapchat.

When the first social media platforms were launched they soon became more than just a place to chat with friends. Brands jumped on them for marketing purposes, journalists spread news stories, and politicians shared their manifestos and opinions as we saw recently with the Brexit in the UK and the US presidential elections.

Now we can see the big social platform offerings overlapping. Facebook Messenger is experimenting with Snapchat’s disappearing messages. Instagram Stories has also stepped on Snapchat’s toes.

So, what social media trends do we expect to see in 2017?

Trend #1 Increasing need to tie social media marketing to tangible results

The big social networks are giving users new ways to create content from Instagram Stories to a variety of choices for paid ads. Digital ad spending is increasing and has overtaken traditional advertising channels. Whilst businesses appreciate the importance of analyzing ROI and KPIs, measuring social media activity is often done using the analytics tools provided by each social network. But such tools don’t offer the possibility of tying in other business KPIs or benchmarking performance against competitors.

 An example of a graph showing social media metrics overlaid with business KPIs

As spending on social media marketing continues to rise, marketers will come under more pressure to really prove the value of their efforts. Brands will need to determine clear goals and tie social media metrics to intermediate goals or conversions like registrations, downloads and traffic, depending on the focus of a campaign and all will have to lead back to revenue. 

Correlating social media mentions with lead generation statistics gives a clearer view of performance

Action: Make sure you have a clear plan for tracking social media metrics and tying these figures to business KPIs

Trend #2 Brands will need to be able to analyze and monitor visual/video content

96% of consumers find videos helpful when making purchase decisions online.

Visual content and especially video, is taking over the Internet. It’s easy to consume and entertaining, with major media brands like Buzzfeed taking the lead. Video content on Snapchat attracts over 10 billion daily views, considerably more than YouTube.

Example of one of Tasty’s top performing posts over the last 6 months

This trend, backed by influencer Neal Schaffer, will grow as companies realize the full impact video content will have on their marketing campaigns. Analysing these campaigns is important so companies understand better how to manage and measure the effectiveness of their visual/video content. From a brand protection or PR perspective, tracking when, where and how your product is being discussed with this type of content means you can protect the reputation of your brand whilst boosting brand awareness.

Action: Focus on both creating and tracking the performance of visual/video content

Trend #3 Digital marketing land-grab by social media giants

Social media giants don’t want you to leave so they’re adding more and more features, discouraging users from linking away.

This means digital marketers will have no choice, they’ll be forced to find new strategies to generate leads coming from social media sources. With regard to analytics, brands will need to understand the value they’re getting from publishing on each network, and optimize to ensure they’re making the most out of each channel.

Michael Stelzner describes how, “large businesses will become the equivalent of the 1990’s America Online – a type of Hotel California, where you can enter but never leave.”

Action: Start looking for ways to start converting social media users without sending them back to your website

Trend #4 Private messaging and peer to peer networks lead user going to dark social

Users, more and more, are looking for private conversations with individuals or small groups, not broadcasting across an entire social media network. Witnessing this shift, Facebook’s heavy investment into the development of Facebook Messenger and integrating AI, becomes clear. It is moving quickly towards becoming a marketing platform for winning customers, live chat, ecommerce, and customer support.

Looking to the future, brands will need to build local communities if they wish to continue targeting their audience with their marketing messages. Personalized content will entice users to opt-in to the communities and take part in activities created by the brand such as live events, or engage in one to one dialogue with the brand. Users can then receive live updates through private messaging. Airlines can send flight updates, booking confirmations, etc.

WeChat is already leading the way with half a billion users. Brands are able to create accounts and use them for customer support and advertising. Messages can be sent to customers and once they opt-in, personalized branded content will be sent. Social media influencer Isabelle Mathieu reminds us that, “the four main messaging apps together have a wider community than the four mains social networks.”

A real-life example of this new “hypertargeting” is highlighted by Dave Chaffey when Vauxhall Motors partnered with Twitter to send personalized videos to football fans via DMs.

No problem Conor! #getin @NorthernIreland #gawa https://t.co/ExnuDhEku4

— Andy (@Maartin89) October 24, 2016

 

Action: Start working out how to use chatbots and other tools to make the most of private messaging

Trend #5 Brands become human - real-time responsiveness will overtake auto-posting

Despite stating earlier that social media platforms are morphing into one, they do still have something that keeps them unique. Each attracts a different audience with its own demographic. When your brand plans a marketing campaign across social, auto-posting will kill your campaign stone dead. Each message must be purposed accordingly, personalized to the audience. Brands using social listening can drilldown and find the individual features of each audience, then tailor according to language, tone of voice, user preferences and needs, and more.

To prove your brand is human, real-time responsiveness gives you the edge. The ability to jump on a trend, reach out to users quickly and start building relationships. From a social listening perspective, this includes tracking for trending news, hashtags, keywords, and mentions of your brand online or on social networks. Keep your editorial calendar flexible and be ready to jump!

Action: Have the resources and flexibility in place to react immediately to news and trends

Trend #6 Live-streaming

Live-streaming will become mainstream and has to part of a brands social media strategy. Brands can boost engagement by streaming seminars, breaking news, music concerts, entertainment and celebrities, sporting events, vloggers, live Q&A sessions, and more. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen the launches of Meerkat, Periscope, and Facebook Live. Still a bit clunky, we can expect these new platforms to release better content, improve connection speeds, and reduce lagging.

The potential for live-streaming apps is huge, with video watching already ranking as a top activity on Facebook and Twitter. During the recent US election, Twitter and Facebook live-streamed presidential debates. Twitter also live-streams NFL games. Live-streaming isn’t going away. To protect your brand and increase brand awareness, your social listening tool will have to work in real-time tracking images and UGC.

Action: Start thinking of new ways to incorporate live streaming into your marketing and develop your video skills.

We hope you find these social media trends and actions useful. To gain a different perspective based on different social media influencers, check this article on social media trends we expect to see in 2017.

Thanks to Meg for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Meg Carpenter is a copywriter in the marketing and communications team at Talkwalker, a social media analytics and monitoring platform.You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/6-social-media-trends-guide-2017-marketing-strategy/

What makes customers mark your email as Spam?

Chart of the Day: Why subscribers flag email as spam

If consumers mark your email as spam, then this is clearly unwelcome since not only has your brand been tarnished in their eyes, but even worse your delivery rates to existing subscribers could be harmed. So what triggers a 'mark as spam' click? Technology Advice Research asked 472 U.S. adults, "for what reasons have you marked a business' emails as spam?"

The results show that nearly half of customers mark emails as spam because of the frequency of emails. There isn't a one rule fits all in regards to email marketing frequency because each list, segment or country is different and your frequency should match this.

Almost a third of people claimed they hadn't purposefully subscribed to receive to the emails. This does not mean that they have been necessarily "spammed", it could be as simple as 'forced subscribe', which is the implicit opt-in process of automatically having to agree to receive a subscription during a purchase or download.

One obvious answer is that it was probably easier to click, "spam" opposed to finding the unsubscribe link. If your unsubscribe link is hard to find, or the process is long winded, like having to log into an account you don't remember setting up - expect to be marked as spam. The really interesting statistic is the 18.6% of customers who chose, "none of the above", showing how difficult this is to get right.

Key takeaways:

When developing and measuring your email programme, you should consider:

1. Frequency - tailor your campaigns not to the message you are trying to sell, but to your clients.
2. Respect - if you have to force your clients into subscribing, your retention rate will be low.
3. Simple - keep engagement simple and easy. If your clients want to unsubscribe, don't make it difficult. A unsubscribe is much better than a spam label or complaint.

• Source: Email Marketing Research Chart: Why subscribers flag email as spam
• Sample Size: 472 Surveyed email subscribers from 2-4 March 2015
• Recommended Resource: Email Marketing Toolkit

source http://www.smartinsights.com/email-marketing/email-deliverability/makes-customers-mark-email-spam/

Does retail banking need to make an Amazonian effort to keep pace with consumer demand?

How financial services firms can harness the digital revolution

Consumer expectations are growing. Recent research suggests that given the chance, over half of financial consumers would opt to bank with Amazon. Why? Because a company famous for delivery innovation, outstanding customer service and indeed, thinking outside the box, has fundamentally disrupted the service industry, reinventing what it means to provide a best in class customer experience. We believe that in the age of the expectation economy, there is much that retail giant Amazon and disruptors like it, can teach brands about what it means to provide an outstanding experience and stand out from the crowd.

There is no shortage of commentators noting that the retail banking is set for change with a new breed of innovators entering the industry. It’s not only Millennials that are demanding more Amazon-like experiences from every service provider and banks need to catch up quickly. All customers are making these demands. The opportunity is huge.

No-fuss problem-solving, always-on access, out-of-hours or even same-day delivery and new ideas daily are all reasons why Amazon is leading digital.

Download Expert Member resource – Financial Services Marketing Trends Guide 2017

In this guide we examine the key trends, customer behaviours and new digital innovations which are shaping the future of the Financial Services (FS) sector. This guide has been created to share examples of the latest trends used across digital media and technology to improve reach, user experience and conversions. You can use this sector specific guide to enable you to inform your digital strategy and keep up to date with unique trends which will shape future investments..

Access the Financial Services Marketing Trends Guide 2017

Banks can, of course, argue that Amazon is a digitally native company. It was built on a digital-first framework that lets it be completely iterative. It isn’t hamstrung by decades of legacy systems and stringent regulation. But increasingly, neither are banks.

There is so much opportunity for traditional financial services providers to leverage their data and heritage to become fully successful customer-centric organizations.

Emulating three key pillars of Amazon’s underlying strategy is not a bad place to start.

1. Data today underpins everything. It is the hygiene factor. Retail banking should be working to de-silo data, enrich it and make it work across the omnichannel. But using data intelligently creates an opportunity for intimate, one-to-one connections with customers, and automation efficiencies that it is no exaggeration to say, have the potential to revolutionize retail banking.
2. Partnering with new, agile service providers whether in enhancing back-end systems through Software as a Service (Saas) or managed services, or in creating front-end solutions for more tech-oriented segments is a strong way to follow Amazon’s service example. Amazon may have huge warehouses but it can’t provide everything. For the things it can’t, it finds the right partners who can.
3. Trust has been paramount to setting Amazon at the top of the retail tree. Incorporating genuine customer reviews from the start, creating full price transparency (“product is cheaper from these sellers”) and no-quibble customer service brought the customer on-side even in the early days of e-commerce when buyers were wary. Prioritizing building trust is one of today’s ‘must do’s for retail finance.

Getting started building a truly customer-centric, omnichannel organization is daunting, but if you want to thrive and differentiate in a crowded market place, it is key.

So if this has piqued your interest to find out more, the good news is our latest finance report has all of these insights and more to help you deliver a first-class customer experience.

 

Dave has over 20 years’ experience working with some of the leading names in technology. In addition, he has played a pivotal role working for a number of early state innovators in different technology areas. Taking these start-ups from beginnings to greater market potential. He is an expert in customer experience and ensuring that every customer interaction results in the right outcome for both the business and the consumer.

As industry head at Qubit, Dave is responsible for expanding our client base into new areas that includes finance, utilities, eGaming and publishing. Since starting at Qubit it 2013, Dave has helped leading brands such as L&G, Vitality, Dennis, Travelex, RAC, and The Times develop and execute incredible digital customer experiences.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/manage-digital-transformation/retail-banking-need-make-amazonian-effort-keep-pace-consumer-demand/

The future of marketing personalisation tech

We interviewed Certona's CEO Meyar Sheik about the future of one of marketing hottest trends - personalisation tech.

1. First of all, congratulations on being named top personalisation provider! Can you tell us how Certona uses machine learning and predictive algorithms to predict customer behaviour?

Certona pioneered the use of patented machine learning and predictive algorithms that empower retailers to leverage real-time profiling of individual shoppers across the omnichannel landscape. Certona’s personalisation platform is powered by a sophisticated blend of continuous profiling and real-time targeting that augments behavioural profiles with every interaction. This develops shopper insights that fuel intelligent predictions, letting retailers deliver increasingly individualised experiences as shoppers engage across touchpoints. Within 3-4 clicks on a site, Certona’s personalisation platform ingests real-time shopper data such as location, weather, time of day, day of week, past browsing or purchase history and current session behaviours to curate the most relevant, in-the-moment shopping experience.

2.What advice would you give to a marketer who wanted to start personalising content or delivering personalised product recommendation based off past site behaviour, but didn’t know where to start?

The most powerful capability of personalisation is the real-time aspect of behavioural profiling and predictive targeting. Combining real-time data with historical information lets retailers create deep shopper profiles. This allows marketers to better target shoppers with individualised messaging, product offerings and promotions. To get started, marketers should outline goals, then prioritise implementation accordingly. The homepage is an ideal place to begin. Implementing personalisation into the homepage reduces bounce rates by immediately displaying personalised content and promotions, as well as relevant product recommendations and categories. For example, Marketers can also leverage personalisation to improve performance of organic and paid landing pages, as well as email campaigns. Brands new to email personalisation should start by taking advantage of the nearly 100 percent open rate of transactional emails and offer targeted promotions, content and images, and related cross-sell product recommendations.

3. 2016 has seen some pretty interesting and exciting new tech with marketing applications start to come more into the mainstream, like virtual reality and augmented reality. Do you see these new trends eventually integrating with the kind of personalisation tech that Certona offers?

Augmented reality and virtual reality are enticing concepts to shoppers. Some Certona partners have implemented these cutting-edge features. As retailers increasingly create strategies around these new applications, Certona will develop compatible solutions to support these initiatives and leverage user insights to boost these experiences.

4. Ecommerce businesses need to find a ‘sweet spot’ which combines average order value and conversion rate and depends on the price sensitivity of a given audience. How should marketers go about trying to discover where this ‘sweet spot’ lies?

The personalisation engine should do the bulk of this work for retailers. By leveraging an individual shopper’s behavioural data, marketers can personalise product recommendations, making them relevant to a shopper’s preferences and affinities, including price points.

5. We are seeing ‘content shock’ as more and more companies attempt to use content marketing, thus decreasing its overall effectiveness. Do you think personalisation is the solution to this problem for marketers, and if so, how do you think it can help subvert it?.

Yes, definitely. Personalisation solutions tailor the entire shopping experience according to what is most relevant to each individual shopper. This includes content recommendations and offers. While ramping-up content marketing overall, retailers who leverage a personalisation strategy can reduce the unnecessary noise and ensure all shoppers receive their preferred content (images, offers, articles and videos) at the right time in the shopping journey.

6. We’ve all been served re-targeting programmatic ads for a product we bought weeks ago, where you think ‘yes I bloody know about that coffee maker, that’s why I bought it’. How can marketers using personalised retargeting ads get around this problem?

Marketers need to extend their personalisation strategies across the omnichannel landscape to create a connected experience and avoid the “you don’t know me” experience. Retailers can avoid recommending products a shopper has previously purchased by simply leveraging continuous profiling and real-time targeting solutions. Omnichannel personalisation enables retailers to track shopper activity in real time and make immediate adjustments to reflect recent purchases and other activities.

7. With the modern consumer journey taking place across multiple devices, how do you go about tracking activity across different devices, some mobile, some desktop?

Today’s consumers are no longer single-channel focused when it comes to shopping. Certona’s unique ability to model consumer behaviour and shopping patterns with predictive targeting in real time, regardless of touchpoint, enables retailers to efficiently connect with shoppers across all channels. Shopper behaviour and preference data is generated from many touchpoints, operational systems and third-party sources. The ability to connect the dots across all channels over consumers’ shopping history is key. The more retailers know about their consumers’ shopping behaviours, the more relevant and individualised the experience. This drives significant increases in customer engagement, loyalty and lifetime value.

8. Do you find there is a point of diminishing returns with personalisation where hyper-personalised ads just tend to disturb customers because it looks like you know too much about them and they feel their privacy has been invaded?

It’s up to the retailers to be responsible in handling consumer data, especially as concern grows around digital trust. Shopper trust is a two-way street and most shoppers are willing to trust brands as long as brands use the data collected to deliver something of value. Retailers must retain trust for an overall positive impact.

Thanks to Meyar Sheik. for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Meyar is CEO of Certona You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/web-personalisation/future-marketing-personalisation-tech/

The Rise and Rise of Influencer Marketing

In a survey by eMarketer, 84% of marketers said they would launch at least one influencer campaign within the next twelve months.

It’s no secret that the world of marketing has been somewhat flipped on its head in the last few years. What with the vast inbound advancements in social media, growing dominance of online content and ever-increasing desire of brands to be seen as approachable personas, marketing professionals have had to change and adapt faster than ever before. However, there is one group that has ridden this wave of change better than any other, and has subsequently found itself at the very top of the inbound marketing pile: influencers.

Using influencers in your marketing strategy can often seem daunting and expensive, with no guarantee of success. What follows is an exploration of this prominent trend, what we can learn from it, and how best it can be implemented for 2017.

What is an influencer?

Firstly, it is apt to clarify exactly what is meant by the term ‘influencer’. Many subtly different definitions are available, but to all intents and purposes, ‘influencer’ usually refers to an online persona with a large, engaged and active following. This persona will most often have found success through social channels and/or blogging, but is essentially any individual who has the undivided attention of their audience, and can influence consumer behaviour. In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses archetypes of people: mavens, connectors and salespeople. Influencers can one or all three. But they do all connect ideas and messages with a lot of people. This makes them attractive to brands to work with.

You may be thinking to yourself – ‘influencer marketing is nothing new’. And you’d be right to think so. The act of using highly regarded and influential individuals to endorse consumer goods and services has been around for centuries, most recognisably when popular celebrities feature in advertising campaigns. But something has changed recently that has sent shockwaves through the marketing world. This is, put simply, that the current influencers brands are able to work with are infinitely more humanised, approachable and accessible than ever before.

How have influencers come to be?

This is largely due to the unstoppable power of social media, but also to the growing popularity of blogging. It is now possible for literally anyone with half decent tech savvy and steely determination to gain online recognition, and for those at the top of their game, ‘recognition’ is a severe understatement. Most of the world’s top bloggers, vloggers and social stars are preaching to audiences that many magazines, TV channels and celebrities could only dream of. For example, Zoella (currently one of the world’s biggest YouTube stars) at the time of writing has had roughly 20 million views of her vlogger channel in the last 30 days. These new online superstars are essentially the content creators, researchers, publicisers and editors of their own magazines or TV channels. And the fact that they operate largely alone or as a single partnership is the root of their charm. In the oversaturated advertising market, consumers crave a more authentic voice, a more trustworthy voice, one they feel they know on a personal level and can interact with.

There are ‘Nay’ sayers

Unsurprisingly, the meteoric rise and current dominance of influencer marketing has been met with resistance from some. Concerns have been expressed about the industry having to completely morph to fit with the trajectory of a group of individuals who, just five years ago, were pretty much unknown. In one such article published in The Drum a few months ago, the writer asks “How can it be that someone without any formal marketing training or qualifications can now command six-figure sums for taking a few pics and posting them to Instagram?”

Although this is an important point to raise, it does somewhat overlook the main attraction of influencer marketing for brands – the audience. Influencers are so-called for a reason. They poured much time and effort into building an enthusiastic and active audience, not to mention one with key interests and passions. And the fact that this has been achieved without any prior marketing expertise only makes it more valuable. When working with an influencer whose audience aligns with their own key values, a brand can connect not only with potential customers it hadn’t previously reached, but potential customers that will be far more interested in and suited to its product/service than it could access alone.

The benefits of influencer marketing

And, unfortunately for the haters, influencer marketing stats from 2016 do pretty much speak for themselves. eMarketer’s previously referenced survey found that in the past year, over 80% of marketers who had undertaken campaigns collaborating with social media influencers found them effective for driving both engagement and awareness. And when you factor in that the average person spends about one hour and 40 minutes a day on social media, it’s hard to argue against working with online influencers.

So, it seems that influencer marketing is not going anywhere for now. But how is it best implemented for 2017? This is an especially important question, as influencers are becoming more and more savvy about their value, causing the process of working with them to become increasingly commercialised. The key to finding the right influencers for your brand is knowing the audience you want to reach inside-out. This means that although it is tempting to only work with the largest and most prominent influencers, if their audiences do not align with yours, they won’t be an awful lot of real use.

You need a budget – people

It is also important to understand that, especially in 2017, influencer marketing needs a real budget behind it. When surveyed recently, a group of beauty bloggers were asked what they require as payment for working with a brand. 82% said they would require monetary reward, and that free products were simply not sufficient. Gone are the days when a blogger was willing to review a product they were sent for free. Prominent beauty blogger Jane Cunningham added further insight to this: “Some brands come to me and say straight away that they know they need to pay to work with me, and they will get a lot of input in the post I write. Other brands will say something along the lines of ‘we’ve chosen you as a lucky blogger to work with us’, and those emails get instantly deleted.”

It will come as no surprise that lack of budget is cited as one of the most common reasons for brands not investing in influencer marketing. But when implemented and monitored properly, the results from this type of marketing can be invaluable. In a bid to keep costs to a minimum, the vast majority of companies conduct the influencer marketing process in-house. Although this undeniably avoids certain outgoings, and may allow a deeper insight into a brand’s target audience, it can ultimately be costly if mistakes or oversights are made. It can also be extremely time-consuming, particularly as most in-house teams claim to be searching for influencers manually.

Options on conducting your influencer marketing campaigns

Whatever way you look at it; influencer marketing is a force to be reckoned with. And that certainly is not set to change in 2017. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, or just beginning to dip your toe in its waters, there’s never been a better time to discover the true power of influencer marketing done right.Another development is the growth of platforms and marketplaces to ease the burden on agencies and in-house marketers alike. They will have a ready-made audience of active influencers ready to take on a project with other features to streamline the process. This a levelling move really benefits smaller agencies and in-house marketers.

 

Thanks to Adrian Land for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Adrian is CEO & Founder of SESOME and Considerable Influence – an influencer marketing marketplace. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

 

source http://www.smartinsights.com/online-pr/influencer-marketing/rise-rise-influencer-marketing/

How to convert interest into leads

How to know your audience and create the right content for them

We've all heard the phrase ‘the client is king’. In practice, this means that an important part of marketing is an exercise of empathy, which consists of finding out who our audience is, so we can give them what they want in a better way than our competition.

This simple idea should also be the center of your efforts when it comes to increasing your leads. You should adjust to them, and to their buying process. You should give your prospects the answers they are looking for, when they’re looking for them, in an appropriate way to address the subject of their interest.

The Inbound Approach

But let’s start from the beginning. You may have heard the term “inbound marketing” before. If you haven't, it mainly consists of making leads come to you, rather than you going to them. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it enables you to let the prospect do all the work.However, it is a great strategy to work your way into gaining leads that are interested in what you have to offer.

Inbound marketing’s key to attracting clients is quality content: knowledge and information related to what you do that your prospects find interesting or useful. They probably won’t surf the internet looking for the cool ads of your locksmith business’s new campaign, but they’ll sure want to know how can they fix their lock if their key got stuck in it and they can’t get into their house. Your path to obtain more and better leads can start from there.

Right Timing, Right Content

Since the whole point is to create content to attract your leads, it’s crucial that you consider which stage of the buyer’s journey they are on, so you can create the content they are looking for in that specific moment. The stages are three:

1. Awareness: When the buyer understands there is a problem or opportunity. This leads them to search for more information about it and, hopefully, to get that information they want from you. The goal is to get the prospect’s attention in a non-invasive way.
2. Consideration: Once the buyer understands the problem better, they’ll want to figure out how to tackle the issue. This is your opportunity to explain to your now receptive prospect what your business is all about, and how your product can impact their life for the better.
3. Decision: Eventually, the buyer defines what to do, whether to buy or not, from you or your competition. Here you want to help your prospects make a decision, explain why your product is the best choice, the different options you provide them to pay, etc.

Great Content Formats

Different content should be created for each different stage, so the prospects can find exactly what they are looking for in that particular point of the buying process. In the case of the Consideration Stage, every format that proves useful to explain, elaborate or exemplify the solutions your product or service can deliver to the prospect can be a good option. Case studies, white papers, lists and product reviews are good choices to create content for this phase.

Also, it’s important for the content to be as visual as possible. Text-based content can be very good if you want to provide a large amount of information with low cost, but 65% of people are visual learners, so using images will make understanding much easier.

This is also a good reason to prefer visual content marketing formats. But even putting aside its didactic potential, they have a proven formula to boost impact and effectiveness. Introducing infographics in your content, if you don’t yet do it, can lead you to increase your traffic by 12 percent. And in the case of presentations, they are 43 percent more effective if they include visual aids.

The Best Content is Video

However, to really enhance the performance of your content through visual marketing content, the best thing you can do is to use video. Internet video is on the rise: by 2019, consumer internet video traffic will be 80 percent of all consumer internet traffic (in 2014 it was already 65 percent). This rise in traffic includes mobile as well, which is a growing trend itself. Also, Youtube reported that mobile video consumption rises 100 percent every year, and an important Facebook executive says that in 5 years, all content on Facebook will be video. When it comes to content and inbound marketing, video is both the present and the future.

Video content comes in many formats, some of which are better suited for the Consideration Stage. For example, Educational Videos can provide information about how to solve a problem the prospects may be having. These are good to show the way a product works. A good example of these are Moz’s Whiteboard Friday Videos, which are all about SEO-related topics:

Another good option is Testimonial Videos. They enable you to use your client’s satisfaction to establish credibility for your business, so they are an excellent choice when this is your priority. A good way to create a stronger impression with this type of video is to make as many clients as you can to share their experience with you on them, like in this video from The Blessed Bean.

If you think your company’s culture, personality and human side are strong points to make an impression, you can create a Company Culture Video and show what you do from a more sensitive perspective. In this video created by Wistia, Zappos’s staff explain how being happy and having fun at work is a major priority to them.

However, the most adjusted and natural choice for this particular stage of the buyer’s journey is an Explainer Video. This is the case, basically because it’s perceived to do exactly what you are supposed to do in this phase: explain what the company and the product can do and how they can meet the prospect’s needs. It is supposed to explain your product or service, not a subject in general, as Educational Videos do. And as good as Company Culture Videos and Testimonial Videos can be to stress certain aspects of your company, like its personality or reliability, when the buyer is wondering what your company is about and ‘what-is-in-for-me-if-I-choose-you’, nothing cuts to the chase better than an Explainer Video. For example, this Explainer Video, created by Yum Yum Videos for Walmart, explains the seamless buying experience that the brand’s clients can enjoy, being able to find information about every product from their smartphones, as well as their personal computers and inside the store.

The Consideration Stage is all about making the best possible case about what you have to offer, at the right time, with the right formats and media. Get this right and you shall gain more and better leads, which will result in more and better clients, which is what your business (and every other) is all about.

 

Thanks to Silvio Acevedofor sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Silvio Acevedo is a digital content professional, passionate for everything related to social communications. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

source http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/inbound-marketing-strategy/convert-interest-leads/

5 easy fixes to customers leaving your website without converting

The most effective ways to boost your conversion rate 

Have you ever considered why it happens? Why a visitor enters your website, stays there for a while and leaves without purchasing when you have so much to offer? According to the latest trends, you have 5 seconds to engage the customer and make an impression before they leave your website. In this article we will expose 5 major conversion blockers that can be disastrous for your website, but are fixable at the same time. So if you are a new business getting started with ecommerce, you better make those 5 seconds worth your customer’s time.

The Rise of Ecommerce

Ecommerce started as a revolution in shopping. With time, increased competition inspired companies to invest more in their websites, improving their appearance and usability to meet the standards.

Ecommerce as we know it today has evolved into a billion dollar industry, but for many new businesses entering the market effectively is a hard nut to crack. The good news is fantastic ecommerce platforms such as Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify and Volusion are on the rise with their own business solution software such as, Geo-Targeting extension, WooCommerce dynamic pricing and Pretty URLs etc. In this article we will study the main reasons behind conversion drops and the measures that must be taken to fix them.

1. Address the Needs of Customers with Clarity

If you want your customers to convert, make sure you present a compelling argument with a valued proposition that can trump the insecurities and reservations the customer has about the products. Clarity in persuasion can breach any doubts your customers have that might be leading them to abandon your website.

Add R&D to Your Mix

Many companies are swift to introduce new products but quite slow in improving them. The research and development phase of any product must be accounted for especially if the market is IT related. With the tide of technology, the product must be era appropriate so it can address the needs of the consumer.

Build a Quality Check Team

Appoint a team to survey your products and analyze their shortcomings against the products your competitors are offering. This will put things into perspective and allow your team to introduce unique selling points within the products and win your customers.

2. Increase Trust

Let’s imagine you are walking in a bazaar and a street vendor selling an iPhone catches your eye. The vendor is offering a brand new iPhone for a great price, but you still choose to walk away.

You know the product meets your needs and comes with a good deal. But you wouldn’t buy it because you don’t trust the seller.

When it comes to the buyer’s perception about your products, there are but 4 possibilities that can deny your sale,

1. The customer doesn’t need it
2. The customer doesn’t have money
3. The customer has other options
4. The customer doesn’t trust you

There is not much you can do for the first 3, but  you can build trust.

The low number of conversions your experiencing could just be result of customers not willing to trust you yet. When they don’t trust your website, they most certainly will not buy from you either.

Build Customer Base

For many newly established websites, building trust with the customers must come as the no.1 priority. Once you have a spotless selling record and a collection of positive feedbacks to vouch for, you can rest assured that your conversions will not fall off easy. You can also introduce money back guarantees and refund policies for to make a loyal customer base. Use modules and web apps to add refund management systems in your website. Remember, trust can take years to build, but it’s an investment that pays off richly.

Aesthetics

Any wrong move and your website can spiral into a costly catastrophe. Everything from web design, content, Navigation, Visual detail must be accounted for.

Visual Elements

Does your website exhibit the optimum quality of visual detail to attract and engage the visitor? Here are the necessary elements that any conversion producing website must have.

Images

Since many websites have already transitioned from their text-centric layouts to modern and visually effective web designs, it’s about time that you did too. The absence or even the scarcity of images in any website is can be catastrophic to its conversions.

Adding HD images for your products, banners and events enhances the aesthetics of a website, and also gives customers a better understanding of the products you sell.

Videos

Videos give your website the ability to advocate about its products and address the customers with promotions or advertisement more effectively than any text or image.

• Produce Promotional videos for your products to engage the viewers and create awareness for future campaigns
• You can showcase testimonials on your home pages. Video testimonials are an excellent source of product exposure
• Add videos on product pages to show how they work with step by step instruction manuals.
• Use tools and extensions to compile your videos on a dedicated page. You can use several extensions to create galleries and blocks for featuring popular videos

Navigation

Navigation is a crucial aspect of a web design. It is key to usability and adds convenience for the customer. A good navigation hierarchy with a clear and simple structure is essential to provide a good user experience for the customer.

1. You can add Text Links to improve internal linking of your website. Linking your web pages together can help customers get better insight about your products without getting lost in your website.
2. Use Tabs to help customers navigate to your web content. Tabs can be added horizontally to highlight the core pages of your website such as:

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Blog
• Events
• Products/Services

This helps in reducing clutter and groups the links into sections.

Add filters for advanced products search. Many customers require tailored search to match their specific requirements while finding products on websites. Common filters include:

• Search by Product Type
• Search by Price
• Search Specifications
• Search by Popularity
• Search by Alphabetical Order

This gives an optimum search experience to the user and adds value to your website.

Text

Text is the bread and butter of a website. It sustains the elements around it and invites the customers towards the products. Make sure your copy is accessible, passionate, but not over-technical.

Here are a few things you must keep in mind:

1. Never woo customers with fancy and over complicated business language – simply because it just doesn’t work.
2. Make your content informative, but concise. Keeping your text to an optimum length will propagate your message without disorienting the reader.
3. The content you write should abide by the guidelines of search engines such as Google which means NO PLAGIARISM whatsoever.
4. Avoid excessive use of internal linking. Spamming your content with links won't help you rank, and may lead to penalties.
5. Produce creative posts through blogs and articles about your products. You can hire a content writer to for this task.

4. Mobile Friendly

Your customers that once used desktops and laptops to shop online are now moving towards mobiles. In other words, customers now prefer shopping while on the move.

Smartphones and handheld devices now support lighting fast internet speeds which makes them ideal for accessing websites even during travel. In December 2014, handheld devices such as smartphones and tablets accounted for 60% of digital media time spent by online users. In order to make your website mobile friendly, a responsive design must be added.

Responsive Design

Integrating responsive design into your website makes it scalable and fast on almost every size of screen. Users are able to view website content on their screen without scrolling left/right to interact with the elements such as CTAs. This improves user experience and helps your customers convert. According to a survey conducted in 2016, it was revealed that 70% of mobile searches lead to action on websites in just one hour, while 67% of customers shared their preferences on shopping only from a website that is mobile friendly. Integrating responsive design will not only improve your conversion rates but also eliminates duplicate content (since there will not a separate mobile version) and reduces bounce rates.

5. Create a Sales Funnel

Sometimes what damages a potential conversion is the accelerated sales strategy your store marketers enforce. Even though many customers are loaded with cash, they are often out there to just make up their mind and purchase later. Aggressive sales strategies are productive in some circles, but abusing them can scare away your leads. That is why a sales funnel is in order.

How it Works

A sales funnel unconsciously takes your customers through step by step procedure. It works by invoking their attention to the point where they no longer have any reservations or impediments keeping them from purchasing your products. Here is what your need to follow

1. Learn about the needs of the customer about a specific product
2. Publish informative blogs, videos, reports and testimonials about the product
3. Establish communication through chats, emails, subscriptions and newsletters etc
4. Convince them how your products is the best in the market through competitive price and features
5. Seal the deal with attractive offers

Conclusion

The vast majority of visitors without converting. Just by capturing little more pockets of these lost sales can have a huge impact on the total revenues of your store. By focusing your efforts on improving your in-store conversions through these suggestions mentioned above, you will significantly notch up your conversion rate and increase your sales.

Paul Simmons is a CMS Extensions Developer with 7 years of experience in PHP development at FMEaddons– an eCommerce development company with Top tier extensions and themes for popular shopping cart platforms like Magento, Opencart, Woocommerce, & Joomla .

 

 

source http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/5-easy-fixes-customers-leaving-website-without-converting/